( 91 ) 



was a marked feature in the character of these people, they care- 

 fully examined everything about me ; the lightness of my sold- 

 topee was not only wondered at, but the elastic sides to my boots 

 struck them dumb ; and when I pulled out one of the rubber 

 threads, and explained, through an interpreter, that this was only 

 one of the many uses to which we put caoutchouc, they gave a 

 significant look at one another, and the silence that followed for 

 a few minutes was first broken by a couple of old hags pulling 

 away at my trousers, to test — I presume — whether these were 

 elastic also : fortunately I had braces on. I was told that the 

 Ficus elastica was not known in the mountains to the east of Bhamo, 

 but that a stray tree here and there was to be met with, in villages 

 skirting the foot of the hills : — evidently these must have been 

 planted. 



168. The Tswabwa or chief of the party, was a middle-aged man, 



and wore a disagreeable, cadaverous 

 ^Tbe Tswabwa of the Latoung expression, and never opened his 



mouth throughout the interview, until 

 just towards the last, he proclaimed himself Tswabwa of the Latoung 

 hill, and invited me up to his village, some thirty miles distant, 

 guaranteeing perfect safety to myself and people. I had to decline 

 the invitation, however, for the journey would have occupied a 

 longer time than I could spare, as it was quite uncertain when the 

 steamer would arrive. Subsequently I learnt it was within this 

 man's Tswabwaship, that a Governor was killed not many years ago ; 

 but the stigma still remains, and is told as a lasting disgrace against 

 this tribe. There is little doubt, however, but that these savages 

 were goaded on to the crime by acts of official tyranny, which are of 

 such common occurrence as to have engendered a lasting and most 

 bitter feeling of hatred between the two tribes, to which may 

 be traced in most cases, the frightful rnurders and outrages commit- 

 ted by the Kakhyens. Even in the matter of barter, they get 

 most unjustly imposed on by the Burmese, and seldom receive half 

 the real value of their goods. Though an uncivilized, wild people, 

 they are not ignorant of this fact, and seek the first opportunity to 

 repay themselves by raids and plunder. I once was told by a Ka- 

 khyen, that he was always careful to press down in the scales what- 

 ever he purchased from a Burnian, in the same manner that they 

 compressed into the smallest space whatever they obtained from 

 them. Though I attempted to explain to the poor fellow, the 

 delusion under which he was labouring, and the object the Bur- 

 man had in purchasing by bulk and selling by weight, he persisted 

 in being satisfied with his own coup de maitre. 



