cUi1>>.'»MWe»l«

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

IN MEMORY OF

CARROLL ALCOTT

PRESENTED BY

CARROLL ALCOTT MEMORIAL LIBRARY FUND COMMITTEE

MANDALAY TO MOMIEN:

A NARKATIVE

OF THE

TWO EXPEDITIONS TO WESTERN CHINA

OF 1808 AND 1875

I NDER

COLONEL EDWAED B. SLADEN

AND

COLONEL HOEACE BEOWNE.

BY

JOHN ANDERSON, M.D.Edin., F.R.S.E., F.L.S., F.Z.S.

FELLOW OF CALCrTTA VXIVERSITT ;

CURATOR OF IMPERIAL MrSEUM AND PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY,

MEDICAL COLLEGE, CALCUTTA;

MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC OFFICER TO BOTH EXPLDITIONS.

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Jonbon : MACMILLAN AND CO.

1876.

LONDON ;

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

3^S

PREFACE.

Seven" years have elapsed since the date of the expedition which furnishes the subject of the larger portion of this work. Its results have been recorded, but can hardly be said to have been published, in the official reports of the several members, printed in India, and not accessible to the general reader.

The public interest in the subject of the overland route from Burma to China, called forth by the repulse of the recent mission and the tragedy which attended it, has suggested the present publication. It is hoped that a compendious and popular ac- count -of the expedition of 1868 will be acceptable, if only as an introduction to the simple narrative of the mission of this year, commanded by Colonel Horace Browne. The statement of the difficulties which beset our advance in 1868 will prepare the reader to estimate the opposition which, under a changed political condition of the country, compelled the mission under Colonel Browne to return without accomplishing its object.

The narrative of our experiences of the border

2215554

PREFACE.

country between Bhamo and Yunnan, and its motley population, has been supplemented from materials collected by Colonel Sladen, including a catalogue of Kakhyen deities obtained by him, and which will be found in the Appendix, along with a Panthay account of the origin of the Chinese Mahommedans. To him, as well as to my fellow travellers. Captain Bowers and Mr. Gordon, I gladly record my obli- gations for the information that has been derived from them.

For many details illustrating the condition of Yunnan and the Mahommedan revolt in that pro- vince, I am indebted to the volumes, issued by the French government, which contain the results of the French expedition from Saigon to Yunnan, under Lagree, Garnier, and Came, whose premature loss their country has to deplore, and to the travels of that enterprising pioneer of commerce, Mr. T. T, Cooper.

No one can treat of the border lands of Cathay without deriving assistance from the stores of know- ledge collected and arranged by the erudite editor of ' Marco Polo,' Colonel Yule, to whom I tender my tribute of admiration and indebtedness.

My observations on the Kakhyens are confirmed by the learned Monsig. Bigandet, the annotator of the ' Life of Gaudama,' who was the first

PREFACE.

European to visit those hill tribes, and who com- mnnicated his experiences to the columns of the leading Rangoon journal. The reader will find among the appendices a valuable note by the same author, on Burmese bells, especially those of Rangoon and Mengoon.

The list of Chinese deities given in the Appendix has been translated from the original by the well known Chinese scholar, Professor Douglas, of the British Museum, who has kindly added an explana- tory note. The appended vocabularies may prove interesting to philologists.

The illustrations of the country and people as far as Ponsee have been executed from photographs taken by Major Williams and myself, while the views of the country to the east are reproductions of sketches which fairly claim the merit of accurate delineation of its features.

The map illustrating the topograj^hy of the dis- trict travelled has been based upon surveys made during the expedition by Mr. Grordon and a Burmese surveyor, and a second has been added to show the general relations of our Indian empire to Western China, with the various routes which have been explored or projected, including those followed by the French expedition, and by Margary from the terminus of the boat journey to Bhamo.

PREFACE.

The journal of our ill-fated companion, recently published in China, and received in this country when this work was completed, unfortunately does not carry him on to Tali-fu, but his impressions of the country beyond this point have been briefly summarised in these pages.

The scientific reader will perhaps be inclined to complain that the following pages do not contain more of the results of the proper work of a naturalist. Of these, a full and illustrated report, unavoidably delayed by absence from this country, is in active preparation. This will be published by the aid of the Indian government, given at the instance of the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, the Hon. Ashley Eden, by whom the opening up of the over- land route to China, as a measure beneficial to the province administered by him, has ever been strongly advocated.

J. A.

6 Royal Tbeeace, Edinburgh, December 31, 1875.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

FIRST EXPEDITION :— CHAPTERS I. to XI. SECOND EXPEDITION .-—CHAPTERS XII. to XVI.

CHAPTEE I.

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

Overland trade of Burma and China — -Early notices — English travellers — Burmese treaty of 1862 — Dr. Williams — Objects of the expedition — Its constitution— Arrival at Mandalay — Second coronation of the king — The suburbs —The bazaars — Mengoon — Burmese navigation — Shien- pagah — Coal mines — The third defile — Sacred fish — Tagoung and Old Pagan — Ngape — Katha — Magnetic battery — The first Kakhyens — The Shuaybaw pagodas — The second defile — View of Bhamo 1-36

CHAPTEE II.

BHAMO.

Arrival at Bhamo — Our quarters — The town — The Woon's house — The Shan-Burmese — Kakhyen man-stealing — The environs — Old Tsamjjenago — Legendary history — The Shuaykeenah pagodas — The Molay river — The first defile — Delays and intrigues — Sala — ^The new Woon — Our departure — Tsitka w — Mountain muleteers — The Manloung lake — The phoongyee's farewell 37-66

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE III.

KAKHYEN HILLS.

PAGES

Departure from Tsitkaw — Our cavalcade — The hills — A false alarm — Talone — First niglit in the hills — The tsawbwa-gadaw— Ponline village — A death dance — The divination — A meetway — Nampoung gorge — A dangerous road — Lakong bivouac — Arrival at Ponsee — A Kakhyen coquette 67-86

CHAPTER IV.

PONSEE OAMP.

Desertion of the muleteers — Our encampment — Visit of hill chiefs — Sala's demands — A mountain excursion — Mes- sengers from Momien — Shans refuse presents — Stoppage of supplies — Ill-feeling — Tsawbwa of Seray — St. Patrick's Day — Retreat of Sala — The pawmines of Ponsee — A burial-ground — Visit to the Tapeng — The silver mines — — Approach of the rains — Hostility of Ponsee — Threat- ened attack — Reconciliation — A false start — Letters from Momien — A hailstorm — Circular to the members of the mission — Beads and belles — Friendly relations with Kakhyens — Their importance .. .. 87-124

CHAPTER V.

THE KAKHYENS.

The Kakhyens or Kakoos — The clans — Their chiefs — Mountain villages — Cultivation and crops — Personal appearance — Costume — Arms and implements — Female dress and ornaments — Women's work — Sheroo — Morals — Marriage — Music — Births — Funerals — Religion — Language — Character — How to deal with them — Our party 125-154

TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTER VI.

MANWYNE TO MOMIEN.

PAGES

Departiu-e from Ponsee — Valley of the Tapeng — A curious crowd — Our khyoung — Matins — The town of Manwyne — Visit to the haw — The tsawbwa-gaclaw — An armed demon- stration— Karahokah — Sanda — The chief and his grand- son — Muangla — Shan burial-ground s — The Taho — A murdered traveller — Mawphoo valley — Muangtee — Nan tin — Valley of Nantin — The hot springs —Attacked by Chinese — Hawshuenshan volcano — Valley of Momien —Arrival at the city 155-188

CHAPTER VII.

MOMIEN.

Momien — The town of Teng-yue-chow — Aspect and condition — An official reception — Return visit — Govern- ment house — A Chinese tragedy — The market — Jade manufacture — Minerals — Mines of Yunnan — Stone celts — Cattle — Climate — Environs — The waterfall — Pagoda hill — Shuayduay — Rock temples — Ruined suburbs — City temples — Four-armed deities — Boys' school — A grand feast — The loving-cup — The tsawbwa-gadaw of Muangtee — Keenzas — The Chinese poor 189-222

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MAHOMMEDANS OF YUNXAN.

Their origin — Derivation of the term " Panthay " — Early history — Increase in numbers — Adoption of children — The Toonganees — Physical characteristics — Outbreak of the revolt — Tali-fu — Progress of revolt — The French ex- pedition— Overtures from Low-quang-fang — Resources of the Panthays — Capture of Yunuan-fu — Prospects of their success — Our position — The governor's presents — Pre- parations for retui-n 223-2'17

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE IX.

THE SANDA VALLEY.

PAGES

Departure from Momien — Eobbers surprised — At Nantin — Our ponies stolen — We slide to Muangla — A pleasant meeting — Tlie Tapeng ferrymen — A valley landscape — Negotiations at Sanda — The Leesaws — A Shan cottage — Buddhist khyouugs — For fear of the nats — The lime- stone hill — Hot springs of Sanda — The footprint of Buddha — A priestly thief — The excommunication — The chief's farewell — Floods and landslips — Manwyne priests — A Shan dinner party — The nunnery — Departure from Manwyne— The Slough of Despond .. .. 248-273

CHAPTEE X.

THE HOTHA VALLEY.

The mountain summit — A giant glen — Leesaw village — The wrong road — Priestly inhospitality — Town of Hotha — A friendly chief — The Namboke Kakhyens — The Hotha market — The Shan people — The Koshanpyi — The Tai of Yunnan — Their personal appearance — Costume — Equipment — The Chinese Shans — Silver hair ornaments — Ear-rings — Torques, bracelets, and rings — -Textile fabrics — Agriculture — Social customs — Tenui-e of land — Old Hotha — A Shan-Chinese temple — Shan Buddhism — The fire festival — Eclipse of the sun — Horse worship- Ancient pagodas — Eoads from Hotha 274-312

CHAPTEE XI.

FROM HOTHA TO BHAMO,

Adieu! — Latha — Namboke — The southern hills — Muang- ^ye — Loaylone — The Chinese frontier — Mattin — Hoetone — View of the Irawady plain — A slippery descent — The Namthabet — The Sawady route — A solemn sacri- fice— A retrospective sui-vey 313-332

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK XII.

INTERMEDIATE EVENTS.

PAGES

Appointment of a Britisli Ecsitlent at Bliamu — Increase of native trade — Action of the king of Burma — Burmese quarrel with the Seray chief — British relations with the Panthays — Struggle in Yunnan — ^Li-sieh-tai — Imperialist successes — European gunners — Siege of Momien — Fall of Yung-chang — Prince Hassan visits England — Fall of Tali-fu — Sultan Suleiman's death — Massacre of Panthays — Capture of Momien — Escape of Tah-sa-kon — Captui-e of Woosaw — Suppression of rebellion — Imperial procla- mation— Li-sieh-tai, commissioner of Shan states — Re- opening of trade routes — Second British mission — Action of Sir T. Wade — Appointment of Mr. Margary — Members of mission — Acquiescence of China and Burma . . 333-349

CHAPTEE XIII.

SECOND EXPEDITION.

Start of mission — Arrival at Mandalay — The Burmese pooay — Posturing girl — Reception by the meng-gyees — Audience by the king — Departure of mission — Progress up the river — Reception at Bhamo — British Residency- Mr. Margary — Account of his journey — The Woon of Bhamo — Entertains Margary — Chinese puppets — Selec- tion of route — Sawady route — Bullock carriage — Woon of Shuaygoo — Chinese surmises — Letters to Chinese of&cials — Burmese worship-day 850-878

CHAPTER XIV.

SAWADY.

The hill pooay — Mission proceeds to Sawady — Visit from Woon — Rumoured opposition — The Woon as a musician — Sawady village — Royal orders — Baggage difficulties — Arrival of Mr. Clement Allan — Paloungto chief —

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGES

Kakliyen pilfering ■ — Abandon route — Adopt Ponline route — Reasons for change — Tsaleng Woon— Departure of mission to Tsitkaw — Elias and Cooke proceed to Muangmow — Dolj)liins — Up the Tapeng — Tahmeylon —Arrive at Tsitkaw 379-399

CHAPTER XV.

THE ADVANCE.

Residence at Tsitkaw — View from our house — The Nam- thabet — Junction of the rivers — Arrival of the Woon — Conference of tsawbwas — Hostages — Kakhyeu women — Rifle practice — A night alarm — A curious talisman — We leave Tsitkaw — Camp at Tsihet — Burmese guard-house — Lankon, Ponline — Camp on the Moonam — Hostile rumours — Camp on the Nampoimg — Departure of Margary for Manwyne — Escape of hostages — Letter from Margary — We enter China — Camp on Shitee Meru — Burmese vigilance — Visit to Seray — Conference with Seray tsawbwa — Suspicious reception — Return to camp — Burmese barricades 400-427

CHAPTER XVI.

EEPULSE OF MISSION.

Ajipearance of enemy — Murder of Margary — Friendly tsawbas — Mission attacked — Wooukah tsawbwa bought over — The jungle fired — Repulse of attack — Incidents of the day — Our retreat — Shitee — Burmese reinforcements — Halt at guard-house — Retreat on Tsitkaw via Woonkah — Elias and Cooke's visit to Muangmow — Li-sieh-tai — Return of Captain Cooke — Elias at Muangmow — Father Lecomte and the Mattin chief — A forged letter — The Saya of Kauntoung — Reports regarding Margary — The commission of inquiry — Return of Elias — Visit to the second defile — Mission's return to Rangoon . . 428-454

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

APPENDICES.

PAGES

I. A Note by Bishop Biganclet, on Burmeso Bells .. 455 II. Origin of Mahommedanism in China ; from Chinese

Document 456

III. Deities worshipped by Kakhyens 457-459

IV. Deities in a Hotha Shan Temple 460- 4G3

V. Vocabularies: — Kakhycn, Shan, Lcesaw, and Po-

loung 464-473

Index 475-479

LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

Map of Country Traversed. General Map, with Routes. Plan op Momien ; by Burmese Surveyor.

Mandalay, the Capital of Independent Burma ; from

MajtoaLE Hill Frontispiece.

From a photograph hy Colonel Sladen.

To face page The Deva-faced Cliff, Second Defile of the Irawady 34

From a pjhotograph hy the Author.

Kooky Barrier on the First or Upper Defile of the

Irawady 55

From a photograph hy Major Willia3IS.

Kakhten Women 74

From a photograph hy Major Williams.

Our Camp at Ponsee 89

From a photograph hy Major Williams.

Kakhyen Men — Kakhyen Matrons 125

From photographs hy IMajor Williams.

Kakhyen and Shan Pipes, Musical Instruments, etc. .. 134

From photographs.

Nantin Valley, Town of Muangtee to the Left .. .. 178 From a shetch hy the Author.

xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

To face 'page Extinct Volcano of Hawshuenshan ; from Summit of

MoMiEN Hill 186

From a sketch by the Authoe.

Within the Walls of Momien or Teng-tue-chow .. 192 From a sketch by the Author.

Waterfall of the Taho ; Momien in the Distance . . 208

From a sketch by the Author.

Valley of Sanda, looking Westward from the Hill

behind the Town 254

From a sketch by the Author.

Shan Head-dress, Bracelets, and Ear Ornaments .. 296

From photographs.

Posturing Girl at Mandalat 354

From a photograph by the Author.

View in Bhamo 364

From a photograph by Major Williams.

TsiTKAW, ON THE TaPENG, LOOKING TOWARDS THE KaKHTEN

Hills 401

From a photograph Inj the Author.

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MANDALAY TO MOMIEN.

CHAPTER I.

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

Overland trade of Burma and China — Early notices — English tra- vellers— Burmese treaty of 1862 — Dr. Williams — Objects of the expedition — Its constitution — Arrival at Mandalay — Second coro- nation of the king — The suburbs — The bazaars — Mengoon — Burmese navigation — Shienpagah — Coal mines — The third defile

— Sacred fish — Tagoung and Old Pagan — Ngajje — Katha — Magnetic battery — The first Kakhyens — The Shuaybaw pagodas

— The second defile — View of Bhamo.

For some years previous to the date of the expedition of which the progress is narrated in these pages, the attention of British merchants at home and in India had been directed to the prospect of an overland trade with Western China. Most especially did this interest the commercial community of Rangoon, the capital of British Burma, and the port of the great water highway of the Iraw^ady, boasting a trade the annual value of which had increased in fifteen years to £2,500,000. The avoidance of the long and dangerous voyage by the Straits and Indian

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

Archipelago and a direct interchange of our manu- factures for the products of the rich provinces of Yunnan and Sz-chuen might well seem to be advantages which would richly repay almost any efforts to accomplish this purpose.

One plan, then as now, zealously insisted upon by its promoter, Captain Sprye, was the construction of a railway connecting British Burma and China via Kiang Hung, on the Cambodia river, and the frontier position or rej)uted town of Esmok.

But as it was, and still is, necessary to send a surveying expedition over an unknown and alien country, as a preliminary, this project, whether chimerical or not, could not compete with the immediate possibility of opening a trade by way of the river Irawady and the royal city of Mandalay.

Although before 1867 but four English steamers with freight had ascended the river to the capital, harbingers of the numerous flotilla now plying on the Irawady, it was known that a regular traffic existed between Mandalay and China, especially in the supply of cotton to the interior, which was reserved as a royal monopoly.

This trade was reported to be mainly carried on by caravans traversing the overland route via Theinnee to Yunnan. According to the itineraries of the Burmese embassy in 1787, the distance is six hundred and twenty miles, and forty-six hills and mountains, five large rivers and twenty-four smaller ones, had to be traversed in the tedious journey of

OVERLAND TEADE.

two months. But an unbroken chain of tradition and history indicated the natural entrepot of the commerce between Burma and China to be at or near Bhamo,* on the left bank of the upper Irawady, and close to the frontier of Yunnan.

The Burmese annals testified that during several centuries this had been the passage from China to Burma either for invading armies or for peaceful caravans. The most recent Burmo-Chinese war had arisen out of the grievances of Bhamo Chinese merchants, and the treaty of peace that was signed at Bhamo in 1709 stipulated that the " gold and silver road " between the two countries should be reopened. Mutual embassies had consequently jour- neyed between Pekin and Ava, and almost all had proceeded by way of the Irawady and Bhamo.

European travellers and traders had early discerned the importance of this channel of intercourse, which seems to have been alluded to by the great Venetian, Marco Polo, under the name of Zardandan.

The old documents of Fort St. George record that the English and Dutch had factories in the begin- ning of the seventeenth century at Syriam, Prome, and Ava, and at a place on the borders of China, which Dalrymple supposes to have been Bhamo. According to this autliority, some dispute arose between the Dutch and Burmese, and on the former threatening to call in the aid of the Chinese, both the English and Dutch were expelled from Burma. In

* Pronounced " Bhamaw."

B 2

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

1680 the reputation of this field for mercantile en- terprise seems to have again attracted the attention of the authorities at Fort St. George, and four years afterwards one Dod, trading to Ava, was instructed to inquire into the commerce of the country, and to request that a settlement might he sanctioned at Prammoo, on the horders of China. This mission was unsuccessful, and Prammoo cannot with certainty be identified, but the strong similarity of the name seems to point to Pan-mho or Bhamo.

Coming down to more recent and certain data, we find that Colonel Symes, H.E.I.C.'s envoy to Ava in 1795 (and who was accompanied by that able geographer, Dr. Buchanan), states that an extensive trade, chiefly in cotton, existed between Ava and Yunnan. "This commodity was transported up the Irawady to Bliamo, where it was sold to the Chinese merchants, and conveyed partly by land and partly by water into the Chinese dominions. Amber, ivory, precious stones, betel-nut^ and the edible birds' nests from the Eastern Archipelago, were also articles of commerce. In return, the Burmans procured raw and wrought silks, velvets, gold-leaf, preserves, paper, and utensils of hardware." Both the researches of Wilcox and the journal of Crawford's embassy to Ava in 1826 referred to the trade and routes by Bhamo, and the Bengal govern- ment in 1827 published a map containing the best procurable information about the Burmo-Chinese frontier.

EARLY NOTICES OF BHAMO.

Colonel Burney, wlio was Resident at the court of Ava in 1830, published a large number of valuable contributions to the history, geography, and re- sources of Upper Burma, and accurate itineraries of the Theinnee and Bhamo routes to China. Our experience demonstrated the accuracy of the latter as far as Momien, and it may be inferred that the remainder will be found equally exact. Pemberton* seems to have been the first to fully realise that — to use his own words — " the j)i"ovince of Yunnan, to which the north-eastern borders of our Indian empire have now so closely approximated, has be- come from this circumstance and our existing amicable relations with the court of Ava an object of peculiar interest to us." In the same year Captain Hannay accompanied a Burmese mission to Mogoung, and for the first time Bhamo was accurately described by an eye-witness, and much valuable information gained respecting the trade then carried on between Ava and China. His description of the im2:)ortance of the town, however, differed widely from that of Drs, Griffiths and Bayfield, who visited it two years later.f

Hannay gives the reported number of houses as one thousand five hundred, while the latter travellers estimated town and suburbs as containing five hundred and ninety-eight houses, " neither good nor

* ' Report on Eastern Frontier of British India,' 1835. f Vide ' Selection of Papers on the Hill Tracts between Assam and Burmah,' Calcutta, 1873.

