1844.] Notes on the Kasia Hills, and People. 613 



in profusion ; all seem like the uncultivated gifts of the Creator ; but 

 here and there water-pipes of hollowed betel trunks, carrying a stream 

 for several hundred yards along the hill side, shew that they are not 

 altogether untended. After many ups and downs, we arrive again at the 

 river which divides the valley. The bridge by which we cross is worthy 

 of description, as I believe no account of any thing similar has yet been 

 published. 



On the top of a huge boulder by the river side, grows a large India 

 rubber tree, clasping the stone in its multitude of roots. Two or three 

 of the long fibres, whilst still easily pliable, have been stretched across 

 the stream, and their free ends fastened on the other bank. There 

 they have struck firmly into the earth, and now form a living bridge 

 of great, and yearly increasing strength. Two great roots run directly 

 one over the other, and the secondary shoots from the upper have been 

 bound round, and grown into the lower, so that the former affords at 

 once a hand-rail and suspending chain, the latter a footway. Other 

 roots have been laced and twisted into a sort of ladder as an ascent from 

 the bank to the bridge. The greatest thickness of the upper root is a 

 foot, from which it tapers to six or eight inches. The length of the 

 bridge is above eighty feet, and its height about twenty above the water 

 in the dry season. 



This bridge was constructed by the people of the village of Ringhot, 

 and forms their communication with Cherra during the rains ; the 

 present generation say, it was made by their grandfathers. This was 

 the first and most remarkable bridge of the kind that I saw in the 

 Kasia Hills, and I supposed it to be unique, perhaps half accidental. 

 But, I afterwards found it to be an instance of a regular practice, and 

 saw such bridges in every stage, from that of two slender fibres hung 

 across the stream, to such as I have tried to describe above, and there 

 are not less than half a dozen within as many miles of Cherra. One* 

 I measured ninety feet in clear span. They were generally composed 

 of the roots of two opposite trees, (apparently planted for the pur- 

 pose), bound together in the middle. 



On the Wa-lingtia, or larger branch of the river, whose course we have 

 traced, are several other remarkable bridges. One on the suspension 



* Shewn in Plate I. 



