1883.] S. E. Fe3i\—]Votes of a trip up the Diking. 41 



man shouting and it turned out to be Kumkii nong looking for us, and ot 

 say the camp was pitched more to the south, so we had to turn and re- 

 trace our now weary steps, and at last at dusk got in, all of us three very 

 tired. Luckily everything was as I could wish, and dinner ready — soup 

 nice and hot, and I soon felt better. As I was at dinner, we heard a most 

 peculiar noise (in the air seemingly) that gradually got louder and louder, 

 and at last we realized it as an enormous flock of Hornbills, (the large 

 Huang Sorai). 



Neither I nor the Asamese had ever seen more than at most twenty or 

 say twenty-five in one flock before, and yet here they were in hundreds — 

 evidently they had intended to roost in the tall bor tree (fig) we were 

 camped under, and all suddenly sheered off as soon as they saw our lights 

 and smoke, settling a little way on. I tried stalking very quietly, but no 

 use, this WQYj particularly wary bird, or hundreds rather, was not to be 

 caught, and they all suddenly and simultaneously flew, with a deafening 

 noise. Ere I got off to sleep, which I did pretty early, I heard " old 

 Kamti" at his gabbling sing-song prayers, mental sort of " prayer wheel," 

 as far as the real devotion seemed concerned. If addressed to me, I cer- 

 tainly should not have blessed him, more likely the opposite. He went in 

 for them pretty regularly at night, all in Burmese, as he was a good Shan- 

 Buddhist, and finished off with the usual invocatory " Om, om." 



At night we had a severe yet comical scare. The Singphus (even old 

 Thang included) insisted that there was danger from wild elephants, and 

 half-felled lots of young trees and saplings all about; so that the fall of 

 them should give us all notice if anything came too near, they had also 

 selected the bor tree as good to swarm up in emergency and notched the 

 trunk and ribs ready. About midnight I was startled clear out of bed and 

 tent, (with revolver in hand) by the hubbub, indeed the smash of a tree 

 first roused me. In an instant every one was up and running about, and 

 the cry was " hati," " magui," and as I at once fired, sometliing went off 

 to the right, a shot from the carbine made it go on again, and then all 

 was quiet, and we listened, some said hati, the Singphus magui, and while 

 one of the Asamese suggested what I also thought, i. e., samber, suddenly 

 we were yelled to from above, and looking up in the revived firelight, dis- 

 covered master " Sin-neng-gam," the young Singphu, hanging helpless ever 

 the said fire, unable to go up or down, and probably twenty-five feet up. 

 The sight so convulsed everybody, that for the instant he was le(t there, 

 but Nden gam soon went up to the rescue (no easy matter though) and 

 when Sin-neng was got down, and came round a bit, he found he had no 

 recollection of going up at all, said he must have done it in his sleep ! 



The shrieks of laughter this induced from my fellows, were enough to 

 keep any wild animal away all night. Between one Singphu being so literally 

 6 



