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represent a thumb, which the word signifies. Mango, jack, cocoa- 

 nut, areca, Bixa orellana, Crotalaria, and Jatropa are common about 

 the village. Disturbed at night by shouts and reports of guns, 

 which turned out to be the villagers in pursuit of a tiger that had 

 just carried off a child. This caused a great panic amongst my 

 people, who begged to be allowed a shot at the crowd, imagining 

 they were Kakhyens running off with plunder. Slight shower of 

 rain at 9 a.m. 



219. Wednesday, 14th January 1874. — Thermometer 55° at 6 a.m. ; 

 dense fog up to 7 a.m., when we started. Pulled up at 9 a.m. on 

 the right bank for quarter of an hour, to have a chat with the 

 Picons of Kowmea. They were remarkably civil, frank, and open 

 in their conversation. Their cultivation is conducted on the 

 tonngya system. The Burmese authorities demand from them a 

 house-tax of Es. 10 per annum, and the Kakhyens levy black- 

 mail in proportion to their profits, which resolves itself into an 

 unlimited demand. The acts of the Burmese authorities are 

 spoken of as unjust and oppressive, and even more dreaded than 

 the raids of the wild mountaineers. During the rains, I am told, 

 the roar from the mountain torrents on either side is deafening, 

 and the river often rises in a night forty feet, but the floods are not 

 of long duration. This is quite probable, when the difference in 

 width of the defile and open river is contemplated. My breech- 

 loader and revolver were objects of admiration and wonderment, 

 especially the six-shooter, which I discharged at their request, and 

 surprised them still more by saying the process could be kept up 

 ad infinitum ! This variation from facts must be pardoned and accept- 

 ed as a diplomatic official romance. The interior of a Pwon's house 

 is remarkably tidy and clean, considering the style of life the poor 

 wretches lead. It is entirely a bamboo building raised six feet off 

 the ground, a notched piece of timber serving as steps. The walls 

 and flooring are of split bamboos, the roof is thatched with a sac- 

 charum, and semicircular gables serve as a covering to the balcony 

 in front and rear of the house. This type of building is peculiarly 

 Shan. Never more than one family occupies a house : in this respect 

 the Pivons notedly differ from the Kakhyens and other mountain- 

 eers. Later on in the day, I visited some Shan hamlets. The 

 female costume of the people is that of a Burman woman's, with 

 the addition of a cloth round the head, and a -girdle ; the men, 

 however, wear loose white trousers down to the knee, a huge brim- 

 med straw hat (some of which are remarkably fine and costly), and 

 are tatooed from the ankle up to the waist, and very often up to the 

 breast. They are a remarkably fair race, with broad flat features, 



