John Anderson

“ From this to the foot of the Mawphoo gorge seems to have been once a level flat, perhaps a lake, like that of Yunnan, from which the Tahô precipitated itself as a waterfall into the Sanda valley. The hills to the east, at the base of which our route lay, instead of the bold precipitous mountains of metamorphic rocks, were rounded trappean hills, occasional glimpses of which reminded us of home scenery, as they swept up in grassy curves, with dense clumps of trees on or near their summits. ”

“ Seray, like the majority of Kakhyen villages, is finely situated on the summit of a ridge, among lofty trees, enclosing a grassy glade in its centre. The paths approaching the village are broad, and its vicinity is indicated by groups of high massive wooden posts, with simple devices in black, and by groves to the nats, and by small circular walled enclosures devoted to the worship of the sky spirit. On arriving, I found all the Sikhs ranged in front of the tsawbwa’s house, also the chiefs of Woonkah and Wacheoon, and Allan’s Chinese clerk. ”

“ In every direction, as far as the eye could reach, extended a sea of hills, some rising in great dome-shaped masses six thousand feet above the sea, clothed to their summits with dense forest, unbroken by any cultivation. The greater number of the lesser hills had been evidently cleared, and their abrupt slopes seemed, as it were, fashioned into huge flights of broad steps, the terraces for the rice and maize crops, while by the aid of a good field-glass little Kakhyen villages could be detected dotting the slopes. ”

“ During this extraordinary scene, which realised all one had read of demoniacal possession, the tsawbwa and his pawmines occasionally 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 ”

“ The carcase was at once cut up, the blood being received in a large vessel, while the entrails were laid as offerings to the nats on the elevated altar. With the blood a quantity of samshu was mixed, and stirred up with the points of dahs and spears, and each chief in turn drank from the bowl, and uttered his vow of fidelity to the common cause. Such was the rite that the three chiefs had joined in at Ponsee when leagued for our destruction, and now thirty-one chiefs bound themselves solemnly to maintain peace and give protection to future travellers through their borders. ”

“ It is melancholy to see these fine valleys given up to rank grass, and the ruined villages and plainly distinguishable fields lying in silent attestation of former prosperity. Every day I come to what was a busy city, but now only containing a few new houses inside walls which surround a wide space of ruins. But the people are returning gradually, and the blue smoke can be seen curling up here and there against the background of pine-clad hills. ”

“ Notwithstanding the dwarfed feet, the women walked to market three or four miles, carrying heavy loads, and seemed to think nothing of shouldering two buckets of water, slung to a bamboo. Every day our khyoung was besieged by crowds of beggars of all ages, from little ragged urchins to old men and women bent with age. Their rags and filth defied description, and sordid poverty in various degrees characterised all the wretched inhabitants of the ruined suburbs that surrounded the almost empty city. ”

“ The jungle grows to the very edge of the moat, affording complete cover for assailants, while the interstices of the fence afford abundant opportunities for intruding guns or spears. One would think that the selection of a site within the town, and near the Woon’s house, would have seemed to argue more confidence in the Burmese authorities, with whom the Resident should be in constant and friendly intercourse, in order to effectually look after the interests confided to him, without setting up an imperium in imperio over the Kakhyens of the hills. ”

“ The tsare-daw-gyee announced to Browne that we should certainly be attacked by the Chinese either that evening or on the march the next day. Some men were observed peering down from among the trees on the hill-brow, as if reconnoitring our position. The Burmese, who were collecting firewood, came running down as fast as they could, and the whole camp set up a fearful shout to scare the supposed enemies, who disappeared, and the excitement gradually subsided. ”

“ Outside the walls of the city the suburbs, or unwalled 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The decorating of her hair with sweet-smelling flowers, the powdering of her face, and the painting of her eyebrows, constituted however the chef-d’œuvre of her toilette, requiring constant appeals to the mirror to ensure its success. She then as a finishing stroke threw around her neck numerous strings of imitation pearl beads, which reached down to nearly the knee, and in each lobe of her ears inserted a solid cylinder either of gold, jade, or amber, called a nodoung. She then smoked a cheroot while unconcernedly awaiting her call. ”

“ The Woon, or governor of the town or district of Bhamô, was most zealous in carrying out the royal orders, and was personally most friendly. He was a short, elderly Burman, with prominent eyes and good face, whose chief occupation seemed to be incessantly muttering prayers, as he slid through his fingers the beads of the black amber rosary which he invariably carried. His principal wife and his children had been left in Mandalay as hostages for his good behaviour, according to the usual Burmese policy ”

