1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 235 



that the Patkoi Range is a formidable barrier erected by nature to 

 prevent communication between India and the countries lying to 

 the east. 



Whilst at Namyoong village, which he found from observation 

 to be about 26.30 lat , we had several opportunities of conversing 

 with the people of the Meeroo tribe who inhabit the mountain 

 range to the east between Hookoong and the Irrawaddy. 



From the description given by the Meeroos there would appear 

 to be several passes of no great elevation through this range. The 

 Meeroos wear Chinese ornaments, and bring articles of Chinese 

 manufacture to Hookoong for sale. Besides these ornaments and 

 their pipes we noticed earthenware cups, copper cooking vessels, 

 wrought-iron ploughshares, and cast-iron pans, all undoubtedly of 

 Chinese make. Neither the Singfoos nor the Meeroos make any 

 use of copper as a circulating medium. In the larger transactions 

 they use lumps of silver obtained from Yunan and from the Shans 

 of about half a pound weight, and these lumps are unhesitatingly 

 chopped into small pieces and weighed out when it is requisite to 

 measure the price of articles of small value. They have some 

 rupees in circulation, but these coins are looked on with suspicion 

 on account of the impurity of the silver. The dearness of salt was 

 most remarkable. A coarse black salt was selling at about the 

 rate of a shilling a pound. We met with several people who had 

 traded in the Pansee country, and one of the routes they described 

 strikes the Irrawaddy at Mainlah, a large Shan village, situated 

 on the left bank of the Phoongmai at its confluence with the 

 Irrawaddy. 



In a little map attached to Dr. Clement Williams's book on 

 Upper Burmah, Mainlah is placed at the mouth of a large river in 

 lat. 26, or about 130 miles above Bhamo. 



Dr. Williams does not give the name of this river ; but it is well 

 known to the Singfoos and Meeroos as the Phoongmai Kha. 



We were informed that a man carrying a load could reach the 

 nearest Pansee villages from Mainlah in two days' march. 



The Singfoos divide the Chinese into two classes — those who eat 

 pork, and those who do not eat pork. The pork-eaters, they said, 

 used formerly to come down the Phoongmai in great numbers and 



