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NOTES OF 
 A JOURNEY ON THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 062 589 324 
 
 H. WARINGTON SMYTH, 
 
 OP THE ROYAL DEPARTMENT OP MINES AND QEOLOOy, BANGKOK. 
 
 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOB 
 
 THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, 50, ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON. 
 
 1895. 
 
 a 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 I HAVE put together the following account of a recent journey made 
 foi' the Siamese Government to the Mekong valley, chiefly for the 
 reason that at the present moment, when the French have " rectified " 
 their boundaries on the north and east of Siam to the extent of some 
 85,000 square miles, more interest than usual will probably be felt 
 in the character of the country and the people, of whom there are 
 not too many reliable accounts to be found. At the same time, 
 I feel very stronply that there are others whose descriptions will 
 be far more valuable than my own, owing to their longer residence 
 in the country, and the greater extent of their explorations. 
 I refer especially to Messrs. McCarthy, Archer, and Beckett, who 
 have done difficult and extensive work in all parts of Siam and 
 the Laos states ; and there is certainly no European, and probably no 
 Siamese, that knows so much of the configuration of the north-east 
 as does Mr. McCarthy, who, carried on by an apparently deep love of 
 jungle-life, has aroused the admiration of the Siamese and Laos at 
 Luang Prabang by his hardihood and energy, and the results of 
 whose work were a constant source of admiration to me, as I went 
 on and saw the wildness and difficulty of the country. 
 
 The object of my journey was primarily the examination, for the 
 Siamese Government, of a supposed very rich deposit of gems (rubies 
 and sapphires), lately discovered on the left bank of the Mekon", 
 opposite Chieng Kong. My orders were to return by Luang Praban", 
 Nongkhai, and Khorat, and to visit and report on all mineral 
 deposits of which I could get information, gathering all geological 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 data which were possible. The time allowed was six months, and 
 I was not to leave the general line of march prescribed by more 
 than 60 miles. I need hardly say— and every one who knows what 
 jungle-travelling is will understand — that my programme, to be 
 thoroughly carried through over the large extent of country marked 
 out, might well occupy six years instead of months ; and that such 
 a hurried exploration in a country covered densely with forest — which, 
 next perhaps to snow, is the greatest enemy to the science of geology 
 — could not but be unsatisfactory to one's self. 
 
 H. Waeington Smyth. 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Pak = mouth of a river ; e.g. Pak Oo, mouth of river On. 
 
 Nam = river ; eg. Nam Oo, river Oo (a always long, a8 in barn). 
 
 Hoay = mountain torrent. 
 
 Keng = rapid ; e.g. Keng Fapa, Fapa rapid. 
 
 Luiiug = great or chief; e.q. Keng Luang, the great rapid. 
 
 Doi or puh = Siam word Kao = hill. 
 
 Ban or Bang = liouse or village (used indiacripalnately). 
 
 Sala = rest-house. 
 
 Muang = town or township, often district or province. 
 
 Chow Muang = literally, chief of the township = governor. 
 
 Kloug = stream or canal. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 liOB 
 
 Bangkok to Muanq Nan ' 
 
 PAUT ir. 
 MuANG Nan to Muank Ciiii!ng Kong 2t 
 
 PART III. 
 MuANG CiiiENG Kong to Muano Luang Piiabang 30 
 
 PART IV. 
 LuANQ Prabano (Madoh, 1803) 55 
 
 PART V. 
 
 NONGKHAI TO KUORAT AND BANGKOK (APKIL AND MaY, 1893) 83 
 
 Appendix 101 
 
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TACK 
 
 The Bapids at the Gates op Cuienq Kong, Mekong Riveu ... Frontiipiece 
 
 The Meinam below Chainat 2 
 
 Loaded Bice-Boatb lying in Bangkok 2 
 
 EuA Pet 3 
 
 BUA NiJA i 
 
 Bda Nua prom Fore End 5 
 
 Boat hollowed out op Trunk ready to be soaked in Eiver 5 
 
 Boat opened out over Fire, Bibs and Knees in 5 
 
 Bice-Boats and Floating House, Paknam Piio 6 
 
 A Eioe-Boat, plying light 6 
 
 Bice-Baft, Nam Oo 7 
 
 Wat Ciiinareth (Central Tower prom West) 11 
 
 A Sala in the Nan Forests 12 
 
 Khorat Plateau. Entrance to Forest Dong Phya Yen 12 
 
 Gorge Nam Pgoi 13 
 
 The Paddy-Fields, Hin Yalley 18 
 
 Wat Ben Yeun, M. Sa 19 
 
 East Gate op Nan 19 
 
 Laos Bag, op Striped Cloth 20 
 
 Kao Neo Wicker Baskets 20 
 
 Axe for hollowing Boats 21 
 
 Dipper for Water 21 
 
 A Hill Monastery, M. Le 27 
 
 View prom M. Le, looking north-west across the Nam Nan and Water- 
 shed OF Meinam Khong 29 
 
 Map— EoDTB prom Muang Ngob on the Nasi Nan to Muang Ohieng Kong 
 
 ON the Mekong Eiver 32 
 
 A Gem-Digger's Clearing, Chieng Kong 37 
 
 Camp at the Fa Pa Bapids 41 
 
 One op our Elephants, with Howdaii o.n _12 
 
 The Leading Mule 46 
 
 A Head Man— Stern View 4,; 
 
 A Head Man— Side View 4(j 
 
 A Haw— Packs dismounted 47 
 
 Laos Boat 47 
 
 Illustration op Oar and Steeiung-Oeai: jy 
 
X MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 I'AOE 
 
 DonBLE Boat *9 
 
 Village above Pakd, MEEONa ^^ 
 
 Forty-Five Feet Boat, Nam Oo 50 
 
 Map — Part op the Mekong 50 
 
 KuAcaE Hill Cleabinos; Bapios above Pak Beno, Mekono 51 
 
 Db&p and Sueath 52 
 
 Jungle Knives 52 
 
 Modtu of Nam Suunq, above Luang Prabang 53 
 
 Approach to Luang Pbabang from Nobtu 51 
 
 Wat Ohieng Tong 56 
 
 Pa Cuom Si, Luang Pbabang 56 
 
 Plan of Luang Prabang and Bivbb 57 
 
 Stone Implements 58 
 
 Government Offices, Luang Prabang 59 
 
 Keng Eano, Nam Oo. The Plunge off the Left Bank 61 
 
 Keno Luang , ... .:. ... 62 
 
 Ascending Keng Luang, Nam Oo 61 
 
 Fishing Stakes AND Shelters, Nam Oo 65 
 
 BUDDER 72 
 
 Boats Fishing 72 
 
 Last of the Hills above Wieng Chan 73 
 
 The Buins of Wat Pbakaon, Wieng Chan 74 
 
 Niche and Statue 74 
 
 Socth-West Angle, Wat Susaket, WiENO Chan 75 
 
 Bell 78 
 
 Bell-Clapper and Joint 79 
 
 Bamboo Bell 79 
 
 FouR-SoK Kan (1 Inch to 2 Feet) 80 
 
 Two-SoK Kan 80 
 
 Air-Chamber 81 
 
 Kien 84 
 
 The North Gate and Nam Nun, Khoiiat ., 90 
 
 Map— The Central Part of the Kingdom ov Siam 100 
 
NOTES OP 
 A JOURNEY ON THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 Bangkok to Muang Nan. 
 
 Early in December, 1892, we left Bangkok — myself, three Siamese 
 assistants, and a sergeant's guard as escort, and coolies. At Muang 
 Chainat, owing to the rapid fall of the river, I had to send back 
 the Navy launch, which was drawing 3 feet 6 inches ; a month 
 earlier she might have got nearly up to M.* Pechai. At Paknam 
 Pho, where the Nam Pho and Meiping meet, after a good deal of 
 bargaining I secured a rua nua, or north-land boat, to take me 
 on. Boat-travelling in Siam is much the same everywhere ; and in 
 their boat-life, it may be said, the Siamese have attained a high 
 degree of civilization. Very often the boat is the home of the family, 
 and after the rains they moor alongside the bank and cultivate 
 tobacco, cotton, or melons on the slope on which the rich loam of 
 the floods has settled down ; after the rice harvest they will set out 
 laden with paddy for Bangkok, returning later on with salt or other 
 luxuries from the south. The Chinese, who are the most energetic 
 people in the country, carry on extensive trading in this way. They 
 use a very large double-ended kind of boat, known as "rice-boat," 
 
 ♦ M. = Muang. 
 
NOTES OF A J0VRNE7 ON 
 
 which has a long cylindrical roof of closely plaited work impervious 
 to rain, extending from just before the helmsman to within 10 feet 
 of the bows, where the two or three oarsmen toil at the long oars. 
 As in all the Siamese boats, the oar is slung in a grommet, which is 
 turned round the top of a small pole iirmly let into the gunwale at 
 the lower end. This gives the end of the oar sufficient height inboard, 
 
 THE MEIKAM BELOW CHAINAT, 
 
 and the oarsman stands to his work facing forward, the outer hand 
 on a small handle turned at right angles to tlie oar, as in the Chinese 
 sampans one sees in the straits. With a big heavy boat, the action, 
 with a sharp jerk at the end of the stroke, is not pretty ; but in the 
 small rua chang (or sampan) of the city the motion is exactly 
 
 LOADED RICE-BOATS LYINQ IK BANQKOK. 
 
 that of the gondolier, and with the swaying motion of the inside leg, 
 which is often quite free, is extremely pretty. It must be confessed 
 the grommet principle, which at least keeps the oar in its place, 
 makes the work much easier than tlie slippery crutch in which the 
 gondolier at Venice works his long oar, and which proves a great 
 source of difficulty to the beginner in the art. This method is 
 known by the Siamese as " chaw "- (or " chow "-) ing. 
 
 Next in size and usefulness to tlie "rice-boats" (whicli arc 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 3 
 
 generally about 40 feet long, 10 feet 4 inches beam, with 6 feet 
 4 inches extreme draught when loaded, and carry twenty koyans of 
 rice) comes the rua pet, which is a great favourite with the Siamese. 
 It is cleaner lined than _., _^„ 
 
 the rice-boat, the cabin 
 arrangement being the 
 same ; that is, the long 
 roof, the deck at the - 
 level of the gunwale 
 going fore and aft, and 
 the storage-room all be- 
 low, reached by taking out the neatly fitting pieces of deck, which are 
 made to fit into the main cross-beams. The helmsman has a slightly 
 raised attap roof over his head, and he (or she, for the wife and the 
 children down to six years old can 9teer as well as the father) looks 
 out from under this and over the long low roof in front. The steering 
 is done with a rudder shipped in the usual way on the stern-post, 
 while in the big rice-boat it is generally on the quarter (if under 
 sail, on the lee quarter), kept in position by a rope grommet at the 
 head, and another lanyard put through an eye bored lower down. 
 In both kinds of craft a finely peaked calico lugsail is used with a 
 fair wind — the matting, of which the junks and local coast-luggers 
 make their sails, being never seen inland. The size of the rua pet is 
 generally 40 feet over all, 8 feet 4 inches beam, and 3 feet 4 inches 
 draught loaded ; a new one will cost 300 to 320 ticals, say £26. 
 Teak is largely used in the construction, and when finished the 
 whole is covered with a coating of chunam, a mixture of oil from 
 the Mai Yang (a magnificently proportioned tree common in the 
 forest), with dammar oil, which gives a beautiful red varnish to the 
 hull. 
 
 A third distinct type of boat is the rua nua {" nua " meaning 
 north, and " rua " boat), which seems to be rather a Laos than a 
 Siamese form. It is hardly accurate to call them distinctively " Laos 
 boats," as is often done, as the real " Laos boat," used both on the 
 Mekong and in the Laos states proper on the Meinam, is simply a 
 long dug-out canoe, 60 feet long, with an extreme beam of 4 feet. 
 The rua nua is a much more highly developed type, and is in 
 construction as elaborate as those above mentioned. It is generally 
 longer than the rua pet. My boat was 56 feet 10 inches over all, 
 
 B 2 
 
 & 
 
4 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 with a beam of 10 feet, and carried the owner and his crew of 
 four men, with myself and twenty Siamese, At night a few of us 
 slept on shore, in the Salas or rest-houses of the monasteries, or on 
 the banks of sand. The stem and stern posts are made of huge 
 chocks of teak, the bottom flat of three or four huge planks running 
 the whole length of the boat if possible. Eight aft is a high-roofed 
 
 and very comfortable house in which the steersman lives ; sitting 
 on his high stool, and looking over the usual plaited roof along the 
 centre of the boat, he turns his long steering-oar, which reaches far 
 out astern over the port quarter. The fore-deck of the boat is out- 
 rigged on each side to a considerable distance, while a gangway runs 
 round the centre roof outside for the man to pole along. Up the 
 Meiping these boats are generally ornamented with a long high snout 
 of timber out forward, and a high forked tail astern. 
 
 Of small craft the variety is endless — from the small canoes 
 which hawk kanoms, or cakes of rice, sugar, and coconut, to the small 
 roughly roofed boats which will just hold the owaer and his wife 
 and child if they balance carefully, or the long snake-like boats which 
 are favourites with the monks at the monasteries. The people usually 
 build their own boats, and are very good hands at it ; and one may 
 see them in all states of construction, — hollowed out with laborious 
 chipping ready for opening out over the fire, or already lieated 
 and opened up, with knees and ribs being put in and pegged with 
 wood (for, like the Norwegians, they never use nails, and the result 
 is great durability) ; or ready with a six-inch " wash-streak " all 
 round, and the light deck at the gunwale level, which is the feature 
 of the smallest, if we except tlie sampans and canoes of the capital. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 5 
 
 The fittings of the large species of craft above described are often 
 elaborate and almost yacht-like. A brass trimming to the gunwale, 
 and bright red prayer-papers, are generally to be seen on board of 
 John Chinaman. There will be pretty balustrades round the quarters 
 where the helmsman 
 is, partly for show, 
 partly to keep the 
 small fry from falling 
 overboard. Curtains 
 of plaited bamboo are 
 hinged to the attap 
 roof above the helms- 
 man, and when shut 
 down will keep out rain 
 or sun. At the fore 
 end the deck will shine 
 
 with the polish given it by the constant sitting or reclining of the 
 crew, and inside the long low roof, if there were pnly sufficient head- 
 room, the floor would be declared perfect for a dance. All round 
 are lockers, in which cotton stuffs are stored to take up-country. 
 
 RUA NUA FBOM FORE END. 
 
 BOAT HOLLOWED OUT OF TRUNK READY TO BE SOAKED IN RIVER. 
 
 BOAT OPENED OUT OVER FIRE, RIBS AND KNEES IN. 
 
 or betel-box, teapot, and crockery are stowed ; the comfort and luxury 
 of some of these boats could not be surpassed. 
 
 And how they do all enjoy life ! There is no hurry ; if going 
 down stream, they take it easy enough ; and if going up, why over- 
 work ? A week earlier or a week later makes no difference ; and so, 
 why not stop and have some tea and chat as they pass some friendly 
 village, or a boat with whom last j'car perhaps they travelled in 
 
b NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 company for a month ? If the sun gets hot, they will tie up to the 
 bank, and all hands bathe, the children diving overboard like the 
 best of them. If it rains, tie up again, light up the iire and cook the 
 rice and mix the curry for supper ; then out cigarettes all hands, and 
 from the cloud, to which even the stout five-year-old boy, who is the 
 pet of the ship, contributes his share, gaze complacently out into the 
 
 RICE-BOATS AND FLOATING HOUSE, PAKNAM PHD. 
 
 damp evening, where all the myriad life of jungle is piping shrilly 
 in the swaying bamboo clumps. No wonder these people are happy 
 and hospitable, ever ready with a joke. 
 
 The journey to Muang Pochai took our ma nua 19 days, and 
 owing to the falling state of the river, our oldskipper had to lighten 
 
 A RIOB-BOAT, FLYING LIGHT. 
 
 his ship by selling off a lot of his salt ; and even then she drew 3 feet, 
 and all hands had frequently to go overboard and haul over shallows. 
 Above the junction of the Meinam Yome and the Pechai Eiver, 
 the villages which had thronged the bank gave way to a wild 
 uninhabited country — the villages few and poor, the paddy-fields far 
 apart and small. The river winds tortuously between clay banks 
 30 feet high and crowned with the prickly bamboo or long grasses, 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, 8IAM. 7 
 
 or in places with deep forests of fine timber. Here and there on the 
 inside of the bend would be extensive sandbanks, and on these, as 
 being safer from wild animals or fever, often three or four boats' 
 crews would be camping at night. On the concave side of the bend 
 would be evidences of huge falls of stuff, the result of the recent 
 floods, with large trees or bamboo clumps sticking out of the water. 
 Of animal life there was plenty — the apparently sluggish crocodile, 
 which at the crack of a rifle would leap his own length into the water ; 
 the familiar and friendly long-tailed monkeys; or the white-headed fish- 
 eagle, and another big dark-coloured eagle with peculiarly hoarse cry. 
 The order Herodiones is well represented, and I shot specimens 
 of the common heron {Ardea cinerea), and the great white heron or 
 
 BICE BAFT, HiM 00. J 
 
 great egret (Ardea alba) ; and in the low state of one's larder, which 
 is the normal condition in Siam, they were excellent eating. Of 
 kingfishers I saw two distinct forms — the smaller one (?), the pied 
 kingfisher of India ; the larger with a stronger bill, black and white, 
 without the high colouring of the other. All these birds are very 
 common, and there are many smaller thin-legged birds running along 
 the sands. 
 
 As in all the rivers of Siam during and just after the rains, the 
 water is alive with fish, the most remarkable that I saw being the 
 " pla reum," a creature often over 3 feet long and the same in depth — 
 very broad-bodied, with a covering of large scales, the fins, tail, and 
 gills of a pinky red ; head large and broad, with wide mouth lined 
 with fine rows of diminutive teeth, of which there are two lines in 
 the upper jaw. The tail is enormously powerful in the water, and, 
 
8 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 until he is tired out, the drift-net used for catching him has a very 
 hard time of it. 
 
 After reaching Muang Pichit, the villages occur more frequently 
 again, and are often palisaded ; this is necessary for the protection 
 of the cattle, which are the favourite prey of the dacoits who wander 
 about in the valley of the Meinam all too freely, often with fine boats, 
 which in the daytime are peaceful trading craft to the eye, but at 
 night suddenly bristle with men. At the present time this kind of 
 business is an actual danger to the traders as well as to the peaceful 
 villagers ; and at the time I went up, though the Minister of the 
 North (Prince Damrong) had just been on a tour to Pechai, they were 
 extremely bold all over the country. Once north of lat. 17° 40', and 
 in the Laos country, property is safer than in Eaton Square. 
 
 One word as to the " wats," or monasteries, and the monks who 
 inhabit them. They are often misnamed " temples " and " priests ; " 
 but, as all who know the customs of the Buddhist countries around 
 will be aware, there is no " priesthood " proper. These men are really 
 retired from the world for the purpose of such meditation as shall 
 bring them as near to the purity of their master and pattern Buddha 
 as possible. Wherever there are villages there are wats, supported 
 by the contributions of the inhabitants, who are bent on gaining 
 merit by their good deeds to these holy men. Like the monks of 
 "merrie England" in years gone by, there are good, bad, and indifferent ; 
 in many cases the prior is a keen Pali student and good musician, 
 and a man of some ideas. The yellow robe and the shaving of head 
 and eyebrows is not exactly fascinating at a close view, but among 
 the monks I used, to see many very fine thoughtful faces ; while I 
 shall, I hope, always remember the friendly evenings I spent after the 
 day's voyage, sitting perched on the bamboo flooring of the sala, high 
 above the quiet stream, listening to a duet played on their simple 
 two-stringed fiddles. The body is made of half a coconut-shell, over 
 which the sounding-board is placed. The string of the bow is between 
 the two strings, and the execution is wonderful. The airs, which 
 are all handed down by ear, are a very fast weird music, distinctly 
 catchy, and one, " the trotting pony," is a wonderfully sweet and 
 descriptive air. Another instrument is the toka, a hollow teak 
 sounding-box with two strings stretched over a number of bridges, 
 on which tlic fingers of the left hand work wliile the right twangs 
 the strings: this joined in very well with the fiddles. Tiio intervals 
 
THE UPPER MEKONQ, SI AM. ^ 
 
 are not the same as ours, and the European ear takes some time 
 to get accustomed to the novelty ; after a time, however, one can 
 sufficiently interpret the airs to get them on a flute, whereon the 
 proper intervals seem to enable one to get a correct version of what 
 before seemed rather a jargon. Another favourite pursuit with the 
 youthful monks is tetakvoa, a football of open wicker-work, which 
 is kept going by the dozen or so players taking " full volleys " with 
 knee or foot, and often "heading " the ball. This, of course, is common 
 in the villages too, but I did not see it in the Laos states. 
 
 It 'is the custom to bring up for the night, whenever possible, 
 alongside one of these wats, both on account of the convenience of 
 finding a good sala, and the greater security against robbers. There 
 is always a wide clear space beneath the trees which shade the 
 buildings of the monastery, and some of these quiet spots, from which, 
 as one walks up and down in the evening, one sees the long reach of 
 river reflecting the last light in the west, or, in the chilly morning, 
 the first streaks of dawn, are almost ideal places for retirement and 
 meditation. They, and the life which goes on within, have been 
 admirably described by Sliway Yoe, in his book ' The Burman,' one 
 of the completest pictures which has ever been drawn of any people ; 
 and the monastery life of Siam is almost identical. As the monoto- 
 nous but almost weird chant of the monks floated out across the 
 stream at sunset, we used to tie up for the night beneath : often 
 it would go far on into the night ; and then long before day the great 
 gong would begin its clanging, and once more the chant rise among 
 the mists, and for us another day's poling would commence. 
 
 In the Laos states there are many points of difference in the 
 wats, not only in the architecture (and the hill-wats become very 
 simple, with a few roughly baked bricks for the low walls, and 
 a thatch roof in place of the red or wood tiled roofs of Siam), but 
 also in the regime. Every boy, for instance, who goes to do his 
 schooling at the wat wears the yellow robe, which assumes thus 
 almost the character of the college gown at home, and until he has 
 so worn it he has no title to the name of "man." As in Siam, 
 besides his letters, he learns the elementary precepts taught by 
 Buddha ; but, as not in Siam, he often goes out with his superiors into 
 the jungle, with robe tucked up, to hew wood or do other work for 
 the support of the wat, which the laymen, being too few or too poor, 
 cannot do. 
 
10 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 During this month of December the north-east monsoon was 
 blowing, but we had curiously cloudy cool days nearly all the time, 
 with, at the start, slight rain at times. The minimum reading of 
 the thermometer was 42° Fahr. on the 22nd, just before sunrise. The 
 two following mornings we had 45° Fahr.; the maxima in the 
 shade of the steersman's house being 73°, 77,° and 76° on those days. 
 50°, 52-5°, 49°, 51°, 54°, 57°. 50°, and 57° were the minima for the 
 next eight days, and the maximum recorded was 85° at 1 p.m. At 
 9 a.m. the thermometer was never above 64°. 
 
 At Muang Fitsanulok, which stands along a very pretty sweep 
 of water, hid deep in its areca and banana palms, I spent a morning 
 at wat Chinareth. This was the nearest approach to a real piece of 
 effective architecture that I had seen since leaving, and I once more 
 experienced the feeling of exultation which one used to know at 
 home, when enjoying the lights and shadows of some old building 
 where the mind of man had worked with great result. An additional 
 charm was the colouring. The coloured tiles of the roofs of the 
 wats are remarkable in Bangkok ; but far in the jungle, when 
 the eye has become accustomed to green for weeks, the wonderful 
 yellow-red, picked off with green borders, and the light-red lower 
 buildings of the cloisters, were most striking. The building was 
 once very extensive, cruciform in shape, in four distinct sections 
 round the great central tower. The western building is the only one 
 in any sort of preservation, and south of it, and at its south-western 
 end, still stand the cloisters. Brick and laterite blocks are the 
 material used, the former in some cases, as in the wall and the 
 pillars of the cloister, being stuccoed. These little pillars are only 
 6 feet high, and the roof is gabled, supported on simple uprights, which 
 rise from horizontal cross-beams resting on the pillars ; and so a very 
 pretty and simple cloister walk is obtained. The remains of such 
 walks lie in every direction round the centre. As for the western 
 building itself, I was much delighted with the interior. One enters 
 a monk's doorway at the south-east corner from a cloister, and is at 
 first lost in gloom. At last the great black columns, with their 
 elaborate gilt ornamentation (the one decoration they understand in 
 Siam), grow out in the feeble light from the little narrow windows 
 in the low side walls. The lofty peaked roof, which rises far into 
 blackness, comes down gradually, sloping less steeply to the columns, 
 of \^'hiuh there are two rows, and so lo the lo\\' m'uIIs, thus as it were 
 
THE UPPEB MEKONG, SI AM. 
 