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

large," which latter description is more in keeping with the present condition of the town.

In 1848 Baron Otto des Granges pubhshed a short survey of the countries between Bengal and China, showing the great commercial and political impor- tance of Bhamo, and the practicability of a direct trade overland between Calcutta and China.

In this paper the far-seeing author advocated the equipment of a small expedition to ascertain the mercantile relations of the country about Bhamo, to examine the mineral wealth of Yunnan, and to enter into negotiations with the Chinese merchants.

In 1862 the government of India, in the prospect of a treaty being negotiated with the king of Burma, directed their Chief Commissioner, Sir A. Phayre, to include in it, if possible, the reopening of the caravan route from Western China by the town of Bhamo, and the concession of facilities to British merchants to reside at that place, or to travel to Yunnan, and for Chinese from Yunnan to have free access to British territory, including Assam. The first of these objects was to be effected by obtain- ing the king's sanction to a joint Burmese and British mission to China. A treaty was concluded whereby the British and Burmese governments were declared friends, and trade in and through Upper Burma was freely thrown open to British enterprise. It was further stipulated that a direct trade with China might be carried on through Upper Burma, subject to a transit duty of one per cent, ad valorem on

BUKMESE TREATY OF 1862.

Chinese exports, and nil on imports. The proposal, however, as to the joint mission was unsuccessful.

In the following year. Dr. Williams, formerly resident at the court of Mandalay, obtained the royal permission to proceed as far as Bhamo, where he arrived in February, after a journey of twenty- two days. His object was to test the practicability of a route through Burma to Western China, and the results of his experience led him to strongly advocate the Bhamo routes as politically, physically, and commercially the most advantageous.

His energetic advocacy led the mercantile com- munity of Rangoon to appreciate the importance of their own position, commanding, as it does, the most ancient highway to Western China. His claim, however, to have been the first to suggest this trade route must yield to that of Otto des Granges ; and the assertion that he was the first Englishman who visited Bhamo could only have been made in ig- norance or forgetfulness of the labours of Hannay, Bayfield, and Griffiths.

When the commercial acuteness of the merchants was thus directed to the possibilities of the overland trade, it might seem at first sight that the stream could be tapped at Mandalay without following it up to the borders of Yunnan.

But our growing intercourse with the capital of Burma made it known that for twelve years the Burmo-Chinese trade via Bhamo, which in 1855 represented £500,000 per annum, had almost entirely

MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

ceased. Whether this were owing to the effects of the Mahommedan rebellion in Yunnan, or, as some alleged, to Burmese policy, was uncertain. It was an additional problem, and the then Chief Commissioner, Greneral Fytche, anxiously pressed upon the govern- ment of India the importance of solving it, and under the treaty of 1862 of thoroughly examining the possibility and probable results of reopening the Bhamo trade route.

This enterprise might be deemed one of hereditary interest to the descendant of that enterprising mer- chant-traveller, Mr. Fitch, who has left an account of his visit to Pegu in 1586. The proposed expedi- tion was sanctioned by the government of India in September 1867, and the consent of the king of Burma having been duly obtained, arrangements were forwarded for the departure of the mission from Mandalay in January 1868. The chief objects of the expedition were, to use the words of General Fytche, " to discover the cause of the cessation of the trade formerly existing by these routes, the exact position held by the Kakhyens, Shans, and Panthays, with reference to that traffic, and their disposition, or otherwise, to resuscitate it, also to examine the physical conditions of these routes."

Thus the duties to be discharged were multifarious, pertaining to diplomacy, engineering, natural science, and commerce. These accordingly were all repre- sented among the members of the mission, which consisted of Captain Williams, as engineer ; Dr.

OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION.

Anderson, as medical officer and naturalist ; with Captain Bowers and Messrs. Stewart and Burn as delegates from the commercial community of Ran- goon.* A guard of fifty armed police, with their inspector and native doctor, formed an escort, while the command of the whole was entrusted to Major Sladen, Political Resident at Mandalay. It is saying scarcely enough to add that to the foresight, tact, and resolute patience displayed by him as leader was due whatever measure of success was obtained. He had already secured not only the consent but the co- operation of the king. Written orders had been despatched to the icoon, or governor, of Bhamo, and to other places, to render all assistance. Besides these verbal aids, the king placed at his disposal a royal steamer, named the Yaynari-Sekia, better known as " The Honesty," to convey the party to Bhamo. On no former occasion had it been deemed prudent for steamers to ascend save for a few miles above Mandalay; and great difference of opinion existed as to the navigaljility of the upper Irawady in the dry season by a steamer, though only drawing three feet of water.

In the morning of January 6, 1868, the steamer Nerhudda., which had conveyed the party from Rangoon, made fast alongside the landing-place of

* The Chamber of Commerce, under the able president, Mr. M'Call, had been most active in urging the desjiatch of the mission, and had subscribed £3000 for all expenses of their repre- sentatives, and for the purchase of specimens of manufactures.

10 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

the present capital of Burma, three miles from the city, of which only the golden spires could be seen above the trees. As our stay was not to exceed three or four days, all the party remained on board until it should be time to embark on the Yaynan- Sekia. Beyond a jetty used by the Burmese in the floods, lay the royal steamer undergoing thorough painting and cleaning for our reception. She was moored in a creek, the royal naval depot, where numerous war-boats of the past and the present fleet of royal steamers are laid up in ordinary. For nearly three miles the river banks presented a busy scene. Native boats were loading or dis- charging cargo ; houses extended the whole distance, those nearer the river being tenanted by fishermen. A large suburb stretched inland from the shore ; each house was surrounded by a vegetable garden enclosed in a bamboo fence eight to ten feet high, while all were embosomed in magnificent tamarind, plantain, and palm trees. The women were busily engaged weaving silk putzos and tameins in various patterns.* Beyond this suburb lay a large flat of alluvial land, devoted to rice-fields, some in stubble, from which the grain had just been reaped ; in others men and women were irrigating the young

* The jmtzo is a long narrow silken clotli of a cliequered pattern, wLicli a Burman winds round liim to form a suit of clotlies. The tamein is the feminine equivalent, partly of cloth, partly of silk, with a zig-zag pattern, the silken portions forming the skirt, which, according to ancient custom, exposes one leg almost completely in walking.

ARRIVAL AT MANDALAY. 11

crop, now about six inches high, three crops yearly- being raised from these lands, which formed, as it were, an island of cultivation, surrounded by houses.

The leader of the expedition, Major Sladen, came down to welcoDie us, and we rode with him to the Residency, situated on the banks of a canal, which runs parallel with the river, and halfway between it and the city. The bank of the canal is lined with houses, and broad streets lead to the city, over numerous strongly built timber bridges, the only defect in which is that the alluvial banks of the canal frequently give way, to the destruction of the bridges and interruption of the traffic. Our road lay through a populous suburb of houses built of teak and supported on piles. To the right lay a quarter occupied by the de)ni-inonde ; to the left numerous khyoungs, or monasteries, reared their graceful triple concave roofs. Phoongyees, or Buddhist monks, abounded ; so did pigs and dogs, both of which are fed daily by a dole from the king, who, as a pious Buddhist, lays up a store of good works by thus preserving animal life. These ubi- quitous pigs have given rise to a well-known saying, which tersely expresses the first impression made on the European visitor by the precincts of the capital. Our stay was too short to admit of more than a flying visit to Mandalay, its palace and countless pagodas.

The city properly so called lies about three miles from the Irawady, on a rising ground below

12 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

the hill Mandale. It was founded, on his accession in 1853, by the present king; and one of his motives for quitting Ava, and selecting the new site, was to remove his palace from the sight and sound of British steamers. The city is built on the same plan as the old capital, described by Yule, and consists of two concentric fortified squares. The outer is defended by lofty massive brick walls, with earthworks thrown up on the inside. There are four gates, over each of which rises a tower with seven gilded roofs. Similar smaller towers adorn the wall at intervals. A deep moat fifty yards broad has been completed since the date of our visit, and now surrounds the walls. During the night, guard-boats, with gongs beating, patrol its waters. When the king, in compliance with a prophecy, was crowned a second time in 1874, he made the circuit of the city in a magnificent war- boat, the splendour of which eclipses the traditionary glory of the Lord Mayor's barge. The actual cere- mony of the re-coronation took place on the 4th of June, at 8 p.m., the hour pronounced propitious by the court of Brahmins.* Captain Strover describes the ceremony as being to a great extent private, only the various ministers of state and about eighty Brahmins being present. Incantations and sprinkling of holy water brought from the Ganges formed the chief

* These Brahmins act as royal astrologers, who are consulted on all great occasions. The Buddhist priests took no part in the ceremonial.

SECOND CORONATION OF THE KING. 13

part of the ceremony, after which his majesty was supposed to have become a new king, barring- tlie difficulty of years. Seven days afterwards, the king went through the ceremony of taking charge of the royal city. At nine in the morning a gun announced that he had left the palace, and at half past another was fired, intimating that he had entered the royal barge. The procession round the city moat commenced from the east gate, and was led by the two principal magistrates of Mandalay in gilded war-boats ; then followed all the princes in line, a short way in front of the state barge, and behind the king came the ministers and officials. Troops lined the walls all round the city, and cannon were placed every here and there at the corners of the streets. Bands of music played as the procession passed, and, altogether, the sight was most effective and unique. Having gone right round the city, he left the royal barge at the east gate, and a salute announced that he had re-entered the palace, and the ceremony was finished. According to his majesty's own statement, the ceremony was a purely religious act.

The first square is inhabited by the officials, civil and military, and the soldiers of the royal army. All the houses are in separate enclosures, bordering broad, well kept streets ; along the fronts is carried the king's fence, a latticed palisade, behind which the subjects hide themselves when his majesty passes. During the day, stalls are set up in the streets, and the various Burmese necessaries, even to cloth, are

14 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

sold, but at night all are cleared away and the gates closed. The central or royal square is surrounded by an outer stockade of teak timber twelve feet in height, and an inner wall. Entrance is given by two gates opposite each other, opening into a wide place, containing the government offices and the royal mint, on one side ; on the other, a wall runs across, and a large gateway, opened only for the king, and a small postern give access to the palace enclosure. All Burmese entering this take off their shoes. Within is a wide open area, as large as a London square. On the opposite side rises a build- ing crowned by nine roofs richly gilded, and sur- mounted by a golden htee, or umbrella, with its tinkling coronal of bells. This marks the audience hall. All entering this are required to take off their shoes, for the royal abode is sacred. The same rule applies to all temples, and this unbooting is really a mark of religious respect, due as much to the meanest khyoung as to the residence of the king. This fact perhaps, if borne in mind, might soothe the ruffled feelings of those who see in this un- booting a mark of degrading homage. To the left is the abode of the white elephant, which, it may be said, is scarcely distinguishable from any other ele- phant save by the paler hue of the skin of the head. To the right is the royal arsenal, outside of which the visitor would be now surprised by the sight of a completely armed and equipped deck of a vessel, which serves as a school for naval gunnery.

SUBUEBS. 15

We were not admitted to an audience, nor did we see the royal gardens, wliich, with the other palace buildings, lie to the rear of the central hall. Dr. Dawson, as quoted in Mason's ' Burmah,' describes the gardens in glowing language, as " truly beautiful, and as picturesque as they are grand." Outside the walls of the city the suburbs, or un- walled town, stretch away southward in broad streets, which converge towards the Arracan pagoda ; and in the distance the spires of pagodas mark the site of Amarapura.

It is impossible to estimate the population, but it must exceed one hundred thousand, to judge by the extent of ground covered by houses. Between the city and Mandalay hill numerous khyoungs have been erected by the queens and other members of^the royal family, the teak pillars and roof timbers of which are magnificently carved and richly gilt.

In passing through the enclosures of these monas- teries, it is necessary for equestrians to dismount and walk slowly through the sacred precincts. On this side also there is a large stockaded enclosure, to which the Shan caravans always resort. Here their wares, principally A /e/>e?, a sort of salted tea — not, how- ever, made from the true tea plant* — are disposed of by means of brokers. At the foot of M andalay hill is a temple with a large seated statue of Buddha, carved from the white marble of the Tsagain hills. The

* It appears to be mafic from the leaves of Elceodendron persicnm, Peisoon.

16 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

hill itself is crowned 1)Y a gilded pagoda, and a statue of Buddha. The Golden King stands with out- stretched finger pointing down to the golden htee that marks the royal abode, the centre of the city and of the Burman kingdom.

On the hill is a vast colony of fowls, numbers of which are purchased by the royal piety every morning, and maintained at the king's expense. The eastern side of the city is skirted by a long- swamp, which forms a lagoon in the rains. The Myit-nge river, six miles to the south, may be said to complete the insulation of the environs of the capital. Not far from the Residency, but on the other side of the canal, there is a large bazaar, enclosed with brick walls, which presents a most busy scene. This may be said to be the principal enclosed market-place ; but there are other smaller cloth bazaars ; and several quarters or streets are occupied by special trades, a very noisy quarter being that of the gold-beaters. The fondness for gilding which characterises the Burmese causes an immense demand for gold-leaf, the gold used being principally brought by the caravans from Yunnan. Another quarter is tenanted by Chinese. By a curious coincidence, on the day of our arrival, a Chinese caravan of two hundred mules arrived from Tali-fu. They had come by the long overland Theinnee route, bringing hams, walnuts, pistachio- nuts, honey, opium, iron pots, yellow orpiment, &c. ^Xe noticed many Suratees among the inha-

DEPARTURE OF THE STEAMER. 17

bitants of the city. These acute and enterprising traders come to Burma in great numbers, and are found everywhere busily engaged in money-making. European adventurers of various nationalities form an element in the population, small, but mischievous ; it is hardly to be wondered at if an ill impression of kalas* is formed by the Burmese nobility and gentry, judging from the conduct of some of these foreigners ; while again they spread monstrous reports about the king, his social and political habits and ideas, which find their way into the Indian and English press.

The transshipment of ourselves and followers and baggage was duly effected, and in the afternoon of the 18th of January the Yaynan-Sekia left her moorings. We only proceeded as far as Mengoon, on the right bank, a few miles from the capital. Thus far we had the company of Mr. Manouk, an Armenian gentleman, who held the office of kala icoon, or foreign minister. We duly visited the huge ruin of solid brickwork, which, as Colonel Yule says, represents the extraordinary folly of King Mentaragyi, the founder of Amarapura in 1787.

Intended for a gigantic pagoda, it was left un- finished, in consequence of a prediction that its com- pletion would be fatal to the royal founder; the earthquake of 1839 split the huge cube of solid brickwork, and it is now a fantastic ruin.

Yule gives the dimensions of the lowest of the five

* Kdlna, Burmese word for "foreigners."

C

18 MANDALAY TO BIIAMO.

encircling terraces as four hundred feet square ; if completed, the whole edifice would have been five hundred feet high. Near this is the great bell, twelve feet high, and sixteen across at the lips, and weighing ninety tons.*

The most interesting object is the Seebyo pagoda, built by the grandson and successor of Mentaragyi in 1816, and named after his wife. The substructure from which the pagoda rises is circular, and consists of six successive concentric terraces. Each terrace is five feet above the one below, and six feet in breadth, and is surrounded by a stone parapet of a wavy design. In the niches of each terrace are images, fabulous dragons, birds, and beloos, or monsters. By a rough measurement the walled enclosure is four hundred yards in circumference, but an open space of thirty-five yards deep intervenes between the wall and the first terrace. The design of the pagoda is intended to represent the mythical Myen Mhoo Doung, or Meru Mountain, the central pillar of the universe, and the seven encircling ranges of mountains, or the six continents, each of which is guarded by a monster, the first by the dragon, the second by the bird Kalon. It might be also suggested that those terraces may represent the six happy abodes of nats which form successive Ely slums below the seat of Brahma.

From the rising ground above Mengoon a magni- ficent panorama unfolds itself: the valley from the * See Appendix I.

MENGOON. 19

dry and treeless Tsagain hills, a few miles to the rear, spreads out for fifteen miles in width to the eastern line of moimtains, which, emerging from the north bank of the Myit-nge', stretch away as far as the eye can reach to the north-east. The long flowing sweep of these summits singularly contrasts with the irregularly peaked outline of the Myait-loung hills, south of the Myit-nge'. Immediately beneath the spectator, the Irawady, curving under the western hills, broadens, till op- posite to the capital its main banks are nearly three miles and a half apart.

The river is broken up into channels by large islands, on one of which the royal gardens are situated, and numerous sandbanks, exposed in the dry season, and cultivated with tobacco and other crops. In the foreground the various channels of the splendid river present an animated spectacle of numerous canoes, timber rafts, and boats of every form and size. In the middle distance, the golden roofs of the city gates and of the many monasteries which cluster outside the red city walls flash back the sunbeams. The fantastic forms of the many roofed spires of the zayats and rest-houses, and the sparkling htees of pagodas, everywhere perplex and please the eye, which looks from the picturesque hill to the north, crowned by the gilded temple, to the irregular outlines of the bazaar, stretching far down to the successive line of the abandoned capitals. A glorious picture, especially Avhen the

c 2

20 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

glowing orange tints of sunset are relieved by the rich, purple of the cloudlike distant hills !

From Mengoon the steamer made its unaccus- tomed way under the right hank, passing sand- banks covered with numerous flocks of whimbrel, golden plover, and snake-birds. Although at the present time both royal and private steamers ply regularly between Mandalay and Bhamo, at the dry season frequent delays, caused by grounding on sand- banks, make the upward voyage of very uncertain duration. We as the pioneers had to feel our way most cautiously, the water being very low. Our crew, from captain to firemen, were to a man Burmese, and great was our admiration of the coolness and skill shown by the skipper in navigating the narrow channels ; he seemed to have an almost instinctive intuition of the depth of the water. It was no work of love on his part, as he took no pains to disguise his dislike of the kalas, or foreigners, and was devoid of the jovial openheartedness generally characteristic of Burmese. A rich illustration of the character of the Burmese crew was afforded us by the leadsman, who quitted his post, unobserved by the captain. He provided, however, for the naviga- tion, by telling one of his fellows to sing out for him in his absence, and imaginary depths, varying several feet, were accordingly shouted at intervals to the unconscious captain, who steered accordingly — for- tunately without mishap. A court official accom- panied us to see tliat the orders for provision of

SHIENPAGAH. 21

firewood were duly obeyed, and to purvey boats in case of the river proving unnavigable ; but as no difficulties arose, he had nothing to do save that he once showed his zeal by inflicting an unmerciful beating on a village headman who failed to supply milk.

The banks of the river presented a succession of picturesque headlands, fifty to sixty feet high, sepa- rated by luxuriant dells, each containing a village. Between two such heights, covered with pagodas accessible only by flights of steps, lay Shienpagah, a thriving town of some four hundred houses. A brisk trade is here carried on in fish and firewood for the capital, and salt procured from the swamps behind the sterile Tsagain hills.* Above Shienpagah we changed our course to the other side. The villages on the eastern bank seemed small and few, each embowered among tall trees and groves of palmyra, mixed with a few cocoa-nut palms, relieved by the bright, jjale, tropical green of the plantain. A broad alluvial

* At tliis time about one million viss of salt were annually esported up the river from Shienpagah, finding its way chiefly to Bhamo and to Tsitkaw, for the supjjly of the Kakhyeus and Shans. Lately, however, English salt is beginning to take its place, and on my last voyage up the Irawady, one flat from Mandalay carried nothing but salt. In order to proceed to Tsitkaw, it is trans- shipped at Bhamo into small boats, which carry only five thousand viss each, as the Tapeng is a rapid river, and rather shallow dui'ing the dry weather. On salt from Shienpagah, a duty is levied at Male, Yuathct, and Bhamo, in addition to a boat tax, and when it proceeds up the Tapeng, an additional impost has to be paid at Tsitkaw, and a boat tax at Haylone and Tsitgna. (A viss — about 3 lbs.)

■i-a!^

22 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

flat extended to the low broken ranges of the Sagyen and Thubyo-budo hills, from the former of which comes nearly all the marble used in Mandalay. The distant Shan mountains rose beyond another plain sparsely covered with lofty trees and richly cidtivated.

Our course lay up a channel, skirting the long island and town of Alekyoung, till the rounded hill of Kethung, dotted with white pagodas, rose over the dense greenery in which nestled the village so called. On the opposite bank lay Hteezeh, the village of oil merchants. A belt of bright yellow sand, and then a fine green sward, led up from the river to the village, shaded by noble palmyras and gigantic bamboos, which formed a background to a river scene of exquisite colouring and beauty. A mile or two above Alekyoung, the river narrowed, flowing in a stream unbroken by islands or sand- banks. Soon the short well wooded Nattoung hills abutted on the right bank, in a jDagoda-crowned headland, with Makouk village at its base. On the opposite side, the small town of Tsingu, once for- tified, and still showing fragments of the old walls, occupied another headland, marking the entrance of the third defile of the Irawady.

