SSUMAO TO TALI 



deteriorated into gravel and loose stones, among which the mules 

 fell about a good deal. In the glittering sands formed by the 

 detrition of the felspar granite Nam thought he had found gold, 

 to Sao's derision when it proved but mica. By midday we had 

 ascended to a narrow terrace on which we baited. The packs 

 were ranged round the edge like a parapet, within which the 

 men, mostly stripped to the waist, bestirred themselves to hang 

 the big pot and the general tea-kettle upon forked sticks over the 

 crackling fire, where presently the rice began to bubble. In a 

 corner Nam turned a leg of mutton on a bamboo spit, and some 

 natives with an offering of honey sat silent by watching our 

 every movement over their pipes. The scene had for outlook 

 the whole valley of the Mekong, with crests and curves and pine 

 woods of its middle distance swellinof further to larger heights 

 that towered on the horizon into a fleecy cloudland. The effect 

 was the grander from the drop which met the eye sharp off our 

 brink into the bottom far below. We found the flora richer as 

 we advanced ; beside pine, walnut, and peach trees grew the 

 plantain, pomegranate, and palm, and on the trunks of the hardy 

 northerners clung that beautiful creeper called Manolerra deliciosa, 

 which I had first seen in Ceylon. Birds flew among the branches, 

 and afforded varied subjects to the collector's gun. We heard of 

 peacocks even in this latitude. It was an amusing sight of an 

 evening to watch the flocks of paroquets homing in the big 

 trees by some pagoda, the first arrivals calling with shrill clamour 

 to the belated ones as they hurried in from the depths of the 

 woods. 



On the nth (May) we entered the region of Mong Ma, whose 

 people were chiefly Pai', as evidenced at the approach to the large 

 village of Ta-tse-kai by the lozenge - shaped bamboo erections 



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