404 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



when we were met by one of their Chiefs, who came to enquire our pur- 

 pose. Our conference with him ended by our resolving to visit his village, 

 in hopes that we might thence advance to Bor Meyong, and which indeed 

 he led us to expect we might do. We found the Pasi village a consider- 

 able distance inland, in a south-easterly direction, situated on the top of 

 a small hill, and defended partially by closing up the narrow pass leading 

 to it. It is not so large as Membu, but there are about it similar proofs that 

 the people unite for the common good. Very fine clumps of bamboos are 

 seen carefully railed round, for their protection and preservation, for the 

 purposes of building — there is no river of sufficient magnitude to require a 

 costly bridge, but there is a very substantial one of trunks of trees thrown 

 over the Shiko. 



Our conference with the men of Pasi produced little good. We 

 found them willing enough to promise, provided it were but prospectively, 

 but they would do nothing, not even dispatch messengers to the Meyong 

 tribe, though their reason for refusing to guide us in their direction was, 

 that they could not possibly do so without permission. They gave an 

 admirable answer to our threat of proceeding without their assistance, by 

 leading Lieutenant Burlton and myself to the top of a more commanding 

 hill, and asking us how we liked the look of the country which we pro- 

 posed to march through without guides — we saw that they were right. 

 They behaved towards us here with much greater respect than at Membu, 

 insisting that we must gratify the Commoners by becoming lions for an 

 hour or two, but restraining these in their familiarities. 



We returned to prosecute our discoveries on the banks of the Dihong, 

 but were accompanied by two or three of the Chiefs, who seemed very 

 anxious to watch our proceedings. We soon experienced a marked 

 instance of their jealousy, for arriving at the end of that reach of the 

 river which is nearly north of Pasi, and doubling back towards the 



