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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



brious epithets was maintained, but nei- 

 ther side got farther than swearing and 

 stringing bows until the time arrived for 

 the afternoon meal, when the combatants 

 dispersed to their respective homes. 



Ji-Ji was the last village on the path 

 leading up to the Mekong-Salwin divide, 

 which we now determined to cross. On 

 the evening of November 13 we made 

 good way into the mountains, marching 

 along an easy but narrow path through 

 woods high above a feeder of the Sal- 

 win. Camp was pitched 4 miles from 

 the river, under a large rock overhanging 

 the path, which gave the men some shel- 

 ter from the damp of the forest, and 

 early next day we negotiated the pass. 



Crossing the head of the stream, above 

 which we had marched the day before, 

 a long and steep but not difficult ascent 

 through bamboo and pines brought us 

 out on an open alp at 10,500 feet. Hence 

 a climb by a rocky path took us up on 

 to a bare, wind-swept col which forms 

 the pass at 12,500 feet, 20 miles from the 

 Salwin. 



Unluckily mist was being blown along 

 the ridge and this obscured our view, but 

 several bare limestone peaks were seen, 

 rising 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the pass. 

 The men were all benumbed by the in- 

 tense cold, and at the first sheltered spot, 

 some 500 feet below the summit, we lit 

 a roaring fire of bamboos and enjoyed, 

 so far as the mist allowed us, an im- 

 mense view of the Lichiang and Tali 

 prefectures beyond the Mekong. In the 

 afternoon we got on to a convenient but 

 steep spur and made rapid progress down 

 toward the Mekong; we camped in a 

 wood at 9,400 feet after a march of 15 

 miles. We were over 5.000 feet above 

 the Mekong and some 20 to 25 miles north 

 of the Chinese market of Ying-pan, situ- 

 ate on the left or east bank of the river. 

 This is a salt bazaar and the center for 

 all the petty trade between the Minchia 

 inhabitants of the Mekong and the wild 

 Lissoo, and there we intended to replen- 

 ish our exhausted commissariat. 



Turning south we found an excellent 

 high-level road, by which, on the after- 



noon of November 16, after a 25-mile 

 march, we reached the mud-built Min- 

 chia village of Pu-mu-tou, 7,500 feet 

 altitude, from which Ying-pan bazaar 

 could be seen dimly across the river far 

 below us. 



The people of Pu-mu-tou, at first ap- 

 prehensive that we had something to do 

 with the Yamen, soon became friendly, 

 and brought fowls, eggs, and a pig for 

 sale. Also some of our men were sent 

 down to the market next day and re- 

 turned laden with supplies ; therefore we 

 were again in a position to face the ter- 

 rors of the foodless Salwin, and the head- 

 man of Pu-mu-tou volunteered to guide 

 us up to the divide by a different pass 

 from that by which we had come on 

 condition that we would not expect him 

 to approach any of the villages of those 

 "terrible, wild Lissoo." 



This part of the Mekong differs widely 

 from the Salwin valley in the same lati- 

 tude. Instead of sharp crags and cliffs 

 of limestone, dense semi-tropical jungles, 

 extensive forests, and wild Lissoos with 

 their poisoned arrows, we viewed a 

 peaceful scene of wide, bare, cultivated 

 slopes of clay or disintegrated sandstone, 

 shelving down in terraces to the river 

 below. The basin of the Mekong at this 

 point is twice the breadth of the Salwin, 

 though the altitude of the latter river 

 is 1,000 feet less. The people, like the 

 scenery, are altogether less wild than on 

 the Salwin. The houses of mud brick 

 are built into village streets, instead of 

 being scattered about over the hillside. 

 Large villages of 50 to 100 houses occupy 

 all the good sites where water is avail- 

 able for rice irrigation. 



In customs, dress, mode of life — in 

 fact, in everything but in language and 

 race — these people are, to all intents and 

 purposes, Chinese. They are too far off 

 from their "father and mother," the 

 Lichiang official, to be troubled much by 

 Yamen underlings, Lichiang being dis- 

 tant eight long mountain stages. They 

 live, if not a strenuous, at least a peace- 

 ful and not unprosperous life, and, being 

 far more industrious in cultivation and 



