112 On the Road to Batang— 
Everyone was out of doors. Processions of boys formed 
up and ran round the village, and so along the hill paths 
above the cultivated slopes, waving fire-brands and whirling 
round glowing sticks snatched from the torches. The prin- 
cipal Mohammedan merchants had decorated and lighted 
up the family altars, and engaged musicians to beat drums 
and cymbals to exorcise all the devils which had gathered 
during the year, and the din went on all night. Large 
grotesquely-swollen lanterns swung to and fro in the 
evening breeze, feasting was carried on till a late hour, 
and everybody got very drunk in honour of the White 
King. Altogether it was a most successful carouse. 
Next day we started for the pass on the road to Pang- 
tsi-la, as I wanted to climb the lower slopes of Pei-ma-shan, 
the big snow-mountain on this watershed. The difference 
of climate should, I thought, make a great difference to the 
flora, but here I was mistaken, as it subsequently turned 
out. The same plants flowered on the Pei-ma-shan range 
one or two months earlier than on the mountains in the 
immediate neighbourhood of A-tun-tsi, and though in the 
course of time the cumulative effects of this early flowering 
may differentiate the floras of the two districts—distant 
only six miles as the crow flies—by bringing them into 
contact with different sets of insect visitors, I did not 
observe that this had as yet happened. 
It was beautiful weather when we left, but it was not 
long before we got fairly into the rainy region, and drench- 
ing showers fell throughout the day. Riding along in front 
of the slowly-moving line of porters, thoroughly wet and 
chilly, I watched for my friends the animals, and noted the 
changes in the vegetation as we ascended. I saw a fine 
badger, in spite of the daylight, dash out from the forest, 
and later a chipmunk running about in a tree, but there 
was little else and birds were as usual scarce. 
There were many beautiful shrubs in flower, however 
—Viburnums, pink and white roses and hydrangeas, and 
various species of Prunus, Rzbes, and Rubus, with great 
splashes of white clematis trailing everywhere, and by the 
torrents a rich undergrowth of ferns, including the maiden- 
hair. Tall purple-flowered meadow-rues and brilliant blue 
monkshoods grew by the wayside, and on the drier 
