THE LAND OF THE CROSSBOW 



155 



a number of tribal subdivisions — a source 

 of constant feuds. The Chinese official 

 theory that the country belongs to the 

 hereditary Alinchia chief "Lo," who re- 

 sides at Tu-wo, latitude 26° 8' north, on 

 the Mekong, has no foundation what- 

 ever; in fact, on the contrary, no sort of 

 official person would dare to go any- 

 where near the countr}'. 



The villages are nearly all at war with 

 one another ; few of the people have ever 

 in their lives been more than a day's 

 journey from their own huts; suspicion, 

 rumor, and terror sit enthroned among 

 those limestone ridges. It is almost im- 

 possible to get a guide, and quite impos- 

 sible to get any accurate information 

 about routes, distances, and such de- 

 tails. None of these wild Lissoo ever 

 seem to have asked whence the River 

 Salwin, which occupies so large a place 

 in their lives, comes or whither it goes, 

 or what is at the back of the great ranges 

 which confine their view of the world. 

 The object of each little community 

 seems to be to keep its neighbors at a 

 distance. 



The people are also exceedingly lazy. 

 In the spring they do a few day's work 

 in scraping a patch of soil just large 

 enough to yield subsistence, and in plant- 

 ing their maize, the site of the patch 

 being changed yearly. Then in early Oc- 

 tober they put in a few day's more work 

 getting in their crop and cutting their 

 hemp, or looking after their tobacco 

 patch. All the rest of their lives is spent 

 in eating, sleeping, and squatting round 

 the hearth, varied by a rare expedition 

 to obtain wood for a crossbow, poison 

 for their arrows, or a stock of salt or 

 wild honey. Under these conditions it 

 is not surprising that, in spite of the 

 sparseness of the population and the 

 great extent of land suitable for maize 

 and other cultivation, famine is of fre- 

 quent occurrence. 



WILD HONEY FOR FOOD 



Rice is a luxury ; coarsely ground 

 maize, buckwheat, and wild honey are 

 the staple food of the people. Where we 

 passed along there were practically no 



domestic animals or fowls, as they had 

 all been killed during the famine of the 

 previous season. Wild honey as a change 

 is an agreeable sweetmeat, but after a 

 few days constantly partaking of it the 

 European palate rejects it as nauseous 

 and almost disgusting. Our experience 

 extended over a fortnight, during which 

 period our food consisted solely of it and 

 maize. It has escaped the Biblical com- 

 mentators that one of the principal hard- 

 ships that John the Baptist must have 

 undergone was his diet of wild honey. 



A draughty hut of rickety logs and 

 bamboo matting, consisting of one room 

 15 to 20 feet in length and 6 to 8 feet 

 in breadth, the whole raised 3 to 4 feet 

 above the ground on piles, and provided 

 with a verandah and a stone hearth in 

 the middle of the floor — such is the true 

 Lissoo hut. The roof is thatched with 

 grass. A large iron pot, a few wooden 

 bins or bamboo baskets to hold grain, 

 and some bamboo tubes to hold water or 

 honey, with occasionally a few rude 

 stools and a rude loom for weaving their 

 hempen garments — such is the furniture 

 which supplies the Lissoo in his simple 

 life. 



THE CROSSBOWS ARE VERY POWERFUL 



The crossbow is the characteristic 

 weapon of the country and the Lissoo 

 tribe. Every Lissoo with any preten- 

 sions possesses at least two of these 

 weapons — one for every-day use in hunt- 

 ing, the other for war. The little chil- 

 dren play with miniature crossbows. 

 The men never leave their huts for 

 any purpose without their crossbows; 

 when they go to sleep the "nu- 

 kung" is hung over their heads, and 

 when they die it is hung over their 

 graves. The largest crossbows have a 

 span of fully 5 feet and require a pull 

 of fully 35 pounds to string them. The 

 bow is made of a species of wild nnil- 

 berry of great toughness and flexibility; 

 the stock, some 4 feet long in the war 

 bows, is usually of wild plum wood ; the 

 string is of plaited hemp and the trigger 

 of bone. The arrow, of 16 to i8 inches, 

 is of split bamboo, about four times the 



