BURMESE FORESTERS.

123

the shrine in order, and are obliged to present tithes of all they produce for the use and maintenance of the pagoda and its monks. On our return the journey took only three hours and a half, as the elephants went quickly down the hill, and were in a hurry to get home for their evening's feed.

In the evening I besieged Dr M'Gilvary, endeavouring to persuade him to accompany us to Kiang Hsen. I assured him that the journey should be no expense to his Mission, either for food or for elephants; that he would be of very great use in collecting information from the people; and that it would be delightful both for Dr Cushing and myself to have his company. He said that he was really unable to go with us on that journey, as his year's supply of boots were on their way from Bangkok, and the ones he had would fall to pieces before he returned. I replied that I had two pairs of Walkingphast's boots, which were quite new, and I should be so pleased if he would try them on; that they were spare ones; and that I should certainly not need more than one pair besides those I had in use; that his doing so would be an actual relief to me, as I felt that I was carrying about useless baggage. He was very shy of the offer at first; but I succeeded in talking his wife over, and she managed to persuade him not to disappoint us, and that the trip was exactly what his health required. I shall ever remember this good lady and her husband with pleasure, admiration, and gratitude. They were utterly unselfish in all their thoughts and actions, and quite untiring in heaping kindness upon us.

The following days I strolled about the place, and visited. several of the Burmese foresters with Loogalay, who had been having a high time amongst them, but found they knew very little about any part of the country except in the regions where they worked their forests. They all lived in large substantial teak-built houses, and appeared to be well off, if one might judge by the liquors and other refreshments they placed on their table.

I learnt from them the Shan and Burmese names of many of the trees, which afterwards enabled me to record them in

124

RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS.

Burmese when only the Shan names were given me. Nothing strikes a traveller in Indo-China more than the extensive knowledge of the flora of the country possessed by the people. Not only can an ordinary villager tell you the names of the various plants and trees that you meet, but also their uses, whether as dyes, drugs, oils, or resins.

On expressing my surprise at there being so many temples and monasteries in the city and neighbourhood, they said that, although many had of late years been repaired by the Shans, nearly all of them had been built by the Burmese when governing the country from A.D. 1564 to 1774.

CHAPTER XII.

DINNER AT THE PRINCESS'S-ARRANGEMENTS FOR START COMPLETED -A PASSPORT—OUR PAVILION-THE ZIMMÉ PLAIN-LEAVE ZIMMÉ– CANAL IRRIGATION HALT AT MUANG DOO THE CHOWS ASTRAY -CAMP-DINNERS AND COOKERY-EXCELLENT MADRAS SERVANTSALTERATION IN JEWAN COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND DIVORCE KUMLUNG, OR FAMILY PATRIARCH AND PRIEST-PRICE OF SLAVES -SLAVE-BONDAGE-FOREIGN MARRIAGES SERFDOM IN ZIMMÉFORMATION OF CLANS GOVERNMENT MASTERS IN SIAM COMMONERS.

CROWN

CHOW OO-BOON made great preparations for her dinner, which she had served in European style, on a table beautifully decorated with flowers. Mrs M'Gilvary furnished the crockery, cutlery, and table-linen, and our Madras servants superintended the cookery. Among the guests were the daughters of the queen and princess, three princes, and Phra Udon and Chow Don, the two Siamese assistant-commissioners. Fingers, for the nonce, gave way to knives and forks, and even Phra Udon, the Singhalese buffoon, showed that he could behave himself before ladies.

There was no apparent anxiety on the part of the hostess as to whether or not the dinner would turn out a success. All were affable, courteous, and pleasant, and appeared bent upon adding to the general enjoyment.

The princess informed me that arrangements had been made for our starting early on Monday, as, to prevent further delay, she and some of the princes had agreed to supply us with elephants, and a letter had been signed by the Court calling upon the governors of the various provinces to afford us their aid.

A similar passport issued for one of my later journeys

was translated for me by Dr M'Gilvary, and ran as follows: "The Proclamation of Chao Phya San Luang and Chao Phya Saw Lan, and all the officers, old and young, at the Court, to Tow Rat of Chiang Dow (Kiang Dow), and Phya Khenan Phek of Chiang Ngai, and Phya Kuan of Muang Pow, and Phya Soo Ree Ya Yot of Muang Fang, greeting. You are informed that now there has been a Royal Order that Nai Hallett and the teachers M'Gilvary and Martin, the three Nais and their servants and personal attendants, nineteen persons, twenty-two persons in all, with six elephants and one horse and eight guns, may go to Chiang Hsen, Muang Ngai, Muang Pow, and Muang Fang. When the foreign Nais have arrived and wish to go in any direction at any time, you are ordered to levy good and reliable men that are conversant with the roads, the brooks, and the mountains to escort them, according to the custom of the country, from one city and province to another, to whatever place or village the foreign Nais shall wish to go. Again, if the foreign Nais are in need of provisions of any kind, you are ordered to provide supplies and look after them. Let them not be destitute of anything whatever. This is given by the Royal Order on the thirteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth month of the year twelve hundred and twenty-six" (7th May 1884).

This passport, as is usual, was scratched with a stile upon a narrow strip of palm-leaf which coils up into a ring and has a stamp embossed on it at each end. This stamp determines the real authority of the document, and is examined before reading the document. These strips of leaves are tough and unaffected by water, and are therefore, for the purpose, superior to paper. When the writing grows dim it is easily made legible by wetting the finger and rubbing it over the leaf, thus cleansing the smooth surface and filling the scratches with the dirt so removed.

On Monday, the 3d March, we had everything packed early in the morning, but were delayed until nearly one o'clock before the last elephant came in. We were to be conducted to Kiang Hai by Chow Nan Kyow Wong, the eldest son of Chow Hoo-a Muang Kyow, the fourth of the

Chow Nan Kyow Wong

joint rulers of the Zimmé State. had left the city the night before, accompanied by his six followers and his young son, in order to prepare the first encampment for us. He took with him four large elephants, one of which was loaded with our baggage, and a small one, and eight elephant-drivers and attendants.

The party with me, besides the Chow and his company, comprised forty-one persons-viz., Dr Cushing, Dr M'Gilvary, two Shan interpreters, three Shan servants, three Madras servants, Moung Loogalay, eight Shan elephant-men, and twenty Shan porters with four large elephants. As a shelter from the night-dews we carried a tent, so capacious and so convenient for carriage that it reminded me of the one in the 'Arabian Nights' which would shelter an army and yet could be put in one's pocket. Ours was formed of a roll of longcloth, 30 feet long and 15 feet wide, that packed into a roll 21 inches long and 7 inches in diameter.

The great Zimmé rice-plain is divided into more or less extensive fields by orchards containing beautiful clumps of bamboos and mango, tamarind, palmyra, cocoa-nut, areca-nut, and other trees; and in these orchards, and in pretty groves scattered about the plain, nestle numerous villages and detached houses. Until the hills are reached the country is one ceaseless succession of orchards and rice-fields, all of which, nearly up to the east bank of the Meh Ping, are irrigated by canals and channels drawing their water from the Meh Hkuang, the river on which the capital city of the Shan State of Lapoon lies.

Starting from the bridge a little before one o'clock, we proceeded in a north-easterly direction, and halted for the night in the fields of Muang Doo, having passed within view of nineteen villages in the seven and a half miles' march. We were disappointed at finding that the Chow and his son had not passed through the village, and that nothing was known there of his movements. As soon as the elephants were unloaded some of the Shans commenced cutting bamboos for the erection of our pavilion, and before we had finished bathing, it was completed and our dinner was ready.

Our dinner-table consisted of a cane-covered howdah