 11 
 
 covering a nave and side aisles. At the eastern end are placed the 
 usual gilt statues of Buddha, of all shapes and sizes — of which in one 
 cloister alone I saw over thirty-six over 3 feet high. Until these force 
 themselves upon one's notice with all the tawdry wreckage with 
 
 WAT CHINABETK (CENTBAL TOWEB FROM WEST). "■ 
 
 which they are ornamented, the air of retirement about the place is 
 quite captivating. The central tower is some 60 feet high, covered 
 with niches, in which stand more " prahs," or statues, and on the 
 eastern sidc'is a staircase up halfway to a dome-shaped chamber. 
 
12 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 The entrance to this was in its day very prettily panelled and gilded ; 
 .now, alas ! cobwebs and bats are legion. But the whole effect, there 
 almost lost in jungle, is memorable. 
 
 At a smaller wat to the southward (wat Boria) there is a very 
 fine Buddha, on whose head and shoulders the light is thrown from 
 
 iiilL 
 
 A 8ALA IN THE NAN FORESTS. 
 
 a smaU window in the roof. The effect is quite impressive, and 
 
 does great credit to the architect who designed it. This is by no 
 
 means the only place in Siam where the light is dexterously managed. 
 
 Throughout this country the rivers, streams, and canals (or klongs) 
 
 KORAT PLATEAU. ENTRANCE TO FOREST DONG FHYA YEN. 
 
 are the highways, and the villages are built on their edge ; the banks, 
 owing to the accumulations, the houses, and the preservative effect of 
 the palms in which the villages nestle, are often the highest points in 
 the country round — which in the rains becomes a series of vast lakes, 
 with islands here and there, and the houses standing out of the water 
 gaunt upon their long stilt-like piles of teak. In many parts the 
 buffaloes and oxen have to be driven away for miles to higher 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 13 
 
 ground ; and one may meet whole villages moving with as many as 
 forty ox-carts in a gang, with spare oxen trotting behind their 
 masters' carts. 
 
 We had met a good deal of teak being rafted down the lower part 
 of the river. The small rafts come through the innumerable klongs 
 and creeks from all directions, and then below Pichit and Paknam 
 Pho the big rafts are made up, and go off downwards with their crew 
 of men, the cock crowing merrily on the roof of the little bamboo 
 shelter which is their " deck-house." Passing sandbanks and shallows 
 is often a very difficult operation. Some three or four men go over- 
 board astern with long 8-feet stakes, to which the end of a long hawser 
 is fast: The sjiarpened ends they drive into the bottom, clinging on 
 to the top end as the 
 strain comes on, till at 
 last often it is too great, 
 and the stake is pulled 
 over man and all. How- 
 ever, by degrees they 
 will bring the great 
 floating mass to a stand- 
 still for the night, or, as 
 the case may be, they 
 succeed in checking the 
 after end sufficiently 
 to keep it to the current, while three or four more hands are working 
 the long transverse- set oars at the fore end in the direction required, 
 and two or three more will be using long poles to keep off the 
 shallows ; all hands shout lustily the whole time. By this process, 
 repeated hour by hour, they travel slowly to Bangkok with the 
 current. 
 
 Above Pichit we met but few rafts, and those only consisting of 
 bamboo and " mai kabao," which is much used for small work, such 
 as tables, and is brought down in small pieces, generally about 
 14 feet long. 
 
 Muang Pechai is the chief town of a very extensive and impor- 
 tant province, which to the north-east reaches to the Mekong at 
 Chieng Kan. The Governor, Phya Pechai, is a fine, tall young man, 
 who is (and this is not too often the case in Siam) extremely 
 popular with the people. His evident honesty of purpose was 
 
 GORGE NAM PGOI. 
 
14 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 apparent the first moment he spoke. We had to stay here a few 
 days to get the elephants together and buy rice. Twelve kanan 
 (a coconut-shell) were selling at a tieal, and on the average each 
 man consumes one kanan per day. We laid in a stock of 35 thang 
 (of 20 kanan), and were shortly after glad to get off on our journey 
 towards the distant hills. I should add that this place is the 
 starting-point for Paklai, on the Mekong, the trail between these 
 two places being the route generally followed by the officials going 
 to Luang Prabang. Apart from this it is not of much importance, 
 and, situated in the uninteresting plain, is subject to high floods 
 in the rains, as the water-marks on the piles of the post-office and 
 the school and court houses attest. 
 
 Two days, passing through scrub jungle, brings the traveller to 
 Ban Nam Pi, where there are some iron "mines" — a series of shallow 
 diggings on an extensive deposit of limonite, which seems to be 
 " derivative " from surface decomposition. The quartz rock, which 
 generally underlies it, is probably a quartz sand which has been 
 metamorphosed under pressure into the hard material we now find. 
 In, or in close connection with the latter, the iron nodules are not 
 to be found, but near the surface, where the quartz has softened and 
 looks almost like a sandstone, the nodules occur in abundance. 
 
 The great difficulty was to get any one to do any work, even in 
 clearing away debris, such is the fear of the "Pi," or spirits, who 
 are said to guard the mineral. Without the offer of a white bullock, 
 who ought first to be slain for their benefit, it was asserted that the 
 spirits would certainly interfere with any one attempting to do any 
 work. I was also told that when the iron ore is removed it brings 
 bad luck to any house in which it is stored, and that, if hung up on 
 a tree (certainly an odd place for stowing ores), it invariably causes 
 the death of the tree. An iron-shod bamboo is the only tool used, 
 but no work has been done for ages, and the small furnace which 
 once existed at the village is quite dilapidated. It was quite vain 
 setting to work myself, and giving out that I had made a permanent 
 arrangement with all the " Pi," even the most vicious, before leaving 
 Bangkok; nothing less than a royal proclamation will ever give 
 the people confidence enough to make the opening up of these places 
 possible. 
 
 On January 10 we were fairly under way for the north, high 
 in hope and spirits, ^s a party always is when the scenery begins 
 
THE UPPER MEKONO, SIAM. 15 
 
 to change, and weary plains give way to lofty hill-ranges and distant 
 peaks, with cool clear streams splashing in the rocky watercourses. 
 At Muang Fang we came down to the Meinam once more, and 
 camped in a very fine wat, which none of us will ever forget; for 
 we marched in, parched and dusty, to find ourselves under orange 
 trees loaded with fruit, and then and there all hands almost bathed 
 in the delicious cool juice. To the south is a lovely semicircle of 
 hills of schist, which turn the river away to the west. To the north, 
 the timber-clad heights rose shoulder upon shoulder, far into the 
 peaks of Kao Luet and Kao Taw, dim with distance. We were at 
 last fairly in the mountains and in the Laos country. 
 
 I do not wish to give what would perhaps be a wearying account 
 of our marches day after day, full of pleasure, of changing beauties, 
 and of memorable incidents as they were, but as succinctly as possible 
 to speak of the configuration of the country we passed through. 
 
 We next day forded the river at Ban Taluat, and were in the 
 province of Nan. The trail on to Cherim (north-east) crosses a 
 number of small hills of clay slate, which form the outlying 
 buttresses of the rougher country to the north ; the strike whicli 
 I observed here and all the way up on our northerly journey is 
 pretty regularly north and south, the dip westerly at about 25°, 
 sometimes steeper. Water is scarce here, and when we stopped for 
 breakfast in the bed of a hoay (or mountain-stream) at 9, 
 after about three hours' going, even the holes in the sandy bed only 
 gave us two or three pints of water; but, of course, in January this 
 is to be expected. To avoid the rough country northward the trail 
 crosses the Meinam once more, where its direction is southerly, to 
 Cherim, whence the march to M. Faek is a very long and hilly 
 one, oyer high ridges of clay slate, which cany one up over 1000 
 feet above the river. Some of the glimpses we got in the early 
 mornings, as we climbed upwards among the tall trunks, were quite 
 magnificent. These forests, in their winter clothing of reds and 
 yellows, with the tall grey trunks standing out clear against the 
 deep shadows behind, are, with the early morning or evening sun 
 upon them, perfectly gorgeous. As day dawns the rays climb down 
 the heights above you into the mists, which forthwith whirl and 
 melt ; and then, as you rise above it all, there lies below on all sides 
 a billowy sea of wild forest, high on jagged ridges in the sunlight, 
 or darkened in shadows far down in the deep torrent valleys ; in the 
 
IG NOTES OF A JOURNKY ON 
 
 blue distance eastward the Nam Pat range lies dim, and nortli and 
 west the eye loses itself among endless cloud-capped ranges. 
 
 The sala at Muang Faek is on the west side of the river, and 
 consists of a number of separate bamboo shelters; here we had 
 to rest our elephants, all eighteen of which were tired out by the 
 climb from Cherim, and we had to engage two more to reduce the 
 weights on our tired beasts. Elephants in Siam are never idle, and 
 the animals I got from Pechai, which belonged to the Minister of the 
 Mining Department, had all been hard at work hauling teak and such 
 things before our arrival. At Muang Faek there are a good many, 
 and the two which now joined us were a male and female of 
 magnificent proportions. They had a swinging gait, with which they 
 travelled much faster than the others, evidently not being accustomed 
 to dragging heavy timber, but to light weights and hard climbing. 
 At first they didn't like their new surroundings at all, and it was 
 most curious to see how, when the one began to trumpet and back 
 out of the crowd, the other rushed up, caressing him with her trunk 
 all over, and even pushing it into his mouth, and stood by him till 
 he was pacified; but if she left his side for a moment, round he 
 whirled in search of her, and the mahout could do nothing to stop 
 him. I never saw them separated by more than twenty yards the 
 whole time they were with us ; they had always to be loaded and 
 unloaded together, as they stood side by side, entwining their trunks 
 lovingly, and in the evening, after the march, they bathed together 
 and squirted one another in huge enjoyment. The howdahs are 
 simply rough saddles like big baskets, and ace generally fitted with 
 a close plaited roof with a long peak before and behind, like those 
 fitted on the Idens, or ox-carts, of the plains. 
 
 From M. Faek the trail, which is well trodden, passes along 
 the steep wooded banks of the Meinam, which, however, is here 
 known as the Nam Nan. The clay slate dips 65° W., and makes 
 long black ridges in the river-bed, which can be seen deep down in 
 the clear water, or rising in sharp crags above it, and forming the 
 rapids, which make the river a difficult highway at the best, and only 
 navigable by the long narrow dug-outs. 
 
 It is a short march to Hoay Li, where there is a sala kept, as 
 they all are in Nan, in excellent condition ; but there is a stream 
 close by. The next day's march was a heavy one, over more lofty ridges 
 without water, and it is, therefore, a good stopping-place. Leaving 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 17 
 
 at sunrise, the Laos guide and myself reached the small shelter at 
 Hoay Nai at one o'clock, the rest of my Siamese straggling in well 
 Mown an hour later, and the elephants climbing down the steep water- 
 course at three. This is generally the extent of a day's march, and 
 the average rate of jungle-travelling, allowing for stoppages, is never 
 t)ver 2i^ miles an hour, and a six hours' march is as much as the 
 Siamese can do; in these hills the elephants certainly do not do 
 more than 2 miles an hour. To the Laos trotting along on foot there 
 is, however, no limit that I ever discovered, even with the heavy 
 loads which they carry swung on a pole across the shoulder. With 
 a couple of handfuls of kao neo, the hill-rice, which they steam 
 ■over a pot into a glutinous mass, very handy and portable for the day's 
 march, and with some dried fish and a banana, and a long pull at the 
 fresh stream water once in the day, they will go cheerily from mom 
 till night, swinging when necessary their long dhaja (a sword of 
 Burmese style, which every man over sixteen carries if he be a man 
 at all), to cut and lop the branches and jungle which are for ever 
 blocking the tracks. This stopping-place was one of the wildest we 
 were ever in; nothing but jungle and mountains all around, the 
 place itself a tiny clearing in the bottom of a deep narrow ravine, 
 where the monster trunks climbed far above us, leaving only one 
 little space of open sky, from which at three o'clock the sun was shut 
 out, and where at half-past five night had fairly set in. A number of 
 gangs going south from Nan were camped here with us. 
 
 Another, easy, march brought us to Muang Hin, over 1200 feet 
 above sea-level. Imagine a number of lovely villages clustering among 
 their coconut and areca palms, in a beautiful wide valley surrounded 
 by forests and hills, the glistening yellow paddy-stalks bright in the 
 afternoon sun, with the black backs of the buffalo moving lazily 
 about'; the homely red of the little oxen, and the moving islands the 
 ■elephants make whisking the paddy in their trunks ; with the village 
 sounds drifting down the quiet air — the distant drum at the monastery, 
 whose grey roof stands above the other houses, or the far-off " poot, 
 poot " of the " nok poot " in the jungle (a black bird, by the way, with 
 a long pheasant-like tail and light red wings) — and you have an idea 
 of the lovely scene which spread before us that evening as we emerged 
 from the hills. 
 
 This valley runs parallel to the Nam Nan valley to the east- 
 ward, but drains in exactly the opposite direction, the water running 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 north and turning into the Nam Nan considerably north of M. Sisaket. 
 Three days going down this lovely valley brought us through a 
 rough piece of limestone country to Muang Sa, where I stayed 
 some days visiting several places in the neighbourhood. This town- 
 ship is important, and stands by the Nam Nan in a very fine paddy- 
 growing plain, and is better supplied with inhabitants than the 
 
 THE PADDY-FIELDS, HIN VALLEY. 
 
 country we had come through; but even here the tigers are very bold, 
 and often come right into the villages. Small irrigation canals extend 
 in all directions. 
 
 Like the quarrymen in North Wales, whenever there is a cry of 
 " gold " at Clogan, the Laos take every piece of yellow copper pyrites 
 or iron pyrites for gold, and we had several very hard days' travelling 
 both east and west after gold-mines of this description. 
 
 The minimum readings for the last five days were 62° 49°, 46°, 
 43°, and 45° Fahr., and going on one day's march over the plain to 
 Muang Nan, the capital of this great province, we had 60° as minimum 
 for several days. 
 
 The salas stand outside the red-brick walls of Nan, and are only 
 a few hundred yards from the river, and here was every sign of 
 prosperity; every other family seems to own an elephant or two. 
 The houses are well built and enclosed in stout palisades; and besides 
 the town inside the walls, there is a very large number of houses 
 between them and the river. I saw numbers of dug-outs arriving 
 with cotton, and many too going away south. There are a few Burmese 
 shopkeepers along the east wall, their principal stock consisting of 
 check-patterned panungs and sarongs and small knickknacks, betel 
 boxes, and a little silver-work. A mule caravan of Haws from the 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 
 
 19 
 
 north — a3 dirty and ugly as the dirtiest Chinamen — were also anxious 
 to sell Chinese slippers, sheepskin coats, walnuts and sandals, and 
 shortly after left for the south, like otliers wo had met at Muaiig Sa. 
 From M. Sa I gathered they were going to make westward toward 
 
 _^ ik.... 
 
 WAT BEN YEUK, M. SA. 
 
 M. Pray. Some of the Burmese brought me some sapphires from 
 Chieng Kong, and there were some fine stones, but I was at the 
 time surprised to find they had no rubies. Coloured quartzes are 
 also found in this neighbourhood, and are cut for ornament. The 
 
 EAST GATE OP NAN. 
 
 rupee is the current coin, and the Burmese shopkeepers and a China- 
 man or two were the only people who would exchange our money for 
 us — at the rate of three salung to the rupee. 
 
 The sight of Nan is the early morning market, to which before 
 sunrise the women are seen coming from all directions, wrapped in 
 their long plaids — for such, indeed, the Lao cloak is, both in pattern 
 and mode of wearing. The market is held within the walls in the open 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 NOTES OF A J0UBNE7 ON 
 
 space, in -which stands the sanam, or court-house ; this is surrounded on 
 three sides by wats, and on the west by the palace, a large house with 
 no very striking features. The women crouch along the sides in rows 
 with their baskets in front of them, as at Luang Prabang and at all the 
 markets one sees in this part of the peninsula. Fruit, biscuits, and 
 cakes, ready rolled cigarettes and flowers, are for sale, but the quantities 
 are very small. There is a muffled sound of subdued chatter and 
 laughter, and the scene is a very pretty one— till at last the mists are 
 gone, the sun is well up in the heavens, and the crowd melts away as 
 silently as it came. 
 
 Once inside the walls the town may be described as countrified, the 
 houses standing in their own enclosures among their palms, where the 
 elephants twirl their trunks among the cocks 
 and hens. Very fair roads run at right angles 
 to one another, but are always quiet and shady, 
 like country lanes. The chief business seems 
 
 LAOS BAG, or 8TBIPED CLOTH. 
 
 KAO NEC WICKER BASKETS. 
 
 to be outside the town, vUlages extending on all sides, and especially 
 along the road to the north, past the " old city," which is about one 
 mile in that direction, and where there are some very good substan- 
 tial palisades still standing, with the remains of a deep ditch and 
 massive wall on the north-west side, all of course very much grown 
 over. The custom of shaving the head all round, with the exception 
 of the tuft at the top which stands bristling straight on end, and 
 gives a good grip to the light-red or white turban which is often 
 worn, is a cool and cleanly one, and gives the men a smart 
 
TEE UPPER MEKONG, SUM. 21 
 
 appearance ; the black tattooing, which extends from the knee up to 
 the middle of the body, is the other distinctive feature throughout the 
 provmce of Nan. They seldom wear more than the panung and a 
 short blue jacket, except in the early mornings, when, with the 
 thermometer at 50°, they shiver inside their long plaids ; as the day 
 becomes warmer, the plaid is rolled up and stowed in the bag, which 
 IS as indispensable as the dhdp, and goes over one shoulder, carrying 
 its owner's all — consisting of a small basket of hao neo for the day, 
 some tobacco, and betel-nut, with often a long-stemmed pipe and flint 
 and steel. 
 
 The women tie their long hair up on the top of their heads, and 
 when I first got among them I was reminded of the same fashion 
 at home, as also by other points of resemblance one had not seen 
 among the Siamese — a light springy step, a pleasant-sounding voice, 
 a well-cut figure, and a rosy cheek. In some of the districts in the 
 hills the women suffer severely from goitre, and up the Nam Wa, 
 a wild torrent which joins the Nam Nan from the east, just below 
 
 ^ 
 
 AXE FOB HOLLOWING BOATS. DIPPBB FOB WATER. 
 
 Muang Sa, three out of every four of the women I saw had it. Up 
 that river, too, I noticed a lack of expression in the faces of the men 
 and lads when in repose ; but they are rare hands at a joke, and then 
 their f3,ces light up wonderfully. These men all wore short jackets 
 to the waist, of blue cloth, leaving a strip of tattooing between it and 
 the blue panung, I was astonished at the number of children I saw 
 there, too, every man we met in the jungle having some four or five 
 of his sons with him. Ten or even fifteen children is a number not 
 uncommon for one woman, while in Siam, as a rule, the number three 
 is not exceeded. I imagine the population must be now recovering 
 from the effects of the continual warfare which existed before Siam 
 made its rule felt in the north, and which no doubt accounts for the 
 meagre population throughout the entire peninsula. 
 
 Of the joyful, kindly, and hospitable character of the Laos of Nan 
 one cannot say too much ; I never saw a surly face or heard an 
 angry word. Their honesty is proverbial, and they are singularly 
 temperate: drinking lao (which is distilled from rice to a large 
 
22 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 extent in Siam itself), smoking opium, theft, and malice seem to 
 have no attractions for them. I believe every one who has travelled 
 with and among them will say the same, sind will ever keep their 
 memory stowed away in a warm corner of the heart. 
 
 The Eachawong was the official I saw most of — an upstanding, 
 refined, and gentlemanly looking man, with a touch of iron grey in 
 his hair, a firm step, a strong mouth, and high clear forehead. He 
 gave me the story of some recent trouble with Chow Sa (the Prince 
 of Sa) without any of that repetition, detail, or tinge of animosity 
 one expects from an uneducated or inferior mind when speaking of 
 an enemy. 
 
 Preparations were beginning for the cremation of the late " king " 
 who was just dead, but we left before the ceremony began. 
 
 The punishment of death, which was inflicted for opium-smoking, 
 elephant-killing, or theft, has been replaced during the last few years 
 by a milder form ; but it is noteworthy that in two years only one 
 man has been put in the prison at Nan. 
 
 The music is a great contrast to that of the Siamese. At a dinner to 
 which I was invited at M. Sa, we had, to an accompaniment of three 
 bamboo flutes with very sweet low tones, a kind of duet sung by two 
 girls, each taking a verse in turn. The rather nasal notes would soar 
 up quite independently of the flutes, and then suddenly return to the 
 keynote, which was a lovely minor, and was sustained ; then would 
 come a pause, with the delightful subdued refrain on the flutes again, 
 ere the other began. The subject was a war-song, on which they both 
 extemporized ; but even my Siamese could not follow the words at 
 all. After a solo from one of the flutists, who, as usual, sang falsetto 
 (which is especially affected by the Siamese too in love-songs), he and 
 one of the damsels lighted tapers, and though in no dress but their 
 ordinary open dark blue jackets of panung, they performed another 
 kind of duet, accompanied by waving of hands and arms, and a certain 
 amount of not ungraceful attitudinizing. It seemed to be a kind of 
 sacred affair, with a slow dignified air, and they quite lost themselves 
 in it, though some of my Siamese were making running comments in 
 the usual style of the vulgar all over the world. 
 
 As far as music goes, it was far more expressive and peaceful than 
 anything I had heard in Siam, as the others owned. I had with me 
 as assistant-surveyor a very accomplished young Siamese, who is an 
 excellent specimen of the best that Siam produces ; he is a capital 
 
THE UPPEB MEKONG, 8IAM. 23 
 
 musician after the fashion of liis country, and used continually to 
 warble languishing love-airs to our great amusement, and also good 
 marching airs. He had a good ear, and soon picked up some of the 
 Laos tunes, and so one had good opportunities of comparing them. 
 It was curious, too, how he and several of the others took to English 
 airs they heard from me, even copying the sounds of the English words. 
 The proficiency of the Siamese " service " bands in Bangkok shows, 
 too, that they can master and appreciate our music. 
 
 I have heard the Laos called " savages," which can only be said in 
 ignorance. They respect superiors, are devoted to their " chows," to 
 whom they are united by feudal ties, are obedient to ' their parents, 
 extremely hospitable, and perfectly honest. The stranger to them is 
 no enemy, but a creature that needs kindness, and invariably gets it 
 Quarrelling is unknown. They respect their women, and, unlike the 
 Siamese, walk behind them and bear the heaviest load. They do the 
 jungle-work, and the women stay at home, weaving their silk panungs 
 or their horizontally striped petticoats at the loom beneath the house ; 
 while the dogs, no longer vile pariahs, but cared for well, and of a 
 breed something like a sheepdog, sit by and watch the children play. 
 
 Surely there is something besides savagery here. 
 
24 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 MuANG Nan to Muanq Chieng Kong. 
 
 Fkom Muang Nan my orders were to find the best route I could 
 over the watershed to M. Chieng Kong in the Mekong valley. As 
 usual, the information obtainable was very meagre. One trail goes 
 west from Nan till the valley of the Nam Ing is reached, when that 
 stream is followed down north; a second follows the Nam Nan 
 northward, and crosses the range north-north-westerly up the stream 
 flowing down from M. Yao ; the third, which I selected, as showing 
 one more of the Nam Nan valley, follows that river up as far north 
 as M. Ngob (lat. 19° 29'), when the direction becomes north-westerly 
 over the rough country which brings one to M. Chieng Hon and 
 M. Chieng Kob. 
 
 Leaving Nan on February 1, we followed a good tract among 
 low but precipitous and picturesque limestone hills, into a curiously- 
 disforested country, where the only growth was bamboo, until we 
 dropped suddenly upon the river once more at Pak Ngao, where we 
 camped on the sandbank. We had by this time picked up, as one does 
 in the East, a considerable following. A Commissioner had been sent 
 across from Chieng Mai to accompany me up to Chieng Kong. What 
 his actual duties were I never discovered ; he was very useful, however,, 
 in helping me in various ways, but I would willingly have done 
 without him, for he was evidently one of that class of officials who 
 grind the people very tight when their superiors are out of sight. 
 Another, the brother of Chow Sa, by name Chow Benn Yenn, 
 who was with me all the time from Muang Sa until I reached 
 Bangkok again, was the greatest contrast to the former. He was a 
 small, neatly made fellow of about twenty-one, a splendid forest 
 man, who, though a great swell in these parts, travelled with only 
 three or four lads with him, and could walk the whole expedition 
 off their legs. He knew and could imitate exactly every forest 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 2^ 
 
 sound, and as he trotted along the trail he gathered all kinds of 
 unlikely looking plants, which in the evening made excellent 
 additions to our curry. He was a born sportsman, and far 
 more at his ease sleeping out at night under his plaid, with his lads 
 stretched round him, than under any form of roof. The lads with 
 him — for they were mere boys — were like him, and treated him with 
 the usual freedom and familiarity peculiar to the Laos, but which 
 if an order was given, disappeared before complete obedience;, 
 and if the Chow wanted a drink of water or half a handful of kao' 
 neo, they would go miles or give their last crumbs to supply him, 
 and many were the generous and willing kindnesses I had to thank 
 them for. 
 
