( 102 ) 



astonished at the shortness of its course from where it first quits 

 its mountain home, to its discharge into the Irrawaddy. Either 

 bank has long since been denuded of all arborescent growth, with 

 the exception of a few Bombax, Fici, Dipterocarpus grandiflora, and 

 Erythrina, which are scattered here and there over the extensive 

 belt of Saccharum spontaneum that extends to some distance inland 

 on both sides of the river. These vast savannahs are annually 

 flooded by the overlap of the Taping, and utilized for rice culture, 

 but not to the same extent as of old, when this productive plain was 

 densely populated. The traces of old cultivation are everywhere to 

 be seen, and the sites of the numerous deserted villages still dis- 

 tinguishable by the orchards and groves of plantains which, from 

 neglect, have long since ceased to fruit or flower. The origin of 

 the decline and depopulation of the country, the people attribute 

 to the repeated raids of the Kakhyens, whose acts of ravage and 

 plunder were, and still continue to be, passed unnoticed by the 

 Government. There is no question of this being the true cause, 

 nor is proof wanting up to the present day of the absence of pro- 

 tection to life and property in Upper Burma. In many of the more 

 recently abandoned paddy-fields, I found the land over-grown with 

 plants of the Zingiberacece order, and also noticed Portidaca obracea, 

 Viola batrinii, Gynandropcis benlaphylla, and a wild insipid straw- 

 berry (Fragraria indica). 



185. Tseekaw is situated on the right bank of the river ; it con- 

 p m , tains a mixed population of Shan-Bur- 



Village of Tseekaw. i en m i 1 i u 



mese and bhan-lalokes, and numbers 

 about ahundred and fifty houses, the whole being enclosed inadouble 

 bamboo stockade. The houses are slightly different to those I have 

 hitherto seen ; each has a large balcony in front with a bamboo 

 trellis or mat parapet, about three feet high. Mr. Mason tells me 

 this is the usual style of building common to Toungoo — a part of Bri- 

 tish territory I regret not having seen. Within a separate enclo- 

 sure, but only a few yards distant, the Chinese have established a 

 small community of their own, and erected cotton godowns, and a 

 shamshoo distillery ; they also carry on an extensive business in salt, 

 which is bartered for other articles. The Burmese law regarding 

 the slaughter of cattle and sale of liquor are, I believe, equally 

 rigid ; the former is in a measure observed here, but the latter 

 openly, disregarded, and liquor sold to any one who can pay for it. 

 The result is, that the Kakhyens are fast becoming dissatisfied with 

 their own brews of rice-toddy, and spend all they have in this highly- 

 intoxicating liquor, under the influence of which, generally their 

 most desperate deeds are committed. It is quite a common occur- 



