Note 2 — Chapter I · THE ORDOS BORDER

In the winter of 1911, the writer again visited this district, as leader of the Shensi Relief Expedition.

The effects of the Revolution, which has been described as being “synonymous with anarchy in Shensi,” were only too painfully evident. The year’s crops were still standing. Many villages along the high road were deserted, such of the inhabitants as had escaped death having betaken themselves to hastily built stockades in the highest loess hills, while the towns were continually menaced by robber hordes and lawless bands of the dreaded Ko Lao Hui (Elder Brother Society).

Since that date no word of the prevailing conditions in North Shensi has reached the outside world, but it is highly probable that the already scanty population has been still further reduced by sword and famine, and that large stretches of country under cultivation at the time of the writer’s first visit to this district, now lie a wilderness—a refuge for the increasing coveys of game, and a hiding place for robber bands.—A. de C. S.