 We had also an official with his sons and a few men to carry 
 their loads from Nan, who acted as guides and a kind of walking 
 letter of introduction everywhere. They were a remarkably handsome 
 lot, but the old fellow himself used to come in very done up after 
 the day's march. Yet, like all the rest, he was never put out hy 
 hunger or weariness, and would take his bag off his shoulder, throw 
 down his long dhap, and squat on his heels and laugh again to think 
 that he should be tired and the youngsters not. 
 
 From Pale Ngao, where we saw a few dug-outs shooting past down, 
 the rapids, we next day passed over more of this disforested lime- 
 stone country, the dip of the rocks being westerly and very steep- 
 (50° to 60°), until we forded the river below M. Saipum. We passed 
 through a number of villages, with very pretty whitewashed 
 monasteries, and high palisades round them ; the view to the north- 
 east was a novel one, for the usual foreground of yeUow fields, with. 
 its dykes and ditches, and its many watch-houses reared high on 
 piles, was backed not by forest, but by open expanses, with trees 
 here and there, or low bamboo scrub, and a dwarf range of bare 
 hills behind. There is a red sandstone which seems to underlie the 
 limestone, and wherever that rock outcrops, the soil is excessively 
 thin and poor, and the denuding power of the rains is very marked.. 
 That often accounts for low scrub jungle; but where that is not 
 present, as in the limestone country we had just crossed, the absence 
 of forest must, I fancy, be due to fires ; and no doubt when a fire 
 is lit for the purpose of clearing ground for the hill rice, it will, 
 with a good breeze, clear square miles instead of acres. I saw a 
 great deal of this burning going on subsequently in the Mekong 
 
26 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 Talley, and I never saw results commensurate with the destruction 
 caused. 
 
 The sala at M. Lim, where we slept, is on the east bank, the 
 town being opposite, and the " Chow Muang " or Governor came wading 
 over with the water up to his neck, and his clothes in a bundle on his 
 head. There are numbers of very fine ducks here, but, as usual, we had 
 great diflBculty in getting any in exchange for money. They have not 
 great use for money here, as they themselves say, and they prefer their 
 ducks. This happens constantly, especially when buying rice. Each 
 village has enough for its consumption for the year, and very often no 
 more; and naturally they prefer to keep the necessaries of life to 
 having comparatively useless silver buried under their house. As the 
 country is opened up, this will no doubt change, but at present it is 
 not worth their while to grow more than they can consume themselves. 
 
 Again, a few irresponsible travellers have been in the habit ot 
 provisioning themselves at the expense of the villages without pay- 
 ing, and the consequence is that when a European appears (or, 
 indeed, often a Siamese official), there is a general stampede into the 
 jungle, and everything is hidden away, for they expect nothing but 
 robbery at his hands. Until, after infinite pains, they are persuaded 
 that they will be dealt honestly by, and treated with the considera- 
 tion which the wildest from their own hills would never fail to show, 
 you can get nothing but negatives, and small blame to them. It 
 is humiliating in the extreme, after travelling with men for some 
 weeks, to be asked one night over the camp fire why the nai farang 
 (the foreign master) doesn't kick and thrash the men on the march, 
 or flog the Chow Muang into handing over all the rice in the 
 village, and do other not less objectionable things. Yet such is 
 the conduct expected of one, as a matter of course, from the past 
 repute of the /ara«.^ which travels far, and no doubt also does suffer 
 from exaggeration. Still, it shows what our methods too often have 
 been. With these people you get the measure you mete to them ; 
 firmness is first of all necessary, but brutality is lowering to all con- 
 cerned, and never has done anything but harm, and is more far-reach- 
 ing than the contemptible authors of it understand. 
 
 Another day's march through a good deal of evergreen brings one, 
 after crossing the Nam Pur, flowing in from the east, to M. Chieng 
 Kan. An hour further north is M. Chieng Klan ; and the confusion 
 of the two names is endless. The latter is the better stopping-place, 
 
TEE VPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 27 
 
 though the former is very prettily situated, on the bank of the Nam 
 Nan, among very fine clumps of bamboo and a great many banana 
 palms and sugar-oane plantations. Of the latter every man slings 
 a couple of stalks over his shoulder for the day's journey, and most 
 refreshing they are. The cakes of brown sugar made from them, of 
 which one generally takes a piece or two to give a taste to the kao neo, 
 are not considered good for the digestion, and quite rightly, and so 
 only, just enough is taken at a time to give a taste. The sugar from 
 the sugar palm of the plains, however, never has any evil results, and 
 
 A HILL MOKASTERV, M. LE. 
 
 as it has a pleasant flavour, when we got back to it in the Khorat 
 plateau, we consumed large quantities. 
 
 The next day M. Le was reached over sandy, undulating jungle 
 country. On foot one could easily have reached M. Ngob, but the 
 elephants could not do it, being, as I mentioned before, in bad condi- 
 tion. I was not loth to rest the night here, it being one of the 
 most beautiful of the hill-enclosed valleys we had been in. From 
 the sala we looked out over the terraced paddy fields, with the wind- 
 ing silver of the river below, and abruptly beyond it shoulder upon 
 shoulder of heavily timbered ranges rising into the peaks which 
 divided us from the Chieng Hon plain to' the west and north-west. 
 Eastward, and just over us, were low steep hills, on a spur of which 
 was a small hill monastery, whence the bells on the gables sent down 
 a gentle tinkling as they were swayed by the strong south-westerly 
 
28 NOTES OF A JOUBNEY ON 
 
 breeze which was sweeping a watery rustling sound out of the 
 bamboos and coconut palms. 
 
 The salas being small, the people of the village ran up in half an 
 hour one of their bamboo lean-to shelters for the men, but the Lao& 
 as usual seemed to prefer lighting a fire and lying out in the open round 
 it m their cloaks, there being always one man sitting up on watch 
 and supplying fuel when necessary. . 
 
 M. Ngob is in a narrow hollow, which I should not care to visit 
 in hot weather, for the wind hardly gets into the place. We had 
 nearly a whole day's rest here. A mule caravan of Haws came in 
 from the north and rendered the otherwise peaceful air hideous with 
 their loud, hoarse talking. But for them a Laos village is singularly 
 quiet ; no sounds but the quack, quack of the fat.ducks who share the 
 pools in the stream with a few laughing children, the grunts of a 
 family of pigs, the occasional trumpet of an elephant who has been 
 up to some playful game or other of which the master does not 
 approve, and the steady thump, thump of the small foot rice mills, 
 which the women work apparently from morn till night. 
 
 Before sunrise, as the sonorous chant rises from the wat, these 
 mills are at work too, and often the last thing at night one hears 
 them still. Mr. McCarthy has described them, but I may just men- 
 tion that they consist of a piece of tree-trunk hollowed into a funnel- 
 shape, into which the rice is put, and a long lever worked at the 
 outer end by the foot, the woman stepping on and off, fitted with a 
 hammer-head of wood, of which several of different sizes are used. 
 And while the mother works her loom close by, the two daughters 
 will work the mill and chat and chaff the passers-by. 
 
 Minimum readings for the last four days, 52°, 55°, 57°, 58° Fahr. 
 The maximum in one of these salas is generally about 82° for this 
 month at 2 to 3 p.m. The winds were now south-westerly, very 
 strong, with bright fierce sun, but cumuli lying on the higher peaks 
 after 4 p.m.> sometimes a slight shower falling from them. 
 
 One mile north-west from M. Ngob, the Nam Nan,* here known 
 as the Nam Ngob (and actually the people did not know that it was 
 the same river as the Nam Nan below), runs over shallow pebble 
 beds, where we forded to the west side. This day's march is a very 
 good example of the kind of travelling to be done. The tracks over 
 
 * The river evidently takes its rise from Doi Luaug (a large hill mass south of 
 M. Hongsawadi), 19° 35' N., 101° 2t' E. ; 
 
TEE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 29 
 
 the hills are either in the bed of the " hoays," or streams, far down in 
 a perpetual night, where the coldness of the water chills the feet and 
 legs through and through ; or, after a steep climb, high up on narrow 
 spurs leading to the central range, where the forest is thick enough 
 to keep off all the wind but not the rays of the sun after 10 a.m. 
 Once on these ridges no water is to be had for half a day, and the 
 stick of sugar-cane or water-bottle of cold tea, the best of all beverages, 
 is worth its weight in gold. However, drinking on the march is a 
 
 VIEW PROM M. LE, LOOKING NOBTH-WEST ACROSS THE NAM NAN AND WATERSHED 
 OF MEINAM KUONO. 
 
 ruinous habit. The Laos sensibly rinse the mouth when they can, 
 •and only drink at the end of the day. 
 
 Following up Hoay Sakeng over red sandstone rocks, the track 
 then climbs on to a long ridge, leading, with many rises and falls, to a 
 small gap in the range, about 1100 feet above the river. We met on 
 the way four pack oxen coming, with their pretty deep-toned bell, 
 down the path, and on reaching the summit had a most glorious 
 view of the thick forests of the Chieng Hon valley, with the small 
 clearings here and there and surrounded on all sides, as far as one 
 could see in the dim haze which accompanies the south-west wind, 
 by hill ranges. Twenty minutes down a steep drop at a run brought 
 us into a different climate and the most perfect valley I was ever in. 
 Far above, the sun glistened here and there on the wide-spreading fronds 
 
30 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 of huge tree-ferns; for the rest; we were almost in darkness, with 
 orchids and great twisted creepers climbing on the tree-trunks dim 
 above us. The stream is known as Hoay Tok, and down its bed 
 we stumbled, cutting ourselves about on the rough outcrops, the 
 strike of which, with a steep westerly dip, was at right angles to our 
 course, and made most unpleasant travelling. Two hours more across 
 a partially cultivated plain, and we passed another Haw caravan 
 encamped, and reached the sala. The elephants did not arrive until 
 5 p.m., it having taken them twelve hours to reach M. Chieng Hon. 
 
 At M. Pechai T had bought some ponies.- There are not many 
 there, and the choice was limited, while the price, forty to sixty ticals, 
 was heavy. These animals, as long as we were in flat country, were 
 useful, but they were not good mountaineers, and I found travelling 
 on foot much pleasanter, while, as a general rule, the more exercise 
 men get in these jungles, the healthier they are. On this day each 
 one of my Siamese assistants had a fall, for they, as a rule, stuck to 
 their ponies! backs, whatever the trail was like; this often means 
 getting one's face and hands tremendously knocked about, frequent 
 dismountings, slow progress, and endless bother, while it also stands 
 in the way of surveying or careful observation of the lie of the ground. 
 
 There was a very heavy, damp mist when we pushed on next 
 day through the Dong Choi, a magnificent forest, which almost covers 
 this plateau with the scenery of Hoay Tok continued, only on a 
 larger and more imposing scale. The size of the ferns, and especially 
 of the hart's-tongues, which clung in masses, with clumps of orchids, 
 far up on the bare trunks of the trees which form the roofing of 
 branch and leaf above, was quite astonishing to me. 
 
 Camp was made by a small sala in a wild clearing at Sala Pangue, 
 from which the sun was early excluded by the hills and forest on 
 the west, which we were to cross on the mofrow. The tired elephants 
 had a well-earned afternoon's rest. To give them time to get in 
 before sunset, next day we got under way at 3.30 a.m., every six or 
 eight men having a torch about eight feet long of split bamboo. 
 These early marches are a sort of scrambling dream, and should not 
 be resorted to except under compulsion, as, although the cool morn- 
 ing air is pleasant for the first hour, every one soon gets very done 
 up, and stumbles on hazily. Sunrise puts new life into one, but 
 the want of the early morning sleep makes one feel the heat of the 
 day far more. Moreover, of course, nothing of the country is seen. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 31 
 
 We rose for an hour and a half up over hills, and one or two of the 
 ponies had some tremendous falls, and were soon left struggling 
 behind. At sunrise we were descending once more among the wildest 
 and most rugged scenes into the valley of Nam Pote, and were now 
 fairly in the Mekong drainage. This was another of the wonderful 
 valleys which are so common here ; and the temperature was just 
 over 10° Fahr. below that of the hill ridges when we left them at 
 6 a.m. About 8.30, after crossing and recrossing the stream about 
 thirty times, and being regularly chilled, I stopped at a small sala, 
 and was glad to bask in the sun. An hour and a half later the others 
 came up, and we breakfasted. Chow Benn Yenn's sharp eyes had 
 seen some deer and two tigers, but they were off in a moment.. 
 Where the former is the latter follows, but neither will stay when he 
 detects the sound of man coming through the forest. The tiger takes 
 the greatest trouble to avoid a man, unless very famished. Often 
 then he is rendered bold enough to attack a solitary man, when 
 squatting down to eat his kao neo, and it is thus that accidents 
 occur ; but he will seldom face two men, and that is why one always- 
 meets the Laos in couples, if not in greater numbers. 
 
 At 10.30 we continued down the valley; rock apparently red 
 sandstone, but so decomposed at its outcrop as to give no clue of 
 reliable character. Passed numbers of wild banana trees, which do 
 not bear fruit. They are very aggravating to tired men, who hear 
 the cry of a jungle fowl, and coming round a corner see the broad 
 leaves of the bananas ; naturally we jump forward, thinking to get 
 a rest and a bunch of bananas, and, perhaps, a fowl or some eggs 
 for the evening's supper, but find nothing and no sign of man or 
 fowl. 
 
 The course is roughly north-west until the hills fall back, and the 
 valley opens on a flat piece of paddy land, bounded north and south 
 by lofty limestone rocks, with, to the west, a barrier caused by a 
 steep north and south ridge, over which lies M. Kob, but round 
 which a long detour has to be made to the north-west, down the Nam 
 Pote valley, to where the Nam Kob meets it. Passing Ban Tarn,, 
 Ban Prow, and Ban Faek, prosperous-looking villages, we reached 
 the junction at one o'clock. After a brief rest in the shade, in 
 another hour and a half, after fording Nam Kob pretty frequently 
 (making about the ninetieth time we had been in the water that day), 
 we reached the sala of M. Kob. Tlie others began to arrive about four 
 
Muang If gob on the Nam Nan 
 Maang* Chiezig Kong on the Mekong River 
 
 1833. 
 
 An^laofdJTectujrvand^dipofrooh..^.. 46 \ 
 
 LuTtestorve SerCes — -L , 
 
 Gotdsoji^L^ © 
 
 Cenv Graofels....: + 
 
 =£. 
 
 One inch - 10' 7 milea • 
 sar 
 
 8CAIC or MILES. 
 
 9 10 
 
 Katural Scale 1:678,000. 
 
 W loo-so-B. 
 
 r.i.waia 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, 81 AM. 33 
 
 clock, and the elephants at 6.30, looking very sorry ; and we had to 
 give them a complete resi next day. 
 
 From the character of the scenery here, and at the top of the Nam 
 Pote, where we struck it, I imagine the hills we came down among 
 were limestones overlying the sandstone again ; all round the Muang 
 are the wildest and most fantastic peaks, and, with the steep heights 
 hanging immediately over it, it was more like a Norwegian valley 
 than anything I have seen. 
 
 The wats here are very simple, the houses neat, but small ; bricks 
 are baked in the valley, and the rice-mills thump cheerily and echo ofif 
 the hills all day. There were some pack oxen, which came over from the 
 westward ; but the Laos who drove them, whether from distrust of us 
 or not, I do not know, would not converse with any of us. The bells 
 of these caravans as they go trotting down the valleys are beautiful. 
 First goes a large, deep-toned bell, swinging between the packs of 
 the leader ; the next is a third above it ; and the rear is brought up 
 by a treble bell. The little oxen trot in their order without other 
 guidance than that of the bells and an occasional shout, one man 
 leading, another to every five animals, and one to bring up the 
 rear. The baskets are hung on each side of the hump, with often 
 an ornamental erection between them ; there are fore and aft stays 
 of leather, and these prevent the packs coming off when the animals 
 are climbing. We had met some before — and met and used others 
 afterwards ; however pretty they look as they trot along, their bells 
 tinkling far over land and forest, they are not pleasant to travel with, 
 especially in the rains, when streams are all in flood, for it is impos- 
 sible to keep anything they carry at all dry. 
 
 While we were resting here a fire occurred, and two houses were 
 burnt to the ground in about seven minutes. My Siamese, I must say, 
 worked very well and pluckily, the Laos seeming quite dazed by the 
 catastrophe. We cut down a row of banana palms, split up the trunks, 
 and threw them on the flames, by the water and moisture in them 
 beating down the fire, so that two neighbouring houses were saved, 
 with the outhouses, in which, in huge bins, the rice was stored. For 
 this last the poor fellows who only arrived home at night to find 
 their houses burned, were most grateful ; they came to thank us, and 
 I was very much struck with the conduct of my people, who, be- 
 ginning with my boat-boy, a Mon, or Peguan (who at the fire and on 
 every other occasion had shown himself a very smart, handy, and good- 
 
 D 
 
34 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 hearted fellow), selected what clothes they could spare, and sent the 
 two Laos men away loaded with raiment, and witli tears of thankful- 
 ness in their eyes. It gives an additional pleasure to work with men 
 who can act like that. 
 
 Thermometer readings on tlie march from Sala Pangue were — 
 3 a.m., 42° Fahr. ; 5.30 a.m., on the hills, 60° ; 6-30 a.m., in Nam Pote 
 valley, 50° ; 9 a.m., ditto, 59° ; noon, in the sliade. Ban Faek, 87° Fahr. 
 My aneroids had both been injured by my careless people, and I 
 could get no reliable heights. 
 
 From M. Kob the trail follows up the Nam Tan in a general 
 south-south-west direction, and crosses a low watershed into the bed 
 of the Hoay Chang Kong, another rocky stream disastrous to foot 
 gear. It then crosses low ridges and jungle, passing several small 
 villages to Ban Ton Kluay, 6^ hours' walk, though most of the people 
 took 8, and the elephants over 9. 
 
 Thermometer minimum — 54° at sunrise in heavy damp mist ; 
 strong south-westerly breeze at noon ; thick haze all day. 
 
 Six hours from here, over flat country, past M, Chieng Len, and 
 in a general north-north-west direction from that place is M. Ngau, 
 which gives its name to the Nam Ngau flowing north-north-east to 
 the Mekong, and meeting it half a day's boat journey below Chieng 
 Kong. We met a number of traders I'rom the north carrying their 
 loads ; they were smoking long-stemmed pipes, and looked very 
 Burmese in face. They wore blue sailor-looking trousers, with red 
 trimmings round the ankle, where they were very loose, and small 
 blue jackets with bead trimmings, while some had marvellously wide 
 straw hats ; with their uniformity of dress and its high colouring they 
 made a very pretty picture crossing the yellow paddy fields. 
 
 The Chet Muang at Chieng Len was in trouble with the Nan 
 authorities because he is, unfortunately, under the disaffected Chow 
 Sa, and far away from there as he is, and utterly ignorant, as he 
 protested, of his proceedings, it seemed likely that he would be 
 involved in the disgrace of his chief. 
 
 From M. Ngau the trail crosses the upper end of the long range 
 which forms the watershed of the Nam Ing and Nam Ngau, along 
 the western side of which for three days we travelled, sleeping at 
 Muang Ing and Ban Pakeng. From the latter place, leaving at a 
 quarter to two in the morning. Ban Lung was reached at a quarter to 
 seven. Here we forded Nam Ing, and crossed a burning plain almost 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 35 
 
 entirely devoid of vegetation for four hours more, and then in a huge 
 and very comfortable sala disposed of tlie contents of our haversacks 
 with the pleasant feeling of having reached our goal. Chow Benn 
 Yenn meanwhile had left us for a day or two's visiting at some otlier 
 villages east of Nam Ing which owed allegiance to Chow Sa. Con- 
 sequently, when I got in, there were only the Laos guide, my Mon 
 boatman, and two lusty young Siamese servants who had kept up ; 
 and, absurd as it may seem to Western ideas, the Chieng Kong people 
 took sbme hours to believe that I was come on genuine Government 
 business; for a man is measured in these parts according to the 
 number of his following, and until the men and elephants turned 
 up I was often looked at askance. This was sometimes very amusing 
 and sometimes not, especially when trying to procure coconuts or 
 bananas ! The sense of hospitality was, however, generally quick to 
 prevail. 
 
 The three days from Muang Ngau were through forest, the 
 villages lying mostly on our west in the flat land nearer the river. 
 We passed several forest fires, wliicli where they approached the trail 
 made very hot travelling. 
 
 The barrenness of the country between the Nam Ing at Ban 
 Lung and Chieng Kong seems to have been originally caused by 
 fires. The only cultivation was by a muddy stream at Ban Satan, 
 a name which struck me as particularly appropriate in such a 
 wilderness. There is an absence of water, I was afterwards told, 
 which prevents cultivation of any value, and owing to this the 
 Burmese gem-diggers have given up trying to follow indications of 
 stones on this side. 
 
 The first view of the Mekong fairly took one's breath away, the 
 water here spreading out into a wide placid river of half a mile in 
 width,, winding slowly away among a few sandbanks until lost in 
 the hills to the south-east. Across, on the north, lies a long low 
 series of hills, from which the gem-bearing Hoays seem all to take 
 their rise. 
 
 Thermometer minimum last four days — 59°, 64°, 60°, 58° • 
 maximum in sala, 90°, very thick haze all day, with strong breezes 
 from south towards noon. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 PART III. 
 
 MuANG CiiiENG Kong to Muang Luang Puabang. 
 
 MuANG CiiiENG Kong became our head-quarters for ton days, and 
 from there I made a boat expedition to the Chieng Sen boundary, 
 north-west; and also one north and east inland, the object being 
 the examination of the gem deposit, its extent, character, and, if 
 possible, its value. 
 
 From the Chieng Sen boundary at Hoay Nam Kung, extending 
 for some miles towards Chieng Kong, is a rapid piece of river 
 tearing through a series of gneissose and schistose rocks, which form 
 high hills on either bank. The gem-bearing gravel is not found until 
 several basalt sheets are encountered below Nam Ngau, a largish 
 tributary flowing in from the north. The hills on the left bank then 
 become lower and more distant, and these, consisting of a dark 
 crystalline rock, the exact mineralogical character of which has not 
 yet been determined, seem to be the source of all the stone-bearing 
 gravels which are found deposited in the streams flowing from 
 them. The average thickness of the gravel is 5 to 20 inches, and 
 consists of quartz and fragments of the crystalline rock above 
 mentioned. The overburden is a reddish clay soil of an average 
 depth of 10 feet, through which the Burmese, who are found wherever 
 there are gems, sink large pits some 10 feet square. A sharpened 
 bamboo will be often first driven down to ascertain if the gravel 
 underlies the spot, it having been found very capricious. 
 
 Explorations were made in the neighbourhood for many years 
 before — about two years ago — the first paying gravel was found ; the 
 Burmese relying all the time on the presence of what is known as 
 mw, small black stones which have turned out to be black spinel, 
 and are always to be found in close proximity to the sapphire. 
 When washing gravel in a stream these little water-worn crystals 
 are found ; it will only need industry and time to find the gem gravel. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, 81 AM. 
 
 37 
 
 which will be somewhere near, although in part perhaps denuded 
 away. The nin have been followed for years, and now there are 
 over two hundred men reaping the reward of their indefatigable 
 patience. I found nin and struck gravel in all the streams flowing 
 in on the left bank between Nam Ngau and Hoay Pakham, which 
 is the main scene of the operations at present, and lies about 1 mile 
 below Chieng Kong. On the right bank there are apparently no 
 signs whatever, except at Hoay Duk, a stream exactly opposite Hoay 
 Pakham ; but only a few nin are to be seen here, and there is no 
 water for washing purposes. East and north of Hoay Pakham, again, 
 are half a dozen more streams flowing, from that side of the range 
 I have spoken of as the source of the gravel, into the Nam Hau, 
 
 A GE3I-DIGGER'S CLEARING, CHIENG KONG. 
 
 which eventually reaches the Mekong. Some of these have been 
 found to be rich, and on one the Burmese built their bamboo villages 
 and made their clearings ; but after a fortnight's work the places were 
 abandoned as being terribly unhealthy, sunk deep in the jungle valleys, 
 and very difficult to get stores to. 
 
