THE BOTANY OF THE KACHIN HILLS NORTH-EAST OF MYITKYINA. 22$ 
bamboos ; ropes and withes too are almost invariably made from 
bamboos; cords or utensils of cane were never seen. The only 
exceptions were the occasional ropes of Villebrunea fibre and the 
canes used for fixing bridges. Matting for house-floors and house- 
walls are usually made of bamboo ; the walls are sometimes con- 
structed of unsplit bamboo stems, which are also at times used as 
an outer covering for the thatch of the granaries ; these granaries, as a 
rule, are situated some little distance away from the dwelling-houses. 
The thatch itself is always some grass or sedge, never the straw of 
any crop. Pipe-bowls are made of the root of an Arundinaria ; 
the same species is often used also for walking-sticks, the root form- 
ing the top. 
A special use of bamboos is in the manufacture of bows and arrows. 
The bow is a crossbow tightly strung ; the string is never a vege- 
table fibre. The bolt is thin and light, about a foot long, and is 
made by paring down a thickish bamboo stem ; it is unfeathered, but 
the feather is replaced by shavings of bamboo, which serve to steady 
the flight. The Marus do not poison their arrows nor do they use any 
iron in their construction, though they harden the tips by means of fire. 
The head is of a piece with the shaft, but a small circular groove is 
cut at the base of the head in order that it may readily snap off in a 
w'ound. The Yawyins use metal-tipped arrows which, moreover, they 
poison. Apparently, to judge by the symptoms induced, an Aconitum 
is used for the purpose ; the plant itself was not obtained. 
Spear'shafts are never made of bamboo but of a w'ood to which 
the name iron-wood is given. The tree used w^as not met with by 
the party, but it is probable that is it not the well-known nahor or 
iron-wood of Assam {M^ sna Jerred)^ since that species was not 
met with throughout the journey. 
The ridge-poles, beams, posts and frame-work generally of the 
houses are of various timbers, never of bamboo. The houses of the 
Marus often have no doors; the doors of Yawyin houses consist of 
single planks measuring roughly seven feet by three, by two inches 
thick, hewn by means of dds 0M\i of solid logs. 
At the more important ferries on the 'Nmai Kha, boats similarly 
hewn out of single logs are in use. The largest seen was forty feet 
long by two feet across or thereby. At the smaller ferries bamboo 
rafts are used. 
Across the Kyengmo Kha a cane bridge is thrown from a pair of 
banyan trees on one bank to a similar pair on the bank opposite. 
These trees, almost the only banyans seen during the journey, had 
been, so the party were informed, purposely planted to serve as 
