232 The Last of the Mekong 
when I was fairly stiffened in that bitter air, I slept by the 
fire. 
The women of the establishment, who chewed betel 
nut continuously, happily slept in a more substantial mud 
hut and left us in peace. Two small boys spoke Chinese 
quite well and took the opportunity of asking me for some 
Chinese cloth, that commodity representing the height of 
their desires, for the moment at any rate. They were 
dressed in thin white cotton garments of Shan make, both 
old and worn, which, though all very well in the day-time, 
were decidedly inadequate at night, so as I happened to 
have some yards of stout blue Chinese cloth, and they were 
nice friendly little urchins, | made them a present of it, to 
their unbounded delight. 
The cross-bow was as common here as amongst the 
tribes of the north, several being hung against the wall, 
and during our journey down the valley we daily met small 
children prowling about with these weapons, trying to 
ambush and annihilate still smaller birds, with very in- 
different success. 
Across the river was a sheer limestone cliff, and there, 
plainly engraved some thirty feet above the present level, 
was a water mark. What a scene it must be when it rains 
continuously for six months on the Tibetan plateau ! 
At the point where the river was divided, was a curious 
fishing apparatus erected close inshore on the narrower 
branch, just above the rapid. This consisted of a small 
stockade, some six feet square, built of stout tree-trunks, 
projecting a few feet above the surface of the water, 
and apparently filled with boulders to stiffen them against 
the rush of water. It looked indeed like a solid redoubt, 
but it was, as a matter of fact, open under water at the 
upper end, enclosing a hollow space through which the 
river swept like a mill-race. The exit at the lower end 
was more contracted, and from this opening trailed a 
wicker basket, something like a lobster-pot, into which 
any fish unfortunate enough to find themselves inside the 
stockade were inevitably swept. 
The path, still traversing a thin belt of jungle and 
crossing the rock-choked beds of numerous torrents, con- 
tinued close beside the river; but just below the rapid was 