From this point, for thirty miles, as far as Male and Tsampenago, the country on either bank is hilly, and covered to the water's edge with luxuriant forest. Winding in a succession of long reaches, the river presents a series of lovely lake landscaj)es. The

THE THIED DEFILE. 23

stream, one thousand to fifteen hundred yards wide, flows placid and unbroken, save by the gambols of round-headed dolphins. As, preceded by long lines of these creatures, we steamed slowly along, each successive reach seemed barred by wooded cliffs. Reminiscences of the lake scenery of the old country were vividly awakened as we passed from one apparently land-locked scene of beauty to another. The high irregular hills were clothed with forest trees almost hidden by brilliant orchids and gigantic pendant creepers. Palms of various kinds feathered the water's edge. Here and there fishing- villages peeped out, and everywhere graceful pago- das and priests' houses gleamed amid the foliage. Parroquets darted and liornbills winged their heavy flight across the stream, while chattering troops of long-tailed black monkeys escorted the unusual visi- tors along the banks.

The chief object of interest is the little rocky island of Theehadaw, which boasts the only stone pagoda in Burma, and is resorted to by numbers of pilgrims at the great Buddhist festival in March. The pagoda is of no great size, but is substantially built of greyish sandstone admirably cut and laid in mortar. The building rises from a quadrangular base, with a chamber facing the east and closed with massive doors. The three other faces have false doors, and the sides of all, as well as the angles, are adorned with quasi-Doric pilasters. Our attention, like that of most pilgrims, was chiefly given to the famous tame

24 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

fish. Having supplied ourselves with rice and plan- tains, the boatmen, called " Tit-tit-tit." Soon the fish appeared, about fifty yards off, and after repeated cries, they were alongside, greedily devouring the offering of food. In their eagerness they showed their uncouth heads and great part of their backs, to which patches of gold leaf, laid on by recent devotees, still adhered. So tame were they that they suffered themselves to be stroked, and seemed to relish having their long feelers pulled. One fellow to whom a plantain skin was thrown indig- nantly rejected it, and dived in disgust.

For three miles above and three below the island fishing is prohibited by royal order, and the priests, who feed them daily, assured us that the fish never stray beyond the boundaries of their sanctuary. An offer of fifty rupees failed to secure a single specimen, but it may be here told that on another occasion, under cover of night, and without Burmese observa- tion, one was hooked, and, though not easily, landed, photographed, and duly preserved. Two miles above the island we stopped at Thingadaw to coal. This is a depot for the produce of the coal mines, which having been accidentally discovered by some hunters were being worked by the king.

We set out to visit a newly opened mine, said to be two miles distant, but failed to find it after a walk of two hours over a broken undulating country covered with dense tree and bamboo jungle. The soil is poor and sandy, save in hollows, which

COAL MINES. 25

afford good grazing to ponies and cattle. Fos- silised wood abounds all over the surface, and soft white and reddish sandstones crop out, so soft that the cart wheels cut them into deep ruts. In these places the surface presented a remarkable appear- ance, being covered with symmetrical pillars of soft reddish sand, two inches high, and capped by a hard ashen-grey top of the consistence of stone, and as large as a penny piece. The little pillars in many places had crumbled awa}^, and the soil was strewed with the little caps, giving it the appearance of an ash heap. In a later visit to the coal district, made from Kabyuet, a little south of Theehadaw, we had the assistance of the headman of the mines, who was most anxious to show us everything and secure a good report to the king.

At the first mine, called Lek-ojoe-bin, five miles from the river, the coal-bed, six feet thick, crops out in a hollow, and dips south-west at an angle ot thirty-five degrees. A little to the north-east is the Ket-zu-bin mine, said to yield the best coal. During our visit a few men were quarrying the coal with common wood axes and wooden-handled chisels, so that they could only win a small quantity of broken coal. Under proper management these mines could give an abundant supply of useful fuel. We learned that the sand of an adjacent stream is washed for gold, and a single worker can make 303 yuey = o-s. per diem.

The black sand of the Pon-nah, a stream falling

26 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

into the Irawady, is also washed for gold, which it is said to yield in large quantities at a place two days' journey up the stream.

On the 17th of January, we reached the northern entrance of the defile, marked by two prominent headlands — the western one crowned by the pagoda of Male, or Man-le, formerly Muang-le, and the eastern by those of the old Shan town of Tsam- penago, above which none but Chinese could for- merly trade.*

Male contains about three hundred houses, and is the customs port for clearing boats bound from Bhamo to Mandalay, and the centre of a considerable trade in bamboo mats, sesamum oil, and jaggery. From it we beheld rising to the eastward the fine peaked mountains of Shuay-toung, about six thousand feet high, on which snow is said to lie in the winter.

Above Male the river widens to a great breadth, with numerous islands, as far as Khyan-Nhyat. Thence it contracts to an unbroken stream about one hundred yards wide, flowing for twenty-two miles between high, well-wooded banks.

Having halted at Tsinuhat, a little village to the south of a long promontory, on which are the ruins of Tagoung and Old Pagan, we made a short ex- cursion to the sites of these ancient capitals. Ac- cording to the Burmese chronicles, Tagoung was founded by Abhi-raja — of the Shakya kings of Kappilawot — who fled before the invasion of his * Huuuay, ' tSolcction of Papers,' Calcutta, 1873.

TAGOUNG AND OLD PAGAN. 27

country by the king of Kauthala or Oudb. After the death of Abhi-raja the succession was disputed by his two sons. They agreed that each should endeavour to construct a large building in one night, and that the crown should belong to him whose building should be found completed by the morning. As usual in legends, the younger son outwitted the elder. He artfully set up a framework of bamboos and planks, covered with cloth and whitewashed over, so as to present the semblance of a finished building. The elder brother, believing himself to have been vanquished by the aid of nats or demons, migrated to Pegu, and finally settled in the city of Arracan (Diniawadee).

The younger son assumed the throne at Tagoung, and was succeeded by thirty-three kings. An in- road of Tartars and Chinese, said to have come from Kandahar,* destroyed the city and expelled the last of the dynasty, who had married Nagazein, whose name indicates one of the mythical serpent race. This event may be referred to the century pre- ceding the Christian era, and, according to the late Dr. Mason, must have occurred after the Tartar conquest of Bactria.y

* In the ecclesiastical translation of tbe classical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-C'hina, which is current in Burma, Yunnan is represented by Gandhara or Kandahjir. Yule's ' Marco Polo,' ii. p. 59, edition of 1874.

t Colonel Yule remarks that " Tartars on the Indian frontier in those centuries are surely to be classed with the Frenchmen whom Brcnuus led to Rome ' ('Marco Polo,' i. p. 12).

28 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

After the death of the Tagoung king, one portion of his people migrated eastwards and founded the Shan states. Another, under the widowed queen Nagazein, settled on the river Male'. After the advent of Gaudama and the second overthrow of the cities of the Shakya kings, one of their race, named Daza-Yaza, migrated to Male, and, having there found and married Nagazein, founded Upper or Old Pagan. A dense forest of magnificent timber and thousands of seedling eng trees surrounds and covers the sites and ruins of the ancient cities, of which nothing now remains but low lines and shape- less masses of brickwork. Near them stand pagodas of later date, still in tolerable preservation. Of the most ancient within the bounds of Old Pagan, only a single wall remained, behind a seated Buddha eight feet high. From the former we obtained small metal images of Buddha, and from the pagoda in Old Pagan bricks bearing in relief an image of Gaudama as the preceding Buddha. One of these was exactly the same as that described by Captain Hannay, Each bears an inscription in the old Devanagari character, beginning, " Ye Dhamma."

The ancient name of Tagoung is now borne by a little fishing-village of forty houses. At the time of our passage the villagers were located in temporary huts on a long sandbank, and busily engaged in preparing ngape or mashed salt-fish. The fishing stakes Avere fixed athwart a deep narrow channel separating the sandbank from the village. Such

NGAPE. 29

fishing-stations are numerous all along the river. Every morning large quantities of fish are taken, and sold by weight to the makers of ngape'. The fish, when cleaned, are packed between layers of salt and trodden down by the feet in long baskets lined with the leaves of the eng tree. While this narrative was being prepared for the press, a suggestion was made in the columns of a most able weekly paper that in the event of difficulties with Burma the Viceroy of India should prohibit the exportation from British Burma of ngape, " which must be imported from the seaboard." Undoubtedly there is a large exportation from our territories, but the fish composing that curious Burmese condiment, which, as Yule says, resembles " decayed shrimp paste," are caught in the Irawady. The upper river teems with fish ; fourteen species * were purchased by us at Tagoung, and the numerous fishing-villages could probably render the capital independent of the supply from British Burma.

The Shuay-mein-toung hills, on the right or western bank, opposite Tagoung, are very high, and wooded to their summits, with white pagodas peeping out amidst the dense foliage. A few miles to the north they recede from the river, where, on the

* Wallago attii, Blocli aud Schu. ; Callichrous himaculatus, M'Lelland ; Macrones cavasius, H. B. ; Mact-ones corsula, H. B. ; Labeo calhnsu, H. B. ; Laheo cJiurcJiius, H. B. ; Clrrhina mrigala, H. B. ; Barbus sarana, H. B. ; Barhus apogon, C. and V. ; Carassius auratus, Linn, ; Catla hiichanam, C. and V. ; Bhotee roflo, H. B. ; Bhotee mirrolepis, Blytli ; Notojjferus Jmpirat, Bonn.

30 MANDALAY TO BIIAMO.

eastern bank, the isolated range of the ^ragoung- toTing-daw, about twenty miles long and one thousand feet high, runs almost parallel to the river, in its intervening valley six miles wide. The Irawady is here studded with large islands, covered with long grass and forest trees ; during the rains they are submerged, and become very dangerous to descending boats. A serpentine course, following a broad deep channel to the east of the large island of Chowkyoung, brought us to the town of Thigyain on the right bank, opposite to the village of Myadoung on the left. This latter gives its name to the district south of Bhamo. Here we were startled by the news that the Woon of Bhamo, to whom we were accredited, had been killed during a riot at Momeit, about thirty-six miles south-east of Myadoung. The Woon had proceeded thither with a force of three hundred men to collect taxes, when the Shans and Kkahyens l^roke out into revolt and surrounded the royal troops, many of whom, with their leader, had been killed. It was impossible not to feel a presentiment that this untoward event would prove a source of delay, by compelling us to deal with subordinates who would be timid, even if well disposed to assist. We passed, hidden by an island, the mouth of the Shuaylee, three miles above Myadoung, and halted at Katha, on the right bank, the largest place met with since Shienpagah. It is a long town, containing at least two hundred well- built timber houses, disposed in two parallel streets.

KATHA. 31

and snrrounded by bamboo palisades with three gates. It is the head-quarters of the woon of a considerable district, inhabited by Shan-Burmese. Long hollows of rich alluvimn cultivated for rice, and closed in by undulating land covered with valuable forest trees, including teak, separate the town from the western hills. Some cotton is grown and tobacco largely raised on the islands and sand- banks. At the time of our visit, a number of Shan merchants had arrived with salted tea-leaves and other commodities. A few Yunnan Chinese, who had probably come down the Shuaylee, were also in the town. The people seemed well-clad and well-to-do, and the women were busily employed in weaving and preparing coloured cotton yarns for the manu- facture of putzos and tameins.

A dense morning fog delayed our departure from Katha, and the whole population of the town swarmed on board the steamer. After satisfying their curiosity with the novelties of machinery, &c., we be- thought ourselves of amusing them with a magnetic battery. At first all held back, but a few more venturous spirits leading the way, the operators were speedily besieged by eager candidates for a shock. The grimaces of each patient produced shouts of laughter. The good-humoured Shans discovered or fancied that the shock was good for would-be parents ; some coaxed their timid wives to the front, while the matrons brought up their pretty young daughters to obtain a share of the

32 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

benefits going. Above Katha the river is broken up by large islands into tortuous, deep, and narrow- channels. Large flocks of geese kept passing us for nearly an hour, and the sandbanks and shores of the islands were covered with varieties of wild ducks. As evening closed in, at Shuaygoo-myo, immense flocks of Herodias garzetta, or the little egret, were seen roosting in the tall grass and on the high trees, which seemed illuminated by their white forms.

In this neighbourhood we saw several villages deserted for fear of the Kakhyens, who had occupied some of the abandoned houses.

Two of our party set out to visit and make their first acquaintance with those wild highlanders, who reminded them of the East Karens ; they were civil, but declined an invitation to the steamer, pleading that they must rejoin their chief, but really fearing reprisals from the Burmese. Of their kidnapping habits, several proofs w^ere given, one being in the person of a boy of Chinese extraction, who had been sold by them to the village headman for twenty -five rupees. At our departure in the morning, young women and boys raced along the river-side, keeping up with us, to secure protection from the hillmen on the way to their villages. We were also informed that the priests' pupils who collected food from village to village were obliged to creep along under the high banks to escape the kidnappers. Subsequent experience has shown that the villagers on the eastern shore, as far as Bhamo, are in the

THE SHUAYBAW PAGODAS. 33

habit of sleeping in boats moored in the river ; only thus can they be secure from the nocturnal raids of their dangerous neighbours.

Leaving Shuaygoo-myo, we passed the large island of Shuaybaw, with its thousand pagodas, their bright golden htees strikingly contrasting with the rich green massive foliage, above which they rose. The great pagoda is about sixty feet high, enclosed on two sides by a richly carved zayat of teak witli an elaborately decorated roof, and a cornice of small niches, containing seated marljle Buddhas. Two broad paved ways, one known as the Shuaygoo- myo and the other as the Bhamo entrance, approach the pagoda, which is three quarters of a mile distant from the river. Numerous zayats cluster round the central shrine, piled to the ceiling with Buddhistic figures in metal, wood, and white marble, offered by the worshippers who yearly throng this holy place sanctified by the footprint of Gaudama.

Three miles above the island is the entrance to the second defile, where the Irawady flows through a magnificent gorge piercing a range of hills at right angles. For five miles the deep dark green current, narrowed to three hundred yards, but deepening to one hundred and eighty feet and more, is overhung by gigantic precipices. Their summits are mostly covered with scanty stunted trees, but some rise bare, with splintery peaks, and red, rocky escarp- ments ; lower down their bold sides are mantled in dark green forest, picked out here and there with the

D

34 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

fresher green of festooned clumps of bamboos, palms, and luxuriant musse. Little fishing-villages enclosed in bamboo palisades lie snugly in the hollows. Enter- ing the defile, we rounded a many-peaked hill on the left bank, which rose precipitously four hundred feet, its outline broken by huge black rocks standing out against the blue sky. The little white pagoda of Yethaycoo, in front of a cave, and dominating a grey limestone precipice one hundred and fifty feet in height, looked across the gorge to a phoongyee's house perched on high, and accessible only by bamboo ladders. The most striking feature was the great limestone precipice which rose like a gigantic wall eight hundred feet from the water's edge. This is the Deva-faced cliff celebrated in the mythical history of Tsampenago. At its base the little pagoda of Sessoungan was perched on a de- tached pyramid of limestone embowered in fine trees. During the March festival many devotees scale the long bamboo ladders which form the only access to the shrine. The Buddhist love for pre- serving animal life is here manifested towards tbe large monkeys (Macacus assamensis, M'Lelland), which, like the tame fish, come when called, and devour the offerings of the devotees. Projecting and depending from the precipice were huge masses of stalagmite formation, seemingly liable to fall at any moment. Water was dripping over them, and the natives say that during the rains the water pours over the face of the precipice in a tremendous

ill f

"

ll:

,!'

THE SECOND DEFILE. 35

cascade, the roar of which is deafening. It may well be so, for the echoes in the defile are most wonderful, echoing and re-echoing in almost har- monious reverberations. In the earliest morning the loud shouting of the hoolock monkeys in the forest made the whole air resonant, as it was taken up by another troop on the opposite bank, and echoed along the hills and from cliff to cliff in a constant wave of sound, curiously blended with which rang the shrill crowing of jungle cocks. As the sun rose higher, a deej) bass was supplied by the hum of innumerable bees, whose pendant nests thickly studded the rocky projections of the precipice. At the next turn of the river another pagoda, with a handsome many-roofed zayat by its side, high on the western hills, marked the northern entrance of the defile, and we soon passed the ancient mart of Kaungtoung, celebrated for the repulse of the Chinese invading army in 1769, and the treaty which thenceforward secured peace and commerce between Burma and China. Subsequently it became a rival of Bhamo as an emporium of Chinese trade by the valley of the Shuaylee and the Muangmow route. The river now spread itself into a broad stream, broken up by islands and sandbanks, but in some places not less than a mile and half wide between the main banks. In front of the village of Sawady a long stretch of sand was occupied by a large encampment of Shan, Chinese, and other traders, a large fleet of boats lying ready to convey the goods down the river.

D 2

36 MANDALAY TO BHAMO.

Here we sighted Bhamo in the distance, situated on an elevated bank overlooking the river, the htees of its few pagodas glistening brightly in the setting sun. To the right the high range of the Kakhyen hills was seen stretching away in an unbroken line to the east-north-east, and on the left a low range of undulating tree-clad hills bent round to join the western heights of the defile.

The almost level sweep of country, about twenty- five miles broad between these limits, was closed in, about ten miles to the north_, by another low range, marking the upper khyoukdwen, or first defile, of the Irawady,

AERIVAL AT BHAMO. 37

CHAPTER II.

BHAMO.

Arrival at Bhamo — Our quarters — The town — The Woon's house

— The Shan-Burmese — Kakhyen man-stealing — The environs — Old Tsampenago — Legendary history — The Shuaykeenah pagodas

— The Molay river — The first defile — Delays and intrigues — Sala — The new Woon — Our departure — Tsitkaw — Mountain muleteers — The Manloung lake — The phoongyee's farewell.

We found some difficulty in steering the long steamer through the channels, but anchored about 5 P.M. on the 22nd of January off the river front of Bhamo, in a very deep and broad channel. Our arrival attracted crowds, but the whistle and rush of steam drove many into a precipitate retreat. We had now reached our true point of departure. What- ever had been the uncertainties of the untried navi- gation of the river, the real dangers and difficulties of the attempt to penetrate Western China were now to begin. We bore the proclamation of the king commanding all Burmese subjects to aid us. But there was no governor of Bhamo to execute the royal orders, and the secret intentions or inclinations of the Burmese were yet to be tested. The difficulties of the unknown road over the Kakhyen mountains,

38 BHAMO.

the hostility or friendship of the mountaineers, and of the Shan population between them and Yunnan, were equally untried. Moreover, though it had scarcely been realised in all its bearings by our own British officials, Yunnan was no longer a well ordered province of the Chinese empire; it was disorganised by the successful rebellion of the Mahommedan Chinese, called Panthays by the Burmese, who had established a partial sovereignty, extending from Momien to Tali-fu. The frontier trade had been materially interrupted, partly by the desolation caused by the internecine warfare, and partly by the depredations of imperial Chinese partisans. Of these, the most dreaded leader was a Burman Chinese, known as Li-sieh-tai, a faithful officer of the old regime, who had established himself on the borders of Yunnan, and waged a guerilla war against the Panthays and their friends. His name is Li, and his so-called small name is Chun-kwo, while from his mother having been a Burmese, he is also known as Li-haon-mien, or Li the Burman. As having been raised to the rank of a Sieh-tai in the Chinese army, he was called Li-sieh-tai or Brigadier Li.*

In Bhamo itself there were a number of Chinese merchants, who were unlikely to favour any project which threatened to admit the hated barbarians to a

* A distinguished continental Chinese scholar has informed me that this title is a civil one, denoting commissioner. In the absence of the Chinese characters, the exact title of this functionary cannot be given.

OUB QUARTEKS. 39

share of their monopoly and profits. This may give some idea of the state of things which we found on our arrival. Our illusions as to a speedy or easy progress were soon dissipated, and after a formal visit from the two tsitkays, or magistrates, ruling the northern and southern divisions of the town, it became evident that we must prepare for a long stay at Bhamo. The royal order to provide transport had only been received by the Woon on the eve of his departure on his fatal expedition to Momeit. Nothing, therefore, had been done; nor could they venture to act until the new governor arrived. The next best thing was to insist on their carrying into effect the royal order to build a house for us, which had not been done. This they re- luctantly performed, and in a few days a bamboo edifice was run up close to the Woon's house, con- sisting of a central hall, with three bedrooms on either side, and a verandah at each end of the house. A small outhouse accommodated the servants and baggage, and the guard was quartered in an adjacent zayat; a tent pitched in front of the house served as a refectory. Till these quarters were prepared, we remained on board the steamer, receiving crow^ds of visitors. In the press a heavy log of timber fell on a little girl and fractured her thigh ; she was at once carried on board, and the broken limb duly set. This incident speedily established the reputation of the foreign doctor, and for the rest of our stay patients flocked in every day, some coming from long

40 BHAMO.

distances, and blind and lame eagerly expecting to be made young and whole. A great deal of blindness had resulted from small-pox. Ophthalmia was also prevalent. A common affection was a form of ulcerous inflammation, chiefly on the legs, amongst those whose occupation led them into the jungles. This was so intractable as to incline one to attribute it to poisonous thorns ; but subsequent personal experience proved that slight bruises and abrasions are most apt in this country to become painful and tedious. During the whole time no case of fever was treated, nor did any occur among our party of one hundred men. This speaks volumes for the salubrity of the place during the dry season. The highest temperature experienced was 80° Fahrenheit, the average maxi- mum being not more than 66° Fahrenheit, while the nights were very pleasant, cooling down, if we may put it so, to fifty or forty-five degrees. Fever is rather more prevalent during the rains, when the Irawady rolls down a huge volume of water, a mile and half broad, and the low lands are submerged twelve to fifteen feet.*

But this is a digression somewhat professional, and it is needful to revert to the narrative and try to give the reader some notion of our surroundings and pro- ceedings until we got away fairly on the march.

