GEOGRAPHY OF THE UPPER MEKONG. 
541 
with a few rupees’ worth of odds and ends, stick half-a-dozen long 
cheroots in his ear, and start oft on foot a month’s march over hill 
and forest, for the pleasure of haggling over his wares at the other 
end, and the chance of swindling a less acute party out of a few 
annas. As for the Haw caravan-men, you can see they are born 
traders at a glance, for they lie with the greatest composure and a 
richness of invention which is the only sublime thing about them. 
The railway, as proposed by Mr. Oolquhoun, would come up from 
Martaban, abreast of Moulmein, to Chieng Mai ; and thence follow, to 
all intents and purposes, the caravan route to Chieng Rai and Chieng 
Sen. 
Thence up the right bank of the Mekong it would cross above 
the Nam Loey, and striking up the valley of the Nam Eau fetch right 
into Sumao and the Ibang district. The route is void of any serious 
engineering ditliculties, and follows one of the present main lines of 
trade of this part of Indo-China; in fact, this is the one road England 
has open. The race against her has been begun by the French to the 
eastward with a determined spurt and a long lead. 
If Englishmen wait until a sufficient population settles in the 
countries to be traversed, they may wait for ever ; but if they take 
the bull by the horns and for the moment disregard the question of 
population, they are much more likely to reap a reward similar to that 
of the Plm — Lang-thuang — Langson Railway just built by the French 
in Toughing for strategical purposes, which, passing originally through 
a thinly populated and uncultivated country, now finds itself the 
centre of attraction for settlers and traders, and is making enormous 
sums. However, it is an old truth and docs not need insisting on 
among Englishmen, that communications make trade. 
Sibsong Para . — Chieng Lap and the valley of the Nam Ma is the 
usual way for parties bound up to Muang La and Muang 8ai in the 
Sibsong Para, a district of which until lately very little has been 
known. Lord Lamington and Mr. Archer have both been through 
from west to east along different lines. The country partakes very 
much of the character of the right bank of the Mekong ; a confused 
jumble of hills rising to 5,000 or 6,000 feet, with small, often fertile 
valleys lying nestling among them at a height of about 2,000 feet. 
These valleys form the resting-places of the innumerable tribes which 
are even at the present time migrating south and south-west, to 
enumerate which would be tedious to those who had to listen. But 1 
may mention the best known of them : the Yao Yin, who approach 
very distinctly to the Yunnanese type, the Muser, the Meos, and the 
Lu ; the last being so much like the Lao that when fording a river 
(for which operation their clothes go upon their heads) one may 
mistake them for Lao, both from their speech and their tattooing, 
the latter extending from waist to knee. 
Lu . — Of all the tribes I met — and one is constantly meeting gangs 
of travellers with a new name and a new dress — the Lus were the 
j oiliest. These hill tribes are invariably described by those who have 
been among them as the chcerfulest, gentlest, and simplest of honest 
folk, brimming over with friendliness and hospitality, and of them all 
the Lus were our favourites. 
