I860.] Notes of a trip up the Sulween. 145 



attacks were so vigorous, that we wasted no unnecessary time in 

 putting off and in resuming our garments. On the third day after 

 our arrival we started for " Pahpoon." It was not far from "Pahpoon" 

 that, for the first time in the whole journey, we heard the cry of the 

 Gibbon. Its cry was totally different from that of the Gibbon of the 

 Tenasserim Provinces. The latter is a wailing, plaintive, and, to me, 

 not disagreeable cry : but the cries of the Gibbon here were most 

 discordant, and not unlike that of a pack of jackals. They can hardly 

 be the same species. 



From Pahpoon, an obscure village on the Yoonzalin, we dropped 

 down to Moulmein in boats. On the second day after leaving Pahpoon 

 I noticed unexpectedly on the bank of the river, in one of the wildest 

 spots, a fine Amherst ia in full flower, about 30 feet high. I saw but 

 one ; for it was the middle of the day and hot ; I had been, therefore 

 lying down in the boat under cover, heedless of what I passed. I 

 looked out of the boat casually, and saw this tree ; so there may have 

 been others which I did not see, both on the bank and in the adjacent 

 jungle. I am sorry to say that my companion Gapt. Harrison was a 

 long way behind in another boat, so that I could not point it out 

 to him ; and he did not notice it, because, not caring for the character 

 of the vegetation, he did not look out from his boat at all. 



Now, my reasons for saying that this was a bona fide wild tree are 

 these : in all this district, the valley of the Yoonzalin, — there are no 

 Pagodas or Pon-gyee houses, or spots sacred to the Burmese where 

 they have erected buildings. The inhabitants of the district, in fact, 

 are Karens and not Burmese ; and these Karens are exceedingly few 

 and scattered. After leaving Pahpoon, we did not see a single village 

 on the banks all the way until we came to the junction of the Yoonza- 

 lin with the Salween. There are, indeed, no doubt, a few villages a 

 little way from the bank, here and there hidden among the trees, but 

 these generally consist of but 2 or 3 houses : neither are they settled 

 villages, for the custom of the Karens is to change the site of their 

 houses continually. Besides the regular Karens, not being Buddhists, 

 do not build Pagodas, nor do they ever trouble themselves to plant 

 ornamental trees, as the Burmese always do. in their sacred places. 

 Besides, the spot where this Amherstia was seen, was not at all a 

 likely place for an Amherstia to have been planted by any one ; but 

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