THE BANTING IN UPPER BURMA 



valley tsine are more numerous than elsewhere ; there 

 must be something in the nature of the ground or jungle 

 growth which attracts them, but to one's own perception 

 the prairie land appears the same for miles. Taking 

 my two elephants, with sufficient of the necessaries of 

 life, such as tinned vegetables, curry powder, oil, etc., to 

 last for about three weeks, I leave my headquarters and 

 proceed down the river to a village, opposite which I shall 

 strike off into the tsine country. The distance to this 

 village is about thirty miles, so that the journey takes 

 me three days, camping nightly at some village en route. 

 Arrived at my destination, I make arrangements to get 

 a hunter or " mokso " (as he is known in Burma) who 

 knows the jungles well ; there still remain a few " moksos " 

 (to call these individuals hunters would quite rob them 

 of their individuality) from Burmese times, for since the 

 occupation of Upper Burma by the British all guns have 

 been withdrawn from the natives, and thus the extinction 

 of the species " mokso " is almost complete, and there is 

 difficulty in finding any of the old school. Starting at 

 daybreak, the kit is ferried across the river, whilst the 

 elephants swim. A swimming elephant is a curious sight, 

 the animal appearing to float rather than swim, nothing 

 but the highest ridge of the back being visible, whilst 

 occasionally the trunk is protruded to draw in air. But 

 to proceed on our journey. We take a Chin path, which 

 is merely a jungle track used by Chins on their way from 

 and to their hills during the cold season, when they come 

 into the valley to sell ginger-root, plantains, and other 

 produce of their hill country to the Burmans, and return 

 with the produce of the valley, such as dried fish and 

 cotton goods. They frequently purchase, or sometimes 

 steal, buffaloes, which they drive back to their hills, and 

 kill on some feast-day, amid copious libations of liquor 

 distilled from hill rice. Up to the foot of the hills, a 

 distance of about nine miles from the river, the path is 

 exceedingly good, winding in such a manner as to avoid 

 nullahs and broken ground, and yet take the nearest 



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