1146 Report on a Route from Pakung Yeh QNo. 132. 



their cattle and other valuables, availed themselves of the first op- 

 portunity of escaping from the thraldom in which they were held, 

 and fled to the lofty and remote mountains on the frontiers of Siam, 

 China, and Arracan, where they considered themselves safe from the 

 persecution of their conquerors, whom they left in undisputed posses- 

 sion of the plains. With them went some members of the royal 

 family, but in the course of time, from deaths and changes of 

 residence, all traces of them were lost, and the Kicaams of this part 

 of the country knew not whether any of the royal blood exist or not. 

 Divested as they now were of a common head to whom they could 

 look up for advice, they in each village selected from the community 

 one, who either from age or experience, was deemed worthy to be their 

 chief, and in this independent state they have since remained, each little 

 hamlet considering itself as perfectly distinct from those adjoining. 



These small republics have since resisted all attempts at much in- 

 tercourse with their more civilized neighbours, and have preserved 

 unsullied their innate love of liberty and freedom. 



Only one trace still exists of supreme authority, and this in the per- 

 son of the Passive, or head of their rude religion. This personage re- 

 sides near the source of the Mow river, on a mountain called the 

 Pyon, and by his descendants in the male and female line this office 

 of prophet or soothsayer is filled. Writing being unknown, their man- 

 dates are delivered verbally, and. implicitly obeyed; to them every 

 dispute of importance is referred for arbitration, and in cases of sick- 

 ness or marriage, they are always consulted. The tenets of the Kicaam 

 faith are most simple ; they have no idea of the Supreme Being, nor have 

 they any tradition respecting the creation. They are the children of the 

 mountains, and nature alone has any claim on their feelings. In con- 

 sonance with, this idea, they consider that every thing which is useful 

 to them, or conduces to the luxuries of life, ought to be held in the 

 greatest veneration. The principal object of their adoration is a thick 

 bushy tree bearing a small berry, and called by them Sabri. Under 

 the shade of its branches, they at certain seasons of the year assemble 

 with all the members of the family, and offer sacrifices of oxen and pigs, 

 on which they afterwards feast. Their cattle accompany them during 

 these [excursions, and partake in the respect paid to the tree, as being 

 the most useful of those blessings which have been so sparingly 



