THE LAND OF THE CROSSBOW 



139 



monkeys, Lissoo, or other creatures gifted 

 with more prehensile feet than a Euro- 

 pean. 



MAGNIFICENT SCENERY 



Poisonous-looking scarlet fruits hang 

 from the overarching jungle, lianes and 

 tree-roots trip up the unwary traveler ; 

 if he clutches the nearest plant to save 

 himself the chances are it is a stinging 

 nettle of the size of a laurel and poisonous 

 in proportion. In some places especiallv 

 around their maize fields, the natives pro- 

 vide a further diversion in the shape of 

 ''pan-ji." These are sharp-pointed, fire- 

 hardened pieces of bamboo, which are 

 driven into the ground among the grass, 

 and will, if trodden upon, pierce even 

 through a leather boot and deep into the 

 foot. It is only when the traveler, 

 scratched, bruised, and with torn cloth- 

 ing, emerges on a quiet sand bank by the 

 river, or on to some open terrace high 

 above it, and finds the campfire lighted, 

 the tents pitched, and a pailful of hot 

 water ready for a bath, that he begins to 

 think exploring the Salwin a game worth 

 the candle. 



The vegetation in that part of the 

 country is almost as great a nuisance as 

 the insects. Every sort of seed attaches 

 itself to one's person ; some are provided 

 Avith hooks, others with natural gum, 

 others pierce the skin or work down 

 imder one's socks. An hour's march 

 leaves the traveler caked with the seeds 

 of enough plants to form the material of 

 a work on the methods of the natural 

 dispersal of flora. 



But the scenery of the Upper Salwin 

 can never be forgotten by any one who 

 has wondered at it in the rich sunshine 

 which prevails after the autumn rains 

 have given way to the first touch of win- 

 ter. The great variety of rock formation, 

 the abundant forests and vegetation, and 

 the diversity of light eiTects between the 

 summits of the ranges at lo.ooo to 13.000 

 feet and the abyss in which the river flows 

 produce a vast panorama of ever-chang- 

 ing beauty. In the morning the sun, as it 

 touches the top of the Mekong divide, 

 sends wide shafts of turquoise light down 



the side gullies to the river, which seems 

 to be transformed into silver. The pines 

 along the tops of the ridges stand out as 

 if limned by the hand of a Japanese artist. 

 In the evening all the wide slojjes of the 

 Mekong side are flooded with red and 

 orange lights which defy descri])tion or 

 photography and would be the despair of 

 even a Turner. The traveler whose for- 

 tune it has been to explore the great rivers 

 of this our northeast Indian frontier will 

 admit that the Salwin. while it is inhos- 

 pitable, difficult, and barbarous, far excels 

 in natural beauty all the valleys of the 

 sister rivers, the Yangtze, the Mekong, 

 and the Irrawadi. 



OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE CROSSBOW 



Continuing our march from the sand 

 bank below No-li-ka, 7 miles from Pei-pa, 

 we toiled up a steep slope to the terrace 

 and village of Shih-chi-di, 1.500 feet 

 above the river ; here we had a good re- 

 ception from the Lissoo, deputations from 

 several villages round oft'ering us small 

 presents of eggs and rice. From this 

 point northward the people were clad in 

 the Lissoo style, and few or none could 

 speak Chinese. 



On clearing the top of a ridge we 

 found ourselves confronted by a number 

 of warriors with huge crossbows, headed 

 by the local "ni pa" (prophet or medicine 

 man). He produced a paper scrawled 

 over with rude imitations of Chinese 

 characters, and declared he had received 

 instructions from heaven to go and kill 

 somebody, and that he thought the head- 

 man of Cheng-ka was the most suitable 

 person, but he desired our advice. We 

 strongly recommended him to go hoiue 

 and see to the grinding of his maize crop. 



All along the road we met a number 

 of warriors hastening to follow the 

 prophet to Cheng-ka, but they were far 

 from wishing to molest us ; indeed, sev- 

 eral of them left the warpath to escort 

 us on our way, and, after seeing a 

 twelve-shot repeating Winchester rifle 

 fired, desired our alliance and assistance 

 in the projected raid on Cheng-ka. 



After leaving our bellicose friends' we 

 crossed another gullv to Hsia-ku-de. a 