 When the present large workings are exhausted, both those and 
 the streams towards Nam Ngau will get their fair share of attention, 
 no doubt. The distance between the extreme points where the 
 gravel exists and the limit of our present knowledge is over 10 miles, 
 
38 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 but within that area it is not by any means continuous,, and any 
 attempt at estimating the probable output and the extent of reserves 
 could only result in the most erroneous conclusions. Owing to the 
 secrecy observed by the Burmese in the matter among themselves, 
 and the fact that they usually travel long distances to find a market 
 for their better stones, the output up to the present of saleable stones 
 is merely a matter of conjecture, and is variously estimated by the 
 headmen as from 3 to 6 catties, say, over 22,000 carats perhaps. 
 One man showed me what he declared was the result of his year's 
 work — three good stones of rich colour and good water, for which he 
 expected to get 100, 60, and 50 Rs. respectively, and some forty 
 small ones (some of them of very poor colour), which after an hour's 
 bargaining one could certainly have got for 50 lis. He had, besides, 
 of course, numberless fragments and scraps which were valueless. 
 The chances are, from what I saw, that this is a fair example of 
 what the average digger obtains ; but it must be remembered that no 
 information voluntarily given by the Burmese on this head is ever 
 reliable. They invariably keep something in reserve, for they never 
 feel quite certain what the Englishman may be up to with his 
 questioning ; and even among themselves the dodges resorted to to 
 hide the exact truth are very amusing. In buying stones one always 
 has the worst produced first, and after an exhaustive pick out of 
 them all, presently, slowly, out of infinite wraps of paper and cotton, 
 come some better ones, and after an hour or so the best are produced, 
 and probably this is the real extent of the man's stock ; but if through 
 impatience one closes the bargains too early, the best are never pro- 
 duced, but will be kept for the future, and will eventually be taken 
 over to Eangoon, or even Calcutta. 
 
 In a few years' time there will, no doubt, be more men at work, 
 and larger areas of pits in work. At the present moment the ground 
 in Hoay Pakham has only been dug out for a distance of half a mile 
 from the flood level of the Mekong, with a breadth averaging 80 
 yards. Work is only carried on in the morning, when the pit will 
 be bailed out dry ; at noon the digging and washing ceases, and the 
 men return home, and sit all the afternoon in their houses chaffing, 
 talking, and picking over and enjoying the sight of their stones, in 
 which they find gi'eat delight. The washing consists simply of 
 cleaning the basket of muddy gravel with water, and picking over 
 the remains twice by hand. The operation is very quick, and the 
 eye never misses the faintest sign of colour. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, 8IAM. 39 
 
 With regard to the rubies I had expected to find, from my own 
 observation, and subsequently from conversation with the diggers, I 
 soon saw that not only have none been ever found, but none of the 
 signs of the ruby as known at Chantabun or in Burma have been seen. 
 A Siamese official who had been sent here a year ago by the Govern- 
 ment to test and report on the place, seeing some small garnets, 
 thought they must be rubies, and thinking to advance himself at 
 head-quarters, bought a very fine Burmese ruby for 70 lis., and sent 
 it down with his report as having been found in Chieng Kong ! From 
 this, of course, very large hopes of the character of the find had been 
 entertained : I fear now he is somewhat in disgrace. Fever, due to 
 the thick forest standing high overliead all around, and the peculiar 
 sickliness always caused by the upturning of new soil, especially in 
 the damp beds of the streams, is very prevalent. 
 
 The Burmese houses are very different from the Siamese and Laos 
 —mere bamboo shanties only lifted some 2 feet off the ground, but 
 with all sorts of handy little shelves, -window-shutters, doors and 
 lockers, which are generally absent from the others ; and in these, as 
 being easily and quickly constructed, the men always live at their 
 diggings. I do not know the character of the Burmese in this respect 
 at home, but in this country they are always overflowing with 
 friendliness and hospitality to any Englishman; and the headmen 
 at Chieng Kong, especially one by name Monghu, who became a 
 general favourite with my people, and who accompanied us and 
 worked with us everywhere, I can never forget. 
 
 The Chow Muang here was lately dead, and just before we left 
 the cremation ceremonies began in the big square before the principal 
 wat. At night the place all round the funeral pyre was lighted 
 with candles ; three or four of the head monks were reading in a kind 
 of chant from their Pali manuscripts from the tops of temporary 
 bamboo pulpits, and among the booths standing round ; the people 
 squatted in their cloaks, listening to music or hearing descriptive 
 songs and stories, which now and then produced roars of laughter. 
 In the day sports were going on, and there was some very good 
 boxing between the champions of neighbouring villages, who at the 
 end each got three rupees, victor and vanquished alike. The men 
 strip, and their names and the places they hail from are giveji out. 
 They then salute the master of the ceremonies in the ordinary Laos 
 fashion, touching the ground with their forehead on bended knees, 
 
40 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 raising the clasped hands to the head, and proceed to business. For 
 some moments they warily watch one another, stepping and dancing 
 round with a good deal of attitudinizing of an alarming description, 
 by the extravagance of which we can generally tell the best man. 
 The blows are rather round-armed, it is true, and kicking is allowed ; 
 but it is wonderfully quiet and masterful, and when they warm to 
 it, very hard rounds are fought. The umpires squat round ready 
 to separate the men, call time, and generally see fair play, and at 
 the end of each round the two men squat down, and are offered water 
 out of silver bowls, the bearer respectfully on his knee handing 
 them the ladle. The keenness of the onlookers is tremendous, 
 especially when the men are well matched ; but what produced most 
 enthusiasm was a fight between boys of about ten years old. The 
 little fellows showed, I must say, a great deal of pluck and more 
 science than most of us did at that age at school ; they kept their 
 tempers well, and at the end of each round their seconds, stalwart 
 fathers and uncles, were beside themselves with delight, stroking 
 their heads and dancing round them with tears of laughter running 
 from their eyes. 
 
 There were some sword and sword-and-spear dances by two men 
 in slow time to music, with silver-handled weapons, and accompanied 
 by the gestures in which all these nations take such pleasure. 
 
 During the time I was in Chieng Kong district the weather was 
 getting warmer. Up the river we had the mininmm 54° three days 
 running, just after sunrise, at which time heavy mists shrouded the 
 river valley, and subsequently 56°, 58°, 60° were the minimum at 
 the same time. The maximum in the shade at the sala or under the 
 coverings in the boats was 91° at 1 p.m. — the average 89°. But in 
 the jungle, where the south-west winds could not reach, the heat was 
 very great, and the sun was very fierce, especially on the great banks 
 of sand, which are so characteristic of the river. The height I make 
 1250 feet from the sea. 
 
 These sands, over which we used to trudge for miles from stream 
 to stream, got so hot after 11 a.m. until about sunset, that the men 
 could not bear walking on them, and took to the water ; the glare is 
 tremendous to the eyes. After sunset the rocks retained their heat 
 so that some long-haired Shan dogs we had with us would not lie 
 or walk upon them. There is a great deal of mica, iron pyrites, 
 and magnetic iron ore in these sands ; and washing among the bushes. 
 
THE VPPEli MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 41 
 
 which in many places fringe the higher parts, or some feet down, 
 where a larger gravel lies, one seldom fails to find a small speck or 
 two of gold. The water itself, at tliis season, rushes through a deep 
 gorge between the rocks and sandbanks, which form its flood-bed, a 
 narrow but very deep column of water, working out for itself, where 
 a bluff" rock sends a huge eddy whirling inwards, broad bays often 
 50 yards across. While the distance between the high-water level on 
 the opposite sides of the valley will be nearly half a mile, the stream 
 itself will often work through its deep channel only 200 yards, and 
 even less in width. The scale of things here is not so large as that 
 
 CAMP AT THE FA PA RAPIDS. 
 
 below, where the volume of water has increased ; but the character 
 of the river is much the same. 
 
 The camps we formed on the sand spits, lulled at night by the 
 thunder and roaring echoes from the rapids, were wild and beautiful 
 in the extreme. The jungle, too, was full of night sounds — the bark 
 of the deer or the " peep, peep " of the tiger, of which we often heard 
 three or four at a time ; and in the morning their tracks were every- 
 where upon the sands. It is curious and worth remarking that when 
 one "ot 4 or 5 miles inland on the left bank no traces of tiger 
 were to be found; while, on the other hand, the elephant tracks 
 
42 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 became very numerous, and were really useful iu threading the jungle ; 
 the destruction they work among the trees is wonderful. They 
 seem, however, to avoid the tiger zone near the river, as the tigers in 
 turn prefer the waterside, the latter probably finding greater facility 
 for hunting deer there. There is no doubt that any one who has the 
 inclination, and no work and plenty of time, might have excellent 
 sport by watching for tigers at the drinking-places, which are generally 
 well marked, and are in retired bays, among rocks and bushes. 
 
 Bananas and coconuts are very scarce at Chieng Kong ; and on 
 the third day after our arrival I had to send the elephants on their 
 
 ONE OF OUR ELEPHANTS, WITH HOWDAH ON. 
 
 way home, owing to want of wholesome young green food. This all 
 points, with' the barrenness we noticed coming across the Nam Sug 
 valley, to a bad soil. They complain that in the hot months. May and 
 April, it is terribly hot and dry, and that " nothing grows ; " meaning 
 thereby, no doubt, things do not grow well. 
 
 The departure of our elephants was a day of mourning to all of 
 us. The mahouts, very rough Siamese, burnt as black as Hindus, 
 with long locks of hair hanging round their necks, had been very 
 good fellows, and, however long their days, had never complained. 
 All those who have travelled with elephants feel the fascination of 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. i^ 
 
 the boasts, with their quiet, patient, and sagacious way of treating 
 life ; the merry twinkle which sparkles from the small, sharp eyes, and 
 the endless little pranks they are ever ready for; and after some 
 weeks of travelling many a tired and weary day together, this becomes 
 quite an affection ; and be sure, if you are fond of an elephant he 
 knows it, and reciprocates it very soon. So we were all very sorry to 
 see them swing off for the south again. 
 
 The voyage from Chieng Kong down to Luang Prabang (or Muaug 
 Luang, the " great town," as it is usually called) occupies five days if 
 there are no interruptions; the return journey takes from ten to 
 fifteen days against the current, there being a number of bad rapids. 
 The scenery is magnificent, and far surpasses anything I saw on the 
 Mekong below. The river has cut its way almost at right angles to 
 the strike of the rock, a series of schists which appear to have been 
 considerably distorted, until the neighbourhood of the Nam Oo- 
 is reached, when the limestones which form the splendid scenery of 
 that river come in. The latter rocks are also seen on the right bank 
 of the big river, where it takes its southerly course south of Ban Soap 
 Ta (one day from Chieng Kong), and there seems to be on the top of a 
 synclinal. They are always characterized in this country by the 
 peculiar dense forests, like the Dong Phya Yen in Lower Siam, the 
 Dong Choi round Chieng Hon, and another one we touched in 
 the valley of the Nam Ngau, east of the Nam Ing, known as Pa Kung. 
 Ngau, where the sun never enters owing to the dense foliage, and 
 the elephant tracks form the only paths. We took twelve days going 
 down, making on the way some short expeditions into the country. 
 The inactivity in the boats soon made itself felt, and after five days 
 there were ten men sick out of the twenty Siamese, six with fever 
 and the others with sores, to whicli they are very liable, any scratch 
 or wound of the slightest description, especially about the feet or 
 legs, always giving rise to them ; in fact, I kept one knife on purpose 
 for lancing these things. Wherever we go side people are brought, 
 and the chief ailments among the Laos were fever, affections of the 
 eyes, and dysentery. The latter is generally taken in hand too late,, 
 and ends fatally. 
 
 The first day from Chieng Kong we brought up on the south 
 bank, at the mouth of the Nam Ngau I have already mentioned ; and 
 I was two nights away with only two or three men visiting some 
 n-old washings in the bed of the river. The percentage is extremely 
 
44 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 small, and is the same in character though not so rich as in the 
 Mekong sands. The usual small fee of two rupees a year is paid 
 hy each man. They work waist deep in the cold rushing stream, 
 and cannot go on for more than ten minutes at a time. A basket is 
 -sunk under water with one foot upon it, and the gravel from the 
 bank prized out into it with the usual iron-shod bamboo ; it is then 
 lifted out, carried ashore, and washed. This operation, here and 
 throughout the Mekong district, is done by a man standing in the 
 
 water, with a wooden tray in front of him, 
 "w/^^ ^^ shaped like a Chinaman's peaked hat, 
 the diameter 30 inches, and depth at the 
 •centre 5 inches. As it floats on the water, moored by a string to 
 a stone, the basket of gravel is emptied into it, and the larger stones 
 picked out. A rotary motion is given to the pan by the continual 
 shifting of the hands from right to left ; at the same time the water 
 is expelled, or dipped up, and sent running round the edge by a 
 depression of the rim being sent round " against the sun," until 
 all the light material is gone. What remains is usually a little 
 magnetic iron ore, with a speck or two of very fine "float" gold 
 for every four baskets of 14 inches diameter and 3i^ inches depth. 
 It is then washed carefully into a small oblong box, in which it is 
 carried home and handed over to the women who, I am told (for 
 I never saw it done), use mercury obtained from Chinese merchants 
 for the subsequent freeing of the gold. On the way to Nongkhai we 
 met several gangs of men, generally seven or eight in number, living 
 in their boats and engaged in washing in this way in the sands 
 of the river, in which, according to all I could gather, the gold 
 •seems to be redeposited in small quantities by every year's flood 
 season. 
 
 What the gold prospects of the country are, there have been no 
 ■suf&cient trials to show, but with the advent of the French on the 
 banks of the river we may soon know something more on this head. 
 The Laos consider they do very well if they get 2 hun per man 
 in a day (5 hun = 1 fuang or \ tical) ; but their work is very 
 intermittent, and the search for gold seems to have the proverbial 
 ■effect upon them, for in several cases I found their assertions were 
 not over-truthful. 
 
 Up such rivers as the Nam Beng, Nam Ngau, Nam Oo, and Nam 
 ■Suung, the gold seems to be in old water deposits which extend 
 
TEE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 45- 
 
 beyond the present stream beds, and will probably be found to cover 
 considerable areas in the valley bottoms. 
 
 Both calcite and quartz exist in great abundance in the mountain, 
 ranges \fQ came in contact with, and to the denudation of these 
 two minerals a great deal of the alluvial gold presumably owes its 
 origin, as well as perhaps from the crystalline limestones. I was, 
 however, unable ever to lay hands on an undoubted gold-bearing 
 vein of either character, nor could I get any information of occur- 
 rence of the metal, except in alluvial sands and gravels. Some large 
 nuggets have been found up the Nam Eeng and Nam Oo, and up the 
 former river a Chinaman from Luang Prabang had tried systematic 
 working of a kind. After six months' work he lost 200 ticals ; and 
 when a Chinaman loses money, especially in a country where money 
 will go so far, the chances are that no one else will make their 
 fortunes. I subsequently found at Pak Beng that the Kache he 
 had employed had swallowed all the decent-sized gold obtained !' 
 This is another instance of the difficulties the miner has to meet 
 with in Siam ; and with fevers, superstition, robbery, and physical 
 difficulties, the list is a rather alarming one. 
 
 This valley of the Nam Ngau is inhabited by people known as 
 Lus. They wear their heads shaved, except for the top tuft, like all 
 the Nan men, with enormously loose and wide blue trousers, often 
 trimmed round the ankle with red ; short blue jackets with beads and 
 touches of red; and red, green, or white turbans. They are mag- 
 nificently made men, with very pleasant countenances, tattooed as- 
 usual from knee to waist, but, when clothed, more like the stage- 
 ])irate ; in fact, a gang of them, with the long dhaps and an old 
 ilintloclv or two among them, standing chatting, laughing, and smoking 
 their long-stemmed pipes, would make an ideal buccaneer's crew. 
 
 At Ban Muang, where wo slept each night, the people were the- 
 most friendly I had met ; some fifty of them came out to greet us 
 on our arrival, and we had an orchestra of four flutes in the evening 
 to play us to sleep. The children and women were extremely pretty. 
 Some distance south of this place the forest already mentioned as- 
 Pe Kung Ngau begins. Men travelling in it, and even the people 
 living on its skirts, are subject to a very violent fever, which causes 
 complete prostration in a few hours, and is generally fatal. The face 
 and breast become quite yellow, presumably owing to the stoppage 
 of the bile-duct. 
 
46 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 A big dyke has lately been cut from the Nam Ngau to take the 
 water to the eastern side of the valley for purposes of irrigation. Its 
 depth and width are about 10 feet, and it must be some miles long. 
 
 All the men from the villages turned 
 out to work, and it proved a heavy 
 undertaking. This valley seems to 
 be all under Muang Sa, and Chow 
 Benn Yenn found himself among his 
 friends. 
 
 We met another gang of Haws, 
 who made night hideous by discover- 
 ing the mules had strayed, and every 
 man and boy among them shrielcing, . 
 howling, beating gongs, and firing 
 guns by way of attracting them back 
 to the camp. It was a pleasant night, with one of my men raving 
 and shouting with fever till dawn. 
 
 a^i- 
 
 THE LEADIKG MULE. 
 
 '01 !!: 
 
 A BEAD MAN — STEHN VIEW. 
 
 A HEAD MAN — SIDE VIEW. 
 
 At Ban Soap Ta, or Tak Ta, we were in the Province of Luang 
 Prabang. The village is most beautifully situated on the left bank 
 of the river, just below where the wild torrent of the Nam Ta falls 
 into it. There is a regular street all down the village, with deep 
 ditches on each side, between the road and the scattered houses. We 
 met numerous Kache from inland — a perfectly wild people, wearing 
 only the smallest strip of cloth, with a long metal hairpin stuck 
 through the hair rolled up behind, and often a flower in the lobe 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 47 
 
 of the ear. Tliey are short and fleshy, and, though not prepossessing, 
 we subsequently found some of them to be good hard workers, and 
 quiet, simple creatures. The inhabitants of the village were not so 
 smart as our Southern Laos or the Lus we had just left; some of 
 
 A HAW— PACKB DISMOUNTED. 
 
 them wore slight whiskers, and one or two had thin beards, and there 
 are a good many stout men among them. 
 
 We here changed boats, our otiier craft returning with their crews 
 to Chieng Kong. These boats are mere dug-out canoes, some 60 feet 
 
 LA03 BOAT, 
 
 long as a rule, with 4 feet beam. They are fitted all along amidships 
 with a light framework of split bamboos, standing up from the gun- 
 wale in a barrel shape. On and tied to these are rectangular- shaped 
 pieces of bamboo plaiting, of a primitive character, stuffed with dead 
 leaves, about 8 feet by 6 feet, of which two form the sides, and a third 
 the roof, overlapping them. Two lots together give a good long cabin, 
 and sitting on the light bamboo decking fitted at the level of the 
 gunwale, one has 3 to 4 feet of head room. One's gear goes in 
 
ILLUSTHATION OF OAR AND STEERING-GEAR, 
 
 48 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 underneath, and the men's cooking and camping gear will be stored aft. 
 Two-thirds of the way aft an open space is left, and the decking 
 is discontinued, and here, going through a rapid, bailing is resorted to. 
 For going down river the most distressingly primitive oars are 
 used, two or three men pulling at them, working in a gi-ommet. The 
 steersman stands aloft astern, with a rudder 6 or 9 feet in length, 
 which he places in a loop on one quarter or the other. To help the 
 speedier turning of the boat in rapids, a long oar is fitted to work 
 
 athwart-ship out over the 
 
 ,-<a^^HI^I stern, and the power of 
 
 "" "^ ^FHhlH lBP these two is very great, 
 
 but not too much for the 
 places they are sometimes 
 in. But the most impor- 
 tant and ingenious part is 
 the fitting of bundles of 
 long bamboos round the gunwale outside. Three of these bundles 
 will go to the length of the boat, and they not only give the boat 
 1^ or 2 feet more beam, and therefore great steadiness, but they act 
 as breakwaters outside her in the rapids, and as air-tight compart- 
 ments when she is swamped. They are turned up at the ends with 
 the boat's run ; but they hide her very effectually, so that she looks 
 more like a bamboo raft than a boat. 
 
 In going up stream, these bamboo bundles are cut adrift, and long 
 bamboos are used for poling from the fore-deck ; the boats winding 
 in and out among the rocks upon the edges, using the swift back 
 currents with such effect that, except on the very rapid parts of the 
 river, the upward journey averages a rate of 3 miles an hour. At 
 the rapids, the boats must be often unloaded and hauled over, this 
 occupying a whole day. 
 
 In the iiood season, from June to October, the whole river valley 
 is a sea of swift turbid water, often 40 feet above the level of the 
 dry season, as is attested by the hulls of wrecked boats, gigantic tree 
 stems, and water marks, which one sees to that height upon the 
 crags among the sandbanks. Then the boats work their way up 
 among the trees and bushes on the jungle edge. Below Luang 
 Prabang, a double boat is used for going down river, and one gets a 
 wide deck upon it of 10 feet beam ; in these, besides the crew of 
 five men, seven men could live comfortably, while in the single 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, HIAM. 
 
 49 
 
 boats, with tlic crow of four iugii, four iiioru iiiiikc i-iiUiur close 
 quarters. 
 
 A great deal of rice goes clown the Mekong and Nam Oo for 
 the supply of Luang Prabang from the liills, tliat town not being 
 
 DOUBLE BOAT. 
 
 able to supply itself. This rice goes down in tremendously big 
 bamboo rafts, which look like Heating villages ; they are often 
 some 120 feet long and 30 feet beam. They are allowed to go 
 almost entirely with the current, there being eight or ten long oars 
 rigged out ahead and 
 astern, worked by as 
 many men, for cant- 
 ing the craft in either 
 direction to avoid 
 rocks or eddies. Tiiere 
 is a drawing in Mr. 
 Colquhoun's book 
 (which, I believe, is 
 taken from Garnier's 
 work) which gives a 
 good idea of a small 
 one shooting a rapid. 
 They are very un- 
 wieldy, bad to steer, 
 and not too easy to 
 take down these 
 places. 
 
 Small dug-outs of a pretty shape are used in great numbers for 
 fishin" purposes ; the boat drifts down broadside to the stream, one 
 man being at either end witli a paddle gently working in one hand, 
 
 K 
 
 VILLAGE ABOVE PAKU, JIEKONG. 
 
50 
 
 NOTES OF A JOUMNEY ON 
 
 the foot often helping, and the other holding a line to the net. In 
 these the famous pla huk are caught. The weight of an average one 
 is over 130 lbs. The Laos say they are not common below Nong Khai, 
 and that they believe them to breed in the retired spots between there 
 
 FOBTY-FIVE FEET BOAT, NAM 00. 
 
 and Luang Prabang. M. Pavie considers they come all the way from 
 the sea, but I do not at present know his data ; they are certainly 
 known at Bassac. The pla reum is another large fish, often over 
 
 ■a'vr 
 
 N 
 
 I ..,,.:'sai*9K!l5i?iii% 
 
 PART OF THE MEKONG. 
 
 120 lbs. in weight, which is also known on the Meinam. Both are 
 caught extensively, and are sold cut up in steaks in the markets. 
 
 Leaving Pak Ta, the river turns south among a series of schists, 
 until, after passing the very fine lofty peak of Pa Mon, it resumes its 
 easterly direction among a lot of wild rapids. We reached for the 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, ST AM. 
 
 51 
 
 night a temporary village on tlie north bank, where a number 
 of Laos, engaged in buying rice from the Khache, were encamped. 
 A very wild night of thunderstorms and squalls of wind. Tlie next 
 day was the grandest we had on the Mekong, for the hills close in 
 and form a magnificent gorge, the effect of which was heightened by 
 the wild rain mists which were whirling among the mountains, as 
 the sun rose ahead of us with almost indescribable greens, yellows, and 
 reds. This wonderful scene, and the presence here and there of the 
 little wooden houses, perched high up in their clearings by the Khache 
 
 EUACIIE HILL CLEARINGS ; RAPIDS ADOVE FAE BENO, MEEONO. 
 
 where the big trees lay in all directions, or of small villages cluster- 
 ing in apparently inaccessible places, again carried one back to the 
 wilds of Norway. We shot the big rapids of Keng La, and reached 
 Ban Pak Beng that evening. In another day, passing three difficult 
 rapids, Ban Tanun is reached; from which in three days, sleeping 
 at Bans Kokare and Lataen, Muang Luang was in sight ahead at 
 sunset, with the fantastic limestones of the Nam Oo over the stern, 
 and wrapped in thick mists. Our slow speed was due to the con- 
 stant change of boats and crews. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 From Ban Tanun I made a three-days' tramp south-west over to 
 the plain of Muang Hongsawadi, to visit the volcanoes marked on 
 Mr. McCarthy's map. The track is very rough, up the hed of the 
 Hoay Tap for some hours, and then over the watershed, from the 
 summit of which, owing to fires having cleared away the jungle, a 
 magnificent view was to be had to the south-west over the valley. 
 The contrast between the rugged uncompromising character of the 
 Mekong valley behind, and the peaceful expanse of cultivation 
 nestling below us was delightful. The villages are all of substantially 
 built houses ; the people are a smart, tidy, and pleasant race of Laos, 
 
 ^^i^mmm^p^ 
 
 DHAP AND SlIKATir. 
 