Bhamo, known by the Chinese as Tsing-gai, and in Pali called Tsin-ting, is a narrow town about one

* The meteorological registers kept at the British Residency show the annual rainfall at Bhamo to be 65 inches.

THE TOWN. 41

mile long, occupying a high prominence on the left bank of the Irawady. Instead of walls, there is a stockade about nine feet high, consisting of split trees driven side by side into the ground and strengthened with crossbeams above and below. This paling is further defended on the outside by a forest of bamboo stakes fixed in the ground and projecting at an acute angle. However formidable to bare-footed natives, the stockade does not always exclude tigers, which pay occasional visits, and during our stay killed a woman as she sat with her com- panions. There are four gates, one at either end and two on the eastern side, which are closed immediately after sunset; a guard is stationed at the northern and southern gates, while several look-out huts perched at intervals on the stockade are manned when an attack of the Kakhyens is expected. The population numbers about two thou- sand five hundred souls, occupying about five hundred houses, which form three principal streets. There are many thickly w^ooded by-paths, and bridges over a swamp in the centre of the town, leading to scattered houses, dilapidated pagodas, zayats, and monasteries.

The street following the course of the bank, with high flights of steps ascending from the river, has a row of houses on either side, with a row of teak planks laid in the middle to afford dry footing during the rains. The houses of the central portion are all small one-storied cottages, built of sun-drie bricks,

42 BHAMO.

with tiled concave roofs with deep projecting eaves. Through an o]3en window the proprietor can be seen calmly smoking behind a little counter, for this is the Chinese quarter, and the colony of perhaps two hundred Celestials here offer for sale Manchester goods, Chinese yarns, ball tea, opium, Yunnan pota- toes, lead, and vermilion, &c. They also regulate the cotton market, and the traffic in this product, which is brought both from the south and the north, is carried on even during the rains. The head Chinaman, who is resj)onsible for order amongst his compatriots, is a man of great influence. He and his fellow merchants, professing great friendship, invited us to a grand feast and theatrical enter- tainment given in the Chinese temple, or rather in the theatre which formed a portion thereof. We entered through what was to us a novelty in this country, a circular doorway, into a paved court. The theatrical portion of the building was over the en- trance to a second court, facing the sanctuary, which is on a higher level. A covered terrace surrounded the holy place on three sides, with recesses contain- ing seated figures nearly life size, with rubicund faces and formidable black beards and moustaches. Each of these was carefully protected from dust by being enshrined in a square box closed in front with gauze netting. Besides the theatrical entertainment, which was interminable, we were regaled with preserved fruits and confectionery, with tea and samshu, or rice spirit, followed by numerous courses of pork, fowls,

THE WOON'S HOUSE. 43

&c. The staple of conversation was the dangers and impossibilities of getting through to Yunnan ; every argument they could think of to induce us to abandon the idea of progress was then and afterwards em- ployed. It can readily be imagined that the Bhamo Chinese traders viewed with utter dismay the prospect of Europeans sharing their trade ; to their schemes of hindrance we shall again recur.

The rest of the townspeople are exclusively Shan- Burmese, living in small houses built of teak and bamboo, all detached and raised on piles. The Woon's house, on a low promontory running out into the swamp behind the Chinese quarter, was a large tumbledown timber and bamboo structure ; but its double roof and high palisade covered with bamboo mats marked the dignity of its occuj)ier. A small garden overrun with weeds contained the remains of a rockery and fish-pond, and a neglected brass cannon, under a low thatched shed, guarded either side of the gate ; in a large adjacent space stood the courthouse. All the public buildings were then in a state of dilapidation and decay ; this the inhabitants attributed to Kakhyen raids, destructive fires, decay of trade since the Panthay wars, and misrule. Evi- dence was not wanting in the numerous neglected pagodas and timber bridges, and in the ruinous and charred remains of what must have been handsome zayats, that Bhamo, in j)almier days, deserved the eulogiums passed on it by Hannay and other travellers.

44 BHAMO.

The Sfian-Burmese seemed a peaceful, industrious class. In each house a loom is found in the veran- dah, and the girls are taught to weave from an early age. The women are always husy weaving silk or cotton putzos and tameins, preparing yarns, husking rice, or feeding and tending the buffaloes, besides doing their household duties. The men till the fields, but are not so industrious as the softer sex. A few are employed in smelting lead, and others work in gold, or smelt the silver used as currency. To six tickals* of pure silver purchased from the Kakhyens, one tickal eight annas of copper wire are added, and melted with alloy of as much lead as brings the whole to ten tickals' weight. The opera- tion is conducted in saucers of sun-dried clay bedded in paddy husk, and covered over with charcoal. The bellows are vigorously plied, and as soon as the mass is at a red heat, the charcoal is removed, and a round flat brick button previously covered with a layer of moist clay is placed on the amalgam, which forms a thick ring round the edge, to which lead is freely added to make up the weight. As it cools, there results a white disc of silver encircled by a brownish ring. The silver is cleaned and dotted with cutch, and is then weighed and ready to be cut up. Another industry is confined to the women, who make capital chatties from a tenacious yellow clay, which overlies this portion of the river valley, in some places forty feet thick ; the earthenware is * One tickal = rather more than half an ounce troy.

KAKHYEN MAN-STEALING. 45

coloured red with a ferruginous substance found in nodules embedded in the clay.

From the same clay, a number of Shan-Chinese from Hotha and Latha make sun-dried bricks outside the town, and a colony of the same people sojourn every winter at Bhamo, making dahs, or long knives, which are in great demand. A number of Kakhyens are often to be seen near the town, bringing rice, opium, silver, and pigs for sale. Their chief object is to procure salt, for which necessary they are de- pendent on Burma. They are not allowed to encamp within the town, but are compelled to shelter them- selves outside the gates, in miserable wigwams. The Burmese assigned as a reason for their exclusion their dread of the Kakhyen propensity for kidnapping- children and even men, and also because a small party might be the precursors of a raid.* A few days after our arrival, four children w^ho had been stolen were recovered. One of them was brought by her mothei', to show the large round holes bored in the back of the ears as a sign of servitude. The other three were little fat Chinese children, and adopted by the head tsitkay. A curious illustration of their habits of man-steaHng was also afforded us.

The Burmese interpreter found among the Kakh- yens outside the town a man who privately told him

* Since the date of this vib;it, rest-liouses have beeu erected f<.r the Kakhyens by the Burmese authorities, and also by the British Resident ; and some of these natives are always to be found temporarily occupying them.

46 BHAMO.

that he was a kala, or foreigner, who had been ten years in slavery ; having heard of the arrival of the kalas, he anxiously desired an interview. His features showed that he was a native of India, and his history, given in a jumble of Burmese, Kakhyen, and Hindostani, was as follows. Deen Mahomed, a petty trader from Midnapore, had come to Burma with nine others ten years before. They stayed a year at Tongoo, thence making their way up as far as Bhamo. In this neigh- bourhood, during a halt for cooking, all had gone to seek firewood save Deen Mahomed and an- other, who were in charge of the goods. A party of Kakhyens suddenly rushed out of the bush, and seized both men and goods. His comrade was taken away he knew not where, and he was carried off as a slave. A log of wood was fastened to one of his legs, and he was further secured by ropes fastened to this, and braced over his shoulders. This he wore for two months, during which time he was not made to work, but was guarded by a Kakhyen. He was then released on his promise to remain. A few days after, the village was plundered by a hostile tribe, but he and his master escaped to another village, where he was bartered for a buffalo to another man. His new master treated him well, but did not allow him to leave the hills, and after two or three years gave him a Kakhyen wife. He had almost forgotten his native language, but not his native countrv- As soon as he heard of our arrival,

THE ENVIRONS. 47

he resolved to ask our aid in his deHverance. We sent him among his fellow-countrymen of the guard, who clothed him, and he was installed as a groom, and taken with us as an interpreter. That his story was true, we had confirmation, as his quondam master preferred a claim for compensation for his loss.

The country behind Bhamo runs up to the base of the mountain wall in undulations so long as to present the general aspect of a level slope, covered with eng trees and tall grass. For about a mile outside the stockade, the surface is cut up by numerous deep jheels, evidently old backwaters of the Irawady, which once flowed in a long curve, marked by an old river bank, south-east of the town. The soil, especially in the hollows, is very rich, giving two crops of rice annually. Numerous legumes, yams, and melons, and a little cotton are grown, and the sandy river islands yield capital tobacco.

The edible fruits procurable are jacks, tamarinds, lemons, citrons, peaches, &c., and plantains are plentiful.

About a mile north of the town, the Tapeng river debouches into the Irawady, after flowing twenty miles through the plain as a quiet navigable stream, hardly recognisable as the furious torrent which rushes through the neighbouring gorge. During the dry season, it is one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards wide, and navigable only by boats, which convey a constant traffic between the Irawady and Tsitkaw, where the merchandise is transferred

48 BHAMO.

to and from mules. During the rains, the Tapeng is at least five hundred yards wide, and navigable for small river steamers up to this place.

Occupying the angle between the two rivers, the remains of an ancient city are still discernible, though completely overgrown by magnificent trees and thickets of bamboo and elephant grass. The broad wall, composed of bricks and pebbles, can be traced from the river banks at its northern and southern extremities, which are a mile apart. We followed one section for three quarters of a mile, and found it in some places thirty feet high from the bottom of the moat, which is still traceable. The ruins, which, to judge from appearances, are coeval with those of Tagoung, mark the site of the oldest Tsampenago. This city, according to tradition, quoted by the old phoongyee at Bhamo, flourished in the days of Gaudama. There is yet another ruined city of the same name on the other side of the Tapeng, which does not present the same appearance of great antiquity. Twelve miles to the east of Bhamo are the ruins of another city named Kuttha, while Bhamo itself has a predecessor in the village called Old Bhamo, near the foot of the Kakhyen hills, the former importance of which is witnessed by its ruined pagodas. Here too is that old brick luiilding mentioned by Dr. Bayfield as probably the remains of the old English factory erected in the beginning of the seventeenth century. We have little but conjecture to guide us as to the

OLD TSAMPENAGO. 49

vicissitudes of these ancient cities of the Shan kine:- dom of Pong. As elsewhere in Burma, each new founder of a dynasty seems to have transferred the seat of power to a new site. But the legend of the origin of Tsampenago, of which the history of Bhamo is a continuation, may be more interesting than dryasdust details of antiquity.*

Tsampenago is the Burmese form of a Pali name, Champa-nagara, from nagam, to\\Ti, and Champa, the seat of a powerful kingdom, flourishing in the era of Gaudama, the ruins of which are still visible near Bhaugulpore, on the Ganges. Tsampenago, then, means the city of Champa.

The founder and first king of Tsampenago was Tsitta, and his queen's name was "W^attee. They were childless, which was a cause of great grief, and the queen prayed earnestly for an heir. A son was promised to her by a dream, in which the king of the Devas presented her with a valuable gem. Soon after this, the king's brother Kuttha rebelled, and attacked the city with a great army. The king and queen fled for their lives to Wela, a mountain three thousand feet high, a day's journey north of Tsampenago. They were pursued, but the queen escaped and was preserved by the nats, on the mountain, where her son was born and named Welatha. The king was taken prisoner and confined in chains. When Welatha was six years old, he

* For this the writer is indebted to the learning and industry of the Late Rev. Dr. Mason.

50 BHAMO.

saw his mother in tears, and by questioning her learned that he was a prince, and his father a captive. When he was seven, his mother yielded to his importunity, and sent him, with her royal orna- ments, to visit his father. On approaching Tsam- j)enago, he met his father being led out to execution. The brave boy stopped the procession, and revealed himself, offering to die instead of his father. Kuttha ordered him to be thrown into the Irawady. But the river rose in tremendous waves, the earth shook, and the executioners could not, for terror, obey the royal order. This being reported to Kuttha, he ordered that the prince should be trodden to death by wild elephants, but the beasts could not be goaded to attack him. A deep pit was dug and filled with burning fuel, into which the prince was cast, but the flames came on him like cool water, and the burning fagots became lilies. When Kuttha heard this, in his fury he had the young prince taken down to the Deva-faced mountain (second defile), and cast from the great precipice into the river, but he was caught up by a naga, and carried away to the naga country. The earth quaked, many thunderbolts fell, the Irawady rolled up its waves, and broke down its banks. Kuttha was seized with terror, and as he fled forth of the city gate, the earth opened and swallowed him up. Thereupon, the nagas brought back the young prince and his father, and they reigned jointly. Their first care was to seek for the queen, but on approaching the mountain of Wela, the

LEGENDARY HISTORY. 51

flowers were few, and their fragrance gone, and the queen was found dead. History says nothing of their after reign, but records that in the 218th year of the Buddhist sacred era, in obedience to the command of the universal monarch, four pago- das were built in the kingdom of Tsampenago — the Shuaykeenah, the Bhamo Shuay-za-tee ; Koung- ting, and two others. The next item of history states that in the year 400 of the era (probably the vulgar era of 638 a.d.) the succession of kings being destroyed, and the glory of the former rulers having departed, the tsawbwa Tholyen did not dare to live in the city ; so be founded a new one at the village of Manmau, and made it his capital. Now man is Shan for village, and mau for a pot ; thus Bhamo, or Manmau, signifies Potters' Village, a name still justified by the pottery there manufactured. How Tsampenago was destroyed, is not historically certain, but a tradition exists among the Shans, that it was overthrown by an army of Singphos from the north-west. After Tholyen, twenty-three tsawbwas are said to have ruled in succession at Bhamo over a district comprising one hundred and thirty-six villages. The succession was then broken, and the country was ruled by Shan deputies. After this, tsawbwas were obtained from Momeit, who ruled over Bhamo till Oo-Myat-bung and his family were made slaves by the great Alompra about 1760. Ever since, the district has been governed by myo-woons appointed by the king of Burma. The

E 2

52 BHAMO.

first, Thoonain, settled the boundaries of the district, including only eighty-eight villages, the eastern and north-eastern boundaries being given as China.

The legend of Tsampenago records the erection of the Shuaykeenah pagoda, the name of which at least is preserved to the present day by the group of pago- das situated on an eminence north of Tsampenago. These are still the holy places of the neighbour- hood, and are thronged with pilgrims at the March festival. The great gilded pagoda has been re-edified by royal bounty and popular offerings, but others are from time to time added by private votaries. Thus it was our good fortune to witness the laying the foundation of a votive pagoda at Shuaykeenah. A small square of ground, the exact size of the base of the intended pagoda, was railed off by a fantastic bamboo fence, two feet high, decorated with flowers and paper flags. A wooden pin, covered with silver tinsel, and bearing a lighted yellow taper, was fixed in the centre, and another about two feet from the south-eastern corner of the level plot ; round the first a quadrangular trench, and a deep hole by the side of the other were dug and sprinkled with water. Eight bricks, each the exact size of one side of the trench, were prepared. On four the name of G-audama was inscribed in black paint ; on the others, a leaf of gold was placed on the centre of one, silver on the second, a square of green paint on the third, and red on the fourth, each having a border of green. A

THE SHUAYKEENAH PAGODAS. 58

round earthen vase containing gold, silver, and pre- cious stones, besides rice and sweetmeats, was closed with wax in which a lighted taper was stuck, and deposited in the south-east hole, by the builder of the pagoda, who repeated a long prayer, while the earth was filled in and sprinkled with water. This was an offering to the great earth serpent, in the direction of whose abode the south-east corner pointed. It is an interesting relic of the snake worship once so prevalent among the Shan race to the south, which, like nat worship, has been incorporated in Buddhism. Another instance is afforded in some of the Yunnan shrines, where the canopy over Buddha is supported by many-headed snakes, as occurs in some Indian temples. In the next part of the ceremony, the depositing of the bricks in the trench, the Shan was assisted by his grandmother, wife, and daughter ; he knelt at the north, faced by his wife, his daughter on his right hand, and the grand- mother on the left. The silvered brick, with a lighted taper on it, Avas handed to the old woman, who raised it over her head, and, devoutly murmuring a long jDrayer, placed it in the trench ; the wife did the same with the red brick and its taper, and the daughter followed with the green, while her father took the gold one. The girl, in raising her brick, burst out laughing, amused, as we were told, at hav- ing forgotten her prayers. The four bricks having been properly deposited, the others were next laid in order, the sacred name downwards, and a laver of

54 BHAMO.

cloth spread over all. Earth was then thrown in and sprinkled with water, and the hole having been filled up, the ceremony was over.

Four miles above Shuaykeenah and the mouth of the Tapeng, the Irawady receives the waters of the Molay. It is a narrow stream, rising in the Kakhyen hills, with a course of ninety-six miles, for thirty of which it is navigable during the rains, and a small boat traffic exists, chiefly for the conveyance of salt.

While our leader was engaged planning for our departure with the officials, three of us made a hurried excursion to the first khyoukdwen^ or defile. This portion of the river commences a few miles above Bhamo, and extends for twenty-five miles, nearly to Tsenbo.

Between these two points the river flows under high wooded banks. At the lower entrance, the channel is one thousand yards broad, but gradually narrows to five hundred, two hundred, and even seventy yards, as the parallel ranges approach each other. As we ascended, the hills rose higher and closed in, rising abru]otly from the stream and throw- ing out a succession of grand rocky headlands. We moored for the night off a Phwon village standing on a cliff eighty feet high, just above the first so- called rapids. The next day, after we had proceeded about seven miles, we came to a reach in which the river flowed sluggishly between two high conical hills, which seemed to present no outlet. The quiet

liii II! I

T'VVji

. mi

THE PIH8T DEFILE.

66

m an-l '''

,>i;,r^ l.T,.,

,estea ^

This Teach extended about one mile and a half,

vith a breadth of two hundred and fifty yards, closing

the upper end, where thr ken up

Mia

I I : 1 ;,■[ I t

'lilt wo

vere not wanting in the itv-five feet above the then

-^'i

THE FIRST DEFILE. 55

motion and deep olive black hue of the water suggested great depth.*

This reach extended about one mile and a half, with a breadth of two hundred and fifty yards, closing in at the upper end, where the channel is broken up by rocks jutting out boldly, and approaching each other within eighty yards. A pagoda, apparently of great age, perched on a small isolated rock, rising about forty-five feet from the stream, seemed to indicate the limit of the rising of the waters, as it could not have withstood the flood. This rocky reach stretches a mile in a north-north-westerly direction, and terminates abruptly in an elbow, from which another clear reach, overhung by precipitous but grassy hills, extends east-north-east.

This bend of the river is one of the most dangerous parts, owing to numerous insulated greenstone rocks which stretch across it, exposed twenty feet and more in February. Owing to the sudden bend, the current rushes between them with great violence, but we found no difficulty in effecting a passage for our" boats. Telling evidences were not wanting in the high-water mark, twenty-five feet above the then level, and in the shivered trunks of large trees and debris of branches heaped in wild confusion among the rocks, that the body of water pouring through the narrow gorge must in the rains be enormous and of terrific power. The navigation, with the present obstructions unremoved, would be impossible for

* Bayfickl founil no bottom at twenty-five fatJioms.

56 • BHAMO.

river steamers, but engineering skill could speedily render the water way practicable if desired for traffic. We had not time to ascend to the northern entrance of the defile, where the river, unconfined by the hills, is again a majestic stream half a mile in width. We could only look, and long for an opportimity of exploring its course upwards to the unknown regions whence it rolls down its mighty flood. The problem of the Irawady's source and course has yet to be solved ; but we had to return to Bhamo, expecting the solution of our perplexities, as to how and when we should reach Yunnan.

Four weeks had now been spent by our leader in a fruitless attempt to get the tsitkays to assist in making the necessary arrangements. What between the novelty of their first introduction to enterprising Englishmen, their dread of acting till the Woon arrived, and last, though not least, their fear of offending the influential Chinese, they could do nothing, nor give any information. As the arrival of large Shan caravans and companies of trading Kakhyens proved, all routes were not closed. The magistrates admitted a small trade existed by the Tapeng and Pod line route ; by this route it was decided that we should go. It soon became known to our leader that the Chinese merchants, failing to deter us from proceeding, had taken more active measures. They had written to the Kakhyen tsawbwas, desiring them* to withhold assistance, and they further intrigued with the imperialist officer

SALA OF PONLINE.

Li-sieh-tai, who at this time threatened the road to Momien and Tali-fu, entreating him to cut ofiP the expedition en route. The turning-point of our fortunes had now arrived. We could gain no exact information as to the pohtical relations of the Shans, and only knew that the Panthay government ex- tended to Momien, which was believed to be the residence of Mahommedan chiefs of importance.

