CHAPTER XVII.

LEAVE KIANG HAI-A HOT SPRING-ELEPHANTS WITHOUT TUSKS-ELEPHANT-DRIVING - DANGER WHEN DRIVER IS CARELESS- A LARGE RICE-PLAIN-BARGAINING WITH THE ABBOT AT MUANG DOO-BLOODTHIRSTY FLIES-ELEPHANTS AS TOOL-USERS-INHOSPITABLE ANCESTRAL SPIRITS-GAME PLENTIFUL-UTTERANCES OF TIGERS-A MAGNIFICENT FOREST-A STINK-WOOD-WATER-PARTING BETWEEN THE KIANG HAI AND KIANG HSEN PLAINS-BRAVE BUTTERFLIES-A FIELD FOR AN ENTOMOLOGIST PSYCHE IN BURMAHA CENTRAL ASIAN BELIEF THREE SACRED HILLS-BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS-LEGEND OF LOI HTONG-VALLEY OF THE MEH CHAN-PASS TO MUANG FANG -KIANG HSEN PLAIN-SIAMESE AGGRESSION-DESERTED CITIES OF MANOLA-TIGERS-ATTACK ON KIANG HSEN IN 1794-WILD ANIMALS -LEGEND OF MUANG NONG-THUNDERSTORM-FLOODED COUNTRY -LEANING PAGODA-REACH KIANG HSEN.

On the morning of the 18th of March we said good-bye to Chow Nan and his son, and accompanied by the large crane as far as the ford, set off again on our journey. After crossing the river we struck north, and continued through low ground to the fields of Pan Pa Teun, the village of the eng forest, inhabited by witches who have been banished from other places. Near the village is a ruined pagoda; and from thence onward teak trees are scattered through the forest. At 356 miles we crossed the Nong Ko Kheh, or lake of the Chinese bridge, and halted for breakfast. The lake is merely a straggling swamp, about 50 feet broad and 3 feet deep, which serves as a breeding-ground for fish. While the boys were getting breakfast I sketched Loi Pong Pra Bat, the hill of the hot spring from Buddha's footprint.

The large male elephant I was riding had no tusks, and was called by the driver Ko-dau, which I learnt was the ordinary term for tuskless males. Those with one tusk are

M

178

known as Nga-aik.

098>

ELEPHANT-DRIVING.

For the last half-mile we had been. passing amongst bamboos and tall grass, and my mahout was guiding the elephants by knocks on the head. A knock on the left temple signified turn to the right; one on the right temple, go to the left; one on the forehead, go slowly; and the animal was warned to look about by the sharp utterance of his name. Unless a driver keeps his eyes to the front there is always a chance of the roof of the howdah being stripped of its covering, and of the occupant having his eyes thrust out, or being otherwise injured. Several times I have had the insecurely fastened howdah unbalanced by an awkwardly swaying animal bringing it into contact with trees. Then it is a case of saving self and things how one can, unless the mahout can support the howdah until further assistance arrives.

PRA BAT

PONG

107

<1301

A and F in a line <294 at 2.58 P.M.

View of Loi Pong Pra Bat at 11.11 A.M. 18th March.
Note.-A and B in a line

<300 at

1.55 P.M.

On leaving the camp we entered a rice-plain five miles long, at times more than a mile and a half broad, and fringed with beautiful orchards which contained splendid clumps of bamboos, and nestled several large villages. The foliage, although chiefly evergreen, had an autumnal aspect, owing to the bamboos shedding their leaves, and the buff-coloured young leaves of the mangoes, which had recently sprouted, aiding the delusion.

A mile from the camp we passed through Ban Doo, the village where import duties are levied. Here, on my return, I purchased from the abbot of the monastery several books concerning astrology, alchemy, sorcery,

ELEPHANTS AS TOOL-USERS.

179

cabalistical science, and medicine. Seeing two silver images of Gaudama, with resin cores, I haggled with him for a long time over their price. At first he pretended that it was impossible for him to part with these images, as offerings had been made to them; but at the sight of many two-anna and four-anna bits his compunctions gave way, and I carried them off in triumph. They cost me dear, however, for on my sending them home, with other things, to my sister, our canny custom-house officials charged the resin as solid silver.

Large herds of cattle and buffaloes were feeding in the plain, and waging ceaseless war with their tails against myriads of bloodthirsty gad and elephant flies. The elephants were likewise greatly annoyed by these flying leeches, and carried leafy branches in their trunks to switch them off their bodies. No one who has seen elephants fanning themselves with great palmyra-leaves, switching at the flies, or scratching themselves with twigs, could consider man the sole tool-using animal.

On leaving the rice-fields at Done Ban Kwang, we crossed the Meh Khow Tome, near a village of the same name, and halted for the night. The Meh Khow Tome is 12 feet broad, 5 feet deep, and had 9 inches of water in its bed. Its name implies the "river of cooked rice," and is said to be derived from Gaudama having cooked rice on its banks when proceeding to impress his footprint on Loi Pong Pra Bat.

