THE LAND OF THE CROSSBOW 



153 



THREE WOMEN OE PU-MU-TOU (SEE PAGE 1 48) 

 The central figure has her arms withdrawn from sleeves to within gown 



range are uninhabited, and why this 

 mountain barrier is an ethnographical 

 boundary between the Lissoo and Kachin 

 races. 



On this pass, as at many other places 

 on our journey, we saw several moulder- 

 ing skeletons by the sides of the path- 

 ways, victims either of the famine of the 

 previous season or of a savage temper 

 and a crossbow. The Lissoo have a 

 superstitious terror of human remains 

 and give them a wide berth. In the 

 afternoon, after crossing the pass, we 

 made good way along the top of a well- 

 defined winding spur which rose up from 

 the Salwin. Descending to 8,600 feet, 

 we camped at the small Lissoo village 

 of Lu-po, from which place the pass 

 derives its name, after a march of 15 

 miles. 



The next day, when, by a break-neck 

 descent on a slippery declivity, we 



reached the Salwin at 3.700 feet, near the 

 village of U-a-lo, we found that three of 

 its enterprising inhabitants had just made 

 a rude raft of bamboos, loosely tied to- 

 gether, and were prepared to take our 

 ] arty across. As the ship could only 

 carry two men and two loads in a jour- 

 ney, and as the Lissoo do not shine as 

 watermen, the crossing was not com- 

 pleted by nightfall. Next morning the 

 crossing was hurried to a finish, as we 

 were becoming seriously alarmed at the 

 inroads fever was making in our little 

 party, exhausted by the labors of a fly- 

 ing march ; two very bad cases had to be 

 carried on the backs of two of our 

 coolies, and our stock of drugs was soon 

 exhausted. Luckily we got through 

 without the loss of a single life, and by 

 forced marches returned to our »base 

 camp, near Lu-chang, on December i, in 

 good spirits if in ragged clothes. 



