108 



SCIENCE. 



[YoL. VL, No. 131. 



the Karens, who had charge of the elephants from 

 Hlineboay to Muang Haut. The Shan drivers, who 

 accompanied us on our other journeys, were not so 

 fearful. We sometimes heard of tigers attacking 

 oxen in villages on both sides of our camp, but we 

 were so fortunate as to see no more of them than 

 their footprints. 



Our encampments were generally under the shelter 

 of large evergreen-trees, at times upwards of twenty- 

 four feet in girth, a hundred and fifty feet to the 

 lowest branch, and from a hundred and eighty to 

 two hundred feet in height. Our shelter, until we 

 reached Zimme, consisted of a frail structure formed 

 of a few branches covered over with two waterproof 

 sheets, slightly bent, so as to allow the heavy dew to 

 drop off. Our howdahs, for this stage of our journey, 

 were without covers : so we could not creep into them 

 to escape from the storms that are frequent in the 

 hills, even in the dry season. 



Mr. Colquhoun has noted, in his most interesting 

 work 'Amongst the Shans,' that Shamanism, or Nat 

 worship, is not only the sole religion of most of the 

 hill-tribes in Indo-China, but has been absorbed into 

 the worship of the followers of Buddha. 'Nat' is 

 the Burmese for the elf-folk, fairies, gnomes, and 

 demons of our nursery lore. So real is the worship 

 — or, rather, the belief in the power — of these beings, 

 that all good and evil that occurs to mankind is put 

 down to their direct influence or action. Wherever 

 one goes, little doll-houses are found placed on small 

 platforms of bamboo, with a few leaves, fruit, rice, 

 flowers, or perhaps all together deposited in them, to 

 keep the Nat, or Pee, in good temper. Their baneful 

 influence is more feared than tigers; and every pre- 

 caution was taken at all our halting-places to pro- 

 pitiate, appease, and ward them off. Mystic crosses 

 of bamboo were stuck up at the paths leading to the 

 camp; and, on sauntering round, many traces were 

 seen of devotion to the Pee. 



One peculiarity of the good and evil Pee, is that 

 they are ancestral spiiits, who become good or evil 

 spirits after the decease of the human form which 

 they inhabited. If a king or other ruler or nobleman 

 dies whilst passing through the forest, his spirit must, 

 of necessity, haunt the place where he died. No 

 merit-making can arise from procuring religious ser- 

 vices over his corpse. The disembodied spirit wan- 

 ders about in his desperation, and endeavors to cause 

 the death of all who pass his way. If he succeeds, 

 the deceased's spirit has to become his companion 

 and subject. Thus a clan, with its chief, is formed to 

 entrap and kill all unwary passengers through the 

 forest. No one dying in the forest has the privilege 

 of returning home to join the household spirits: they 

 are forever destined to be Pee Pa, or evil spirits of 

 the jungle. The Pee Ka are wizard spirits of horse 

 form, who are re-enforced by the deaths of beggars 

 and very poor people, whose spirits were so disgusted 

 with those that refused them aid in food and shelter, 

 that they resolved to return and haunt their stingy 

 and bard-hearted neighbors. 



Leaving the British guard-house on the 28th, we 

 arrived the next day at the Shan guard-house at Meh 



Tha-wa, on the Thoungyeen River, which here forms 

 the British eastern frontier. 



We clambered over the hills and spurs in the usual 

 crow-flight of the Karens, and, descending into the 

 valley of the Meh Nium or Maingloongyee Eiver, 

 reached Maingloongyee on the 5th of February. 

 Here we put up at the house of one of our largest 

 Burmese foresters, called Moung Hmoon Taw, who 

 has worked the forests in the basin of the Meh 

 Nium for many years. Having procured a relay of 

 elephants, I left the town on the 13th, and, crossing 

 by a route to the south of that taken by previous 

 travellers, reached Meh Lyt valley, and ascended the 

 main range to the plateau upon which the Lu-a vil- 

 lage of Baw-gyee is situated. 



From Baw we descended the hills to Muang Haut, 

 a town on the Meh Ping Eiver, and, hiring boats, ar- 

 rived at Zimm^ on Feb. 23. The scenery on the Meh 

 Ping is very beautiful. Between Zimme and Muang 

 Haut the river generally hugs and twirls about the 

 spurs to the westward that spring from the haunches 

 of a magnificent round-topped hill called Loi Pah 

 Kung, or the Cloud-Capped Mountain. This hill 



SHAN HOUSE AT KIANG HSEN. 



dominates the whole range : its summit must be about 

 ten thousand feet above the sea. Another striking 

 feature is the Hill of the Tiger Head, called so from 

 the resemblance the precipice that forms its eastern 

 face bears to its godfather. The banks of the river 

 for many miles below Zimme are fringed with vil- 

 lages, the houses being embedded and often hidden 

 in gardens of palm, cocoanut, mango, tamarind, 

 orange, and other trees. Farther down stream the 

 villages become less frequent, and are often screened 

 from view by the plume-like bamboos that fringe the 

 banks. The lights and shades on the foliage, and the 

 deep, cave-like recesses between the clumps, together 

 with their elegant and ever varying form, crested at 

 times by the crimson blossoms of thelepan, poukbin, 

 and pin-leh-ke-thit trees, gave the whole scene a charm 

 that is passing description. 



Leaving Zimme, we passed for twelve miles through 

 the cultivation and villages lying to the north of it; 

 then, getting amongst the hills lying to the east of 

 the Meh Ping valley, we descended a few days after- 

 wards to Yiang Pa Pow, which lies in the valley of 

 the Meh Low, that empties into the Meh Kong or 

 Cambodia River a few miles south of Kiang Hsen. 

 We were now amongst the wizards and witches. The 