Major Sladen, with promptness and decision, re- solved, unknown to all, to outwit the Chinese. He despatched letters to the chiefs of Momien, explaining the peaceful objects of the mission, and the appro- bation given to it by the Burmese government under our treaty, and pointing out the advantages of open- ing the direct trade. These letters, with copies of the treaty and proclamation, were secretly sent off by three Kakhyens from the southern hills, who had attached themselves to our interest.

The next character claiming our attention was Sala, the Kakhyen chief of Ponline, who came to Bhamo at the request of Sladen, after refusing to comply with the order of the tsitkays. He visited us attired as a mandarin of the blue button, and attended by six or eight armed followers. He carried a gold umbrella, which he had received from the king of Burma, with the title of papada raza, or mountain king. There was nothing regal in his aspect or bearing. He was a tall, thin man, with a con- tracted chest, long neck, very small and retreating forehead, while his oval and repulsive visage was

58 BHAMO.

adorned with high cheek-hones, ohlique eyes, and a depression instead of a nose. During the interview, when all the Burmese officials were present, he sat ill at ease, with his eyes bent on the floor. We re- ceived him as an independent chief, with the escort drawn up under arms in his honour. But little information was procured, as the interpreter, a village tamone, could not he persuaded to give correct versions of the chief's short and almost mono- syllabic answers. So Sladen brought the interview to a pleasant close by offering a friendly cup of eau de vie. This seemed to suit the chief, and he and his retinue finished a bottle of brandy, and asked for more. His parting words were, " Remember the brandy, and send it to me quickly."

The following day, at a private interview, the chief threw off his former reserve, which he said had been forced on him, as he could not afford to offend the Bhamo Chinese. It was his own wish to assist the mission, but he stipulated for a small Burmese escort, to show that we had the full support of the king. He engaged to assemble a hundred mules at Tsitkaw, a village on the right bank of the Tapeng twenty- one miles distant ; thence he undertook to conduct us safely to Manwyne, the first Chinese Shan town, and boasted himself as the greatest chief on the route, and on good terms with all the tsawbwas.

The new Woon arrived on the 20th of February, but declined to land for three days, as they were dies nefasti. In the meantime he sent word that we

THE NEW WOON. 59

might have boats to take the baggage to Tsitkaw, but advised us to wait until he had fired his guns, and brought in the various Kakhyen chiefs. The day after his landing, Sladen, with Sala, visited him, and the Ponline chief asked for a Burmese guard, alleging as a precedent that a guard had been sent up with the king's cotton. The Woon, however, declared it to be quite unnecessary and uncalled for, and told the chief that the cases were quite different. The tsawbwa then consented to take us on without the guard, but told the Woon that he had received threatening letters from the Chinese. The Woon admitted his knowledge of the Chinese opposition, and promised to admonish the head Chinaman at Bhamo that he would be held responsible for our safety. The morning after the Woon arrived, he proceeded in state to the court-house, escorted by two hundred men. He wore the fantastic dress of a Burmese prince, a short tight richly coloured coat covered with gold tinsel, with two enormous wing-like epaulettes, and a tall gilt hat Hke a fireman's helmet, surmounted by a pagoda-like spire. His appoint- ment was read, and the guns fired, after an hour had been spent in driving home the powder and cartridge of green plantain leaf. Our baggage was despatched the next day, but two difficulties remained. We had no Kakhyen interpreters, and the rupees, which were said to be useless in the Shan country, had not been changed, for no country silver was to be found in Bhamo, a mysterious and suggestive fact. But

60 BHAMO.

these were not held sufficient to delay our departure, which took place on the morning of the 26th of February. Our want of a guide was removed by an accidental meeting in the street with the head jailor, a good-natured Shan, whom Sladen induced to guide us to Tsitkaw, promising to screen him from any displeasure of the authorities. Although the dis- tance is only twenty-one miles, the loss of time caused by ferrying our party of one hundred men over the Tapeng compelled us to halt at the village of Tahmeylon, where we put up in a small monastery. Early the next morning we started, skirting the Tapeng through tall grass, with occasional rice clearings. At the junction of the Manloung river with the Tapeng, a number of ruined pagodas marked the site of the second town of Tsampenago, built at a much later date than that near Bhamo.

By noon we reached Tsitkaw, and were received inside the low stockade by the Burmese officials and a miserable guard armed with rusty flint muskets, who garrison this as a customs station. We were conducted to a small barn-like zayat, which had been cleaned out for our use. Inquisitive natives speedily sought to force their way in, and had to be kept at bay by armed sentinels, though with caution. And we were requested to have a guard under arms all night, to protect our property against thieves, and perhaps ourselves against tigers, which occasionally overleap the stockade. In the morning, the Kakhyen

TSITKAW. 61

tsawbivas, or chiefs, and pawmines, or headmen, of PonKne, Tahlone, Ponsee, and Seray, through whose lands lay the route to Manwyne, appeared to take charge of ourselves and baggage. As the Shan- Burmese of Tsitkaw and other villages near the hills keep on good terms with the highlanders, the chiefs showed no timidity of the Burmese officials ; they made themselves quite at home, and asked for brandy ; under its genial influence a formal assent was soon given to our passage through their territories.

The first process was to collect all our baggage, that it might be passed in review, and divided into small loads. Outside Tsitkaw, we had passed an enclosure in which were about a hundred men, chiefly Shans, with a few Kakhyens. These fellows had jeered at us in passing, and it was by no means reassuring to learn that this unmannerly mob consisted of the mule owners, as restive and imtractable as their beasts. Each man owned from one to a dozen mules, and looked after his own interests without regard either to his employer's or the rest of the caravan. The consequent shouting, disputing, and almost fighting that ensued as each helped himself to the packages that seemed desirable baffled description. At last all the baggage was distributed in little heaps, and each man marked off the number of mules required on a primitive tally, formed from a piece of bamboo, which he broke across into a corresponding number of joints, and put up carefully against the day of reckoning.

62 BHAMO.

The next morning witnessed another scene of con- fusion and quarrelhng, as the panniers or pack-saddles were brought in order to have the loads adjusted. The packs are secured to cross-trees, which fit into transverse pieces of wood, fixed in the saddles ; and a band passed in front of the mule's shoulders keeps all firm in its place. When the burdens had been arranged, it appeared that there were more mules than loads, and the disappointed proprietors furiously disputed the possession of their lots with their more fortunate competitors ; hands were repeatedly laid on the hilt of the dah, but all ended in bluster, and finally the loads were arranged. When all seemed ready for the morrow's starting, the cJwung-oJce, or bailiff of the river, appeared on the scene, ac- companied by several Kakhyens, and informed us that March 1st, being the 9th of some Kakhyen month, was an altogether ill-omened day to commence any undertaking. This Burmese official further con- fidentially informed Sladen that there was a quarrel brewing between the muleteers and the chiefs, which would break out before long ; but he was disconcerted by the prompt action of the leader, who sent for the chiefs, and, assuring them of his confidence, said that he would abide by their arrangements for the transport. To this they replied that we were their brothers, and that they would be true to us for ever. The enforced delay at this place enabled us to make a short excursion to the Manloung lake, about one mile and a half

THE MANLOUNG LAKE. 63

distant. I went all round it in a small canoe, which held three people with difficulty. The western bank is high and wooded, but broken by two channels, through which the Manloung stream issues, uniting below a small island, on which stands a Shan village of the same name. Besides this, there is another island, and a village named Moungpoo. The high bank is continued on the north, beyond the lake, as a prominent ridge covered with tall trees, extending in a bold sweep to the foot of the hills ; it appeared evidently to be an old river bank, and that the lake marks what was once the course of the Tapeng. The Manloung stream falls into a remarkable offshoot of the main river, which after- wards rejoins the Tapeng by several channels. This stream is deep and rapid, and supplies several irri- gating water-wheels. The lake is two miles long and a mile broad, and according to native accounts very deep. To the east extended a succession of swamps, hidden under a luxuriant growth of high grass ; careful search discovered no springs or streams as sources of supply, although doubtless the former exist, as there is a constant outflowing of water. It is probably also a reservoir, filled annually by the overflow of the Tapeng, which during the rainy season frequently floods the level plain to a dejDth of two feet for some days at a time, the flood suddenly rising and as suddenly subsiding.

Manloung contained about eighty houses, and the women at this time were all busily engaged in

64 BHAMO.

weaving cloth from cotton procured from the Kakhyens, who grow it on the hills. The village boasted of a large and flourishing monastery, far superior to any to be seen at Bhamo, and with a large number of resident pupils. The dormitory was exhibited with pride by the chief phoongyee ; the beds were neatly arranged along one side of the room, each possessing a nice clean mattress and coverlet and superior mosquito curtains.

Thence we returned to Tsitkaw, where the filthy disregard of decency exhibited by the drunken high- land chiefs, which we were obliged to tolerate, made our enforced sojourn still more insupportable ; and an additional source of anxiety was furnished by the information, imparted by Sala, that Moung Shuay Yah, our Chinese interpreter, was really in collusion with the hostile Chinese.

Daylight on the 2nd of March saw us all on the qui vive in expectation of an early start, but the mule-men, at nine o'clock, had not eaten their rice, and then came a demand for an advance of mule hire ; a previous request for salt to be distributed to the people of villages en route had been complied with, but no sooner had the baskets containing it been brought in front of the house than the men helped themselves at discretion, and no more was heard of it. An hour was now spent in the distribu- tion of five hundred rupees, which were laid out oil a mat, while the eagerness with which the recipients gathered round and handled the silver spoke volumes

A PHOONGYEE'S FAREWELL. 65

as to their o-reed for coin. One of the tsawbwas had been seen eagerly watching Sladen's private cash chest, and asked in the most pressing manner to be allowed to take charge of it, while another dogged the foot- steps of Captain Bowers' servant, endeavouring to coax him into entrusting his master's fowling-piece to his care.

During the morning the phoongyee of an adjoining khyoung arrived to say farewell. He had Ijeen a constant visitor, and the kind reception given him, and the toleration of his curiosity, which showed itself by wandering about and prying into everything, had quite won his heart. He was far superior to the usual run of Shan phoongyees, who, according to Burmese Buddhism, are lax and unorthodox in practice and doctrine. He spent much of his time in missionary visits to the ruder villages, whose inhabitants he hoped to convert to conformity with stricter religious rules. By way of a parting gift he presented each of us with some sweet scented powder and a few fragrant seeds or pellets, which he declared to be a sovereign remedy for headache or fever, " contracted by smelling culinary ojDerations ! " His advice to Sladen at parting was so shrewd and characteristic as to deserve quoting. "We have met before in a former existence, and it is by virtue of meritorious acts there done that I am privileged to meet you again in the present life, and advise you for your welfare. Wisdom and prudence are necessary in all worldly undertakings ; use then special care

66 BHAM6.

and circumspection in your present expedition ; your enemies are numerous and powerful. We shall all hail the reopening of the overland trade with China. The prosperity of the priesthood dej)ends on the con- dition of the country and the people ; what is good for them is also good for religion."

DEPARTUKE FROM TSITKAW. 67

CHAPTER III.

K A K II YEN II I L L S.

Departure from Tsitkaw — Our cavalcade — The hills — A false alarm — Talone — First niglit in the hills — The tsawbwa-gadaw — Pouline village — A doatli dance — The divination — A mectway — Nampoung gorge — A dangerous road — I^akong bivouac — Arrival at Ponsee — A Kakhyen coquette.

Almost at the last moment before setting; ont, while lists of the muleteers were being taken, in order to ascertain their respective chiefs, so as to know who should be held responsible, in case of default or robbery, the tsawbwas of Ponsee and Talone discovered that Sala, when at Bhamo, had received a musket as a present. Their informant was the treacherous Moung Shuay Yah, who in- stigated them to stand on their dignity and demand a similar gift. Compliance was impossible, so they refused their services, and prowled al)out in sneaking silence, ostentatiously taking lists of our- selves and of our baggage. By two o'clock a start was fairly efifected, although our arrangements were by no means as complete as they miglit have been; but as it was settled that we should only proceed as

F 2

68 KAKHYEN HILLS.

far as Ponline village, about twelve miles distant, it was Letter to start than risk further delay. There was something outrageously wild in the irregular confusion of our exodus from Tsitkaw, which, though perhaps orderly according to Kakhyen ideas, pre- sented no trace of system to our uninformed minds. The three Kakhyen chiefs led the way, followed by the unwieldy cash-chest, borne by eight men, and guarded by four sepoys ; then came the long straggling caravan of a hundred and twenty mules, travelling just as it suited the peculiarities of each beast and its driver. Our police escort marched steadily on, headed by the jemadar, at whose side appeared his wife, looking like a true vivandVere, her slim figure becomingly attired in a blue silk padded jacket, and trousers tucked up to the knee, with a red silk handkerchief for head-dress ; with a Burmese dah and bag slung over her shoulders, and her shoes tied behind her back, she was evidently prepared for all dangers and fatigues.

We mounted our ponies and rode forward over the level plain before us ; stretching north-east and south-west, rose the long undulating outline of the Kakhyen mountains, broken here and there by huge domes or pointed peaks, rising to five and six thousand feet. On our right flowed the Tapeng, gradually calming its waters into a placid stream, after having emerged as a foaming torrent from the mountain barrier. At the village of Hentha the route diverged from the river, and half a mile

A FALSE ALARM. 69

further we passed the long, straggling, but populous village of Old Bhamo, embosomed in a dense grove of bamboos and forest trees. Outside the village stood a solitary and almost ruined pagoda, the ad- vanced outpost, on this side the river, of Burmese Buddhism, for none of these religious edifices are found among the Kakhyen hills.

Four miles' ride through a succession of level swampy patches of paddy clearings, and grassy fields intersected by deep nullahs, brought us to the village of Tsihet, on slightly undulating ground. At this point the route turned almost at right angles, to ascend the hills, and here the three tsawbwas were seated in deep and excited consultation, apparently waiting for us. We had outstripped most of the con- voy, and as Sladen rode up, Sala exclaimed, pointing to the hill path, " All right, go on, and don't be afraid." His words were less intelligible than those of the Talone tsawbwa, who asked in an injured tone, " When are you going to give me that gun ?

We ascended about five hundred feet, over a series of rounded hills, distinct from the main range, but connected with it by spurs, up the s\o])e of one of which we were slowly climbing, when a shot was heard in front. Sladen, the superior powers of whose pony had taken him ahead, waited until the others joined him, and another shot and then four reports together were heard, but no bullet whizzed near. A spear was picked up in the path, which a Burmese syce

70 KAKHYEN HILLS.

alleged to have been thrown from the jimgle at the passing travellers ; but his evidence was doubtful.

We all proceeded as if nothing had happened, but our Kakhyens, some fifty of whom were ahead, gathered round, flourishing their dahs and yelling like fiends, to assure us of their determination to protect us. A little further on we came upon two Kakhyens of our party, standing in an open by the roadside, one armed with a ci'oss-bow and poisoned arrows, and the other with a flint musket. By signs they tried to convey to us that some evil-disposed mountaineers had hidden themselves at this spot, and had fired on them, but that on their returning the fire, the enemy had " bolted" down the hillside. "We had our own opinion that the supposed attack was an ingenious ruse to try our mettle, and that most of the shots were fired by our half intoxicated muleteers, who evinced no sort of fear or misgiving. One of them, mounted on a mule, and armed with a long dah and matchlock, proved himself more dangerous as a friend than all the supposed enemies. He kept rushing backwards and forwards on a path scarcely wide enough in some places for a single pony ; now he flourished his long sword in a reckless manner, and then fired his matchlock over the head of Sladen, who was in front, reloading and firing over his shoulder with a rapidity wonderful in a man so drunk as to be beyond reason. Judicious praises of his dexterity and a promise to refill his powder-horn at the next

VILLAGE OF PONLINE. 71

village were necessary to prevent him from becoming suddenly quarrelsome and dangerous.

From the summit of the spur fifteen hundred feet high, we descended by a rough, slippery path, the bed of a dried-up watercourse, to a level glen of rich alluvial land, and thence climbed another spur to a height of two thousand feet, whence a slight descent brought us to a long ridge, on which were situated the villages of Talone and Ponline. Approaching the first-named, we were requested to dismount, as Kakhyen etiquette does not admit of riding past a village. We led our ponies through a grassy glade, surrounded by high trees, and sacred to the nats. At one side stood a row of bamboo posts, varying in height from six to twenty feet, split at the top into four pieces, supporting small shelves to serve as altars for the offerings of cooked rice, fowls, and sheroo, wherewith the demons are propitiated. Before each altar were placed large bundles of grass, and a few old men were kneeling, muttering a low chant.

Leaving Talone on an eminence to our left, we re- mounted and descended a little distance throuo-h deep ravines, in secondary spurs, and, after a short ascent, traversed a tolerably level pathway, and another short rise brought us to our halting-place, the village of Ponline, lying two thousand three hundred feet above the sea. The rocks exposed were all metamorphic, consisting chiefly of a grey gneiss or red granite, and a hornblendic mica schist, huge rounded boulders of which latter were strewn on the

72 KAKHYEN HILLS.

hillsides. The hills were covered with a dense tree forest, largely intermixed with bamboos. It was already dusk when we arrived, but the moon shone brig-htly, and a pawmine conducted us to a house, swept and made ready for us. Like all Kakhyen houses, it was an oblong bamboo structure, with closely matted sides, raised on piles three feet from the ground. The roof thatched with grass sloped to within four feet from the ground ; the eaves, propped by bamboo posts, formed a portico, used as a stable at night for ponies, pigs, and fowls, and as a general lounge by day. Notched logs served as stairs to ascend to the doorway in the gable end. On one side of the interior was a common hall, running the whole length of the building. On the other was a series of small rooms, divided from each other by bamboo partitions ; a second doorway or opening at the further end was, as we afterwards learned, reserved for the use of members of the family, or household, none others being allowed to enter thereby, on j)ain of offence to the household nats. Chimneys and windows there were none, and the walls and roofs were blackened with smoke. In the common hall and in each room there was an open hearth sunk a little below the flooring, the closely laid bamboo work being covered with a layer of hard-pressed earth.

Only a portion of the baggage mules had arrived, and the bedding of several members of the party was among the missing property. Rumours were also afloat that robbers had succeeded in driving off

FIEST NIGHT IN THE HILLS. 73

eight mules, if not more, and altogether the first night in Kakliyen land seemed to some of the party inauspicious ; but we made the best of it, and, having taken possession of our strange quarters, were pre- sently joined by Williams, who had been detained taking the altitudes. He contributed the news that after leaving Talone a shot had been fired at Sala, who was in front of him. We strolled out in the pleasant night air, and admired an animated group of fair Kakhyens, busily pounding rice by moonlight. The paddy was placed in a rude mortar, or rather a cavity hollowed out in a log, and two girls stood opposite each other wielding heavy poles, four feet long. These were plied alternately, the heavy dull thud of the pestle forming a bass to the treble of a low musical cry, emitted at each stroke by the fair operators, while their bell girdles tinkled a pleasant accompaniment. These girdles marked their rank, only the daughters of chiefs being allowed to wear these musical ornaments.

An old woman beckoned Sladen to follow her, and conducted him to a house, which proved to be that of Sala, who received him most hospitably, making him share his carpet, while his guide, the tsawbwa's wife, and her family brought successive relays of bamboo buckets, filled with sheroo, or Kakhyen beer.

At last, having divided what bedding there was, we settled ourselves to sleep, leaving it for the morrow to confirm or dissipate the fears excited by the non-arrival of guard, cash-chest, and baggage.

74 KAKHYEN HILLS.

Our slumbers were, however, disturbed by loud shouts, repeated from height to height, wliich seemed to be the "All's well!" of native guards, posted round the village to watch over our safety.

In the morning a large capon and a supply of beer arrived, as a present from the chieftainess, and later on she herself with her daughters and retinue came in state. She was a short matronly-looking woman, with an intelligent expression of countenance and good features, but for her high cheek-bones and slightly Chinese eyes. Her costume was of course the perfection of highland full dress, and, though singular, by no means unbecoming. The headdress was the most striking part of it, consisting of blue cloth, wound round and round in a sort of turban, so as to form an inverted cone, towering at least eighteen inches above her head. Her upper garment was a sleeveless black velvet jacket, ornamented with a row of large embossed silver buttons running round the neck and continued down the front ; besides these, circular plates of chased and enamelled silver, three inches in diameter, arranged in rows down the front and back seams and around the skirt, made the garment almost resemble a cuirass. The dress was completed by a single kilt-like petticoat, composed of a dark blue cotton cloth, with a broad red woollen border, wound round the hips, and reach- ing a little below the knee. One end was tastefully worked with deep silken embroidery, and carefully disposed, so as to hang gracefully on one side. A

T lo

I'rtllllJe

i'.'.'killCr

I tturse

ran, so at least SaimeLt lied wilt mniiiiig front; miM D rows e skirt, !. Tte tticoat, iliwad dreadi"

'*>'V '•

intelli|0'ent expression

high cheek-bones and

cone, tOA^

rniimrio-

1 reach- .w the ' end was tastefully

'ivou ciiibioidery, and carefully iKjiig gracefully on one side. ^

KAKHYEN WOMEN.

To face page 74.

