FAUNA AND FLORA, RATBURI, PETCHABURI. 139 
at a surveyors camp situated in a deep gorge at the head of the Hue 
Maa Pradohn. The surveyor had a live larder containing peacock- 
pheasants and hill partridges. He had also the skin of a very rare cat, 
Prionodon maculosus (the Burmese Linsang), which had been trapped 
after several raids on the penned birds. The skin was subsequently 
lost in the floods. The following night I slept at a Trig. station above 
the camp, elevation 1150 metres. Heavy rain fell that night, and the 
following morning the view was exquisite—the whole valley of the 
Bang Kloi being a sea of white cloud with the higher ridges and peaks 
showing up as dark green islands. To the Hast the Gulf of Siam was 
Just visible. Descending Westwards from here was very bad going, 
and a couple of days were spent in searching the numerous ravines for 
anything like a human track leading up to the ‘“‘ House at the Heart of 
the World” (Ban Chai Paan Din). We arrived there on the 24th 
April, very curious to see this solitary Karang household and eager to 
buy rice, of which the Trig. party had reported there was a large sup- 
ply. The husband was away, and neither the wife nor a dirty youth 
(alleged to be an ‘angel’ with a knowledge of all languages) could 
speak Siamese. The j lace certainly surprised me, being situated on a 
slight spur jutting out from a small flat-topped range of some 800 
metres elevation. On a cleared space was a “ bawt ” or temple, and 
near it a small “wihan,” together with a couple of buildings not usually 
found in Buddhist places of worship, viz :—to the North of the “bawt” 
a small rectangular building for the male ‘‘ chao” or spirit and to the 
South, one for the female—the latter being some 8 feet square and 
perched on the top of a 6 feet pole, access being had by a ladder. 
‘Around these buildings the ground was perfectly cleared of weeds, and 
flowering trees and shrubs had been planted and clipped for ornament. 
From this point a splendid view of the mountain ranges to the Kast 
was Obtained. The following day the owner, Palloogaw, returned, a 
tall Karang with a heavy moustache. He could speak a little Siamese, 
and sold me a quantity of rice and chickens—the only Karang in the 
whole of Petchaburi who had rice for sale. On my asking him how he 
had found this spot for his abode, Palloogaw replied that the “chao” 
had told him of the spot in a dream ; but I afterwards found out that 
he himself was reared at Lum Sai on the Quaa Noi River, and had lived 
here with his wife for the past 22 years, her parents having migrated 
from Tennasserim, the boundary being only two miles distant. The 
