1864.] 



Extract from Journal of a Trip to Shamo. 



195 





selected one at a time, and stringing backwards the genealogy of their 

 modern kings, manufactured the tale of a continuous monarchy with 

 a shifting capital and dating from the first inroad of Hindoo princes 

 into the valley up to the present time. I understand from Hindoos 

 that they have in their books some accounts of an incursion of Hindoos 

 into this country. 



The ancient extent of Hindoo influence over Indo-China and 

 the adjacent archipelago, 1 suppose to be a well-proved fact, and the 

 prominence given in Burman chronicles to the advent of the Hindoo 

 prince is very significant. 



I should have mentioned above, that the great extent of pond and 

 lake, with the creeks of still water, make Tagoung a remarkably good 

 fishing-place. Great quantities of fish are dried, and much made into 

 " ngapee" and great numbers also are taken alive to the capital. The 

 small-fish are thrown into the boat and kept alive with frequent 

 changes of the water. The larger fish are strung by the gills, or the 

 nose, or the lip, and so towed down the river till the market is reached, 

 At the time of my visit, the cul-de-sac creek to the north of the city 

 was closed at its mouth by a bamboo netting, and the fish above were 

 being narcotised with some bark, that I am as yet unacquainted with. 

 The fish above the net being all taken, the net is removed, when after 

 five or six days, fish enter the creek again and the process is repeated. 

 At this creek and on the river in the neighbourhood of Tagoung, the fish- 

 eating birds are particularly numerous. A few specimens I have shot 

 and had skinned ; among them the Scissor-bill (Ehimops nigra) and 

 another very handsome web-footed bird of the size of a duck, with a 

 long neck and a sharp pointed beak. It swims with only its head and 

 neck out of the water, but watches for its prey most generally on the 

 low sand banks, or on some projecting piece of drift wood. Its food 

 is small fish. The Darter. 