On reaching the camp I noticed rain-clouds gathering overhead, and asked the Chow Phya to arrange for our occupation of a large vacant house that had just been completed. On the arrival of the village head-man, he told us that owing to the spirits not having been propitiated, if any one slept under the roof misfortunes would certainly happen; and he begged us to refrain from doing so. He said game was exceedingly plentiful in the neighbourhood, and that wild elephant, rhinoceros, wild cattle, and pigs were often seen by the hunters; and deer, hare, pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, and quail were abundant.

Tigers, and, I believe, leopards, were prowling round the camp after nightfall; the clear "peet, peet" of the tiger

180

A MAGNIFICENT FOREST.

and the "myow myow" came from different directions. The Shans, however, declared that they were both the cries of tigers-one when they were angry or in search of food, and the other when they were satisfied.

Early the next morning we recrossed the stream, and followed it up for four miles, the plain gradually rising as we proceeded. Teak - trees were sprinkled through the forest which neighboured the plain, and numerous yellowflowered orchids hung in clusters from the branches of the trees. The forest gradually closed in, leaving a grass plain three-quarters of a mile wide, which we edged on the west, occasionally startling an elk-deer. A low hillock fringed the east of the plain, backed by a higher one three-quarters of a mile beyond it.

The forest was one of the most magnificent and varied I have ever seen. Padouk, thyngan, thytkado, wild mango, kanyin, banian, and many other fine trees whose names I do not know, grew to an enormous size. One looked for giants to match the trees, everything was so huge. The forest was a fit home for elephants and rhinoceroses. A kanyin-tree that I measured was 20 feet in girth 5 feet from the ground, and over 200 feet in height.

One of the men brought Dr M'Gilvary a piece of bark off a large tree, and after smelling it, he sent it to Dr Cushing, who, after doing likewise, forwarded it to me. It nearly knocked me down. Of all the horrible odours I ever met with, that was the worst. Bracken and other ferns, as well as screw-pines, flourished in the deep shade of the forest.

At 367 miles we crossed the Huay Pa Au, the last stream that enters the Meh Khow Tome, and fifteen minutes later, without any perceptible rise, reached the Huay Leuk, which is said to enter the Meh Chun. We had crossed the waterparting between the Kiang Hai and Kiang Hsen plains without being aware of it.

Half a mile farther we crossed the toe of a spur, and then passed amidst low hillocks until we reached a dry brook 6 feet wide and 5 feet deep, where we halted for breakfast. The hills had ceased, and we were in the Kiang Hsen plain. The height of the water-parting between it and the plain of

PSYCHE IN BURMAH.

181

Kiang Hai was 1471 feet above the sea, and only 151 feet above Kiang Hai. Our camp was 369 miles from Hlineboay, and 1447 feet above the sea.

Whilst inking the notes in my field-book, butterflies settled on my hand, and were as brave and persistent as house-flies. No sooner had I shaken them off than they were back again, being rocked on my hand as I wrote. The jungle, particu

larly in the neighbourhood of water, simply swarms with insect-life. An entomologist could fill a case in a morning's walk. He would have but to shake his net under the leaves of a few bushes for walking-leaves, stick-insects, ant-cows, lady-birds, and a variety of remarkable beetles, to drop into it.

Tiger-beetles, ground-beetles, bombardier-beetles, whirling water-beetles, mimic-beetles, stag-beetles, chaffer-beetles, click-beetles, scavenger-beetles, rove-beetles, sexton-beetles, chameleon-green beetles, glowworms, fireflies, floral-beetles, blister-flies, long-snouted beetles, capricorn-beetles, tortoisebeetles, ladybird-beetles-all are found in the jungle. Dr Mason, in his work 'Burmah,' states that Captain Smith collected specimens of nearly 300 species in Toungoo, a town in Burmah, on the Sittang river.

In connection with butterflies, Dr Mason remarks that "when a person dies, the Burmese say the soul, or sentient principle, leaves the body in the form of a butterfly. This too was the faith of the Greeks more than 2000 years ago. Among the ancients, when a man expired, a butterfly appeared fluttering above, as if rising from the mouth of the deceased. The coincidence is the more remarkable the closer it is examined. The psyche or soul of the Greeks, represented by the butterfly, was the life, the perceptive principle, and not the pneuma or spiritual nature. So the Burmans regard the butterfly in man as that principle of his nature which perceives, but not that of which moral actions are predicated. If a person is startled or frightened so as to be astounded for the moment, they say his butterfly has departed.' When a person is unconscious of all that is passing around him in sleep, the butterfly is supposed to be absent, but on its return the person awakes, and what the butterfly has seen constitutes dreams.