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and return, but no — there was yet a little further distance to be 

 accomplished, and I stimulated the boatmen by a promise of an 

 extra day's pay all round. This had a good effect, and they buckled 

 to their task with double vigour. Another couple of hours' labour 

 brought us to Muntgoung ; and here their troubles were at an end. 

 Here the river divides into two great arms, — that to the east being 

 considerably the larger, but the rapids forbid further progress, 

 though for boats of lighter draft, I believe, the channel is navigable 

 for miles further north. I found that Muntgoung and the last three 

 hamlets were mere temporary abodes, having preserved the names 

 of their permanent homes in the mountains. The Lapees are a 

 clan of the Manloo branch of the great Thainbow tribe. In costume, 

 customs, and mode of living, they are identical with the clan ; but 

 evidently they are poorer and much more filthy in their person, 

 neither men nor women ever seemed to have combed their hair, 

 which is cut square over the forehead, and at the back, allowed to hang 

 in clotted masses about the shoulders. None of the women we met 

 had jewellery of any sort, their adornments consisted of wood and 

 grass ornaments manufactured by themselves. A marked peculi- 

 arity about this clan is that the women are tatooed in bands from 

 the ankle to the knee ; but not the men. The few hamlets we had 

 noticed on the river's banks, were occupied by parties who had come 

 to catch fish, which they smoke — dry, and take back to their 

 homes. They both spear and net the fish, the former operation 

 being performed at night by torch-light, which attracts the fish 

 in large numbers, and render them easy prey ; the netting pro- 

 cess consists in holding a net (made from the twine of urtica nivea, 

 which is common about here) across a portion of the rapid and 

 temporarily damming up the remaining half with stones, which is 

 also guarded by men with spears, who harpoon any fine specimen 

 that attempts to fly the barricade in its struggles. Our boats had 

 hardly been made fast when the whole of Mount Toung, armed up 

 to the teeth, came to the river-bank ; they seated themselves in a 

 line, and remained perfectly quiet, apparently awaiting to see what 

 would be our next move. They were not kept long in suspense, for 

 I ordered a huge bonfire, round which we all sat chatting up to a 

 very late hour : this I considered the wisest plan to divert their at- 

 tention from mischief, for they looked ugly customers, and I should 

 not have been surprised, had they troubled us before morning ; at 

 present they were all civility, and sent for nuts of a castanea for me, 

 which they said grow within a stone's throw of us. They spoke of 

 their homes as being three days' journey from here in a north-east 

 direction, and described the climate as colder throughout the year 

 than what it was here at this season, but they made no mention of 



