1894 Rep. Admin. Brit. Central Africa 23 in Parl. Papers (C. 7504) LVII. 771 As the coast people and Arabs began to penetrate East Central Africa they came in contact with the Yao, who, from his predatory nature, took to the idea of slave-raiding with real appreciation.

1916 Blackwood's Mag. Apr. 551/1 The Africans were Yaos, little men, affectionately termed ‘Golliwogs’ by their British officers.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia X. 799/3 Through Arab contact most Yao are Muslims.

1924 A. Werner in G. Lagden Native Races of Empire iii. 88 A Nyanja man, if addressed in Yao or Konde, would probably not understand.

1957 W. M. Hailey Afr. Surv. (rev. ed.) iii. 97 Nyanja is the lingua franca throughout Nyasaland..though Tumbuka has also been recently recognized as the medium in the Northern Province, and Yao in the Yao-speaking areas.

1910 Encycl. Brit. III. 360/1 The extensive Yao genus of languages stretches from just behind the coast of the Lindi settlements..to the north-east shores of Lake Nyasa.

1955 M. Gluckman Custom & Confl. Afr. iv. 96 When a Yao headman in Nyasaland is installed his taste for human meat is tested in the installation ceremony: because Yao witches eat the corpses of those they kill.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia X. 799/3 Yao social life features annual initiation ceremonies involving circumcisions for boys.

1834 C. Gützlaff Sketch of Chinese Hist. I. i. 30 In the mountains of Kwang-tung and Kwang-se live great numbers of the Meaou and Yaou tribes, who appear to be the aborigines of the country.

1897 Fortn. Rev. July 104 I will now close the subject by saying a few words touching the language of the Kakhyens. Like the Chinese, Annamese, Shan, Miao-tsze, Yao, and Burmese languages, it is monosyllabic and tonal.

1976 R. Condon Whisper of Axe i. xv. 90 The KMT troops..took Shan or Yao or Lahu wives.

1977 Yin Ming United & Equal 3 In the 1930s the reactionary warlords perpetrated massacres of the Hui people in Kansu and the Miao and Yao peoples in Kwangsi.

1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 224/1 The Yaou-jin, or Goblin clan, are said to have books, which though they are now unable to read, they still regard with reverent awe.

1901 E. H. Parker China i. 7 In the southern portion of the eastern half there are still a few independent..tribes, known as Yao or Miao.

1948 R. A. D. Forrest Chinese Lang. v. 89 In Indo-China the Yao (akin to the Miao) are also known as Man.

1982 B. Hook Cambr. Encycl. China 102/1 Because of culture-contact they were..familiar with the notion of writing, and consequently came to employ a neighbouring language, using its script as their own written language. This happened with the Yao, who wrote their poems and hymns in a..modified form of Han Chinese.

1939 L. H. Gray Found. Lang. 390 Miao, Yao, Khāmtī, the extinct Āhom, etc.

1948 R. A. D. Forrest Chinese Lang. v. 91 Miao and Yao were assigned by..Schmidt, along with Khamti, Shan, and Ahom, to the northern group of T‘ai languages.