p 



THE LAND OF THE CROSSBOW 



141 



A GROUP OF LISSOO OF THE VILLAGE OF LO-MA-DI (SEE PAGE I45) 



ried across by his own weight and with 

 little or no exertion. On a single-rope 

 bridge, however, after having been 

 trussed by cords onto a runner, it is 

 necessary to haul one's self across hand 

 over hand ; as one is tied with face to the 

 sky and back to the water, this is a diffi- 

 cult operation. As the Salwin ropes are 

 made of very roughly twisted cane, there 

 is always the chance that the whole affair 

 will break in the middle, and the cer- 

 tainty in any case that one will arrive on 



the opposite side with hands full of pain- 

 ful splinters off the rope. 



After leaving Hsia-ku-de we found that 

 the country increased in wildness with 

 every march, and the inhabitants in 

 squalor, poverty, and barbarism. Every 

 village which we passed gave us terrify- 

 ing accounts of the ferocity and savagery 

 of the next, where we should infallibly 

 have our throats cut, etc. On the Lower 

 Salwin we had heard stories of people on 

 the upper river who never attempted to 



