FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



all directions were strewn limestone fragments amid scanty herbage, 

 with here and there a cactus to give the scene a likeness to Africa. 

 The river alternated between broad reaches lapping sandy bars 

 and foaming rapids like the Mekong. The spectacle formed by 

 the misty spray of the cataracts was grand in the extreme. The 

 Salwen bore down on its bosom large trunks of trees which, caught 

 in the eddies, or held in the backwaters, accumulated in every 

 creek. The water had begun to rise. 



We continued on the 5th (July) the ascent of the same well- 

 wooded valley, passing a Lissou village, Oumelan, where the house- 

 walls were chiefly composed of horizontal logs, to which were hooked 

 wicker hen-roosts, and small wooden shelters for the pigs ; the lofts 

 were raised upon piles. On one post I perceived a coarse white 

 drawing of a quartered bird, no doubt intended, as among the 

 Hou-Nis, to ward off evil spirits. To our request for chickens, 

 answer was returned that there were none. As they were running 

 about in all directions, some moral suasion, backed by money, was 

 required to overcome the scruples of the owners. The site of our 

 camp would appear to have been a common one for wayfarers from 

 the smoke-blackened rocks. We were in a clearing beside a 

 leaping cascade ; behind, on the slope, rose a monster tree, whose 

 roots served as an arbour, and whose twigs made our couch. In 

 one corner Nam established his kitchen, by the light of a lamp of 

 antique shape ; a little farther Chantzeu, curled up among the roots, 

 sought oblivion of the world in opium ; below, the mafous were 

 stretched beside the packs. Under a white covering Sao nodded 

 over his pipe, and as he dreamed of the palms of Tonkin probably 

 consigned the whole celestial race to perdition — a sentiment which 

 I could cordially indorse. By the water's edge some logs irom the 

 mafous' fire still flickered, showing the philosophic Fa coiled in a 

 L 161 