“ This place, three days’ march north-west of Momien, is described as a town of one thousand houses, surrounded by a stone wall twenty feet high, and defended on one side by a deep stream, and altogether stronger and more flourishing than Momien. Its position must be at a high elevation, as in winter the swamps are frozen hard enough to bear men on the ice. ”

“ The old clothes of the deceased are laid on the mound, and sheroo is poured on it, the rest being drunk by the friends around it. In returning, the mourners strew ground rice along the path, and when near the village, they cleanse their legs and arms with fresh leaves. Before re-entering the house, all are lustrated with water by the toomsa with an asperge of grass, and pass over a bundle of grass sprinkled with the blood of a fowl sacrificed during their absence to the spirit of the dead. ”

“ It may seem fanciful to suggest ways and means of removing the difficulties of the route for a future trade; but the passage of a mission, or of future explorers of the interesting country beyond the Kakhyen hills, will be only thus made possible. The arrangements must be made with the Burmese and the Chinese; the Kakhyens, being only regarded [Pg 154] as outlying people, paid their dues, not from fear, but from generous justice; while they are sternly repressed, and taught their own insignificance and almost inutility. ”

“ Most of the matrons coil their hair in the folds of the Shan turban, but the original Chingpaw head-dress is a puggery of embroidered cloth, twisted round the head, while the end, fringed with beads, falls gracefully on the shoulder. Unmarried women wear no head-dress, and cut their hair square across the forehead in a fashion not unknown in England, while their back hair, unrestrained by any fastening, streams down behind. ”

“ In a short time it began to rain in torrents, and the roads became very slippery, especially for men carrying heavy loads, so that we soon went ahead of the porters. At the descent into the Nantin valley, the road was as if it had been well oiled. Ponies and pedestrians slid down the steep hill-path in wild confusion, many of the party coming to serious grief. A little Chinese girl, who had been presented to the jemadar and his wife, as a return for his exertions in the mosque services, accompanied us, tied in a small bamboo chair on a pony. ”

“ We continued along the right bank through the Nantin valley, the sides of which presented three distinctly marked river terraces, and, having forded the river, entered the little Shan town of Muangtee, or Myne-tee, one hundred and eight miles from Bhamô. The walls were crowded, and the short narrow street through which we passed was thronged with women and children. Very few men were visible, owing, as we were informed, to the incessant fighting, which had killed off most of the male population. ”

“ After remaining a night at Tsitkaw, he and his party descended the Tapeng by boat, and reached the Residency early in the forenoon. It can easily be imagined with what feelings we congratulated the first Englishman who had succeeded in traversing “the trade route of the future,” as he called it, and with what pleasant anticipations we heard of the accounts of his arduous but successful journey, and the reception accorded all along the line of route, crowned by the politeness shown by the dreaded Li-sieh-tai. The astonishment and admiration of the Burmese was even greater. ”

“ These defining mountains rose three thousand feet, and others of still greater height towered in the background, while a loftier range, running almost at right angles to them, crowned the far horizon. The level ground on either side of the river was parcelled out into innumerable rice fields, which, with the numerous villages situated on the higher undulations amid clumps of bamboo and fruit trees, attested the presence of a numerous and industrious population. ”

“ Every day both chiefs and [Pg 123] people from the more distant villages flocked in, and none came empty-handed. Gifts 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. ”

“ Leaving them highly delighted with a few bright silver coins and compliments, we remounted, and began a slippery descent through bamboo jungle, in which there was a fair chance of being impaled on the fallen stems, as the ponies slid down on their haunches, utterly unable to change their course. Having at least reached four thousand feet below Hoetone, we had to cross at the bottom a roaring mountain torrent by a newly constructed bridge. A large boulder lay in midstream, and two large bamboos were placed from it to the banks on either side, with smaller cross pieces to keep all secure ”

“ 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 Bhamô as an emporium of Chinese trade by the valley of the Shuaylee and the Muangmow route. ”

“ One of the buffaloes had been supplied by the Burmese, and the symbolic present of a pound of flesh, the acceptance of which signified consent, had been offered to and accepted by the tsare-daw-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. ”

“ Viewed from Muangla, the western range of the valley culminates in a bold precipitous mountain, frowning above the Tapeng, which comes down through a narrow gorge between it and the hills which rise behind the town, and wall the valley of the Tahô. ”