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[[underlined]] Chapter XIV. [[/underlined]]   296.

ese peasantry farther south. The majority had long oval faces, aquiline noses, ruddy (instead of yellow) complections, and fine open eyes that tended to be brown, or even gray, rather than black. They wore sheepskin coats and sometimes trousers, with the wool inside, next the body; and their headgear was commonly a gray brimless felt cap in the form of a truncated cone, somewhat like a fez. Several of the smaller boys wore each a single silver earring from which hung a perforated agate disc---to keep away evil spirits, I was told.
    Conversation with the populace elicited little or nothing new in regard to the site; and in fact we rather avoided that topic until we should have had an opportunity to talk with the village elders. I was interested, however, to find here a variant of the tale of the vegetable sheep. This creature grew, it was said, from a shoot which, like a sort of umbilical cord, kept it attached to the ground unless frightened; when it would tear itself free in its struggles to escape. In the latter event it might be caught and tamed, and taught to run with a flock of ordinary sheep---which however it far surpassed in the quality of its fleece. Though the story was well known in regions far to the west of China, this was the first time, so far as I know, that it had been found thus far to the east. [[superscript]] (267) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (267) [[/superscript]]  The late Dr. Laufer discussed the tale interestingly in "The Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb", in the [[underlined]] Jnl Amer. Folk-lore [[/underlined]], vol. XXVIII, Apr.-June, 1915, pp. 103-128. When I told him, years later, that I had thus encountered a variant of the same story in northern China, he was much interested.
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[[underlined]] The Hsi Ssŭ-erh Ssŭ. [[/underlined]]
    At length we drew rein before the gate of the village temple, the Hsi Ssŭ-erh Ssŭ (where Mr. Wenley and Dr. Hall had previously lodged), in the northeastern outskirts of the hamlet, and dismounted, stiff and