410 



Captain Hannaifs Route 



[Oct. 



that Mogaung is decidedly the poorest-looking town I have seen 

 since leaving Ava. There is no regular bazar, all supplies being 

 brought from a distance, and the market people are, with few ex- 

 ceptions, Kakhyens and Assamese from the neighbouring villages." 



The arrival at so remote a spot of a European officer was soon 

 bruited abroad, and Captain Hannay's time was fully occupied in 

 answering innumerable questions put to him by a crowd of visitors, 

 who examined his sextant with great care, under the firm conviction 

 that, by looking through it, he was enabled to perceive what was go- 

 ing on in distant countries nor would they believe that the card of 

 his compass was not floating on water, until, to satisfy them, he had 

 taken it to pieces. The paucity of inhabitants and poverty of the 

 town plainly indicated the absence of extensive trade, and Captain 

 Hannay learnt, that, including the profits derived from the sale of 

 serpentine, the revenues of the town and neighbouring villages did 

 not amount to more than 30,000 rupees per annum, and the Burmah 

 authorities can only enforce the payment of tribute from the Shans 

 of Khanti, and the Singphos of Payendwen, by the presence of an 

 armed force. In their last attempt on the latter, a Burmah force of 

 1000 men was detached from Mogaung, of whom 900 were destroyed ; 

 and for ten years they had been held in salutary dread by the Bur- 

 mah governors of the frontier. During his stay at Mogaung, Cap- 

 tain Hannay obtained specimens of the green stone, called by the 

 Burmahs kyouk-txein, and by the Chinese yueesh* and which he 

 supposes to be nephrite. " The Chinese," he says-, " choose pieces 

 which, although showing a rough and dingy -coloured exterior, have a 

 considerable interior lustre, and very often contain spots and veins of 

 a beautiful bright apple-green. These are carefully cut out, and 

 made into ring stones, and other ornaments, which are worn as 

 charms. The large masses are manufactured by them into bracelets, 

 rings, and drinking cups, the latter being much in use amongst them, 

 from the idea that the stone possesses medicinal virtues. All the 

 yueesh taken aw^ay by the Chinese is brought from a spot five marches 

 to the north-west of Mogaung, but it is found in several other parts 

 of the country, although of an inferior quality. Serpentine and lime- 



* Monsieur Abel Re'mtjsat, in the second part of his history of Khotan, is said by 

 Klaproth (Mem. Rel. a 1' Asie, tome 2, p. 299) to have entered into a very learned dis- 

 quisition proving the identity of the yu or yueesh of the Chinese with the jasper of the 

 ancients. — R. B. P. 



The yu is a silicious mineral, coloured with less intensity but passing into heliotrope. 

 It is therefore prase rather than jade or nephrite.— Ed. 



