1863.] A visit to Xiengmai. 389 
per for transplanting the yet tender rice-plants. What a multitude 
there were employed!—men, women and children, waded more than 
ankle deep,—every one so busy—a kind of basket slung over their 
shoulders which contained the young plants—a stick in their right 
hand, to thrust a hole in the soil below the water, the left ready to 
place there one of the seedlings, and to insure for it a hold by pressing 
the mud to its roots: the number of plants thus fixed into the soil in 
a given time, is very large. 
Our harvest gatherings, the fields speckled with people, can only 
convey an idea of the prospect before me—and nevertheless how ditter- 
ent the persons thus occupied, how difierent the scenery from that in 
my own home, which brought the comparison to my recollection ! 
Having passed the large village Tavong-tawng, we had to cross the 
river Ping to its right bank, (which, from its junction with the Wang 
forms the Me’nam). While fording it, I admired ‘the pretty view 
which the tower or Pagoda of Wat Hong offered to us, rising to a 
height of above 150 feet, the river scenery lovely, with high mountains 
in the back ground, and the banks lmed with numerous people, led by 
curiosity to see us pass, the fair sex dressed in Lao petticoats, which 
in consequence of their bright colours, added to the liveliness of the 
picture. 
Having crossed the river, we saw Xiengmai before us, distant about 
a mile, the intervening space consisting of rice-fields, only interrupted 
by Wat Papa-ow surrounded by a wall and shaded by large trees. 
On approaching the city, I saw a number of peculiarly shaped towers, 
evidently built of bricks, and so odd in appearance that it seemed they 
had been standing there for centuries, without any person caring 
whether they might fall down, or be taken possession of by a tropical 
vegetation, which had already covered them with twiners and creepers. 
These towerlets ace Phratshedees, the topes of Buddhist architecture. 
Our residence had been ezected outside the city walls, between the 
bridge which leads over the Méping and the east gate of Xiengmai. 
The principal house erected for our reception, was on a larger scale, 
and neater in execution, than any we had yet mhabited. Opposite 
stood the public Sala, a large wooden building ; near it a little tower- 
let likewise of wood, as a look-out, and the usual stand for mounting 
and dismounting the elephants ; the whole space, including the huts for 
our own servants, was surrounded by a fence constructed of bamboo. 
