
1865.] Notes of a trip up the Salween. 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. Onthe second day after leaving Pahpoon 
I noticed unexpectedly on the bank of the river, in one of the wildest 
spots, a fine Amherstia 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 Capt. 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 Ambherstia to have been planted by any one; but 
20 
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