 JUNGLL! KNIVKS. 
 
 and they are very rich in cattle and elephants ; rice is cheap, and 
 oranges, pomaloes, and other fruit were plentiful. The Governor, 
 who was subject to Luang Prabang, is said to be a hundred and 
 twenty years of age, and as his house is some miles from the sala, 
 he sent a message asking me to excuse his calling. 
 
 West-north-west about 5 miles is the Pak Fai Mai, as the Laos 
 call the two volcanic vents which, elevated at not more than 200 
 feet above the plain, are situated in a thin bamboo jungle. Each 
 of the vents is about 200 yards long, sloping slightly in a direction 
 20° east of south, and 70 to 80 yards wide ; the southerly one is 
 the least inactive of the two. Slight smoke rises in several places, 
 but for the most part one can walk about on the bottom anywhere. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 53 
 
 except at the south-eastern end, whore there is a series of largish 
 cracks, whence smoke and free sulphurous acid rise in small 
 quantities; here the ground is very hot, and 2 feet in the cracks 
 are red hot, and one can light a bamboo at them. There were 
 traces of the action of sulphuretted hydrogen or of carbonic acid, 
 and the crust of sulphur at the openings may be due to the decom- 
 position of the former gas. I could neither hear nor see of there 
 having been any great activity at any time in the past, but the 
 
 ^Aa-^v 
 
 
 ■^"\f* 
 
 V 
 
 5ffS 
 
 MOUTH OP NAM SUCNG, ADOVE LUANG PRAIIANQ. 
 
 existence of a present dormant volcanic action is evident. Why 
 this vent has occurred in the position it lias is not obvious ; there 
 is no apparent line of dislocation, nor has it chosen the valley 
 j)roper.* In the rains there is, I Avas told, a good deal of steam 
 rising, as is natural, and more spluttering and activity than we saw. 
 At the northern end there were traces of elephants on the slag 
 (which is everywhere highly coloured from iron cliloride) ; they are 
 proverbially afraid of fire, so it may be inferred that the activity is 
 not great. Southward the vent, which from the slag surface to the 
 top of its sides is not more than 30 feet, is advancing, and the 
 blackened stumps of newly fallen trees and bamboo clumps lie about, 
 with marks of recent falls in the baulc. 
 
 * Tins valley drains into the Nam Nkuui, and so into tlio Mekong. Tho big 
 iriasu of Uoi Lining to tlic aoutli its lliu division botwoou tlic Moiuiuu iiml Mekong 
 draiuiigeb liore. 
 
54 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 The weather was now getting hot, March being the worst month 
 in this district. Thermometer minimum (for three days south of 
 Ban Tanun) 72°, maximum in the sala 94°. Distant thunder in 
 the evenings muttering continually. This weather continued, with 
 thick haze air, till we reached Luang Prabang. We had fresh south- 
 westerly winds blowing very hot, and at night rain squalls. Our 
 first impression of the town was not good ; after a long day's pulling, 
 helping the men, who were very tired with the heat, we got in at 
 dusk. The temperature ashore, in the streets, or on the sand slope, 
 was oppressive ; but when, after some supper, we went up to call on 
 I'lira Prasada, the Commissioner appointed from Bangkok, and there 
 enjoyed some real coffee and the lu.xury of a punkah, in the fine 
 new Government offices he had just finished building, and heard 
 the bugles ringing out all round, and the weird march music of 
 
 APPROACH TO LUANG PBABANG PROM NORTH. 
 
 the kans, which are more played in this province than almost any 
 other, we forgot the heat in the pleasures of the change of life. 
 
 Throughout my stay in this locality, the help we received from 
 the Commissioner, who is full of energy, was enormous. He has 
 undoubtedly done a great deal, practically, for the welfare of the 
 people here, and was most popular ; and he has also made extensive 
 collections of the produce of the province, which will soon be in 
 Bangkok. He is a man of observation and ideas, absolutely straight, 
 and without any humbug in his disposition. I was surprised to find 
 that he could read English well, and talk it moderately, and still 
 more to find this has all been acquired since he came to the north as 
 Commissioner seven years ago. This of itself shows an unusual man, 
 and I record it because it is not often realized that there are such 
 men among the Siamese. His time was up, and Phya Pechai was 
 appointed to the post just before I left, and he came south before 
 the trouble with France reached its climax lately. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG , SJAM. 55 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Luang Prabang (March, 1893). 
 
 Making expeditions in various directions, Luang Prabang was our 
 head-quarters for about three weeks. Of all the country round, the 
 town itself seems to be the hottest place, and to be away in the jungle 
 was infinitely preferable to staying in the bungalow, where at sunset 
 the thermometer was generally still at 92°. Unlike Nan, Chieng Mai, 
 or Korat, there is no wall around the town, which is the usual col- 
 lection of substantial teak houses, and large roomy monasteries, of 
 which one-half are in ruins. The latter, however, show signs of some 
 fine gilding and decorative work, and a good deal of architectural 
 effort has been expended upon them. They have been allowed, after 
 the strange custom of the Buddhists, to fall to rack and ruin witliout 
 an attempt being made to save them ; because, one would think, by 
 some strange mistake, the repairing of a monastery makes no merit, 
 though building a brand-new one, however third-rate in style or bad 
 in finish, is one of the highest of merit-making acts. 
 
 The chief points one notices in which these wats differ from those 
 in Nan are, the generally low effect, the roofs rising less strikingly 
 than that, for instance, at Muang Sa ; the raising at the centre of 
 the roof of what at a distance looks not unlike the lantern of a 
 college hall, which is merely an exterior addition, and does not admit 
 light or air; the small-scale* buildings, of which there are often 
 several in the enclosure, which are best described as being like tiny 
 chapels with vaulted roof, in which, of course, innumerable " phras " 
 stand at the inner end, and which are usually about 14 feet in length, 
 and beautifully proportioned ; the small pedestals, which are disposed 
 about on all sides, in a niche in which the small phra is always to be 
 seen ; and, finally, tlie substantial character of the stone enclosure 
 which surrounds the monastery buildings, with often an effective 
 
 * CiiUcil " wculiini," or sliriue. 
 
56 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 porch at tlie entrance. In the curves of roof and eaves they show a 
 real artistic sense. The materials used are brick, covered with stucco, 
 timber, and wood tiles ; and, where an arch is attempted, it is always 
 supported by a horizontal beam in the Chinese fashion, with the 
 
 space above usually filled in, or else a perpendicular goes up from it. 
 It is curious that there are no signs of any knowledge of true arches 
 in these states. 
 
 The main feature of the Muang is the central hill known as Kao 
 
 PA CHOM SI, LUANG PRADASG. 
 
 Chom Pu Si, a bluff of limestone standing up out of the red sand- 
 stone plain on which the town is built ; its longer axis is parallel 
 with the river, from which it is less than a quarter of a mile distant. 
 On the summit is a small wat, with a lofty pagoda pinnacle visible 
 for miles round ; a huge drum hung here is struck every hour by a 
 monk, and its boom rolls down all over the valley. Wliat witli it 
 and the bugles and other wats' gongs, one is never at a loss to \i\io\v 
 
THE UrPEn MEKONG, SI AM. 
 
 57 
 
 the time. The town is clustered round tlie hill, and, except on tiie 
 south, there is water in almost each direction, the Nam Kan coming 
 winding into the big river from tlie east, just to tlie north. 
 
 The people, among whom slavery was abolished a few years ago 
 by Phya Surasak, who went up as the 
 Siamese general to quiet the Black 
 Flags, are a very independent race, and, 
 possibly mindful of a powerful past, 
 think somewhat of themselves, and do 
 very little manual labour. The men, I 
 regret to own, are very much addicted 
 to opium ; stealing is not absolutely 
 
 unknown, and generally the code of plan of luang pbabano and mver. 
 morals is not as severe as in Nan. The 
 
 women, instead of the timidity and shyness to which we had been 
 accustomied so far (so that, when they could, we always found the 
 women bolt into the jungle at the sight of strangers, or at least 
 retire), showed a very free and easy manner, and are much addicted 
 to giggling and chatter. 
 
 The industrious sounds of the foot rice-mills are hardly ever to be 
 heard in the town ; and the market, instead of taking place in the 
 early dawn, that the day's work may not be interfered with, lasts 
 roughly from dawn to sunset, with the exception of an hour or two 
 at noon. All down the main street, which runs between the hill 
 and the river, the ladies sit behind their baskets, flirting with the men, 
 who cruise up and down with apparently not much else to do. This 
 market is a very big affair, and besides the usual endless fruit, 
 cigarettes and flowers, there are huge steaks of pla reum, ducks, ducks' 
 and hens' eggs, pigs dead and alive, opium lamps, Japanese matches, 
 needles and pins, cotton, coarse cotton cloth, tobacco, and a fair 
 sprinkling of Manchester goods. Among the people one sees besides 
 the Laos of the place, are Nan Laos, Lus, or Khache, and various hill 
 tribes remarkable for their scanty clothing,* Chinese, Shan traders from 
 up the Nam Oo, Haws, and Burmese. At the time of my visit, the 
 French consulate was across on the other side of the river, M. Ducant 
 being in charge there. There is also a French store with all sorts of 
 French goods, connected with the " Syndicat du Haut Laos." These 
 goods I found most unpopular witli tlie people, and when I bouglit 
 
 ♦ SuuL cib the Ka lloks. 
 
58 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 one or two thingfj for my men (pas, as they call tiiem, for throwing 
 over the shoulder like a mantle, or for sarongs), they refused to have 
 them, saying the people had told them they were " no good," — one 
 reason being they would not wash. The imports of this store, brought 
 by boat down the Nam Nua and Nam Oo from Tongking, amounted 
 in February and March, 1893, to 19,841 francs' worth. The Commis- 
 sioner, and my own observation in part confirmed it, told me that 
 the store has to be heavily subsidized, and is not successful, the goods 
 not being wanted by the Laos, who make their own rough cotton stuffs 
 for hard work, and their own silk finery, and find these more lasting 
 and efi&cient for the work for which they are wanted. The French- 
 
 • ^ I.,,,,,, ,„,,7m7Tnrmrr, / 
 
 ?) 
 
 I 1 J 
 
 STOKE IJirLEMENTS. 
 
 men told me they often lose valuable cargoes in the rapids in the 
 Nam Oo. While on this subject, I may say that small tricolours and 
 medals are freely given in all directions to any native who will take 
 them. I found at Nong Khai that the Commissioner had some hun- 
 dreds of these small flags which had been brought him by the Laos 
 there at different times as having been given them by the Frenchmen, 
 naively remarking that they could " find no use for them," and so 
 they would give them to the Commissioner, if any good to him. These 
 flags are also given largely to the monks, to ornament their wats with, 
 with " Vive la France ! " inscribed across them. 
 
 Beyond these, I saw no signs of French commerce among the 
 people. The Nam Nua and Nam Oo route over from Jonking, though 
 a rough one, no doubt answers its purpose on the whole, and to 
 M. Pavie, the Minister at Bangkok, who has travelled the country 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 59 
 
 extensively, and has left kindly memories behind him, belongs the 
 credit ot it. Another Frenchman who has done good work in the 
 neighbourhood is Dr. Masse, who lately died of fever going down 
 the Mekong. For years he carefully and enthusiastically studied the 
 geology of the district, and he has been able to determine the age 
 of the Luang Prabang series ; all his specimens (including some coal 
 and beautifully sharp stone implements) and his papers are, I believe, 
 in M. Pavie's hands, and will prove of enormous interest. 
 
 The party at the French Consulate, whether owing to their mode 
 of life, or 'the climate, did not look well at all ; and from the head- 
 aches and fevers which laid hold of the people with me while at 
 M. Luang I am not surprised. In justice to the place, it must be 
 owned, March is the hottest month. I did not see any cases of the 
 famous Luang Prabang fever, which has carried off so many. Like 
 
 W l ^y ^ fif^m 
 
 m ^;?^ iM^,r 
 
 GOVERNMENT OFFICES, LUANG PRABANG. 
 
 that usual in Dong Choi, the temperature rises very fast and very 
 high, and, if fatal, is generally so after two or three days. 
 
 There is, or was, a police force in the town recruited from the 
 Laos, but their duties are very light. Fights or quarrelling are 
 unknown, whatever other faults there may be, and the most 
 important part of the police duties is to keep a watch for fires. 
 Only one occurred while we were there, and the promptitude with 
 which the buglers went sounding out the alarm from all the guard- 
 stations and the men turned out was most creditable ; luckily there 
 was no wind, and it was got under very quickly. 
 
 The head-quarters, as far as the Siamese Government was 
 concerned, were in a newly built set of offices, standing in a large 
 drill-ground ; the whole thing was done by the soldiers and the 
 people of the place under Prah Prasadah's orders and watchful eye. 
 It is built of teak, with red-tiled roofing, and consists of a front hall, 
 
60 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 long offices on both sides, and at the back sleeping-rooms and more 
 offices. Here, in the evenings, took place regular concerts, to several 
 of which we went for an hour or two. The people of Luang Prabang 
 are undoubted music-lovers to a high degree, and niglit after night, 
 after the major and lieutenants had messed, the musicians arrived 
 in the hall, squatted down, and began, sometimes the wailing Laos 
 nmsic, sometimes the quick jig tunes of Siam. The instruments 
 consisted of two two-stringed violins, a high-pitched flageolet, and 
 one or sometimes two kans, a kind of reed-organ carried about 
 by the player, who is the bellows. Sometimes the bamboo reeds 
 are over 6 feet in length, but they are light ; the mouth is 
 applied at a mouthpiece toward the lower end, where the fingers 
 play on each side, there being two sets of reeds side by side. The 
 instrument is held upright in front or slightly inclined over the 
 shoulder, and the sweetness of the tones is wonderful. This usually 
 forms a bass, and smaller ones with shorter reeds accompany the 
 voice well. It would be no exaggeration to say that nearly every 
 household in Luang Prabang possesses one, sometimes two. A 
 most striking thing it is at night, far into the early hours, to hear 
 the distant kans from all sides playing in the houses, now and then 
 drowned by the nearer approach of one whose master has been out 
 calling late, and goes striding down the road with perhaps three or 
 four more friends in single file behind, playing a march tune with 
 all his lungs like any Highland piper. One of my pleasant memories 
 of life will ever be those evenings when turning in, after the hot 
 day in the verandah, one listened to the sound of the kans passing 
 homeward, and rising and falling on the night-air. What with the 
 evening bugles, too, and the drum upon the hill, and the cocks and 
 iiok ]}oots, who never fail to announce the hours 9 p.m., midnight, 
 3 a.m., and 6 a.m., whether in the jungles or among the dwellings of 
 man, a light sleeper would complain bitterly. 
 
 In the concerts at the new offices there were often kan solos ; 
 while the orchestra, when in full swing, was accompanied by clapping 
 of hands and the tinkle of metal ; the songs, albeit curious, were not 
 to me so enjoyable, though very much so to the Laos. A number of 
 pretty damsels, in their most gorgeous silks, sat round busily chewing 
 betel-nut ; these would be asked to give a subject, and one with 
 a good deal of blushing would give in a loud tone her subject. The 
 orchestra struck up, and the singer liad to make the best he could of 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 
 
 Gl 
 
 it on the spot; and judginii' by the laughter and general approbation 
 after each verse, he was generally successful. But we all failed 
 signally to understand the words — the language here differing very 
 much from that of Nan, of which we had begun to pick up some ; 
 while, when sung, it is even more incomprehensible. What with the 
 attractions of music, their love and battle songs, and perhaps other 
 things, the Laos of Luang Prabang keep late hours, and are late to 
 turn out. 
 
 The Chow Luang and Chow Huanar, with whom I exchanged 
 visits, are pleasant, open-countenanced men, and after a second visit 
 became quite jovial. The latter helped me a great deal in my work, 
 and I was sorry to say good-bye. Their houses were large teak 
 buildings, but the Chow Luang is building one of brick. 
 
 KENQ KANG, NAM 00. THE PLUNGE OFF THE LEFT BANK. 
 
 Our longest expedition from here was up the Nam Go, which comes 
 in from the north-east. The scenery of this river is very fine, as all the 
 way from Muang Ngoi, to which we went, it winds through abrupt 
 limestone peaks and ranges, covered with dense forest, and often over- 
 hanging the deep quiet river below. But the rapids scattered along its 
 course are furious, and, owing to the shallow water and innumerable 
 sunken rocks, are very dangerous, while quite a high sea runs in them. 
 They differ from most of the big Mekong rapids in that they are caused 
 by rough sloping bottoms of rock ridges, over which the water tears 
 its way. In the great river the majority of the rapids are simply 
 owing to the narrowing of the channel, with possible big rock 
 obstructions rising out of a depth which, with a 20-fathom line, often 
 ffave no bottom (this in low-water season). In these the accelera- 
 tion of speed and commotion are caused by the enormous pressures 
 behind, and the frictions below, and the force of the back eddies, 
 which go tearing in toward any little or big opening in the banks 
 of rock, and come sweeping back again in wave-like rushes or in 
 
62 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 whirlpools. " Eapid" is often a misnomer ; for what with wliirlpools, 
 the sudden capricious rushes of water boiling up in a mound of spray, 
 and flowing wildly in apparently any direction but the one by which 
 it will eventually get out, and the great back eddies and counter 
 currents below, the boat, alternately dragged to the right bank, spins 
 round on the edge of a whirlpool, hurries over on a mass of foam to 
 the left side, and there caught and hurried up the side again, or swirled 
 off downwards into another whirlpool, spends several minutes in passing 
 down a hundred yards, though every hand is straining at the oars, and 
 steersman and bow-oar are lugging for dear life to keep her straight, 
 and save her ends from being caught up on the rocks at which she is 
 hurled. 
 
 Such are many of the worst of the Mekong rapids, which will 
 
 EENQ LUANG. 
 
 prove too much for any number of steamers, extending often, as they 
 do below Chieng Kan, for miles. Even the great rushes of solid 
 water, and converging lines of breakers of the rapids, where, as in the 
 Keng Luang below Luang Prabang, the already compressed water has 
 to fight its way over a shelving bank of huge shingle, of which each 
 stone is often as big as an average Laos house, will prove easier to 
 navigate. But in the Nam Oo the shallowness of the water is the 
 danger, and there is often, as in Keng Luang two days up, a fall straight 
 over a dioritic ledge of 3 feet. This class of rock it is which forms 
 the rapids, and when the limestone hills retire from the river edge, 
 and low-lying, round-topped hills less densely jungled. come in, one 
 may look out for a rapid and change of formation. 
 
 The villages up this river are very poor, except in ducks, which 
 are seen swimming merrily about in all the quiet reaches, and not 
 
THE VPPEIi MEKONG, SIAM. 63 
 
 a few of the rapids. As to buying them, it was almost impossible, 
 though it was the only form of fresh food obtainal)le. We could 
 hardly get the people to take money, and had to barter, though we 
 were rather short of things ourselves. It is odd how difficult it is to 
 get tea, ia.nd as our Bangkok tea had given out, hot water, with some- 
 times a few herbs * picked by Chow Benn Yenn, had to take its 
 place. He also produced a dish of butterflies' bodies one evening 
 with the curry, but they had, to my mind, not much flavour. He 
 also had a weakness for a species of cricket, which he cooked by 
 throwing on the fire, and then devoured. Frogs, too, are eaten by 
 the Laos, they going to the extent of eating the body as well as legs 
 of the ongan when the rains begin. The Siamese also eat the 
 Jcob, a small frog, of which the legs are certainly very good ; and 
 when the French gunboats were in Bangkok they were not to be got 
 in the rnarkets for love or money. 
 
 Up and down this river a considerable trade in hill rice takes 
 place between the hill villages and Luang Prabang, and we met 
 greater numbers of boats than on the Mekong ; they were most of 
 them ascending at the time, with three men, or in the longer craft 
 four, poling. The bamboo is placed against the outside shoulder ; the 
 man, facing aft and leaning low, runs the boat up till he reaches 
 the deck-house ; he then brings in the pole hand-over-hand until he 
 has it about the middle, and then with the arms straight up above 
 his head, to keep the bamboo over the head of his fellow, goes forward 
 again. This business, continued for hour on hour, is very hard work 
 indeed, as any one who tries it will discover ; and the light narrow 
 boat rolls a good deal, making foothold at times very difificult, and no 
 one wearing shoes could stay on board for two minutes. 
 
 Going up the rapids is far more dangerous than descending, for 
 the boat has to be poled and often hauled round right angles of rock 
 just outside which a tall hollow sea is jumping in a roaring cataract. 
 If the bows be once caught, away she goes broadside, and nothing 
 will stop her, and all hands at the tow-line go too. It is in this way 
 that all the swampings, as a rule, take place ; but, except in Keng 
 Kang, it is seldom that any one is drowned. It is really astonishing 
 at what a rate these fellows run their boats with their poles up the 
 
 * Termed, when so drunk, " yah," or medicine. It ia sliglitly pungent, and is said 
 to be good in dysentery, and especially for Iceeping off fever in malarious places. 
 
G4 
 
 NOTES OF A JOUnNEY ON 
 
 most difficult places, and then, holding on for a moment under the 
 lee of a rock, all hands but the steersman go overboard with the rope, 
 and fight from rock to rock in any speed or depth of current, avoiding 
 always the big waves. One soon learns to have a respect for these 
 exploits, for they mean having one's breath knocked out of one pretty 
 frequently, and a few good bumps and cuts, which, sad to say, have 
 a way of leaving some discomfort behind. But Laos and Siamese 
 alike are never known to grumble, and after a bout of the kind they 
 squat down above the rapid, light cigarettes, and laugh with enjoyment. 
 Fishing on the Nam Oo is very largely practised, tlie best time 
 being at the end of the rains, when the fisli swarm. Across the heads 
 of the rapids are rows of stakes, and every twenty yards will be 
 
 ASCENDING KENQ LUANG, NAM 00. 
 
 a fishing shelter, just above a gap in the stakes, through which the 
 fish are expected to find their way. These shelters are light con- 
 structions, built on groups of stakes, ballasted with stones, and 
 strongly buttressed on the lower sides. Notwithstanding these pre- 
 cautions, however, when the river rose after heavy rains, which had 
 already (in March) begun higher up, and which delayed us very seriously, 
 we saw several of these shelters carried away bodily down stream. 
 On the upper side is a platform, on which the inhabitants (for 
 they often live, a whole family of them, in these places) may take the 
 air. A single bamboo with a handrail forms a connection with the 
 long line of stakes, by which they may reach the other shelters or get 
 on shore ; but a small dug-out always lies moored below as well. 
 Step inside the house and all is dark, the light being carefully 
 excluded, except where it enters through a large hole in the floor ; 
 the yah hah, a long jungle grass, with which the houses are always 
 roofed, is carried on each side right down to the water level, and the 
 light thus only enters through the water. Thus every fish for twelve 
 feet down is clearly seen, and there two men will sit smoking silently 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 65 
 
 and gazing intently by the hour into the water, every now and then 
 hoisting out a broad dip-net, spread by bamboos, with their prey. A 
 spear is also sometimes used. It is curious to see these people, with 
 wife and family, living on the narrow strip of flooring which goes 
 round the hole — in fact, the latter occupies most of the house ; but 
 they seem very comfortable, and smoke, and cook, and feed, and 
 sleep on a strip 3 feet wide with great complacency. The women 
 were very much like the little shy Ka Kaws, and smoked their long 
 pipes and dressed just as elaborately in their dark blue, with the 
 same ornamented head-dresses. However, most of these houses at 
 
 FISHING STAKJiS AND SHELTERS, NAM 00. 
 
 this time of year were not inhabited, and I only saw one or two 
 families at home. 
 
 Muang Ngoi, at which there was a Siamese military station, is 
 most beautifully situated among precipitous hills ; it is one of the 
 prettiest places we saw, well-built, tidy, with a street (as generally in 
 towns in the province of Luang Prabang) running parallel with the 
 river. Immediately over it almost hang the limestones, aU round 
 except on the east, up which the people gTOW their rice in the narrow 
 valley. Up here goes the trade route toward the Black Paver, and 
 down the track I met coming staggering in under their heavy loads 
 many Ka Kaws — women, girls, and boys. I call them Ka Kaws * for 
 want of a more accurate name ; the Siamese called them all Khache, 
 
 Probably they were Kuis. 
 
