SSUMAO TO TALI 



small yellow immortelle, which grew in quantities, for food ; the 

 flower, leaves, and stalk were thrown into a pot, boiled till soft, 

 and eaten. 



Villages became thicker along the dale as we advanced. A 

 Chinese horseman, followed by a tattered soldier bearing his pipe 

 and red visiting-card portfolio, joined us on the road and showed 

 us the way. He proved to be the chief of the district of 

 Linguen. His voice was rougher than his manners, and through 

 his instrumentality we enjoyed a degree of relative comfort in 

 our next quarters at Chang-lin-gang, to which we had long been 

 strangers. 



May opened propitiously for us in the midst of the most 

 delightful scenery and climate. We were at this time traversing 

 a valley of which the northern slope a little above us rose in an 

 abrupt scarp like a lofty green wall. The panorama, unfolded 

 before each successive eminence, gave us an admirable idea of the 

 lay of the land. The Mekong flowed only a mile or so away, 

 on our right. Between this valley and that of an affluent of the 

 Salwen stood a range of low hills, and we were surprised to find 

 so unimposing a barrier between two such large neighbour rivers. 

 In the course of our stage on the 2nd (May) to Pochan we 

 passed an extensive cemetery in which all the tombs lay facing 

 east, with their entries to the south ; they had the appearance of 

 a herd of crouching: animals, oreat and grim. At Pochan, which 

 is a large Chinese village at a part where the valley widens 

 almost to a plain, we found Roux arrived only a few hours 

 before from Tapong, after a successful excursion among the Pais 

 of Mong-pan and Mong-ka. 



We reached Mienning on the 3rd (May), pitched, like 



Ssumao, on rising ground, and surrounded by grey battlements. 



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