TSEKOU TO KHAMTI 



interested by a long flight of white butterflies in line, which dipped 

 and hovered with marshalled regularity on their course. I thought 

 of the Burmese belief that they are the souls of human beings dead 

 or asleep. If the latter, they would be able to take back with them 

 a strange dream, — of a forsaken country ; of three Europeans toiling 

 painfully with many falls along a torrent bed enclosed in dim 

 forests ; at the head of a small band of men clad in grey blouses to 

 their knees, with loads on their backs, yet still from time to time 

 breaking into song ; followed by a set of half-naked savages adorned 

 with large black wigs, some with foreheads pressed hard against 

 the strap that sustained the burden on their necks, and others 

 moving free. Or would the vision be to them but that of pur- 

 gatory, — of hapless ones condemned to unrespited struggles through 

 misery to paradise afar ? 



Mountain rice culture besan to be visible in clearinsfs of the 

 woods, and felled trees laid horizontally here and there assisted the 

 path ; elsewhere, trunks left standing served as miradors above 

 small granaries like bee-hives upon posts. As we drew near to 

 habitations averting emblems reappeared, and we noted a fenced 

 elliptical tomb on which were deposited an earthen vessel, a tube, 

 and some calcined bones. The last suggested the possibility of 

 cremation among the Kioutses of this district. A sword in its 

 sheath hung upon a post, but the weapon was of wood. Examining 

 the representation of articles of which the deceased might have 

 need, I called to mind the graves of South America and ancient 

 Egypt, where are found figures of slaves intended for the service of 

 the departed. These taphic observances could not but attest the 

 resemblance, sundered by many thousands of miles and years, 

 between those of the people of the Pharaohs, the Redskins in 



America, and these savages of the Irawadi. 



301 