66 NOTES OF A J0UENE7 ON 
 
 or Khamus, which they are not. No one can discriminate among the 
 infinite numbers of these tribes, nor can they do it themselves, except 
 mth neighbours of the next valleys. 
 
 They wore the prevailing blue ; the women's head-gear often a 
 tall, blue cloth, with a little red showing at top, beads and shells. 
 Large rings, of four and more inches in diameter, hang from the ears, 
 of which the lobes are made very big. The weights they carry are 
 enormous ; from casually lifting them I should say they were 45 to 
 50 pounds. The basket is held by a band which passes over the 
 forehead ; the result is a stooping gait, the arms being swung across 
 the body, as a sailor's, as they walk or almost jog along. Two or 
 three men usually accompany the carriers ; and the latter, even boys 
 and girls, have a terribly worn appearance. Yet greet them with the 
 usual questions : " Where are you bound for ? " or " Where are you 
 come from ? " " How many days out ? " " Are you tired ? " etc., and 
 they reply with the merriest laugh and smile, which is almost touch- 
 ing. Their faces have very little of the Laos in them, or of the Chinese 
 or Haws, and are round and kind in expression. 
 
 The Siamese troops, only some twenty-five in number, were of 
 fine physique ; but it is a fact (not a political statement) that " aggres- 
 sion " and " advance '' are utterly contrary to the purposes of the 
 frontier stations kept up by the Siamese Government. 
 
 We obtained bananas at one or two places and sugar-cane, and 
 on the way down, as the latter does not grow at Luang Prabang, we 
 loaded our boats deep with the canes, which were, however, short and 
 not very juicy. However, we kept the larder going with cormorants, 
 which were in great numbers both here and down the Mekong. 
 
 This brings me to the birds I was able to identify * while in the 
 Mekong drainage. Commonest were these same cormorants, which 
 the Laos call " crow duck," owing to their black colour and love for 
 the water. The large cormorant was continually to be seen sitting on 
 isolated rocks, often with his wings hung up to dry, in which position 
 he would suffer us to come very close. The small cormorants were 
 common in flocks, seldom singly, and, on our approach, would dive 
 away out of sight, not one remaining. Not expecting to see them, it 
 was a great pleasure to come across the beautiful little ierns swooping 
 and rushing over the water. One was either tlie wliiskered tern or 
 
 By the help of E. W. Oatca' capital handbook to the ' Birds of British Burmah.' 
 
TEE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 67 
 
 the white-winged black tern— I think probably the latter, as the 
 greyish colour predominated with the dull-red bill and legs. They 
 were generally in back waters and temporary lakes formed in the 
 sandbanks by the fall of the river, and were in flocks. I did not 
 secure any. The black-billed tern— larger than the former, with its 
 easily distinguished orange-yellow bill and red feet, I got a specimen 
 of. They were fairly common, but even in March and April I found 
 no nests. 
 
 Of the Icingfishers I only saw on the Mekong one or two speci- 
 mens of the pied bird. Crossing from the Meinam, however, there 
 was a very small one we frequently met in the mountain streams 
 flowing down to that river, which would suddenly fly off up stream 
 with a low whistle. I did not procure any, but from its size it was 
 probably the little three-toed kingfisher. Another we constantly 
 saw perched on a bamboo overhanging the water, or poising in the air, 
 must have been, from its high colouring, the little Indian kingfisher. 
 
 Of herons, I saw, and shot, the large white heron (as on the 
 Meinam), singly and in flocks, on the sand-banks ; the common heron, 
 generally stalking singly on the sand-spits, and hard to get near ; 
 the purple, of which I saw two couples in the lowlands : the little 
 black-billed white heron, in flocks on the flat by the paddy fields ; 
 the cattle egret, walking about with the buffaloes, or perched on 
 their backs ; and the pond heron, which one would almost stumble 
 upon, so invisible was he on the ground, till away he sped aloft, and 
 then the white wings were clear cut against the blue sky overhead. 
 
 Of eagles, there was the osprey, with his white head, hovering 
 after fish, and a larger bird in swamps near the jungle, with white 
 and darting broad tail, and the upper plumage and breast brown, pre- 
 sumably the bar-tailed fishing eagle. I saw some small species too, 
 but never shot any, and, except the black eagle in the forest-covered 
 hills soaring above us on the wing, and a large, slow, sluggish bird, 
 like that we saw on the Meinam, with a hoarse cry (qu. steppe 
 eagle), I seldom got a good view of them. 
 
 Adjutants, which they call nok karien, I saw in flocks of four, 
 six, or eight in the paddy fields of the Chieng Kong, Nam Ngau, and 
 Khorat plains. They were fairly tame, but with the rifle I could not 
 get nearer than 200 yards ; the whistle of a bullet sent them sluggishly 
 flopping their great wings 50 yards or so on, and to follow them was 
 an endless pursuit. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 Pea-fowl are very common here and on the Nam Nan. 
 
 Often and often, far overhead above the jungle, would come the 
 measured sound which the great pied hornbill makes with each sweep 
 of the wings, an indescribable sound, half a ".whirr " and half the 
 " whistle of a sword swept through the air." They were always in 
 couples, and flew high. 
 
 The white ibis, walking about in flocks in shallow water, and the 
 little cotton teal goose, also in flocks, in swampy back waters, who 
 would dive and disappear to a man, I saw several times. 
 
 Two specimens of the large grey-headed imperial pigeon, with 
 chestnut back and wing coverts, were shot by my Tuon boatman 
 in the hills above the Meinam. The common "wood pigeon" is 
 seen and heard all through Siam. In the open plains and jungles 
 a dove, of which I shot many for breakfast, was veiy common ; this 
 seems to be the Malay spotted dove. 
 
 There are other doves common in different parts of Siam, and 
 wagtails and sandpipers innumerable, but I cannot now name them. 
 
 As to the nok poot, with his slight crest, dull red-wing coverts 
 and long dark green tail feathers, and his habit of drinking where 
 he finds water, and of running swiftly off into the low jungle, he 
 must, I think, be a pheasant. This is absolutely the commonest bird 
 in the country, and that " poot, poot ' sound is never silent for long ; 
 at night I have often heard a chorus of this sound from out the 
 jungle all round, and always at the hours of cock crow, i.e. 9 p.m., 
 midnight, 3, and 6 a.m., as mentioned above. The cock in this 
 country is used for a timepiece at night, as well as a fighting 
 champion by day, and not a boat or an ox-cart, caravan, or a cottage 
 in the whole country but has its cock. One result of this cock- 
 fighting mania is very funny : the birds become pets, as dogs and 
 cats do with us, and the small boys go out walking with these things 
 carried lovingly in their arms; you may see them stroking them 
 and looking longingly into their ugly faces as if they found some 
 expression therein. But their end is generally in a curry, and very 
 tough they make it. This form of sport is on the whole most out- 
 rageously general in Siam proper. 
 
 The total population of Luang Prabang, including that portion 
 of the province on the right bank, was just over 98,500. In the 
 town itself there cannot be more than about 9000 ; this only includes 
 
TEE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 69 
 
 the Laos proper, and not Lus, La was, or Khache.* It is difficult 
 to judge of tlie town, whioli straggles along the three or four main 
 roads that have recently been made around the central hill, and 
 far beyond them out into the plain, both inland, up the Nam Kan, 
 and down the Mekong. North of the town are also numbers of 
 fairly large and prosperous villages. The broadening out of the 
 river here, the absence of rapids, and the retirement to the eastward 
 of the hill range, which forms a sort of amphitheatre around the 
 little plain, seems to have attracted settlers from an early time. 
 Still, either owing to the laziness of the inhabitants or, as I think 
 more probably, to the poverty of the soil (which is the same barren 
 red sandstone mentioned above), there is certainly not much 
 cultivation done here or on the other side of the big river, where 
 there is low-lying land behind the small range which immediately 
 abuts on the river there. The jungle, too, is itself very thin and dwarfed. 
 I hardly think laziness will account for this, for peaceful tending 
 of rice crops would be far easier work than poling and struggling 
 up Nam Oo rapids, which is the way the people get their rice at 
 present, going right up into the hills for it. Some really beautiful 
 silver-work is done, but fishing and killing pigs seem to be the chief 
 industry. There is a breed of the finest-shaped and fiercest goats 
 I have ever seen, which wander about the streets and hill, and give 
 the pariah dogs a rough time ; but I did not see that any other use 
 was made of them. 
 
 The day we left, a letter arrived from the king in Bangkok, and 
 was received in great state by the Chow Luang; it was carried 
 in state down the road with gorgeous umbrellas above and flutes 
 playing before. This was re tJie ai^pointment of Phya Pechai as 
 Commissioner — the last. 
 
 The minimum temperature for tliese three weeks f was 61° up 
 the Nam Oo ; the average minimum for ten days up that river, 64° ; 
 the average maximum in the deck-house of the boat, 85°. The lowest 
 maximum for any day was 71°, but it was a "saft" day, with a solid 
 deluf'e for thirty-six liours. (The Laos cannot work in the rain ; 
 they sliiver to such an extent that tlie whole boat vibrates, so M'e 
 spent a day sitting in the boats. In this case I had 3 feet 3 inches 
 
 * The Kliaclie, or Khamus, are very much confused with the Lawas, and are much 
 
 like thorn. 
 
 t To the end of Marcli. 
 
70 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 head-room, 2 feet 4 inches extreme elbow-room, the boat being only 
 45 feet long.) 
 
 The maximum in Luang Prabang I did not get, being there very 
 little by day ; the temperature in the jungle is much lower. Strong, 
 hot winds from south-west and thick haze was tlie rule except before 
 the storms, when the air became sultry, and then it blew a gale of 
 wind from north-west to north. The rains were beginning. Aneroid, 
 which was unreliable, 28-60 inches to 28'45 before squalls. 
 
 The first day out, going south from Luang Prabang, one of our 
 double boats filled and sank, ruining maps, notes, and other things. . 
 We awaited the arrival of another at Pak Si, from whence one of our 
 Laos boatmen had also to be sent back. He had apparently abscess 
 in the liver ; I could do nothing for him, and he sank rapidly. The 
 stream Hoay Si, a few miles inland, comes tumbling over a fine fall, 
 where a number of beautiful travartine terraces have been formed 
 below, in which the pools are of intense blue. All the trees, branches, 
 twigs, and leaves within reach of the foam are being encrusted with 
 carbonate of lime, and the effect is very beautiful, with the luxuriant 
 growth around. 
 
 Five days brought us to Paklai, whence the trail goes over to 
 M. Pechai on the Meinam. The journey up takes a fortnight, for 
 this long north and south reach is full of serious rapids. Two days 
 and three days below Luang Prabang are the rapids of Keng Seng 
 and Keng Luang. In the former, which tears over a rough bottom, 
 my boat was completely swamped, but was kept afloat by her bam- 
 boos. The latter is a very fine siglit, and is a narrow contraction, with 
 a rough, inclined bottom ; the water tumbles off the bluff domes of 
 the east bank in cascades of foam, and from the west it is di-iven off 
 in three hollow ridge-like waves. In tlie centre, at first quietly, and 
 with accelerating pace goes the main mass, getting narrower, until 
 with three huge undulations, which send a boat half her length out 
 of water as she jumps down them, it tears into the embrace of the 
 two raging, broken currents coming off the banks, and there it leaps 
 and foams and thunders, echoing off the big black crystalline rocks 
 from age to age. Many boats are lost here, and just below lay the 
 battered remains of a fine craft of 65 feet, smaslied from stem to 
 stern. The Laos show considerable sense in always taking breakfast 
 before they try one of these rapids, however early in the morning. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 71 
 
 South of Keng Luang the river bed is narrow, and flows very fast 
 among slate rocks, dipping very steeply (50°, 60°, and upwards), west 
 for many miles, limestone hills lying back some way from the river. 
 These long reaches are very wild, with no sign of man. Birds, croco- 
 diles, and tigers, with occasional pig, " sua pah " or leopard, and deer 
 reign and fight and feed along the jungled banks. 
 
 Above Paklai begin the first wooded islands, of which there are 
 many below, and the whole river widens out and hills fall back. 
 Here I was able to get soundings with a 20-fathom line, and above 
 the fine limestone mass which distinguishes Ban Liep, we had 19, 17, 
 y, 6, 5, 3, and 2 fathoms as the river spread out ; below it it narrowed 
 down a bit, and we had over 10 fathoms most of the way to Paklai, 
 with now and then 6 and 8. Paklai is a pretty little place, and is 
 the official port of departure for the north. There are good salas and 
 elephant stables, and a clearing by the river, a good landing in a 
 creek among the rocks, and plenty of boats and people. But here 
 for the first time we had the abominable little "luep," small black 
 flies, which are a far more irritating torture than mosquitos, and 
 attack one's hands and face by thousands. They are worst just 
 about sunset as a rule, and smoke or a strong breeze are the only 
 things to keep them away, and to sleep in a curtain of linen is 
 absolutely necessary. The rains bring them and most other jungle 
 plagues. 
 
 From here the river begins to turn away to the south-east, with 
 quite a new phase of Mekong scenery — placid reaches half a mile wide, 
 with gently sloping banks, the hills low and gentle in their curves, 
 more like some upper reaches in the Meinam, or a bit of Thames. 
 The change was delightful, as it always is, and continued for two days 
 to Chieng Kan, with only one break at Keng Mai, a rapid over a 
 shallow, shelving bank, where the water storms with a bar of white 
 crests right across, like sea breaking on a reef. Decks were cleared 
 and the hands set baling, and we all went through in style, but the 
 cook's boat, which got the least bit athwart the current, was caught 
 in the rough water, and swamped with our rice. The depths down to 
 the town are 1, 2, up to 5 fathoms. 
 
 Chieng Kan is built along the southern bank (for here the river 
 begins an east-north-east course), with a fine paddy-growing plain 
 behind it, and is about a mile long, with an indifferent road passing 
 along it. The most remarkable things about the place are the immense 
 
72 
 
 NOTES OF A J0UBNE7 ON 
 
 numbers of cocoanut palms, and the cheapness of the fruit ; * the 
 number of Burmese British subjects (who out of the kindness of 
 their hearts supplied one with any amount of provisions) ; and the fact 
 that the Laos women cut their hair short like the ■ Siamese. The 
 
 BOATS FISBBta. 
 
 people are a friendly, pleasant race. A good deal of fishing is done 
 here, and in poling the small craft up stream, a small rudder is used 
 over the outside (in this case starboard) quarter to prevent the boat 
 running round, as also at Luang Prabang and Npngkhai. These 
 
 rudders are fixed, and do their work 
 alone as a rule, but are sometimes in 
 bigger boats fitted with a yoke and long 
 bamboo tiller (as used together in Nor- 
 wegian boats), the latter reaching to the 
 fore deck. Sometimes in the evening, as 
 the people lie tending their fish-baskets, 
 the boats look, with their up-turned ends and small shelter (in which 
 the man's clothes or his net, with its weights and buoys, may be put) 
 which stands almost amidships, like a distant gondola. 
 
 This province, which is under Pechai, is undoubtedly very rich in 
 mineral, but the distances and difficulties of transport are at present 
 against its development. There is a rich, alluvial gold deposit 
 northward, and a variety of ores occur south toward M. Loey, in- 
 cluding massive iron-ore beds. 
 
 After some stay, we set out with fresh boats and crews, and were 
 five days passing the wild rapids between here and Wieng Clian. 
 The river finds its way among low hills in a narrow, deep channel 
 
 * Eight for a fuaDg= one-eighth of a tioal, or 7J cents of a dollar. At Pechai wo got 
 one for a fuang. 
 
TEE UPPER jVEKONO, SI AM. 73 
 
 between clay-slate rocks alternating AS'itli sandstones and conglo- 
 merates -with a general easterly di]), Tlie rapids are of the whirlpool 
 and eddy character, and extend for miles on end ; the water is in 
 places confined to a width of 150 feet, and the rushes, boilings, 
 spinnings, and general deafening pandemonium which results is 
 astounding ; not one place is like another, nor one whirlpool like the 
 next. Numbers of boats never get through here, as they, in spinning 
 round in a whirlpool or sudden explosion of water, get their ends 
 ashore and smashed on the rocks. It was a most tiring time for the 
 men, deep down in the heat of tliis great rock ditch, with no wind 
 to cool the air, and above on eitlier liand a good half-mile of rocks 
 and vast spaces of sand shimmering in the hot sun. 
 
 m^'mrtfiimimmliiw^ 
 
 LAST OF THE HILLS ABOVE WIENG CHAN. 
 
 Just above Wieng Chan the hills disappear. The last of them are 
 a flat-bedded red sandstone, passing into a conglomerate, the huge 
 slabs lying in rows beside the water. The river opens out between 
 them into a beautiful wide lake, known as the Hong Pla Buk, from 
 the numbers of those big fish caught here. The scene on a quiet 
 evening was beautiful, with the terns dipping and darting about us. 
 Here in the deep still water, we heard again, as we used to do in 
 the Meinam, the "talking" of the Pla liu ma (dog's-tongue fish) 
 beneath the boat ; it is a grunt similar to that of the gurnard, only 
 very much louder and more sonorous, and you may hear several at 
 a time chattering away under you. 
 
 Camped on some of these huge sandstone blocks, we had a good 
 opportunity of watching the polishing power of the wind-swept sand, 
 which, next to the rushing water, with its enormous burden of sedi- 
 ment, is the agent by which all the rock surfaces of the Mekong get 
 the wonderful polish which makes them so peculiar. The exterior 
 appearances are often entirely deceptive, and the sun glistens off 
 them as off a looking-glass. Yet the points and pinnacles, especially 
 
74 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 among the schists, are terribly sharp, often cutting the feet like 
 knives. The polish the red granite takes just west of this, and the 
 beauty of the veined limestone boulders further north, are a delight 
 to look at. 
 
 At Wieng Chan, on the north bank, hardly a hill is in sight ; all 
 round plains, bamboos, and palms. The site of the old city, which 
 was destroyed in 1827 by the Siamese for rebellion, is a mass of jungle- 
 covered ruins. The remains of the old brick wall, and of the great 
 
 THE RUINS OF WAT rKAKAON, WIENG CHAN. 
 
 Wat Prakaon, are very fine ; the latter rises from a series of terraces, 
 up which broad flights of steps lead, and is of large proportions. 
 The effect of height is increased by the perpendicular lines of the 
 tall columns, which support the great east and west porticos, and 
 which line the walls along the north and south ; the windows between 
 the latter being small, and narrower at top than at the bottom, also 
 lead the eye up. A second outer row of columns 
 once existed, and tlie effect must have been very fine. 
 Now the roof is gone, and the whole structure 
 crowned by a dense mass of foliage, as is the case 
 with all the remains of smaller buildings not yet 
 destroyed. One very beautiful little pagoda at the 
 west end is now encased in a magnificent peepul tree which has 
 grown in and around it, and has preserved it in its embrace. There 
 are remains of several deep-water tanks, and the grounds, which were 
 surrounded by a brick wall, must once have been beautiful. But the 
 best thing at Wieng Chan, or the old city, as tliey call it, is the gem 
 
 NICHE AND STATUE. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 75' 
 
 of a monastery known as Wat Susaket. It is a small building, the 
 wat itself, of the usual style, with the small lantern rising from, 
 the central roof, as at Luang Prabang. The walls are very massive, 
 and, with the height inside, the place was delightfully cool ; all round 
 the interior from floor to roof the walls are honeycombed with small 
 niches in rows, in which stand the little gilt " prahs," looking out 
 imperturbably, generally about 8 inches in height. 
 
 Round this building outside runs a rectangular cloister, which 
 faces inwards, and here, at one time, the monks were living among 
 the statues which stand round the walls, many of these 3 and more 
 
 SOUTU-WEST ANGLE, WAT SUSAKIiT, WIENG OIIAK. 
 
 feet high, while the walls too are ornamented with niches similar ta 
 those inside the main building. In the centre of each side there is a 
 gateway surmounted by a gable, there being also similar ornaments at 
 each corner. The beauty and the retired air of the court inside could 
 not be surpassed, and the effect of the green grass, the white walls, 
 the low-reaching red-tiled roofs, and the deep shadows is charming ; 
 there is nothing flat, nothing vulgarly gaudy, and very little that is 
 out of repair. And here, as is most noticeable in the remains of 
 the other buildings about, the proportions are perfect. In this the 
 ruined remains of Wieng Chan surpass all the other buildings I 
 have seen in Siam, and bear witness to a true artistic sense in the 
 builders. Though the old city is not inhabited, and the site thereof 
 seems under a curse, the villages along the bank of the river, both 
 above and below, have a flourishing appearance, and the paths along 
 the river, with their cool shade, were full of people. 
 
 Leaving Wieng Chan, we had our last and most curious experience 
 
76 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 •of the Meinam Kong and its wanton ways. A vast mass of heavy 
 thunderclouds lay to the east, south-east, and south, and into 
 this, as happens in the rainy season, a strong draught of air, first 
 from south-west, then west, and then north-west, was blowing. This 
 began to freshen, and with two square sails I got rigged to my ship 
 ■we made very good way, until it began blowing really hard and a 
 sea got up, the water being here over half a mile in width, with 
 2, 3, and 5-fathom soundings; we then had to strike sail, while astern a 
 vast cloud of sand, twigs, leaves, and even pebbles, came sweeping 
 along with a roar. The other three boats were, when we saw them 
 last, just broaching to, all close together. The Laos, who face rapids 
 or elephants with composure, quite lost tlieir heads, and the only 
 use to be made of them was to set them to hang on to the deck- 
 house, which was being carried out of the ship. She tried very 
 hard to swamp herself, for when the squall came up the strength 
 was terrific, and the seas hollow and breaking solidly. However, by 
 keeping her stern to it, we shot on through the thick darkness, 
 frequently belaboured with missiles, and after a great deal of difficulty 
 in weathering a lee shore we got round a point and brought up, after 
 two rattan ropes had been carried away. Meantime many dug-outs 
 passed us waterlogged and adrift, and when at last the wind got to 
 the north and fell not a boat was in sight. Except our own, every 
 other craft in the river had been swamped, including our other three 
 boats, which were carried broadside into the lee shore we had got 
 round, and had a handsome battering. Everything in them was full 
 of water, while the men escaped and sat on shore till it was all over, 
 and when they arrived at Ban Bar, where we lay for the night, they 
 did not seem to have enjoyed the fun at all. 
 
 This village is more Siamese than Laos in appearance; there are 
 numbers of Chinamen of unprepossessing appearance and manners, 
 Avho kept shops and pariahs. The latter was a nuisance we had been 
 ■comparatively free from ; in fact, on the upper river, at Chieng Kong, 
 there were very decent breeds to be seen, and Chow Benn Yenn 
 got from one of his villages a beautiful black-and-tan collie, exactly 
 like a good specimen at liome, with tlie exception that he had a short 
 tail like a manx cat. It was a beautiful dog and a capital sporting 
 animal. The long black-haired and black-tongued " Chow " dog we 
 saw several times, and also small, brown, long-haired animals with 
 high, curled tails. A peculiarity about these dogs was that, being 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. IT 
 
 accustomed to the Laos kao neo, when we got back to Siam and Jcao- 
 chow (the ordinary rice), tliey would have none of it. 
 
 The next day we reached Nongkhai, and were very cordially 
 welcomed by Krom Prachak, a brother of the king, who is Com- 
 miasioner. The town owes its existence to the fall of "Wieng Chan, 
 and is scattered along the south bank ; there is a considerable number 
 of Chinamen keeping shops here, and to them and its character as the 
 official centre, it owes its importance. The houses extend all along 
 the river-side for a mile and a half, mostly well shaded by arcca and 
 coconut palms. Here once more, on the great plain lying to the 
 south, we saw the tall, gaunt sugar palms standing against the sky, 
 and again saw the Mens, or ox-carts, with their long, black hoods, 
 wending their slow way in single file, the groaning, grunting, and 
 shrieking, which accompanies their every movement and jerk, coming 
 slowly down the wind. Here once more, sad to say, we came across 
 a character most of us have known in Siam — the kamoe, or thief — 
 and we hadn't been an hour in the place before he had begun work. 
 Here, too, we again heard the horrid sound of chains, dragged along 
 the hot, dusty road by wretched, emaciated creatures carrying water 
 — hardly strong enough to lift the chains at their ankles. And here, 
 again, were, among the decent houses, dirty, squalid cottages and 
 drunkenness. The fact is, the cattle- driving people of the plains 
 become by their occupation different in character to the mountaineers ; 
 it was 'very noticeable, striking right upon them here, how much 
 more stolid and less expressive their faces are, how black and muddy 
 — or dusty if the rain keeps off — they become in their long, slow rides 
 upon their carts, and, in general, how like their own sleepy, blinking 
 buffaloes they become — as, too, one may see in the great plains of 
 India. The circumstances and conditions of life are all different ; 
 and drinking slow-running mud, which they euphemistically call 
 water, sloshing laboriously through seas of reeking bog and swamp, 
 and enduring the tormenting bites of innumerable huge flies, which 
 attack elephants, buffaloes, oxen, horses, and men indiscriminately, 
 but untiringly, must result in a differently developed man from 
 that built up by mountain marches, high aloft on dry hillsides 
 or deep down in cold stream beds, leaping from rock to stone or 
 plunging into the rushing water, where life is a perfect fight. Not 
 that the plains are always so disagreeable; given the dry, cool 
 months of December and January, travelling in them becomes a 
 
78 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 luxury ; but there is never the same exhilarating air or the same pure 
 water. 
 