THE TSAWBWA-GADAW. 75

profusion of fine ratan girdles round the waist sup- ported the kilt and filled up the void between it and the jacket ; and, by way of stockings, a close-fitting series of black ratan rings encircled her legs below the knee. Her rank was marked by two large silver hoops round her neck, and a necklace of short cylinders of some red clayey material, intermixed with amber and ivory beads. These cumbrous ornaments are permitted only to the wives and daughters of tsawbwas and pawmines. Two silver bracelets on each arm, and long silver tubes worn in the lobes of the ears, completed her splendour. Her little daughters, besides the distinctive girdles of black beads, and silver bells, each containing a small free pellet, which tinkled pleasantly to every motion of the wearer, wore broad waist-belts ornamented with several rows of cowrie shells. Our visitor brought us goose eggs and sheroo, and apologised for not having more to offer, but promised to send us every day something to eat. Her goodwill was rewarded by presents of silk handkerchiefs and red cloth, and a gorgeous table-cloth, the splendour of which and her joy, when Sladen presented it to her, left her perfectly speechless.

During the day the missing mules and baggage began to arrive, the drivers having camped for the night at various places in the neighbourhood, and early in the afternoon the guard marched in, but without the cash-chest. The jemadar reported that he had remained in charge of it at Talone, where he

76 KAKHYEN HILLS.

had been obliged to leave it, together with the miss- ing eight mules and their loads. The tsawbwa, who with his people- and the Chinese interpreter, Moiing Shuay Yah, had spent the night in driid^ing, refused to let either cash-chest or baggage proceed. The guard had been unable to obtain any food till before starting this morning, and one of the sepoys who had rashly indulged in excessive draughts of water had been seized with sickness, and died in two hours. On the receipt of this news of the unaccountable conduct of the Talone chief and Moung Shuay Yah, Sala despatched his own son with positive orders for the instant release of the porters and drivers, and pending their arrival, we sallied forth to view the village and its surroundings. The houses were situated at short distances from each other in a deep hollow, thickly wooded with magnificent oaks and a few palms (Corypha), and very fine screw-pines, or pandani, one fallen stem of the former being fully sixty feet in length. Immediately over the village towered a bold rounded summit of the main range two thousand feet al)Ove us, halfway up the side of wliich a large conical Khakyen grave formed a prominent object ; in shape it so strongly resembled a Burmese pagoda as to suggest an imitation. In the village very fine plantains were cultivated, and the sides of the spurs below were extensively cleared for rice and other crops. From the ground behind the tsawbwa's house, we obtained a splendid view of the lofty hills on the southern side of the Tapeng valley.

A DEATH DANCE. 77

many of which appeared to rise to a height of six thousand feet ahove the river, cultivated and dotted with villages almost to the very summits.

In the course of our ramble we were attracted to one house by the sound of drumming ; outside the portico, some men were sitting cooking chickens, which had been merely stripped of their feathers, but not otherwise cleaned. Having asked and obtained permission, we entered the common hall, round which men, women, and children were dancing, each carrying a small stick, with which they beat time, as they circled round with measured steps, curiously combining a prance and a side shuffle. The instrumentalists were a man and a girl, who vigorously beat a pair of drums, while ever and anon the dancers burst out into loud yells, and quickened the speed of their evolutions. We at first sat gravely on the logs, brought by a smiling girl, but were presently invited by signs to take our places in the dance ; accordingly we stood up and went round, but had scarcely taken two turns when the whole party rushed, yelling loudly, out of the house, the leader flourishing his stick wildly, as though clearing the way. Much puzzled, we re- turned into the house, and found the corpse of a child, laid in a corner carefully screened off, and the poor mother wailing bitterly by its side. The festivity turned out to be the death-dance, to drive away the departed spirit from hovering near its late tenement, and our exertions were believed to

78 KAKHYEN HILLS.

have mainly contributed to tlie speedy and happy result ; so at least we were made to understand by our hosts, who hastened to refresh us with sheroo, served in cups ingeniously improvised out of plan- tain leaves. We paid our footing in silver, and departed with a feeling that even the entente cordiale we desired to establish with the Kakhyens hardly demanded an active participation in death-dances.

The next day Sala's son arrived with the cash- chest and the missing mules from Talone ; but the boxes had been opened, Sladen and Bowers had each lost a canteen, well stocked with knives and forks, and the mule-men had further helped themselves to all eatables. They had, however, shown a laudable consideration, for in one of Stewart's cases was a bottle of port wine, which they had opened by pushing in the cork ; not relishing the contents, they h;id carefully cut and fixed in a wooden stopper to prevent waste !

Sladen assembled Sala and the other chiefs, and distributed salt, cloth, and some yellow silk hand- kerchiefs, which were highly prized. Sala delivered a public exhortation, enjoining fidelity on all; in private he communicated the necessity of propitiating the nats, and requested our attendance at a ceremony which was to take place that night, for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the demons, by the medium of a raceticay, or diviner.

Accordingly after dinner we all adjourned to the hall of the tsawbwa's new house, and, reclining on

TPIE DIVINATION. 79

mats brought Ly his wife, chatted for some time with the chiefs and headmen assembled round the fire.

The meetway now entered, and seated himself on a small stool, in one corner, which had been freshly sprinkled with water ; he then blew through a small tube, and, throwing it from him with a deep groan, at once fell into an extraordinary state of tremor, every limb quivered, and his feet beat a literal " devil's tattoo " on the bamboo flooring. He groaned as if in pain, tore his hair, passed his hands with maniacal gestures over his head and face, then broke into a short wild chant interrui3ted with sio:hs and groans, his features appearing distorted with madness or rage, while the tones of his voice changed to an ex- pression of anger and fury. During this extraordinary scene, which realised all one had read of demoniacal possession, the tsawbwa and his pawmines occasion- ally addressed him in low tones, as if soothing him or deprecating the anger of the dominant spirit ; and at last the tsawbwa informed Sladen that the nats must be appeased with an offering. Fifteen rupees and some cloth were produced'. The silver, on a bamboo sprinkled with water, and the cloth, on a platter of plantain leaves, were humbly laid at the diviner's feet ; but with one convulsive jerk of the legs, rupees and cloth were instantly kicked away, and the medium by increased convulsions and groans intimated the dissatisfaction of the nats with the offering. The tsawbwa in vain supplicated for its acceptance, and then signified to Sladen that more

80 KAKHYEN HILLS.

rupees were required, and that the nats mentioned sixty as the propitiatory sum. Sladen tendered five more with an assurance that no more would be given. The amended offering was again, but more gently, pushed away, of which no notice was taken. After another quarter of an hour, during which the convulsions and groans gradually grew less violent, a dried leaf rolled into a cone, and filled with rice, was handed to the meetway. He raised it to his forehead several times, and then threw it on the floor ; a dah, which had been carefully washed, was next handed to him and treated the same way, and after a few gentle sighs he rose from his seat, and, laughing, signed us to look at his legs and arms, which were very tired. The oracle was in our favour, and predictions of all manner of success were interpreted to us as the utterances of the inspired diviner.

It must not be supposed that this was a solemn farce, enacted to conjure rupees out of European pockets ; the Kakhyens never undertake any business or journey without consulting the will of the nats as revealed by a meetway, under the influence of temporary frenzy, or, as they deem it, possession. The seer in ordinary life is nothing ; the medium on whose word hung the possibility of our advance was a cooly, who carried one of our boxes on the march, but he was a duly qualified meetway, belonging to Ponsee village. When a youth shows signs of what spiritualists would call a " rapport " or connection

A MEETWAY. 81

with the spirit world, he has to undergo a suffi- ciently trying ordeal to test the reality of his powers. A ladder is prepared, the steps of which consist of sword blades, with the sharp edges turned upwards, and this is reared against a platform thickly set with sharp spikes. The barefooted novice ascends this perilous path to fame, and seats himself on the spikes without any apparent inconvenience; he then descends by the same ladder, and if, after having been care- fully examined, he is pronounced free from any trace of injury, he is thenceforward accepted as a true diviner. Sala improved the occasion by warning Sladen that a powerful combination had been formed to oppose our advance, and that many evil reports had been circulated, but concluded by saying that a liberal expenditure of silver would remove many, if not all, obstacles. The practical application of this was made next morning. When all was ready for a start, the tsawbwa would not appear : Sladen paid him a visit, and was informed that six hundred rupees must be paid nominally as an advance for the mule-men, or else he had better go back. This extortionate demand was reduced after some debate to three hundred, which were paid, and then an additional sum of three hundred rupees was demanded for the carriage of the troublesome and tempting cash-chest. An offer of one rupee per diem each to twenty bearers was refused, and we then decided to divide the cash into parcels of three hundred rupees to be carried by the men of the escort. By this means

G

82 KAKHYEN HILLS.

the liability to continual " squeezes " on the part of the cliiefs, or robbery by the porters, was avoided. At length we set out from Ponline, and, after pro- ceeding a mile over an easy road along the high ground, commenced the descent to the gorge, down which, fifteen hundred feet below, the Nampoung flowed into the Tapeng, dividing the hills into two parallel ridges. The descent, at first easy, gradually became steeper, and at length precipitous ; the path was cut into zigzags, but as slightly deviating from the straight line as the steepness of the declivity allowed. The weathered and disintegrated surface of metamorphic rock had been worn down by traffic and torrents, so that it often was a deep V shaped groove with but nine or ten inches of footway, and the loaded mules found it difficult to round the abrupt turns in these deep cuttings ; huge boulders, stones, and sharp-pointed masses of exposed quartz, made the travelling still more hurtful and dangerous to man and beast. The beds of the streams were filled with fine granite, and in the largest water-, course crossed, a small section was observed, showing a mass of greyish micaceous schist, with large veins of quartz ; it was tilted up vertically, and there were distinct indications of bedding in a nearly north and south direction. The Nampoung, whose source lies among the hills to the north-east, is the limit between the districts of Ponline and Ponsee, and was formerly, and must be considered still, the boundary between Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan, the

A DANGEROUS ROAD. 83

ruined frontier fort being pointed out on a lieight commanding the ford. We forded the Nampoung on our ponies, where the stream was a hundred feet wide, and three feet deep. The beasts could scarcely stem the rapid current, which in the event of a fall would have soon swept horse and rider into the foaming Tapeng. The road wound up the face of a precipice, below which the Tapeng rushed down a succession of rapids, with a deafening roar, and a force which nothing could resist, save tlie pro- digious masses of granite which encumbered its bed, while others leaned from the banks as if ready to topple into the raging torrent.

The occasional glimpses of the distant landscape were glorious ; on either hand hills towered up into mountains, and range succeeded range, till lost in the blue distance. Our enjoyment of the grandeur of the mountain scenery was, however, somewhat marred by the difficulty of the path, which com- pelled us frequently to dismount, and let the goat- like ponies scramble as best they could up the deep narrow cuttings. The road contoured the hillside, cut into the face of the rock for some ten feet, pre- senting every now and again turnings at a sharp angle. On the verge of a precipice of one thousand feet deep, the outer edge gave way under the hind hoofs of Williams' pony, and he was only saved from destruction by the pony recovering itself with a vigorous eifort. Kakhyen roads seem to be purposely designed with a view to reaching the liighest points

G 2

84 KAKHYEN HILLS.

on the given route, and after leaving the river banks, we thus ascended and descended over a suc- cession of lofty spurs abutting on the river from the main range ; precipitous ridges, connecting them at right angles, presented tolerably level ground, but with a surface so confined that the traveller looked down into the deep gorges on both sides. Patches of rich loamy soil in the valleys, and on the slopes of the spurs, were cleared for paddy, and in each clear- ing a small thatched hut raised on poles served as a watch-tower. Near some of the villages perched on heights, limited efforts at terrace cultivation were visible, and in one place a small stream had been diverted for irrigation. Magnificent screw pines and large tree ferns displayed their exquisite foliage, relieved by the blossoms of various flowering trees.

By two o'clock the baggage mules were so jaded that, although we had not made more than eight or ten miles, it became necessary to halt in the jungle. Behind our bivouac towered an enormous shoulder of the mountains, rising four thousand feet above us, and called Lakong. The air was genial and tempe- rate, the thermometer marking sixty-three at 9 p.m., and, with our lamps strung up on bamboos, our followers and servants surrounding the bivouac, we dined and slept comfortably and securely al fresco, while the drivers picketed their mules above and below. Close to our camp were some old Kakhyen burial-places on a rounded hill. Each consisted of a circular trench, thirty- eight feet in diameter, and

AREIVAL AT PONSEE. 85

about two feet deep, siirroiuidiiig a low mound, con- taining only one body. The high conical thatched roof which covered newer graves, elsewhere observed, had disappeared, but some of the bamboo supports were still standing. The trenches of some other graves were built round with slabs of stone, the form of the grave and manner of interment reminding one involuntarily of the megalithic burial structures. Before resuming our march to Ponsee, Sala inti- mated that caution would be required, as the Ponsee tsawbwa was very indignant at not having received the desired musket. The nats also had signified through the meetway that before starting the guard should fire a volley, and the tsawbwa added a re- commendation to use double charges of powder, so that the nats might be doubly pleased. The road lay along tolerably easy ground, as we were now almost on a level with the origin of the main spurs, and by noon of ]\Iarch 6th we had reached the village of Ponsee, three thousand one hundred and eighty-seven feet above the sea-level, and forty-three miles from Bhamo. As the tsawbwa did not appear, and had made no preparation to house our party, the camp was pitched under a clump of bamboos, in a hollow below the village. Ponsee, with its twenty scattered houses, and terraced slopes of cultivated ground, occupied one side of a mountain clothed to its summit, two thousand feet above, with dense jungle and forest, save where clearings betokened the vicinity of other villages far above us.

KAKHYEN HILLS.

Our muleteers dispersed themselves and their mules on the upper terrace of a tumulus-shaped knoll overlooking the road, and cultivated on one side in a succession of regular and equidistant terraces. In the afternoon we were visited by a pawmine, accom- panied by his wife and several female relatives, who brought presents of sheroo and vegetables. One of the young ladies was inclined to be merry and com- municative, in order to attract attention and secure a present of beads. Although she was a wife, her hair was cut straight across her forehead, and hung down behind in dishevelled locks, uncovered by the headdress which Kakhyen wives wear. An offer of a puggery to supply the defect was received with a peal of laughter, at which the pawmine seemed startled and scandalised, and he reproved his fair cousin in a way that caused her to shrink into abashed silence. During the evening the dangerous temper of the Kakhyen was shown by an unprovoked attack made by one of the Ponsee tsawbwa's followers upon a Burmese servant, but Sala promptly inter- fered to protect our man, and declared that he would resent an insult offered to any of our people as if offered to himself. Thus, as in other matters, he so far showed himself honest, though his constant demands for money began to make the leader think his friendship might be too dearly purchased.

FIRST NIGHT AT PON SEE. 87

CHAPTER IV.

POXSEE CAMP.

Desertion of the muleteers — Our encampment — Visit of hill chiefs — Sala's demands — A mountain excursion — Messengers from Momien

— Shans refuse presents — Stopi^age of supplies — Ill-feeling — Tsawbwa of Seray — St. Patrick's Day — Eetreat of Sala — The paw- miues of Ponsee — A biuial-ground — Visit to the Tapeng — The silver mines — Approach of the rains — Hostility of Ponsee — Thi'eatened attack — Eeconciliation — A false start — Letters &'om Momien — A hailstorm — Circular to the members of the mission

— Beads and belles — Friendly relations with Kakhyens — Their importance.

Ox the first night of our sojourn at Ponsee, we were roused from our beds in the open air by a violent thunderstorm, which threatened a drenching, but fortunately let us off with only a few heavy drops. One of the party drew his bed under a small thatched shed close by, and slept soundly, to awake in the morning and find that he had shared his shelter with a deceased Kakhyen, on whose grave he had been reposing. At an early hour, Sala came to inform Sladen that a small army of Shans and Kakhyens had collected to oppose our progress, but that two thousand rupees might purchase their goodwill. When informed that the disposable funds

PONSEE CAMP.

would not admit of such costly travelling, he signi- ficantly remarked that the Panthays were rich, and would be glad to assist us. This obstacle might -be imaginary, lait a most real difficulty left us no time to reflect on it, for instead of preparing for a start, the muleteers, without a word of complaint, or indeed any communication with us, proceeded to unpack their loads, flinging all the baggage on the ground. I went to look after my boxes, but was warned off by a Kakhyen, who flourished his dah, and worked himself up into such a fury that retreat appeared the wisest course. In a short time the mules and drivers marched away, taking the road to Manwyne, leaving us and our baggage destitute of any means of transit. A few beasts remained, belonging to Ponline, but too few to be taken into account. Here was an unexpected dilemma, such as would have delighted Sir Samuel Baker, who says he "finds pleasure in a downright fix." Sladen set off to find out, if possible, the meaning of it all from Sala, who was seated comfortably drunk in the chief's house. He declared that the muleteers had been influenced by messages from the Shan tsawbwas of Sanda and Muangla, threatening them with death if they brought us on. He advised threats of exclusion of the Shans from the Burmese fairs by way of reprisals, but Sladen indignantly told him that he came to promote peace, and not dissension, and that he would write conciliatory letters, explaining the object of the ex- pedition to those chiefs who had been misled. There-

i

i)een last se oard of at Ponlinc. It a]

tliat this liait Ch

he rov

III: I'.' 1

'•o info t1i

ttched with leaves and grass 'liar camp was

DESERTION OF THE MULETEERS. 89

upon Sala grew confidential, and let out what certainly seemed the truth, in vino Veritas, about our missing interpreter Moung Shuay Yah, who had been last seen or heard of at Ponline. It appeared that this half Chinese scoundrel had finally en- deavoured to persuade Sala, and on his refusal the Talone tsawbwa, to murder Sladen and plunder the cash-chest. Thwarted in his villainous projects, he had returned to Bhamo, of which latter fact confir- mation was afforded a few days later. Matters looked unpromising ; it was whispered that the muleteers had become aware that our detention at Ponsee was certain, and were unwilling to hazard a delay, the profits of which would go into the greedy pockets of the Ponline chief. Besides the dark aspect of affairs, the natural atmosphere was overcast, heavy clouds presaging storm, and to be prepared against all con- sequences, we removed our quarters to the plateau vacated by the muleteers, where the three sepoy palls, or small tents, accommodated the Europeans, while the sepoys and followers set to work to con- struct bamboo tents, thatched with leaves and grass for their protection, and speedily a regular camp was established in a favourable position. Sala showed himself in a new light, later on in the day, when he came down very drunk, and dressed in a yellow silk cloth which he had stolen from Sladen's servant. He was at first inconveniently affectionate, and, seizing Sladen by both hands, vowed eternal friend- ship ; he then grew inquisitive about our rifles and

90 PONSEE CAMP.

revolvers, and required Sladen to show his marks- manship by splitting a bamboo forty yards off. A refusal to gratify him changed him at once into a violent savage, pouring out a flood of the foulest abuse in Burmese. With tact and patience, he was re- strained from violence, but the real treacherous nature of the animal had shown itself unmistakably. He finally assured Sladen that he might make up his mind not to quit Ponsee until he had paid two bushels of rupees. More agreeable visitors arrived, iu the persons of the Kakhyen chiefs of Nyoungen, Wacheoon, and Ponwah, small hill districts on the road to Manwyne. These tsawbwas all brought presents of fowls and rice, for which they received cloth as a return. The chief of Ponwah was a wiry little highlander, with oblique eyes, and strongly marked features of a Tartar type, adorned with two scanty tufts by way of moustache, and a sparse beard carefully restricted to the front of his chin . His dress was different from that of the other tsawbwas, and argued a higher social condition. It consisted of a blue turban, blue padded woollen jacket, a kilt of the same material and colour, with a red and blue border, finished off with richly embroidered leggings, and short blue woollen hose with thick soles. A leopard's fang adorned his dah, and a cloth bag contained his metal pipe and bamboo flask of samshu, which frequently found its way to his thirsty lips ; before each draught he dipped his finger into the liquor, and poured a few drops on the ground as a libation to the earth nats.

VISIT OF HILL CHIEFS. 91

The mother of the young Ponsee tsawbwa also came down, attended by a number of girls, bringing sheroo, or beer, cooked rice, eggs, and vegetables. Beads were distributed, but they begged for rupees ; and a few four-anna pieces hardly contented them. One of us gallantly presented an importunate damsel with a pretty little bottle of perfume, and to make her appreciate it, poured a little on her hand, and signed to her to rub it on her face, but having done so, she evinced her disgust by wry faces, spitting at and abusing the donor, as though he had insulted her, to his extreme confusion.

The day of anxiety was followed by a night of rain and storm. Heavy gusts of wind, sweeping down the lofty shou.lder of the mountain, threatened to carry away the light tents, and it required all our efforts to prevent this catastrophe by holding stoutly on to the tent poles. The interior was of course inundated, and beds and bedding saturated with water, but some of the followers were worse off, having no shelter of any sort. Our troubles, however, were only begin- ning. The Nanlyaw tamone,* who had been ordered to accompany us as interpreter, and had failed to do so, arrived with orders from the Woon of Bhamo to the tsawbwas of Ponsee and Ponline to repair at once to Bhamo, and assist in an inquiry about reopen- ing the silver mines. The message and the messenger were both suspicious, and some obstructive influence speedily showed itself. A demand was set up for three * Tamone, .a r.urmcsc licadmau of a village.

