( 161 ) 



assist in the protection of his village, which had been threatened 

 with an attack from the powerful Oolone clan to the north. I declined 

 the invitation, under an excuse of want of time, but reciprocated his 

 expressions of friendship, and sent him a few pieces of cloth in 

 return for his presents. Moung Gnet stated that things had 

 already assumed a most warlike aspect, Lakwah had been enclosed 

 by a treble bamboo stockade, and that a hundred men (thirty Shans 

 and seventy Kakhyens) had arrived from Thanay, a village to the 

 south, to assist in the engagement ; he further added every prepara- 

 tion had been made for my reception, and in token of his esteem 

 and good feeling, the Tswabwa had bound himself to sacrifice a 

 buffalo on my arrival, and drink a portion of the blood with me 

 after washing our swords in the gore. This peculiar system of 

 sealing friendship is common with these mountaineers. 



278. The enmity between these people extended over five years, 

 the casus belli being the non-fulfilment of a monetary obligation 

 undertaken by the Oolone Tswabwa, but the exact nature of 

 the transaction I could not clearly ascertain. It appears that I 

 had been misinformed regarding the existence of Ficus elastica any- 

 where down this choung ; the tree is not even known to the people 

 in this vicinity. The shooting here was capital ; painted partridge, 

 peacock, jungle-fowl, peacock-pheasants, and hares being common 

 in the cotton-fields ; and up a backwater I bagged a Spatula dypenta, 

 Querquedula crecca, Ceryle rudis, Dendrocygna arcuata, and Plotus 

 melanogaster. Urocissa occipitalis continued to be seen, but I spared 

 him, having already three specimens of this lovely magpie, and he 

 was no use for the pot. I also shot a porcupine, a leopard-cat, and an 

 e\k(Eussa hippelaphus.) In the fieldsl notedOxaliscorniculata, Corchorus 

 capsularis, Triumfetta, Melochia, Corchorifolia, and Pintapetes phcenicca ; 

 the poppy is also extensively cultivated. I presented the Tswabwa 

 of Nyoungbintha and his son, and the Pomine and his son, with 

 white and red goung-boungs respectively. To the head-man of the 

 Shan portion of the community, I gave a piece of white cloth. The 

 night passed off quietly. 



279. Wednesday, 28th January 1874. — At 6 a.m. thermometer 

 47° ; up to 8 a.m. a dense fog, when we left our mooiings. For the 

 next few miles, the banks are of alternate layers of yellow and 

 blue clay, the hills continue to run parallel with the stream 

 at a distance of some miles, the water is beautifully clear, and the 

 bed of the river covered with pebbles of all shades and colours, 

 the current increasing in strength, and the channel narrowing to a 

 hundred feet. We were now hailed by a band of some fifty Kakhyens 

 asking if we had any goods to barter, but we took no notice of 

 them, and passed on. A little further on, is a group of Shan 



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