 The Commissioner's house is at the western end of the town, 
 surrounded by the sheds of the military detachment. At the back a 
 very pretty garden is being made ; and this and a new straight road, 
 inland of the present street and parallel with it, are the works of 
 construction on hand. The ground on each side of the new road — 
 which, by its unlovely straightness, carried one far away to similar 
 ugliness in civilized lands, and was the only unnatural thing we saw 
 — is being eagerly applied for by the Chinese ; but a great drawback 
 must for some time be the absence of shade. The river is undoubtedly 
 cutting into the soft laterite bank here, and in a few years the old 
 site will go down with a run. 
 
 Prince Prachak is a reformer ; he is very keen in " reforming the 
 Laos," but is grieved to find they don't want to be reformed. He 
 says — what is very true — that their work is always desultory (one 
 month they plant rice, another they go fishing, another they wash 
 gold in the sands), and that they will not settle down into trades. 
 They prefer, too, to play music on their kans in the evenings to doing 
 more useful things, and are, in fact, lazy. But I fear it is not sur- 
 prising, and that it will be some time before the Laos take to trades. 
 
 The Chinese shopkeepers import their goods from Bangkok through 
 Khorat, and the journey, in the matter of shoes or felt hats from 
 London, increases the price about one sahing at the first place, and 
 two by the time they reach Nongkhai. They show for sale calico 
 goods of all colours and patterns (as one sees in Bangkok for " pan- 
 ungs," " pahs," etc.), shoes, sandals, belts, pots 
 and pans, matches, Chinese umbrellas, and tea- 
 pots, the first mostly English, and as they sell 
 these well, they tell you with a grin they soon 
 make their fortunes and retire. 
 
 The wats are wretched little places, ill built 
 and ill kept, the most interesting thing being 
 the bell of the principal wat, which is a huge 
 hollowed timber, some 3 feet in diameter and 
 7 feet high, hung to a crossbar at the top. 
 Struck end on with a stout pole, the sound is 
 deep and sonorous. This form, but usually smaller, is often used 
 in Siam, and for attaching to the necks of elephants or oxen (which 
 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 
 
 79 
 
 invariably have a bell), there are clappers liiing on a string on each 
 side, which keep up a continual tinkle. Fixed on a bent bamboo, 
 the same form of bell is used by fishermen on the shore end of their 
 set lines to give warning of a big fisli or other disturbance. There is 
 always a slit up, about a quarter of the way, slightly wider at the top, 
 on each side. 
 
 The weather from the time we left Luang Prabang to the time we 
 reached Nongkhai had tlie unsettled character of the beginning of 
 the rains, though it was only April month. South-westerly winds 
 and haze by day, low heavy clouds in the evenings, and thunder- 
 storms of great violence, with strong squalls of wind shifting round 
 
 UELL-CLAPPEB AND JOINT. 
 
 BAMBOO BELL. 
 
 by west and north-west to north at night, making sleep impossible 
 while they lasted, and generally driving into the boats everywhere. 
 The lowest and highest readings of the thermometer were, on the 
 same day when we arrived at Chieng Kan, after some heavy storms, 
 63° Fahr. at sunrise, 104° at 2 p.m. in the boats. For the rest of the 
 time, the average minimum was 72°, generally half an hour before 
 sunrise. The average maximum in the shade, 92° (in the boats). 
 In the shady sala, on the tree-covered bank at Nongkhai, we never 
 had over 89°, and, whether owing to the advent of the rains or 
 not I do not know, it was much cooler and pleasanter than Luang 
 Prabang had been, and all our sick men, with one or two exceptions, 
 mended entirely ; while at the former place (as too in the case of 
 Mr. Archer's party) every one had had turns of fever or bad headaches. 
 The coinage here was once more the tical, with only an occasional 
 rupee. At Luang Prabang the two, with their small silver sub- 
 divisions, are both taken ; but in Nan no Siamese money would pass, 
 strings of areca nut being used for small change, as cowries are at 
 Luang Prabang. 
 
80 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 Note on the " Kan." 
 
 The Kan, the reed-organ used so much among the northern Lao 
 
 tribes, is remarkable for the sweetness of its tones, and the fact that 
 
 the intervals of the notes are correct according to our 
 
 , J musical ideas, and have a true key-note, the pitch of the 
 
 instrument depending on its length. 
 
 Thus the five-sok kan (9 feet 4 inches long) is in the 
 key of G — one sharp. 
 
 The four-sok kan (6 feet 8 inches) in the key of D — 
 two sharps. 
 
 The two-sok kan (3 feet 4 inches) in the key of F — 
 one flat. 
 
 These are the lengths most usual, but six soks is 
 sometimes used ; it possesses very 
 fine low tones, but requires power- 
 ful lungs, although the notes are 
 produced by inspiration and respi- 
 ration. 
 
 The number of reeds never 
 exceeds fourteen, and the arrange- 
 ment of notes is as follows, num- 
 bering the reeds in couples from 
 the mouth of the little air-cham- 
 ber : — The two reeds, 1, are played 
 with the thumb ; left 1 being the 
 key-note ; right 2 being the lower 
 octave of the same. The octave 
 thus goes from right 2, to 3, 4, 
 5 and 6 left (or right 3, which 
 is the same) on to right 4, 5, 
 and back to the thumb note on 
 left 1. 
 
 Below the key-note right 2 
 come left 2 and right 1, and above 
 the upper key-note, right 6 and 7 and left 7 ; thus, in the D kan of 
 four soks, we get — 
 
 FODB-SOK KAN 
 (1 INCH TO 2 feet). 
 
 TWO-SOK KAN. 
 
77/ A' Ul'l'EIl MKKONQ, SI AM. 
 
 81 
 
 Lie FT. 
 
 i^ 
 
 No. 
 
 7 
 
 UlfillT. 
 
 No. 
 -I- 
 
 -^- 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■B-" 
 
 AIR-CUi.MB£R. 
 
 There are no sharps or flats possible, and only half filling the 
 holes, as in a fife, will not produce them, tlie note being got by the 
 vibration of small tongues of metal fitted in the side of tiie reed. 
 Hence, possibly, the epitliet " monotonous," which has been generally 
 given them ; and hence tlie fact that a good player generally has 
 more than one. Tiieir playing is very fast and effective, but is at 
 first hard to follow or properly understand. TJie mouth-piece is 
 made of the fruit of the mai lamut, and being very hard, takes a 
 lot of work in being hollowed out, and will 
 receive a good polish outside; two parallel 
 slits are cut along the top and bottom, and 
 the two rows of bamboos fitted in, and 
 the whole made airtight with beeswax. In 
 case of damage to one of the reeds, it is 
 
 quite simple to undo the grass bands wliicli are put round at intervals, 
 to remove the beeswax, and take out the reed ; often a gentle flick 
 on the reed will set the metal tongue vibrating again when momen- 
 tarily out of order. The reeds, by being put over the fire, are often 
 very prettily marked. 
 
 They can hardly be obtained in Siam, except where Laos are 
 situated. 
 
 The Wieng Chan men, who are all over the country since the 
 c^ty was destroyed and they were sent south, are the best makers 
 and players, and a few colonies of them are to be met with in the 
 neighbourhood of Bangkok. This fact of their love for tliis highest 
 of Indo-Chinese instruments, coupled with the fine remains of the 
 old city, certainly support the idea that at Wieng Chan tiiere was 
 civilization and taste ahead of tliose of tlie surrounding places. 
 
 Witli regard to the music, it is impossible, without a long study 
 of it, to say more than that they are very fond of the minor, that 
 they use the octaves very much in playing, that the key-note may 
 often be heard down for a long time, and the time is generally a 
 
82 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 rapid horse's trot, or quick march. At Nongkhai, I heard two men 
 play a most beautiful and stately march which made one's flesh 
 creep ; it was all in the major, and in some parts irresistibly 
 reminded one of the famous march in Saul. One of these was a 
 six-sok instrument, and the effect surpassed anything I've heard in 
 the country. They were on their way to a marriage-festival when 
 I met them in the road ; they had no fiddles or flutes with them, 
 and were followed by a number of people marching with them to 
 their airs. They willingly stopped, squatted down, and gave us 
 half an hour's concert in the shade. 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 83 
 
 PART V. 
 
 NoNGKiiAi TO KiiORAT AND Bancskok {Ap'il and May, 1893). 
 
 From Nongkhai we left in regular rainy weather for Khorat, with 
 14 " kiens " or ox-carts, there being two oxen and a driver to each. 
 Twelve of these are about equal in carrying capacity to sixteen 
 elephants as loaded for hilly country — two extra we had for sick 
 men, of whom we still had two unable to walk ; and these two, more- 
 over, were the best protected with charms of all the men with us. 
 These charms were small wooden prahs, very roughly cut, which 
 they sew up in a bag of calico and wear round the neck and arm. 
 No amount of chaff will persuade them that these things will not 
 protect them from falling trees, and dhdp (or sword) cuts, as well as 
 the Pi of the forest or river. Another danger from which they 
 declared these things protected the whole party, were the mermaids 
 in the Mekong. Against these creatures I was constantly warned 
 when having a swim, especially above Luang Prabang; they de- 
 scribed them as the "women of the water," who would drag a man 
 down and drown him. Where could this notion have come from, 
 so singularly like our own stories ? * South of Luang Prabang, one 
 heard very little of these damsels, and much more of the pla huk. On 
 one occasion I pitched one of these charms overboard, and the owner, 
 who was sick, promptly got well next day, to his no small astonishment. 
 Following the telegrapli line, the great trail to Khorat is 211 
 miles or so, but detours have often to be made in search of villages 
 which are generally oft' the main track some little distance, and this 
 is necessary for commissariat purposes. For traders, the journey 
 generally occupies 16 to 21 days, according to the condition of the 
 oxen and state of the weather. When it rains, no advance is 
 possible, as, unlike the buffaloes, the oxen cannot work in rain, and 
 
 * It no doubt primarily arises from the danger and strength of the eddies. 
 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 hate it, and seem to lose all their pluck ; besides which, the yoke 
 working on the damp neck tends to produce bad sores. 
 
 The kiens, of which we frequently met long caravans, are the ships of 
 this desert — for such this plain is often for days at a time. Nothing 
 but wood is used in the construction, as the bumping and straining is 
 too great for any metal fastenings. The body of the carriage proper 
 is very light, like a cariole in shape ; the pole to which the yoke is 
 attached spreading and passing along to the rear underneath. The 
 wheels, which are very broad, and the heaviest things in the whole, 
 turn on an axletree of hard wood (Mai Kahao, sometimes Mai Deng), 
 which is fitted in a socket of solid wood under the car, at the inner 
 end, and at the outer to an " outrigger," which is lashed at its end to 
 cross-pieces firmly placed at right angles at the front and rear ends of 
 
 [ 
 
 
 the car. Thus the weight is distributed on many points ; a few ready- 
 cut extra pieces of mai kabao are taken, and when with a lurch and a 
 dive one of the axletrees gives way, the " outrigger " is unlashed at 
 one end, and pulled outwards till tlie axletree comes out of its socket ; 
 it is then pulled out of the wheel, and a new one fitted in in a quarter 
 of an hour. Similarly, lashings may now and tlien give way, but a 
 new one is put on in five minutes. Over all a closely plaited cover 
 is fitted, with a long peak forward, reaching out over where the 
 driver sits on the pole ; and in this a man may sleep protected from 
 sun and rain. The length of the car is about 7 feet and 3 feet wide. 
 Travelling in it is only possible to a person who is accustomed to 
 it, the jerking being so tremendous. If there were roads it would 
 be possible with some degree of comfort, and, though dusty, they keep 
 cool inside. 
 
THE UFFEU MEKONQ, HI AM. b5 
 
 Tlie oxen are capital animals for their purpose, and when tired 
 and hungry can be turned loose with a certainty that in a quarter of 
 an hour they will iiave satisfied tliemselves ; the moment they have 
 had enough, even of the rankest grass, they are ready to go on ; 
 their patience and perseverance, even in the worst swamps, pestered 
 with flies and leeches, is wonderful. A frisky one, however, can do 
 no end of damage, and can kick and plunge and drag the hien, even 
 when loaded, at a gallop over any kind of country, and even the rein 
 in his nose will not hold him. On occasions of this sort, some damage 
 is often done to the cart, and delay occasioned. Their kick is very 
 quick, and pretty severe. They are always used by the Laos, though 
 seldom used by the Siamese of the south. 
 
 The buffalo, which wallows in the water all over Siam, is generally 
 kept for working the rice or sugar mills, and is only occasionally 
 used by the Laos in a larger cart of the same kind ; but he is very 
 surly, wilful, and erratic. Large droves of them are taken south from 
 the Nongkhai neighbourhood, where their price is 12 to 15 ticals, to 
 Khorat, where their price is double ; the demand for them and oxen 
 being very great in that neighbourhood. The best ponies come from 
 the neighbourhood of M. Chulabut, but they are also very cheap 
 round Khorat. At the former place, I saw some capital beasts, and 
 from that neighbourhood and the south at Pachim the cheapest ponies 
 are obtainable. Prices for a good carrier range from 50 to 100 ticals, 
 though an average pony of three years old, which will carry one fairly 
 well in ordinary jungle work, may be obtained for 35 to 40 ticals. 
 They are very small, and have a peculiar fast trot, which makes rising 
 in the saddle impossible ; the Siamese or Laos always sit tight in 
 the saddle, legs almost touching the ground. At Chulabut, I saw a 
 small creature of ten hands which was very wild, and the owner 
 wanted to get rid of him for 8 ticals ; he was a wonderful little beast, 
 and very fiery. Another I was offered for 20, and another for 30 ; 
 but they would be useless for Europeans. 
 
 For two days we travelled fairly easily, leaving the slight cultiva- 
 tion near Nongkhai, and travelling through low, shadeless jungles, 
 passing here and there salt-boiling pans, at which the most work is 
 done after the rainy season, there being at other times no water. The 
 salt covers the ground in an efflorescence, and that produced by the 
 villages is coarse and bitter. The soil in the jungles is sandy, there 
 being gentle undulations on the northern side, on which the sand is 
 
86 NOTES OF A JOUIiNEY ON 
 
 deepest ; on the southern the trail going over rough laterite. In the 
 depressions occur the 7wn;/s, or swamps, of which the plateau is full, 
 and which in the wet weather, with their mud and deep water, 
 make travelling almost (and in most places quite) impossible. In 
 the neighbourhood of the main streams, which all run from west 
 to east to the Mekong, villages are established, and the scrub jungle 
 gives place to the welcome bamboo clumps and the high betel and 
 coconut palms, which, like church spires at home, announce to the 
 traveller far away that he is approaching the habitations of men. 
 
 The absence of good water, and the change in it, made several of 
 tlie men very ill, and on the third morning I found one of the original 
 invalids, who had had a lot of fever on the Mekong, had every sign of 
 abscf £s in the liver. I knew at Khorat there might be a doctor, so 
 took two men with me, with three kicns and their drivers, pushed on, 
 and arrived in nine days. The man recovered there, and was well 
 enough to go on with us from Khorat afterwards. 
 
 I had heard so much of the goodness of the trail following the 
 telegraphic clearing all the way, and of the bridges and salas, that I 
 was very much surprised at the reality. It was the worst track we had 
 followed, and there were only two salas which had roofs on them the 
 whole way, one having been put up at liis own e.xpense by an officer 
 at Chulabut. The rest were blackened stumps, and solitary corner 
 posts, from which every bit of roofing and flooring had been 
 removed ; two of these having just roof enough to keep out the dew, 
 but no more. Cheerless places enough to reach an hour after sunset, 
 after having marched all day in the scorching morning sun and 
 the deluge of rain which came every afternoon and continued most 
 of the night. 
 
 However, though after the Hill Laos, their " white-bellied " 
 brethren of the plains were in some ways disappointing, I am bound 
 to say that the men who were driving our kiens behaved splendidly ; 
 one of them was formerly a sergeant, and knew his drill and the Eng- 
 lish words of command once used in the Siamese army well. He was 
 the lightest and warmest-hearted man I ever travelled with, besides 
 being, what is not too common in the East, a really smart man. He 
 was the headman of our caravan, and I had told him that I must 
 get on as fast as was possible to Khorat, and he must help ; he 
 jumped at it. I asked him how quick we could do it from Soug 
 True. " Ten days." I told him, in that case we could also do it in 
 
THE UPPEU MEKUNa, SI AM. 87 
 
 nine, and he was delighted, and used to turn us out at four o'clock 
 ■with his loud sawang leo (daylight come), long before there was a 
 sign of light, and then laugh and say, " Nine days, master." And so, 
 whatever the weather, however long we stood waiting in the rain for 
 the oxen to rest their necks before goading them on again, none 
 of these men with me ever thought of growling ; and the Siamese 
 were the same. The pony I had brought on soon got a sore back, so 
 there was not much riding, except when it came to swimming a 
 stream. 
 
 The bridges were three in nuimber only ; one was possible, the 
 other two were unfortunately not connected with the southern bank, 
 so that in one case at Meinam Chieng Kun, the waggons, after having 
 the oxen taken out, are hauled over the loose flooring of the bridge 
 and dropped at the end into five feet of mud and water; in the 
 other every one avoids the bridge altogether. Now, at very small 
 expense, for the labour can be obtained for the necessary time from 
 the neighbourhood, good bridges might be erected all along this route ; 
 as it is, the journey, as soon as the waters begin to rise, is of the most 
 difficult and arduous kind for all these caravans. 
 
 Krom Prachak is very eager for a light railway from Kliorat to 
 Nongkhai. At least years must elapse before it can be done, but in 
 three montlis a good cart-road might be made, pile bridges put up, and 
 salas repaired; then ,it would be possible to judge of the chances 
 of such a railway, and the groundwork for it would be already laid. 
 At the present moment this undulating country, which should bo easy 
 to travel, is worse provided with communications than the greater 
 part of the hill villages in Nan, and infinitely worse provided with 
 shelter than in the most out-of-tlie-way mountain valleys north. 
 Yet, wherever we went, the same kindly Laos welcome was given 
 us, except in places wliere there were Siamese settlements near by, 
 and friction had probably occurred among the petty officials. 
 
 Some of the villages, to which we went slightly off tae trail, such 
 as Ban Tum, between tlie Nam I'uang and Meinam Si (both big 
 streams, very deep and swift when the water rises, flowing through 
 extensive paddy plains and svi-amps), Chulabut one day south of it, 
 and Ban Bodibun just north of Kliorat, were perfect gem villages, 
 rich in palms, rice, and cattle, with kindly people, wlio did all in 
 their power to overfeed us before we started. At the former 
 places, where there were Siamese ulliuials, everything was very neat, 
 
88 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 and the relations between them and the Laos seemed to be most 
 happy. This is, naturally, not always the case ; but I am bound to 
 say that, wherever the official is one of some standing, tliis state of 
 things is the usual one. Cultivation goes on round the village} ; but 
 as soon as one gets a couple of miles away, the sandy jungle or the 
 nowjs resume their sway. The latter are the most peculiar feature 
 of the region, and cover a vast area, wiiicii is larger to the eastward. 
 Some of them are merely small swamps, with shallow water and long 
 reeds, extending over a surface of one or two square miles ; others, 
 again, are extensive areas, in which water and reeds are the, only 
 object the eye meets for miles, with here and there a little green 
 island, where trees exist, and, in the distance, the low, long, green 
 line of the jungle along its edge ; an ideal liome for the various 
 herons, and other long-legged waders, but, alas ! also tenanted by 
 leeches and by flies, who attacked us all. The poor little oxen, at 
 the end of a few miles, especially if tlie sun came out for a little iu 
 the burning way it does between rains, were covered with clouds 
 of the latter, their necks and nose, humps and legs, smeared with 
 blood. No resting is possible, for every moment a stop is made 
 the deeper everything sinks into tlie mud ; so it is plunging 
 and struggling to the next little island, where we would stop and 
 cook breakfast with a score of other weary mud- bespattered carts. 
 Besides these, we also met some pack-oxen going north to get salt ; 
 but as the water was out everywhere, they would have to wait 
 before returning south. One may roughly say that the salt efflores- 
 cence occupies the low grounds, between the slightly higher laterite 
 jungle ridges, which are yet just higher than the surface of the 
 nongs. The villages in the neighbourhood are generally wretchedly 
 dirty and untidy in appearance ; the growth is only stunted bamboo, 
 and tlie whole place uninviting enougli. 
 
 The cold weather, with its advantages of dryness and absence 
 of insects, has also the disadvantage that water is very scarce. When 
 we crossed, the whole low-lying area may be said to have been 
 under water, but water of such a description that it was only here 
 and tliere that it was fit for man to drink ; while in the sandy 
 forests the water, all perforating through, drained off at once, and tlie 
 lower ends of the track, where it began to rise toward the ridges, 
 were, oil the other hand, lakes of mud. Thus, between endless seas 
 of bad water and long miles of saml, the water question remains 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SI AM. 
 
 80 
 
 almost as serious in tiie rains as in tlie dry weather. The viUages, 
 as a rule, have a well, and the water from the wells is fair. 
 
 The method of travelling usually adopted with the tims is an 
 early start at dawn, and a journey of some 300 sen (7i miles), when 
 a stop is made to feed man and beast; and, if going easily, a start 
 will not be made until 3 or 4 p.m., when another 300 sen will be 
 done before night— a speed of 15 miles a day, occupying about 6 hours, 
 at about 100 sen (2^ miles) an hour. This is very fair work for ox- 
 carts over a well-worn track, whicli is, of course, mucli rougher and 
 harder to travel than the jungle itself, the ruts spreading wide for a 
 breadth of 30 yards or so, and being of any depth that a kien wheel 
 can dig to. But this exceeds the average. 
 
 Being in a hurry, we did about 21 miles a day for nine days, 
 but had three relays of oxen. This involved — at about 8 to 10 liours' 
 travelling by day, with the delays necessary to get new oxen, two 
 half-day rests, and fording the streams (where the waggons had to 
 be often carried over on the men's slioulders) — a good deal of night 
 travelling, which in rain, and heavy trails full of pitfalls, does not 
 commend itself as a rule. It will be seen, therefore, that the rate of 
 travelling is slow, and would be sufficiently increased for all present 
 purposes by improvements in the trail, and at the crossing of the 
 rivers. Men who are walking have, of course, the advantage, and 
 sometimes do 24 or 25 miles a day with their packs. The latter are 
 usually carried on the two ends of a long bamboo, and are fitted 
 with legs below, so that, stooping down, the weight is at once taken 
 off the shoulder. When he wants to rest, out of one of his panniers 
 the man takes his mat to sit on, and lays it between the panniers, and 
 over the pole above he places the hai lam (a covering of palm leaves 
 sewn together, some 6 feet by 5 feet) to keep off the sun or rain, 
 and this is his house while he is on his journey. Dhdps are rare 
 here, and heavy knives are used for cutting down jungle to place 
 round at night, or leaves to place under the bed. From travellers of 
 this sort, going south, we often bought wild honey, in long bamboos — 
 2 feet of a 3-inch diameter bamboo selling for a fuang. They some- 
 times set traps, and are successful in catching rabbits. 
 
 Tliere are a few deer to be hoard, and tigers are rare, except 
 round Chulabut, where a man was killed after we had left, the day 
 the main body arrived tiiere. 
 