92 PONSEE CAMP.

hundred rupees, compensation for five houses said to have been destroyed by a jungle fire, originating in the embers of our camp-fire at Lakong. Sala evidently thought that any demands would be complied with to prevent his deserting us, and talked much about the imperative orders of the governor. By way of relief from the discussion, we made an excursion up the mountain to a height about six hundred feet above our camp, whence a splendid panorama unrolled itself of the Burmese plain as far as Bhamo, and the junction of the Tapeng with the majestic Irawady. We passed numerous oaks, and a grove of trees bearing nuts exactly like our own hazels. At the highest point reached, a Kakhyen village was found, snugly nestled in a beautifully cool hollow, with a small stream flowing down the hillside.

Our appearance startled three women, proceeding to fill the bamboos, which serve as water pitchers, carried in a wicker basket at the back ; they darted into a hollow below the road, and, turning their backs to us, waited till we had passed by. A thousand feet below us, a deep ravine resounded with the cry of hoolock monkeys, howling at the full pitch of their voices. Shooting, either for sport or purposes of science, was rendered extremely difticult by the dense jungle and the steep sides of the deep gorges, where the birds are mostly found, for a bird, when shot, dropped down a steep declivity, into long grass or tangled shrub, where search was useless.

On our return, a cock and hen partridge, of a new

SALA'S DEMANDS. 93

species, belonging to the genus Bambnsicola, were shot in the cleared ground, and in the woods the cry of an oriole was often heard, but the Ijirds were invisible. Descending by another route, passing the rice clearings, where wild strawberries carpeted the ground with flowers and fruit, and two sorts of violets and various brambles were also in flower, we reached the camp, and were soon plunged again into deljate with Sala. The fellow was sulky and angry, demanding six hundred rupees blackmail, and three hundred as compensation for the village fire, threatening as an alternative to leave us to " be lost in the hills and never more heard of." Sladen temperately refused to submit to such extortionate demands, but, to prove his friendly intentions, offered to compensate for any actual damage, and to send presents to the chiefs en route. His arguments had such an effect on Sala that he was content to ask for one hundred rupees to settle the " fire."

At this stage of the interview all were surprised by the sudden appearance on the scene of three strangers, dressed in gorgeous Chinese costume, and attended by half a dozen others ; two of their faces were familiar, and they saluted Sladen vdih. an air of recognition, but Sala and he were at first equally puzzled as to their identity. The two foremost were arrayed in blue satin skull caps embroidered with gold, padded and embroidered jackets of fine blue cloth, and wide trousers of yellow silk. They wore new broad cane hats and gold embroidered Chinese

94 PONSEE CAMP.

shoes. The hilts of their dahs were each enriched with half the lower jaw of a leopard, and suspended from their button-holes was a decoration consisting of a pink and Llue square of cloth, with a cipher em- 1 )roidered in the corner. This was full dress Panthay uniform, which one of them proceeded to divest himself of, and exhibited his ragged Kakhyen garb underneath, and then Sladen recognised Lawloo, the scout despatched by him from Bhamo to the governor of Momien. He produced, carefully rolled up, a packet addressed in Arabic on a strip of red paper, which contained an envelope stamped with Chinese hieroglyphics in red, and a letter written in Arabic, and stamped with Chinese devices in red and blue ; attached to this was another letter in Chinese. The latter no one could read, and a combined attempt made by the native doctor and the jemadar to decipher the former also failed, but Lawloo assured us that the governor of Momien was most friendly. He had received the messengers with all respect, and had equipped them in the gorgeous dresses which had disguised them from our recognition. He had also sent with them Shatoodoo, an officer in the Mahommedan service, a tall, fair-skinned, well-built man, dressed in blue uniform, with a fine intelligent face and the quiet self-possession of a well-bred gentleman. Our couriers, men belong- ing to the Cowlie tribe, bore their new honours with great composure ; they completely ignored the presence of the Pod line tswabwa, while they told of

MESSENGERS FROM MOMIEN. 95

their kindly reception, and explained the purport of the letters. The governor had expected us hy the " amhassadors' " route, which leads from Bhamo into Hotha, where he had arranged to meet us. They said we were not to advance at present via Manwyne, unless we were strong enough to fight our way past Mawphoo fort, the stronghold of Li-sieh-tai. The messengers, on their return, though conspicuous by their Panthay uniform, had travelled openly and unmolested through the Shan states, which had been declared to be hostile to our advance. The immediate effect was to cause Sala and the paw- mines to withdraw from our tents, which was a great relief, as they had infested them, squatting on the beds for hours together, smoking, and chewing tobacco and betel, while any remonstrance was at once replied to with an angry scowl and a flourish of the naked dah. But the peace did not last long. The tsawbwa soon recommenced his demands, and day after day the fire question was discussed, and terms of settlement agreed upon, only to be insolently repudiated on the first occasion.

The next day more practical preparations for opening the route were made by the despatch of letters and presents to the Kakhyen chief of Seray, and to the Shan chiefs or headmen of Manwyne and Manhleo. Two of the Ponline pawmines and the interpreter Moung Mo, the tamone of Hentha village, whose services and goodwill we had secured, went in charge of the presents, and Sladen's Burmese

96 PONSEE CAMP.

writer was also sent, by way of check on the })awmines. They returned in a few days with the presents, which the chiefs had decUned to accept, as the tsawhwa of Sanda had refused his consent to our passage, and the Manwyne people, though favourably disposed, were afraid of the poogain, or headman, of Manhleo, a town situated on the south bank of the Tapeng, opposite Manwyne. This official was an inveterate enemy of the Panthays, and a few years before had massacred a Panthay caravan of peaceful merchants. The character and intentions of the expedition had been so misrepre- sented by the Chinese traders at Bhamo that the Shans were naturally indisposed to run any risks from our presence among them.

The refusal of the presents caused Sala to raise his demands ; " all the people, Burmese, Chinese, and Shans," he declared, were leagued against us, and if we did not secure his protection, we should have our heads cut off. This was his usual argument, illus- trated by holding an imaginary head with liis left hand, and making the motion of sawing at the supposed neck with his right.

A more practical result of the secret opposition was the stoppage of supplies. Soon after our arrival the Shans from the Manwyne district had discovered that there was a sure market for their provisions, and a regular bazaar had been established in our lines. Kakhyen villagers as well as Shans brought in fowls, rice, salt, vegetables, &c., and competition

ILL-FEELING. 97

had kept prices down ; empty Ijeer bottles were found to be highly prized, and one bottle was worth twelve measures of rice. Among other things, the Manwyne Shans brought in sugar candy, and preserved milk in the form of thin cakes of paste like a film of coagulated cream, which placed in a cup of water over night supplied a cup of excellent milk in the morning. The method of preparation we could not learn, but the result was undeniably successful. The attendance of Shans, however, fell off, owing to the ill-usage received by many of them from the Kal^hyens, who helped themselves to their goods, and paid them with abuse and blows. Hence supplies fell short, and prices rose accordingly, and it became unsafe moreover to wander for any distance from the camp. On one occasion one of us was tempted to indulge in a bath in the small stream which flowed immediately Ijelow. There was a most perfect douche, where the water leapt over a huge boulder, embowered in gigantic bamboos and splendid ferns, as though contrived for the secret bath of a Kakhyen sylvan nymph : but the unhappy European invader was scarcely in full enjoyment of the refreshing douche than he was saluted with a shower of stones and broken branches from some villagers who had watched him. This was a ludicrous side of popular hostility, but as the " fire " question continued to be discussed, al- most daily warnings were brought to us that ill-disposed Kakhyons were collected on the lieights

H

98 PONSEE CAMP.

above, intending to attack the camp under cover of

night.

A sKght change in affairs was effected by the arrival of the tsawbwa of Seray, a village four miles distant, who made his appearance on the 13th, at- tended by his pawmines and a numerous retinue. He was a rather short stout man of about forty-five, dressed in blue from turban to shoes ; his manner was serious and respectful, and his remarks sensible, but evincing great curiosity about all the novelties that presented themselves. When he found leisure to discuss business matters, he asked us the particulars of the fire question, saying that if it were settled, he would undertake to guide us by a hill route to Momien, so as to avoid the necessity of passing through Sanda. Sladen explained to him that though the fire question had been settled three times^ he would now submit it finally to his arbitration, and the demand, which had risen to five hundred rupees, was by his award satisfied by a promise of two hundred and sixty. Notwithstanding this settle- ment, that evening both the tsawbwas came down to request us to keep fires burning, and maintain a careful watch all night, as over a hundred men had collected on the hillside commanding the camp, intending to try their chance in a night attack, according to their usual tactics. Sala had en- deavoured, he said, to dissuade them, and had finally told them he would look on while they were shot down by our men. The night, however.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY. 99

passed off more quietly than the days, which were occupied in ceaseless discussions ; the question of mule hire being again in debate. Sala brought forward the preposterous demand of twenty rupees a piece for one hundred and sixty mules, those, namely, whose owners had deserted at this place. This demand was supported by fictitious tallies, and his disgust at finding we had kept an accurate account was great, while his fury at the laughter with which his attempts at extortion were met found vent in the usual pantomimic prophecy of our decapi- tation. The party of tsawbwas was increased by the arrival of the chief of Wacheoon, who brought a present of rice and sheroo ; the object of his visit being to make the pertinent inquiry as to what still detained us at Ponsee.

On St. Patrick's Day, matters came to a crisis. All the morning the tsawbwas and pawmines were assembled in our tent, arguing about the mule hire ; even the respectable chief of Seray had caught the in- fection of covetousness, and demanded twenty rupees a mule for a journey of a few hours. The Seray chief was attended by a Chinaman who had been in his employment from his youth, and now acted as his chief trader. He had interpreted the Momien letters, and seemed to desire to be useful, but it was plain that he regarded the expedition as a military one, designed to assist the Panthays. He declared that the Sanda people were willing to receive us, but were restrained by fear of Li-sieh-tai. Sladen offered

II 2

100 PONSEE CAMP.

five hundred rupees, in addition to the money ah-eady paid, for sufficient carriage to Manwyne, where he would await the answer to his letters des- patched the day before by the former messengers to Momien and to the tsawbwa of Sanda, as he was determined not to advance without the full consent of all the Shan chiefs. He then, by a happy thought, recounted to the assembled tsawbwas the sums of money and presents that the arch robber Sala had received from him for distribution. At this startling revelation, the chief of Ponsee was evidently exas- perated, and a storm was brewing, when suddenly a shot was fired from a house on the hill above us, and a bullet, or slug, whizzed over the tent in which we were sitting, and presently another struck the head of a camp cot inside. All were naturally startled, but no one believed the first shot to have been intentionally aimed until the second was fired after the lapse of a few minutes. Sala and the pawmines sprang out, and vociferated frantically to the people in the village above. The chief of Seray sat silent, and presently announced that he should return to his own home, and the meeting was forthwith dissolved.

True to his word, the Seray chief departed the next day, leaving the message that he would return as soon as we were rid of Ponline ; and the next news was that the Ponsee chief had threatened Sala with instant vengeance, and that our friend and protector had decamped to his own village, taking

THE PAVVMINES OF PONSEE. 101

with him all the presents entrusted to him for the officials of Manwyne, &c., and forcibly carrying off our Burmese interpreter Moung Mo.

The tsawbwa and pawmiiies of Ponsee, who now came to the front, as self-appointed arbiters of our destinies, so far as progress was concerned, have not yet been introduced.

The tsawbwa was a youth of eighteen, who possessed no influence. What natural intelligence he might possess was obscured by his habits of con- tinual intoxication and debauchery, in company with a number of " fast " young Kakhyens. He had hitherto preserved a sort of sullen neutrality, occa- sionally, however, conveying to us useful warnings, but acting neither for nor against us. The real power seemed to be exercised by his pawmines, four brothers who had generally shown themselves friendly. The eldest was a good-for-nothing merry- andrew, in a chronic state of intoxication. The next in age was a quiet, sensible man, who seemed fully to appreciate the advantages that would accrue to his people from the reopening of the trade between Yunnan and Burma, and he frequently declared that he was ready to give us all the help in his power. He was nicknamed l)y us the " Red Paw- mine ; " and his next brother and constant com- panion, a little spare man, with high cheek-l)ones, deeply sunken eyes, and features sharpened and worn by bad health, was appropriately styled " Death's Head."" He was l>v far the airiest. l>ut his

102 PONSEE CAMP.

quick, nervous temperament and violent temper ren- dered him a difficult man to deal with. The youngest, as excitable, but far less intelligent, was regarded with jealous eyes by his three elder brothers.

The young tsawbwa for about a week subsequent to Sala's departure professed himself our friend, and a few days of tranquil and almost patient expectation ensued, during which we endeavoured to extend our acquaintance with the hill country about us, of which we had as yet been able to see no more than the outskirts of our camp or rather prison.

Accordingly, Stewart and I started on our ponies to ascend the mountain, taking Deen Mahomed as interpreter and a native boy to act as guide. No sooner had the party passed the tsawbwa's house than a hue and cry was raised by one of the paw- mines, who shouted orders to the lad to return at once. Disregarding the outcry, we pushed on along a narrow bridle-path, but were delayed by the obsti- nacy of a pony who declined to face a difficult bit of road, and the villagers overtaking us, the guide was dragged away by the pawmine. The tsawbwa was appealed to, but he declared that it was not safe to go up, as there was a village of " bad Kakhyens " on the mountain, and Deen Mahomed was warned with gesture symbolical of throat-cutting of what would happen to him if he got another guide. We consoled ourselves for this failure by a visit to a Ijurial-ground, on the top of a thickly wooded height, which lay to the east of the camp. The path

A VISIT TO THI<: TAPENG. 103

leading to it was sprinkled at intervals with ground rice, as an offering to the nats, and on two of the graves, which were quite recent, lay a little tobacco and a small cylindrical box containing chillies, while outside the surrounding trench the skull of a pig, with some more tobacco, had been placed. The conical roof of bamboos and grass was decorated with a finial of wood cut into two flag-like arms, painted with rosettes in black and red, which ridiculously resembled guide-posts.

The tsawbwa proved more obliging a day or two afterwards, when a request was sent to him for a guide to conduct us to the Tapeng river. The path led along the saddle of the long spurs running down to the valley, and the climate as we descended changed from temperate to tropical ; the upper forest consisted of oaks, cherry, apple, and peach trees, especially in a magnificently wooded glen, while a large mountain stream made its way over a rocky channel, forming at one place a splendid waterfall over a perpendicular cliff of gneiss. Along the tops of the fruit trees a large troop of monkeys {Pi^esbytis albocinerew<) were leisurely wandering.

In descending we could only keep our footing by clutching at the overhanging branches, as our feet slipped on the fallen leaves and bamboo spathes which lay heaped in the steep and narrow path. The roots which projected every now and then were another and even worse impediment. Where, as often happened, the path turned a sharp angle on

104 PONSEE CAMF.

the crests of the precipitous spurs, great caution was needful, for if one had lost his equilibrium in such a place, he woidd have certainly sent all in front of him down the almost perpendicular declivity. As the lower level was reached, the trees became essentially tropical, intermixed with musse, bamboos, ratans, and splendid ferns, while huge cable-like creepers intertwined their leafy cordage, and orchids of various and novel species displayed their fantastic beauties, and loaded the air with perfume.

After a long scramble down, we climbed over a secondary spur, and at its foot reached a sandy strand shaded by a magnificent banyan covered with the fragrant blossoms of a large yellow orchid {Den- drohium andersoni, Scott). Before us the roaring Tapeng rushed in a torrent forty yards wide, over a rocky bed, in a succession of foaming rapids and deep smooth reaches. At this point its bed was about thirteen to fourteen hundred feet above the plains at Tsitkaw, twenty miles distant, so that its descent is nearly seventy feet in the mile, the water mark indicating the highest rise of the flood to be twelve feet above its present level.

The only birds visible were two water wagtails flitting from boulder to boulder in the middle of the torrent. The rocks in position were gneiss, with veins and large embedded oblong pieces of quartzite ; the quartz often standing out in bold relief where the gneiss surface had 1 een worn away by the action of the water. Huoe boulders of the same rock and

A KAKHYEN FERRY. 105

pure white crystalline marble were strewn along* the river bed. Along the bank a foot-path led to a spot where a raft lay ready, in the deep smooth water above a rapid, to ferry over passengers to the silver mines. The raft was attached by a loop to a bark rope, stretched across the river. Our guide ex- pressed his readiness " for a consideration " to conduct us across, but not " that day ;" so we made our way back again, and if the descent had been difficult, it may be imagined how much more so was the return journey, which, however, was safely accomplished.

A few days after this trip, we started, accompanied by two of the Ponsee pawmines, for a visit to the silver mines. We reached the river by the next spur, to the west of the path followed on the former excursion, and, leaving the servants to prepare breakfast under the banyan tree, made for the raft. The guide rope was fastened to a fallen tree, six feet above the river on the opposite bank, while on our side it was carried over forked branches, firmly fixed in the ground and secured to a huge boulder. The raft proved to be on the other side, and one of the Burmese followers caught hold of the rope, and hand over hand succeeded in making his way across the strong current. He was followed by one of the pawmines, who evinced a careful dexterity which argued him to be well accustomed to what seemed a dangerous task. The raft was then brought across, one man in front running the loop along the rope, and the other

106 PONSEE CAMP.

sitting behind with a paddle to keep it stemming the stream. It was a simple wedge-shaped platform of bamboos lashed together, presenting a sort of prow which is kept against the rush of the stream. Bamboos at each side supported seats of split bamboo, and when the raft, which carried six persons, was loaded, the " deck " was a couple of inches under water.

Arrived at the other side, we were struck by the prevalence of white marble, and the extraordinary contorted folds of an abrupt cliff of blue crystalline quartzite rock, about fifty feet high, overlooking the ferry. A narrow foot-path to the north-east of this cliff led to a ridge of pure white crystalline marble, of the same structure as the marble of the Tsagain hills. The ridge, which was destitute of trees, was about six hundred feet above the level of the river, running almost parallel with its course for about a mile. A small water-course dividing the ridge from a rounded hill covered with waterworn boulders of the quartz- ite rock marked the limits of the marble, which terminated so abruptly as to be at once noticeable, and the pawmine said there was no silver beyond this limit. We walked along the almost level top of the treeless ridge, and found at the eastern side a pleasant valley, where the cultivated terraces showed signs of the neighbourhood of a village, and a Bauhinia in full bloom of white flowers with violet centre occurred in great profusion.

The mines consisted of a series of galleries about four feet in diameter, run horizontally into the slope

THE SILVER MINES. 107

of the ridge facing the river. Our conductors led us along the steep hillside, strewn with large masses of iron pyrites, and overgrown with grass and low jungle, so thick that each man had to cut his way with a dah. We passed about thirty of these adits, which penetrated the hillside for two or three hundred feet, sloping slightly downwards, and with passages opening at right angles. I crawled into one of them, preceded by a guide with a lantern, and made my way for a considerable distance along the tunnel, the sides of which showed red earth mixed with masses of marble and quartzite, but my progress was stopped by finding the passage blocked by tlie fallen roof, the bamboo props used when the mine was worked having given way. No detailed in- formation regarding the productiveness of these mines could be obtained, and since the outbreak of the civil war in Yunnan they had not been worked, save to a very small and intermittent extent by the Kakhyens. The heaps of slag in the glen near the small water- courses, where all smelting operations had been con- ducted, showed that a very considerable quantity of ore used to be raised. Specimens of the ore assayed by Professor Oldham have been found to contain 0*191 per cent, of silver in the galena. The mines are of easy access^ and from their close proximity to the borders of China, little or no difficulty would be experienced in finding labourers to work them. Silver is also said to be found on the right bank of the river, at a great elevation on the hillsides to the

108 PONSEE CAMr.

west of Ponsee ; and gold is asserted to occur near the same locality, and specimens were shown to me at Bhamo in grains some of which were as large as small peas.

From the mines we returned across the river, and breakfasted on the bank of the Tapeng, treating our Kakhyen companions to some of the eatables, their approval of which was indicated by jerking their fists with the thumb extended, which emphatically signifies that anything is very good. The fore- finger is held straight to indicate that a man is good, and crooked to denote one who is not to be trusted.

So we returned to Ponsee, where we must again take up the tangled thread of events bearing on our pro- gress. A month had passed since our arrival, and the advance of the season was marked by the call of the cuckoo, which was often heard in the eastern woods. The jungle had all been felled in the new clearings, and nightly fires illuminated the opposite hills, caused by the burning of the jungle over acres of ground. Heavy thunder showers almost every night did not add to our comfort, and heralded the speedy setting in of the south-west monsoon.

But we were apparently as far off from any extri- cation from our detention as ever.

The Seray tsawbwa had on March 22nd returned with news that a Panthay official had arrived at Sanda, and that the country so far was open. He also pro- duced a letter addressed to himself liy the governor

HOSTILITY OF PONSEE. 109

of Momien, requesting him to give us all the help in his power, and promising to reimburse any expense he might be put to in our service. The chief seemed fully disposed to help, and started for his own village to procure mules, with which he promised to return in two days, leaving his Chinese clerk to help us as an interpreter.

