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with an air of indifference ; but I soon found they had the desired 

 effect, and that to have gone empty-handed would have been fatal 

 to my object. Elsewhere I have explained, this rank is only 

 bestowed on the more cunning of the priesthood, who are calculated 

 to make good spies, and all royal mandates of a confidential 

 nature are issued through this channel. Talo contains fifty-two 

 houses and a large houng built of sal, the posts being twenty feet 

 above the ground, and 2*25 feet in diameter, It has a mixed 

 population of Shan-Burmans and Kakhyens, who in this instance 

 are allowed to live within the stockade, and are well paid for their 

 protection. The phoongyee spoke of the aversion these moun- 

 taineers have to water, and corroborated what I had previously 

 heard regarding their waging war with this element, whenever one 

 of the tribe is drowned — a ceremony already spoken of. There are 

 four Ficus elastica trees here, each twenty years old ; they are 

 annually tapped, and the caoutchouc sent to Mandalay. No reliable 

 information could be obtained regarding the yield. The juice is 

 collected by driving pen-shaped bamboos into the extremity of the 

 diagonal cuts which extend to the depth of the mesophlamm : the 

 vessels filled ; coalescence is brought about by exposing the liquid 

 to the direct rays of the sun, or more commonly, by placing it in an 

 earthen pot over a slow fire ; neither of these processes, however, 

 unassisted by pressure gives good results, for the coagulum is seldom 

 free from small cells which retain a portion of the aqueous solu- 

 tion, resulting in rapid decomposition of the rubber, and mate- 

 rially decreases its market value. I am told by the phoongyee, that 

 the Ficus elastica flowers here towards the end of March, and the 

 seeds ripen in May. He also gives as his experience that seedlings 

 will not grow beneath the parent trees, and that the most success- 

 ful way of rearing plants is by throwing the seeds on some old 

 thatched house, or in the recess of a Platyceriumwallichu. Obtained 

 the phoongyee's permission to make an excursion into the Kakhyen 

 hills to the west, and received the promise of a Kakhyen Tswabwa as 

 a guide, a few of the same tribe as coolies, and a guarantee of pro- 

 tection for my boats during my absence. Arranged to start the next 

 morning at 10 a.m. About midnight I was awoke by my inter- 

 preter, with a message from the phoongyee, saying he wished to 

 see us alone ! It was a strange hour to ask for an interview, and I 

 apprehended treachery, but determining to face the danger, what- 

 ever it might be, I buckled on my revolver under my coat, and met 

 the priest with disguised suspicion. He was quite alone, and seated 

 in a distant corner of the monastery lighted by a dimly -burning 

 oil lamp ; we were motioned to be seated, a profound silence of a 

 few minutes then followed, when he beckoned my interpreter near 



