LAND OF AMAZONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1939, Page 2

LAND OF AMAZONS

TRIBE IN SOUTH-WEST CHINA SYDNEY, January 20. In remote Yunnan, a province of South-west China, live the Nashi tribe, whose women “wear the trousers” and a man's one job in life is looking after babies.

Miss Marie Byles, .Sydney solicitor, author, and world traveller, who returned to Sydney on the Nankin after an absence of six months, came into touch with the tribe on a 1000-mile exploratory trip through little-known parts of Burma and China. She was accompanied by five others —Miss Dora de Beer, of London. Miss Marjorie Jones, and Messrs. Frazer Ratcliff, Mick Bowie, and Kurt. Suter, all of New Zealand.

"The men look so sweet playing with the children.” said Miss Ryles. "But I. realised how truly useless they are. They are small and effeminate. On marriage the Nashi man takes his wife’s name. The. women do everything—the field-work, house-work, and the breadwinning. I counted fourteen l>ig building planks which one woman was carrying on her back without apparent effort.” 'Pile main aim of the party was to explore 'and climb the Sansato Mountain group, the most, southerly range in Asia. The highest peak was 20,000 feet, but they got no further than 17,000 feet, mainly because of adverse weather.