This was pleasant, and the improved temper of the people was shown by the arrival of messengers from the widow of a tsawbwa ruling a district on the road to Manwyne, with a present of fowls, eggs, and an uninviting compound of flour and chillies ; accom- panied by a message that she and her people would come and escort us to Manwyne. The dowager of the late chief of that town also sent Sladen the gift of two Kakhyen bags, and a curious implement forming a toothbrush and tongue-scraper combined.

The Seray chief, however, did not show according to promise, and a week after his departure news came that two Chinamen had arrived from Bhamo, with a party of fifty armed Burmese. These men gave out that they had been sent to recommence mining operations at the silver mines. The im- mediate result was that the Seray chief, first by a messenger, and then in person, repudiated his engage- ment to procure mules, alleging that the Ponsee chief had threatened to kill him if he assisted us to (piit the Ponsee territory. Argument and expostu- lation were useless, and he nodded assent when Sladen attributed his change of purpose to private

no PONSEE CAMP.

instructions received from Bhamo. He departed, after warning us to be on our guard against the Ponsee chief, who had resolved to attack the camp.

The hostiHty of the Ponsee chief was soon shown, for the day after the arrival of the Burmese his Kakhyens drove off all the Shans from our little bazaar ; the chief himself came down with his dah drawn, and cut down one of the traders, which act of violence made him liable to pay an indemnity to the Manwyne people. His pawmines came next with the intelligence that he had summoned two neighbouring tsawbwas to his assistance, that two buffaloes had been slaughtered, and a grand sacri- ficial feast was to be held that night, after which the nats would be consulted as to our fate, when, if the oracle commended it, the Kakhyens, drunk with sheroo and samshu, would attack the camp. One of the buffaloes had been supplied by the Burmese, and the symbolic present of a pound of flesh, the accept- ance of which signified consent, had been offered to and accepted by the tsare-daic-gyee^ or Burmese royal secretary, in charge of the party. The pound of flesh had been also sent to the pawmines, but rejected by them, and they loudly denounced their chief as an uncontrollable madman.

A wholesome fear of the European strangers had gradually grown up ; they were believed to possess supernatural powers. Breech-loading rifles and re- volvers, and " Bryant and May's matches," which

RECONCILIATION. Ill

ignited only on the box, and defied wind and rain, argued a close alliance with the nats of the elements ; while the photographic apparatus appeared in Kakh- yen eyes to be the instruments of conjurers, who could control the sun himself. Hence but few of the Kakhyens would join the chief, whom they considered bent on his own destruction. While the conspirators were revelling and consulting, our police escort was drawn out and exercised, and the ominous sound of three volleys from fifty guns, which to their universal astonishment and awe all went off at once, terrified them, and gave a significant hint that assailants would meet a warm reception. The pawmines prayed that they and their houses might be spared in the general destruction that must overtake our enemies, and the news soon reached us that the meet- way, who was secretly in our pay, had announced that the nats disapproved of the consj^iracy.

The pawmines then requested permission to in- troduce the two hostile tsawbwas, who accordingly arrived ; their naturally villainous faces were not improved by an expression of sheepish fear, but they lightened up when Sladen received them kindly, and without upbraiding them explained the advan- tages that would arise to all if our plans should be carried out. A present of an emj)ty biscuit tin and a beer bottle quite won their hearts, and converted them into fast friends. The paw- mines then represented that the young chief, with whom, on his repentance, they had made

112 PONSEE CAMP.

friends, desired to be forgiven and received into favour. It was argued that he felt very sore at Ponline having defrauded him of his rightful gains, and it was agreed that by way of making up for all neglect he should receive one hundred rupees ! He swore eternal friendship, and vowed that henceforth we were his relations. Sladen asked him why he had omitted his relations in the late distribution of beef, at which lie grinned, and went off awkwardly enough, but still in good humour.

During the first few days of April, the situation was hopeful and exciting, but the tsawbwa and his pawmines, though outwardly reconciled, soon made it evident that their respective interests clashed too much for united action. The chief volunteered to go and procure mules, the pawmines offered to supply any number of coolies. The amount to be paid on our arrival at Manwyne was fixed at five hundred rupees, and this was eagerly coveted by the rivals ; each in turn denounced the other as entertaining designs of looting the baggage, and the pawmines declared that the chief dared not show his face in Manwyne on account of a private feud.

Sladen refused to accept the separate services of either the chief or his subordinates, and this straight- forward policy compelled a seeming reconciliation. The Seray tsawliwa sent his pawmines with sixty men and six mules, far too few for the baggage of the party ; his men, however, declared they could carry it all, and facetiously advised us to build houses

A FALSE STAET. 113

for permanent residence at Ponsee, as the latter chief would never be able to procure mules.

An amusing interlude was afforded by the arrival of a half-caste, professing to be one of the chief men of the tsawhwa-gadaw^ or dowager chieftainess, of Manwyne. He came in a breathless state of excite- ment, and announced that he had succeeded in hiring two hundred mules, but that the caravan had been detained by the Kakhyen chiefs on the road, who had sent him to say that they would allow them to pass for one hundred rupees, and as a pledge of their sincerity had entrusted him with an amber chain worth that sum. The fellow must have had a high opinion of our credulity, for the chain, when produced, was valued at about eight annas, and he was summarily dismissed.

At last, terms were arranged ; the pawmines were to supply coolies, while the tsawbwa was to find carriage for forty mule-loads, and the 7th of April was appointed for the start. We were up with day- light, tents were speedily struck, and baggage packed for the march. The coolies soon assembled, and the area of our little camp was covered with wild-looking Kakhyens armed to the teeth with matchlocks, spears, and dahs, looking much more like a horde of banditti than peaceful porters. Their demeanour was in keeping with their appearance, and their dishonest purpose was evidenced by the bare- faced rivalry displayed by the different parties in seizing upon the packages which seemed most valu-

I

114 PONSEE CAMP.

able, irrespective of size or weight. The precaution had been taken of teUing off the escort into parties, with strict orders to preven t the exit of any baggage until all were in readiness for a start. The crisis was brought on by Sladen's japanned tin cases. The youngest pawmine, who was first on the field, had appropriated them for his coolies, but when his brother, " Death's Head, "appeared, very much excited, early as it was, with drink, he claimed them for his men. On his brother's refusal to give them up, he lost all command over himself After a violent out- burst of passion, he made a dash at the gold sword which the king had presented to Sladen, and snatched it from the Burmese servant in charge. This attempt was frustrated by Williams, who with a vigorous wrench rescued the sword from " Death's Head's " grasp. Thus foiled, he attacked the Burmese clerk, who was taking down the names of the coolies, and threatened to cut him down. A general hubbub ensued, during which he rushed off to a camp fire, lit his slow-match, and advanced priming his match- lock, till he was close to Sladen, when he fired off his piece in the air. The consternation which en- sued reached its climax when an assistant surveyor in a foolish panic fired his revolver. The Kakhyens showed that they had no relish for a fight, and, throw- ing down their loads, bolted in all directions. We of course remained quiet, while the tsawbwa showed more sense than could have been expected, calling upon the Kakhyens not to fly, and after a time order

A FALSE START. 115

was restored. One of us followed " Death's Head," who had sat down at the end of the camp to reload his gun, and by a little persuasion got him to send his gun up to the village, and return to his duties. The loads were all arranged, and the escort had been so distributed that each set of coolies could be under sur- veillance, with a chain of communication between the van and rear guard, while the coolies carrying the japanned tin cases were placed under the im- mediate supervision of armed followers, so that they could not " bolt " without creating an alarm. It was high noon before all was ready, and then the tsawbwa and pawmines, perhaps disgusted with these salutary precautions, announced that, as Manwyne could not be reached that day, our departure must be postponed till the morrow. This was pleasant after toihng six hours under a broiling sun, but we had nothing to oppose to native caprice save patience, strongly tempered with misgivings, which proved to be correct. The next morning no coolies appeared, and the pawmines came down to say that they could not fulfil their promise, as the tsawbwa had refused his co-operation. The chief himself soon afterwards arrived to lay the onus of the failure on the paw- mines. A probable instigator of the whole scheme was the Nanlyaw tamone, who, after a long absence, suddenly presented himself in our camp, and whom Sladen, having had repeated proofs of his machina- tions, at once arrested as a spy ; but at the urgent intercession of his friends, the pawmines, he was

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116 PONSEE CAMP.

dismissed with a strong caution not to show himself again in our vicinity.

At this juncture, when all hope of extrication from our Ponsee prison seemed to have vanished, letters arrived from the governor of Momien, informing Sladen that he was about to take the field in person, with a strong force, to attack Li-sieh-tai, and drive him from his stronghold of Mawphoo. The letters further recommended us not to attempt to advance beyond Manwyne until advices should reach us of the defeat of the Chinese partisan. A second letter was a circular addressed to the Kakhyen chiefs, exhorting them to give all possible aid to the expedi- tion. This at once gave a vantage ground, from which to deal with our highland friends, and it was improved by Sladen. Kakhyens, Burmese, and Shans had alike conceived extravagant ideas of the value of our baggage, and showed beyond doubt that the hope of getting possession of all, or a part of it, was a strong motive of their action or inaction. The leader therefore began to proclaim on all sides that though we had cheerfully endured privations and delays, in the hope of thoroughly conciliating the natives, they were not to imagine our patience to be inexhaustible. If we should be compelled to abandon all or any part of our baggage, it would be piled up and burned before our departure ; thus they would lose their expected plunder, and incur the risk of future reprisals, or demands for compensation, and, above all, certainly alienate those who sought to be

LETTEKS FEOM MOMIEN. 117

their friends. To this the chiefs rephed in suhstance as follows : " Do not blame us for your misfortunes ; we have been always in doubt how to act, on account of the many warnings we have received against aiding your progress. Now we know you. You have always been kind to us, and are a powerful people."

Vexatious and harassing as had been our detention at Ponsee, it is certain that it would have been before this period quite impossible to proceed beyond Manwyne, and our residence among these semi-savage tribes served to convert their first suspicions into confidence, and to impress them with the value of our friendship. The uniform kindness with which all just services were requited, as contrasted with the treatment to which they had hitherto been sub- jected in their dealings with other races, especially with the Burmese, gradually worked its effect.

At this time letters were received through Burmese agency, from no less a person than Moung Shuay Yah, who since his treacherous desertion had never been heard of. Now all of a sudden his name was mentioned ad nauseam by the Burmese followers, and two Kakhyens arrived with letters purporting to have been written at some halting-place in the Shan country ; but the bearers contradicted each other, and could not tell when, or from whom, they had received the letters. Next day, another letter was brought by one of the silver mining party, which, he said, Moung Shuay Yah had given him fourteen days be-

118 PONSEE CAMP.

fore, but which he 'h^di forgotten to deliver. The fact was the interpreter had started for Momien, having heard of the change of our prospects, and our pro- bable advance to that city. As it was needful, if possible, to save appearances, Moung Shuay Yah in his letter declared that he had been obliged to fly to save his life from the anger of Sala. Fortunately his place was by this time well supplied by Moung Mo, whom, it may be remembered, Sala had carried off with him, but who had returned and placed himself at Sladen's disposal. He amply corroborated all that had been before told us of the efforts of the Bhamo people to obstruct our progress. Orders had been received from Mandalay, conveying the king's displeasure at our detention at Ponsee, and authorising Sala to take us to Manwyne, but he had replied that after being induced by the Burmese of Bhamo to compromise himself with us, he would have nothing further to do with it.

It was supposed by our leader that the express object of stationing the armed miners at Ponsee was to deter the Kakhyens from helping us. Moung Mo, in addition, assured us that he had ascertained that Li-sieh-tai had sworn to oppose any attempt on our part to penetrate the Shan states, and he advised us on no account to proceed to Manwyne without an intimation from the Panthays that the road was open. An important circumstance occurred at this time in the arrival of messengers and a Chinese inter- preter from Momien. They brought no letters, but

A HAILSTORM. 119

were charged by the Tah-sa-kon* to make personal inquiries into the real objects of the mission and our circumstances at Ponsee. It transpired that letters from Bhamo had informed the governor that we represented a powerful nation in alliance with the Chinese, and foes to the Mahommedans all over the world, and that our real object was to destroy the Panthay dominion in Yunnan.

Sladen thoroughly dispelled these suspicions, and sent away the envoys completely satisfied as to the genuineness of our pacific intentions. The proba- bilities of an advance were, however, still remote and uncertain, and the wet season had fairly set in, marked by a constant succession of thunder and heavy rains. Dense masses of mist rolled up the valley like vast advancing curtains, shrouding the mountains in their gigantic folds, and producing an artificial twilight, and torrents of rain descended for three or four hours incessantly, soaking the tents ; our waterproof blankets alone saving the inmates from complete saturation, but not from the utter discomfort of living in a puddle.

One storm deserves accurate description. Up to 4 P.M. of April 12th, the wind had been blowing in fitful cool gusts from the south-west, but at that hour there was a sudden lull; distant thunder was heard echoing among the mountains, and heavy black clouds came rolling up ; a few drops of rain

* Tah-m-Jcon, a civil title equivalent to Commissioner ox* Administrator.

120 PONSEE CAMP.

gave, as it were, the signal for a discharge of hail- stones, or rather flakes of ice. The wind blew in violent gusts, and thunder rumbled over head, but the flashes of lightning were very faint. The hailstones were circular discs about the size of a shilling, flat on one side, and convex on the other. A white nucleus two-eighths of an inch in diameter, and in many cases with a prominent boss of clear ice on the convex side, formed the centre of a pel- lucid zone surrounded by an opaque one, in its turn encased in clear ice ; the inner margin of this external zone was filled with a dark substance, re- sembling mud combined with delicate ice crystals; the whole disc strongly resembling a glass eye ; when fractured, the nucleus separated itself as a small short column, flat at one end, and convex at the other.

During the storm, which lasted for twenty minutes, the aneroid rose from 26*62 to 26*65, and the attached thermometer registered 67°, the maximum heat during the day having been 84°.

It was evident that the season was closed for pur- poses of engineering survey and exploration, and this, combined with the reduced state of the exche- quer, induced the leader of the expedition to address a circular to the members of the party, placing before them the facts, and suggesting that it would be for the interests of the public service that the numbers should be reduced in order to curtail the future expense of transport. It was necessary in fact to lighten the ship, and each was invited to consider

CIRCULAE TO MEMBERS OF MISSION. 121

how far he could assist in this needful work. Sladen had determined to remain, z/wec^ssary, for some months, until the opportunity should arrive to visit Momien, and at all hazards personally communicate with the Panthays ; but he felt that he ought to place it in the power of the other members of the expedition to return, especially as the work which some of them had been despatched to eifect could not be performed. This circular was sent round on the 1 7th, and the news of the fall of Mawphoo and the utter defeat of Li-sieh-tai reached us on the 18th of Ajoril, and was afterwards fully confirmed by despatches from the Tah-sa-koii, announcing his victory and writing to us to advance under the protection of all the chiefs en route. Our friends the tsawbwa and his pawmines, who had been day by day " making believe," as children say, to discuss plans for procuring mules, were evidently much influenced by this ; but they could not help showing their greed for rujoees, and their continual demand was that three hundred should be paid before starting.

It was only later on that we learned that all these Kakhyens, especially Sala, had always been steady adherents of Li-sieh-tai, and that his utter defeat made them thoroughly anxious to conciliate the victorious Panthays.

The tsawbwa presented himself in a very penitent mood, and, confessing all his past misconduct, averred his determination to give up drink and debauchery and do his duty as a chief Linking his fingers

122 PONSEE CAMP.

together with an expressive shake, he vowed leal service to his English friends, and then started off in company with his head pawmine on the road to Manwyne, where he expected to meet the Seray chief, and arrange means for our transport.

As if a new order of things had set in, our camp now was daily crowded by Kakhyens, all in the highest good humour. The women of the village came down en masse, bringing presents of fowls, eggs, sheroo, and rice, but the fair ones had an eye to business ; beads, looking-glasses, bright new silver coins, and what they seemed most to prize, red cloth, were in great demand. A brisk trade was driven in the various ornaments, and they stripped off their bead necklaces and ratan girdles and leggings with great glee, and even a bell-girdle, the distinctive ornament of Kakhyen aristocracy, which hitherto even rupees had failed to secure, was now acquired in return for red cloth; indeed, it seemed quite possible to purchase a Kakhyen belle, ornaments, and all, for a few yards of the much prized material ; and they returned home with great glee, shorn of their decora- tions, but rich in beads and cloth. Some came to solicit medical aid ; cases of severe ulcerations, caused probably by their labour in the jungle, and aggravated by dirt, being common. The gratitude evinced for the relief given was touchingly shown l)y the presents, deposited with a fearful humility that showed the donor's belief in the intimate connection between the doctor and the nats, Every day both chiefs and

FEIENDLY RELATIONS WITH KAKHYENS. 123

people from the more distant villages flocked in, and none came empty-handed. Grifts of rice, vegetables, tobacco, and sheroo, were brought not merely in the hope of return presents, but evidently as signs of amity. There could be no mistaking their feeling, that strangers who behaved with kindness and justice were welcome. These poor hill people had hardly ever known what it was to be treated with confidence ; on either side, Burmese and Chinese had wronged and oppressed them. Monsig. Bigandet states that they had formerly been characterised by a genial kindli- ness and ready hospitality to strangers, but that the cruel treatment they experienced in Burmese towns, and the fraudulent evasion of payment for their services, had rendered them suspicious, greedy, and treacherous. It is not to be wondered at if the presence among them of strangers of an unknown race, escorted by an armed force, should at first have been regarded by them with fear and dislike, and it is with a modest pride that we recall the kindly con- fidence in the strangers which had sprung up towards the end of our long detention at Ponsee. The people from the distant villages continually asked, " Why did you not come our way ? we should have then had some of the good things that you have brought for the Ponsee people." The camp was perpetually full ; the men, after curiously inspecting the many wonders that presented themselves, chatted and smoked with our followers ; and the women, old and young, eagerly petitioned for small liand glasses, and black

124 PONSEE CAMP.

or green beads, the latter being most valued, and straightway converted their prizes into personal decorations. The young women formed in lines, each clasping her neighbour in a coquettish embrace, their shyness had vanished, they chatted and flirted freely, and did not even flinch from being photographed.

The friendly intercourse with these visitors gave us most welcome opportunities of inquiry into their customs, their national and social life. There was no backwardness in answering any questions, and the record of delays and difficulties may be well interrupted by a few pages devoted to these moun- taineers. Those of whom we saw the most were all dwellers to the north of the Tapeng, but some of the visitors came from the southern hills, and the general characteristics distinguish both these and the clans visited by us on the return journey, who seem to be more civilised than their northern con- geners. It is right here to acknowledge that the following account of this people has been rendered fuller and more accurate by the use of some notes furnished by Major Sladen from accounts given by natives, and by the use of a valuable memoir on the territories written by the learned and indefatigable missionary. Bishop Bigandet, whose warmest sym- pathies have been called out for these poor moun- taineers, of whom he said, " It is of the utmost im- portance to know them, their character and habits, and to be prepared to secure their good will, when- ever the thought of opening communications with Western China shall have been seriously entertained.'

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,es; to the north-east lofty parallel i in a narrow valley with a river winding

!1

THE KAKHYENS. 125

CHAPTER V.

THE K A K H Y E N S.

The Kakhyens or Kakoos — The clans — Their chiefs — Mountain villages — Cultivation and crops — Personal appearance — Costume — Arms and implements — Female di'ess and ornaments — Women's work — Sheroo — Morals — Marriage — Music — Bu-ths — Funerals — Eeligion — Language — Character — How to deal with them — Our party.

From the summit of the lofty hill, fully two thousand feet above our camp, called Sliitee-doung, which it became possible to ascend during the latter part of our stay, an extensive view was obtained. From it to the north a sea of hills extended as far as the eye could reach ; to the south stretched ranges of hills covered with forest, save where little clearings showed the presence of villages; to the north-east lofty parallel ranges closed in a narrow valley with a river winding down it. These hills are the country of the Kakhyens. These mountaineers belong to the widely spread race that under the name of Singphos, Kakoos, &c. occupy the hills defining the Irawady basin, up to the wall of the Khamti plain, and are probably cognate with the hill tribes of the Mishmees and Nagas. The name Kakhyen is a Burmese appellation ; they

126 THE KAKHYENS.

invariably designating themselves as Chingpaw, or " men."* By their own account the hills to the north of the Tapeng, for a month's journey, are occupied by kindred tribes. South of the Tapeng, they occupy the hills as far as the latitude of Tagoung, and, as mentioned, were met with on our voyage near the second defile. To the east, they are found occupying the hills, and, intermixed with the Shans and Chinese, almost to Momien. Here they, as it were, run into the Leesaws, who may be a cognate, but are not an identical, race. The two chief tribes in the hills of the Tapeng valley are the Lakone and Kowrie or Kowlie, but numerous subdivisions of clans occur. All are said to have originally come from the Kakoos' country, north-east of Mogoung ; and Shans informed us that two hundred years ago Kakhyens were unknown in Sanda and Hotha valleys. To give one instance of their migrations. The Lakone tribe have at a very recent period driven the Kowlies from the northern to the southern banks of