 Wc picked up a rather curious fellow-traveller when about six 
 
90 
 
 NOTES OF A JOUUNEY ON 
 
 days from Khorat, and lie accompanied us to within a day of the town. 
 This was a rather decent-looking pariah dog, of quite remarkable 
 character. Unasked he joined us, and trotting often with me in 
 advance, or half a mile ahead, or right behind us all, his short sharp 
 bark might be continually heard in the jungle to right or left as 
 he hunted his breakfast. Of what this consisted I never knew, 
 but he kept himself in fair condition, for he got very little from us, 
 poor thing, as we did not want to encourage him ; he got more 
 kicks than ha'pence. But he stuck to us, and even when we over- 
 hauled other parties going south, instead of stopping and going 
 
 THE NORTH GATE AND NAM NUN, EHOBAT. 
 
 leisurely with them, he always came on with us. He was evidently 
 accustomed to travelling, and knew the trail, for he was often absent 
 half a day, but would turn up in the evening, and lie near us for 
 the night. When we halted, and placed the waggons round us, and 
 the men put their sleeping-mats underneath them, he would come 
 as near the fire as he dare to get dry and warm. Sometimes in the 
 heat at noon, when the sun had been blazing upon us in the sandy 
 jungle, we would come upon him lying in a nong, with only his eyes 
 nose, and mouth out of water; while in the rain he plodded stolidly 
 along, and would sit down and wag his dripping tail when he aaw 
 we were going to camp. 
 
rilE Ul'PlCIi MEKONG, SI AM. 91 
 
 At lengtli we saw the high line of foliage topped by palms whicli 
 marks Khorat, and through seas of mud, arrived on the bank of the 
 Nam Nun, which flows along the northern wall of the city. Across 
 the ford were groups of waggons encamped to the number of about 
 fifty, and by an old wat under the shade a busy market was going 
 on. The Commissioner here, Plira Prasadit, is the same stamp of 
 man as the Commissioner at Luang Prabang : one of those energetic, 
 warm-hearted, and clieerful men who make such e.Kcellent governors. 
 He was kindness itself to us, and all the men under him reflected it. 
 In Siam, where every man has in proportion to his importance 
 numbers of others attached to him by a kind of feudal relationship, 
 and where his office clerks and his lieutenants all have a personal 
 connection with him, and almost form part of his family, the in- 
 fluence which can be exerted is unbounded, and by the expressions 
 of face of the inferiors the superior may be judged. Moreover, the 
 Commissioner in Khorat is a man of ideas, has been in Europe, and 
 has a good knowledge of English and a fair knowledge of French, 
 and in all politidal questions in these countries he takes a great 
 interest ; and thus his company was very pleasant. 
 
 The centre of the town we found not yet recovered from an 
 extensive fire ; all round the four sides run the lofty red-brick walls, 
 with gates in the centre of each side, protected by round towers at 
 the flanks, in which laterite blocks have been extensively used. The 
 whole is much dilapidated and overgrown, and the moat outside has 
 become nearly filled up. The Commissioner had then 3000 men at 
 work clearing it out again. This will probably enormously benefit the 
 town, which at present may be described as an accumulation of 
 houses, mainly in ruins, jungle patches, and swamps, on every side 
 of wjiich rises the great mound on which the walls stand, and which 
 effectually shuts in every drop of water, and in the rains transforms 
 the whole area into a lake. With openings made under the walls to 
 drain off the water into the moat, and with a raising of the level 
 inside, an enormous improvement will be effected. As the town 
 stands well on a slight rise above the plain level, and is surrounded 
 with similar ridges covered only with beautiful turf going miles 
 towards the south, south-west, and south-east, it may become a 
 healthy and attractive place. The plain around is dotted with 
 villages ; for many miles the soil certainly produces a fine clean rice 
 and abundance of fruit. Going out in the morning along any of 
 
92 NOTES OF A JOUliNEY ON 
 
 tlie great trails to the west, nortli, or east, one passes among 
 crowds of camped Mens, and among villages and markets, the latter 
 always held along one side of the road. At the time we were 
 there mangoes were in full swing, and all the women's baskets full 
 of them, bananas, coconuts, ready-rolled cigarettes, brown cakes of 
 palm sugar of an excellent quality, and very often the fruit of the 
 sugar palm, which is very much enjoyed. To the south and west 
 the trails are really like beautiful roads, for they go through a pretty 
 red sand soil, leading to the flat-bedded sandstones of the hills, which 
 makes good walking, and, even when swamped with a foot of water, 
 never causes mud. On the north and east, however, on slightly 
 lower ground, these sandy ridges are less frequent; the villages, 
 when possible, are built on them for health and convenience, while 
 the paddy is grown below. The trails on these sides, passing chiefly 
 through this low land, are in the rains two or three feet deep in thick, 
 clinging mud. 
 
 If the houses of the Thai (in which for the moment we may 
 include the Siamese and Laos togetlier) are in the city badly situated 
 in swamp and jungle, and badly kept in repair, the houses of the 
 Chinese are very different ; they are the flourishing part of the com- 
 munity. There are some thousands of them here and in the neigh- 
 bourhood, nearly all shopkeepers, and outside the west gate, and along 
 the main trail on each side, they have a regular village. The street is 
 narrow between the open shop-lronts, and the road paved with baulks 
 of timber. They drive a large trade among the people coming in 
 from the distant parts, in calico stuffs, coloured sarongs and panungs, 
 brasswork for betel boxes, trays, etc., umbrellas, sandals (the latter 
 soles of leather with a strap coming up inside 
 the great toe, and dividing and passing off on 
 each side, which are used all over the north) ; 
 hats of straw, felt, or strips of palm leaf ; bells for oxen, tins of 
 Swiss milk, matches, needles and threads, wire and nails, cheap 
 chains, a few tools of European type, coloured yarns, white jackets 
 and singlets, towels, and even soap : all are imported from Bangkok. 
 Yet, with the present difficulties of transport through the Dong Phya 
 Yen, the Chinamen are doing a flourishing business. 
 
 The Chinese houses are peculiar ; a rectangular building being first 
 built of large unbaked mud bricks, witii pillars rising like chimneys 
 at each end. Outside, several feet higher, and rusting on these pillars. 
 
THE UPPElt MEKONO, SIAM. 93 
 
 is constructed a yah hah, or grass roof. Big fires arc kindled inside 
 to dry the place ; and the result is a very cool dwelling. The grass 
 roofing is brought very often far out, overhanging the front, and this 
 makes a shop front with the house beliind. 
 
 These houses are usually on the roadsides, the two principal ones 
 running north and south, and east and west, connecting the gates, 
 and meeting about the centre. The latter road is about a mile long, 
 the former less. The central market is carried on all day in a large 
 roofed building near the centre of the city, and all up the road sit 
 the yellow-faced Chinamen smoking their long-stemmed pipes in 
 the shop fronts, and M'ith the aid of their wives (generally Siamese, 
 and good business women) bargaining with the long-haired, dark 
 burned men from the plains, to whom the beauties of the shops in 
 Khorat are a great delight. From these main roads one may have 
 quite an extensive ride or walk without going outside the walls, in 
 lovely lanes, lying deep down between high banks of shrubs and 
 grasses (and sometimes 4 feet deep in water). These lanes are quite 
 a feature of the country outside, too, and, with the long grassy slopes 
 referred to above, would make Khorat the centre of delightful ex- 
 cursions in the cool months. 
 
 The journey from Khorat to Saraburi on the Nam Sak, whence 
 Bangkok can be reached in two days, occupies as a rule six or seven 
 days only. But when, after the main body had come up and had 
 a day's rest, we bade good-bye to the unceasing kindness of the 
 Commissioner, and at the end of the first day's march, wliich had 
 be"un pleasantly through lanes and villages, found ourselves up to 
 our necks in water, it was evident we should take longer. We had 
 to trend to the southward to get upon the high ground out of the 
 water, and with constant delays, owing to the impassable state of 
 'the rivers, it was fourteen days before we got to Saraburi. 
 
 Leaving the beautiful villages outside Khorat, deep in their thick 
 clusters of areca palms, which in places form perfect forests of tall 
 stems supporting the arched roof of leaves far overhead, and making 
 a perpetual cool shade, we had two days alternately over flat sand- 
 stone beds and Hooded lowlands, where the water was for hours at a 
 time up to our thighs, and at one place for half a mile up to our 
 necks. Our nights were wretched, as the rain was perpetual, and 
 the waggons could not arrive at the monasteries, where we put up, 
 till long after midnight; the men lay sleeping round, hungry and 
 
94 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON 
 
 damp, lots of them too tired to eat tlieir supper when we got it ready, 
 about 2 a.ni. 
 
 These monasteries, built, as they were in days of old in our own 
 Fen country, upon little islands, are often the only things above the 
 vast surrounding lakes of water. The liouses in the villages, built 
 high on piles, keep dry. Eaised above the ground some two or 
 three feet, are generally long timber walks, made of solid felled trees, 
 the top side being slightly shaved down, on which the monks may 
 walk out dry and clean in the morning rounds to get their food. 
 These walks are attached to the wats in all the plains of the country, 
 and when the traveller strikes one, he knows a wat, with its welcome 
 sala or resthouse, is near. 
 
 The trail follows the Khorat river to nearly its source in the 
 limestones of the " Dong Phya Yen " forest ; it then strikes across the 
 forest, descending the spurs of the plateau to the elbow made by the 
 Nam Sak, which turns away at Keng Koi in a west-south-westerly 
 direction to the Meinam. This trail in the forest is greatly worn by 
 the pack oxen, by which alone the thick forest can be penetrated, 
 and in the rains is a series of narrow tracks winding in and out 
 between the trees, consisting of frightfully slippery mud. The oxen 
 have a way of walking in each otlier's footsteps, and the result is a 
 series of ridges, like those on a sandbank at low water ; but the ridges 
 are greasy mud, and the depressions deep pitfalls. Thus in the wet 
 weather the oxen constantly have heavy falls, and no one can get 
 through without finding himself often on his nose or on his back. 
 
 The forest proper begins at Chanteuk, a small village, in the 
 neighbourhood of which are some copper mines. These are open 
 works, and as no one has worked there lately, were, when we 
 passed through, brim full of water. On the Khorat side of this place 
 are two fords, to cross which huge tree-trunks lie over the water, 
 the growth along the bamboo being extraordinarily dense. Between 
 them is a sala, which fortunately was in moderate condition, as we 
 were delayed there two days in pouring rain, the river having risen 
 ten feet in one night, as I measured next morning. Our quinine 
 was nearly at an end ; one man was quite prostrated with fever ; and 
 our eight days' store of rice was nearly done, all our chickens gone, 
 the horses useless with sore backs, and the thirty -eight oxen carrying 
 the packs suffering with coughs and sores. To get out we built two 
 rafts ; one was carried away on her first journey, the ropes going ; 
 
THE UPPER MKKOXG, SI AM. 95 
 
 and the other proved so slow that, as tlie distance was some luindred 
 yards in the then state of the water, it would have taken us two days 
 to get all over. But, to our great satisfaction, the river fell. 
 
 At Chanteuk we got some rice and platieng, salt-fish, which the 
 Siamese eat with their rice, and can live on for any length of time. 
 Then, instead of going down the great trail, where a party of two 
 men and a woman we met had just left two of their number dead 
 of fever in the road, I took a drier, if longer route to the south. 
 Our resting-places were Ban Kanong Pra, Ban Tachang, Hoay Sai, 
 and Muak Lek Nua, whence we reached Keng Koi. 
 
 The scenery of this forest is most peculiar, and by no means 
 inviting, especially in the continuous heavy rain, when the traveller 
 is attacked by ticks and leeches, flies, and red ants seeking a dry place. 
 The villages are the wretchedest collections of huts, the people mostly 
 very poor ; and one constantly wondered how any soul could live in 
 these tiny clearings in the midst of a vast area where, for the most part, 
 the sun never comes, wlien he might be in healthy, open country. Wo 
 could seldom get even a banana. Undulating in all directions lies 
 the forest, with now and then a sheet of limestone precipice towering 
 among the drifting rains ; the paths,* just wide enough for an ox, 
 continually oljstructed by lately fallen trees, round wliich a detour 
 must be cut in the semi-darkness ; and all the while the dull roar of 
 the rain upon the leaves, with the prospect of a camp, wet through, 
 in long six-feet grasses for the night. At Ban Mai we emerged from 
 the forest, and found a clean village with a lot of cheerful, chatty 
 Laos, who sent three men on with us to Keng Koi — the smartest set 
 of men we had seen since leaving the Mekong. 
 
 At Pak Prio, a morning's walk beyond, we found the embank- 
 ment of tlie railway to Khorat so far advanced as to have a mile of 
 rails laid above the place, and a locomotive standing almost finished 
 in a shed, to which my men as they came by fell upon their knees 
 and offered the customary Siamese " salaam," by raising the clasped 
 hands to the forehead. The oxen, which had reached a stream we 
 crossed with ease a few hours before above Keng Koi, found it impass- 
 able, and were delayed two days there. My poor fellows, soaked 
 through and through, and with no chance of getting snug at night, 
 had to sleep and live for two days of pouring rain in the sala ; but. 
 
 * Tlieio are a few eloplmnt tracks. 
 
9G NOTES OF A JOUBNEY ON 
 
 being near home, were as jolly as could be. The temperature was 
 some 4° higher at night, and mosquitos, which we had not seen for 
 over five months, were most obnoxious ; and from the strong south- 
 west winds blowing, it was evident we were once more near the gulf. 
 
 One day's pulling and half a day's steaming, and Bangkok was in 
 sight, with the French Lutin and H.M.S. Swift lying off the Lega- 
 tions. This was the first evidence we had had of there being political 
 troubles. From fording the swollen streams, fi-om continual tumbles 
 in mud and water, and from constant rain, we found nearly everything 
 on the pack oxen had been ruined that could be — photographs and 
 other things. It is a most clumsy way of travelling, without doubt, 
 and the time and labour spent in loading up every moniing is 
 enormous. The weights on the two sides must be adjusted accurately, 
 the two men lifting them on a bamboo, through the middle, to test 
 the balance and spending often ten minutes in getting one pair of 
 panniers ready. Then there are constant falls, and often these are 
 not discovered until miles have been traversed, and a careful searcli 
 has to be made in ditches, streams, and nmd for hours at a time. 
 Besides this, the pace is wretchedly slow." This belt of the Dong 
 Phya Yen, which can only be passed by animals, thus equipped, is a 
 practical barrier to communication, leaving out of consideration the 
 superstition with which the forest is, with much reason owing to its 
 fevers, regarded, and the badness of the roads within it. The Kliorat 
 Railway becomes thus a work of the greatest importance to the whole 
 plateau. To complete its usefulness, one or two passable cart-roads 
 will do all that is necessary for that piece of undoubtedly hopeful 
 country. 
 
 The Nam Sak, which the railway leaves at Keng Koi, is also a 
 valuable river, inasmuch as, apart from the large tobacco crops towards 
 its source, the valley is one richer in minerals than any other piece of 
 country like it in Siam, and in the rainy season the question of trans- 
 port is a fairly easy one. What struck me very much on descending 
 the Nam Sak was the thickness of the population all along the banks, 
 as compared with anything we had seen in the north. The beauty 
 of the wats — always built on points of land round wliich the stream 
 wound its turbid way — was also striking, and quite impressive. In 
 the manners of the majority, and their loud talking, it was also clear 
 that we were no longer among the gentle Laos of Nan or the musicians 
 of Luang Prabang ; but the comfort and luxury of the people were 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 97 
 
 euch as far exceeded anything we had seen since we left the Meinam 
 at Pechai. 
 
 The weather all the way from Nongkhai to Muak Lek Nua (end 
 of April and May) was south-westerly winds, moderate to fresh, 
 falling at night. Mornings fine, with heavy cumuli in the south- 
 west and west, which gradually spread, and became dark flashing 
 thunder-clouds. Heavy rain after 2 p.m., beginning with a heavy 
 squall of wind shifting to the west and north-west, and once or 
 twice round to north-east, whence it blew hard for an hour. Eain 
 generally lasted most of the night. Thermometer — average minimum 
 reading, 70° Fahr. ; maximum, 91° in the shade. 
 
 From Muak Lek Nua we descended into the Meinam valley, and 
 found in the plains but slight showers, and fresh south-westerly wind 
 lasting long into the night. Thermometer — minimum reading while 
 in Pak Prio, 74°. 
 
 The result of so much wading made itself rather severely felt in 
 a few days on most of us, and we had sores on our legs and feet for 
 some time afterwards, so that it was almost impossible to get shoes 
 on. This was no doubt partly owing to low diet, and partly to the 
 cuts and wounds to the bare feet which every one gets wading where 
 he cannot see his way, made worse by the blistering effect of the 
 occasionally fierce sun, to keep off which palm leaves wrapt round 
 the foot are excellent. With regard to the fevers, I would say, 
 don't give quinine every day, as then in emergency its effect is less 
 powerful, and the constitution is too accustomed to it ; keep it until 
 men feel a bit down, or when in very bad places or bad weather. 
 It will last longer, and do more. In the high fevers of the dense 
 forests, which prostrate a man very suddenly, emetics are the most 
 reliable cure. 
 
 In a country abounding in snakes, it is not a little remarkable 
 that our party only saw four the whole time. Again, though often in 
 wild elephant tracks, none of us ever either saw or heard one. Two 
 tigers, a few deer, and monkeys (which are not timid) were the only 
 animals which were seen in the forests — a very sufficient proof, where 
 their tracks are to be seen on every hand, and they can be heard 
 around all night, of the care with which they avoid meeting man. 
 Of course the great thickness of the vegetation, where the man in 
 front of you is often out of sight even in the path, in great measure 
 
 H 
 
98 NOTES OF A JOUBNEY ON 
 
 also accounts for it, and it is this which prevents Siam being such a 
 field for the sportsman as it would otherwise be. 
 
 There is one subject especially which it struck me often would 
 make an interesting inquiry for any one who understands the subject — 
 the comparison of the patterns and colours, both in the silk and 
 cotton-work of the Laos districts ; such as the check patterns in the 
 panungs and cloaks in Nan, the former remarkable for a large use of 
 a bright yellow, which, to the unaccustomed eye is rather flaring, the 
 latter for its red shades ; the horizontal and generally narrow stripes 
 of the Luang Prabang petticoats (in which, again, the best effect is due 
 to yellow) ; and the extremely taking panungs of Khorat, which are 
 thought very much of by the Siamese. They are of one colour, with 
 a border at the ends, blue, a delicate pink flesh colour, and a light 
 red being the commonest. 
 
 Note on Gold and Silver at Luang Prabang. 
 
 All over the Laos states silver ornaments, as well as such articles 
 as betel-boxes, trays, etc., are very common among the chiefs, and 
 at Luang Prabang gold is likewise often seen used in place of silver 
 for such things. The question is often raised as to how and where 
 these metals have been obtained in such quantities in the past, that 
 even tribute has been paid in ornaments made of them from olden 
 times. Certainly the gold has always been found in alluvial sands, 
 nor did I ever hear of its being known in veins or veags, nor did I 
 ever find any traces of its so occurring. I believe its chief source 
 must be the series of crystalline schists, which is an extensive one, 
 and I incline to the idea, from the smallness of the quantities ex- 
 tracted from the sands, that it is probably sparsely disseminated 
 through these rocks as well as through the quartz and possibly the 
 calcareous veins, and that it will never be found in them in sufficient 
 quantities to pay working. The patient streams have worked away 
 for ages denuding and carrying away these rocks, and separating and 
 depositing the gold, and all they have effected as far as the latter 
 goes is that they have deposited infinitesimal quantities of it only, 
 with larger quantities of the other minerals, such as magnetic iron 
 ore, iron pyrites, etc. Decomposition and disintegration of the latter 
 may be in places freeing more gold, and the yearly floods bring down 
 their small addition, but yet even the Lao worker hardly finds it 
 
THE UPPER MEKONG, SIAM. 99 
 
 worth his while to work the sands, and the apathy displayed in the 
 matter everywhere is partly without doubt accounted for by the 
 poverty of the results obtained. And where the native worker gets 
 such poor results, will the European miner get better ? 
 
 The gold in the Mekong is generally extremely fine and much water- 
 worn, and is usually found below a sharp turn in the river, where 
 the water runs strong. As regards the silver, it has been found 
 native, but in such very small quantities that it cannot have sup- 
 plied the whole country. The whole of Siam, however, is rich in 
 galena, often of a very argentiferous character, and it may possibly 
 have been found with other sulphides as well, but there can be little 
 doubt that most of it has been extracted from galena. In some parts 
 of the Northern Laos States this has been a regular industry. Small 
 blast furnaces of baked mud are used, and when reduced the metal 
 is run off in pigs and put in a reverberatory furnace with charcoal. 
 This is sometimes done (but clumsily enough) further south, but 
 little interest is manifested as a rule in these matters. Nowadays 
 money is often melted down for working into ornaments. 
 
 H 2 
 
( 101 ) 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 At the Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on February 24, 1894, an 
 account of Mr. Warington Smyth's journey by the President, Mr. Clements E. 
 Markham, o.b., was read by Mr. Probyn. Before the reading of the paper, the 
 President said — 
 
 The paper we are to hear this evening is on exploration on the Upper Mekong, 
 in Siam, by Mr. Herbert Warington Smyth, who is serving under the Siamese 
 Government. Siam is from many points of view a most interesting country, more 
 particularly for us at the present time, and it is observable that until about nine 
 years ago, when Mr. Holt Hallett read his paper, we had scarcsly in this Society 
 heard anything of Siam except as to the exploration of the Mekong by our gold 
 medallist, Lieut. Garnier. We bad only had scattered notices in previous years 
 from Sir Eobert Sohomburgk and Sir Harry Parkes. But latterly we have received 
 most important communications from Lord Lamington in 1891 and Mr. Gurzon 
 last year, and I think that not only this Society, but the nation generally, owes a 
 debt of gratitude to Lord Lamington and Mr. Curzon for having so persistently, 
 so patriotically, and so ably kept a question of such importance to England before 
 the Government and the public. It was in 1887 that Mr. McCarthy, after surveying 
 Siam for several years, favoured us with a most interesting communication. He was 
 the first to describe to us the geographical and the general features of the country ; 
 and I believe I am right in saying it was through the advice and the persuasion of 
 Mr. McCarthy that this young and modest explorer, Mr. Warington Smyth, was 
 induced to send us his paper, which we shall listen to this evening. 
 
 Unfortunately, he will be unable to read it himself; he is still — I won't say better 
 employed, because I don't think any one can be better employed than in reading 
 a paper before this Society, but he is quite as well employed in preparing in Siam 
 for further exploration, and I am glad to say that, as the paper is in manu- 
 script, or the condensed version which we are obliged to use, a friend of Mr. 
 Warington Smyth and an old schoolfellow, Mr. Probyn, has very kindly under- 
 taken to read it. 
 
 After the reading of the paper, the following discussion took place : — 
 
 Lord Lamington : I think I may say that if Mr. Warington Smyth had been 
 here he would have considered it' a great compliment to have had his lecture 
 listened to by so large an audience, and I may also say you will not think your 
 time wasted while listening to the paper. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. 
 Probyn for having undertaken to read a paper so full of names to which he must 
 be unaccustomed. With regard to the paper, no description I have read has 
 recalled to me so vividly the scenes in that part of the world. Mr. Smyth has 
 shown himself not only a geologist, but a close observer of natural history and 
 
102 APFENBIX. 
 
 human customs in every variety and form. He has represented to us most fully 
 all the scenery, and given us a vivid description of Siamese and Laos life. I am 
 glad that he corroborates what I myself would state, the gentleness of the Laos 
 tribes. I don't know who has called them barbarians, but I cannot imagine a people 
 less deserving of such a title. I am not quite sure of the definition of civilization, 
 and in their own way it may not be Western, but in all kindness and honesty they 
 are as worthy to be called civilized as any that could be found in the human race. 
 I almost wish he had told us more about the mineralogical wealth of the country. 
 I am not certain how far we may gather that the sapphire mines are of any great 
 value, but from the mere fact of these Burmans coming over and thinking it worth 
 while to take long journeys to sell their stones, and from their being of the first 
 Witter, we may asiiume that when these mines are worked in a more ofiicacious 
 manner they will prove to be of value. Another interesting part of his paper 
 refers to the navigation of the Mekong from north of Luang Prabang and down 
 south as far as Nong Khai. From Chieng Kong, where he first touched it, to 
 Chieng Kan, we may assess its value as a navigable river, that is to say, for any 
 boats of size to carry cargoes. His estimate is borne out by the report of Mr. 
 Archer, and so also his statement on the commerce of Luang Frabang gives us a 
 true idea of its worth, which is practically nil. Of course, we know the French 
 are anxious to obtain possession of that place, as they consider it of first-class 
 importance. Both Mr, Archer and Prince Henri d'Orleans think it, as a commercial 
 centre, valueless for attracting any European capital. That part of the Mekong 
 which may be considered navigable is from Chang Tang to Khong, further than 
 Mr. Warington Smyth went. The French have now carried some stern-wheel 
 steamers piecemeal up to these waters; the result of their enterprise only the 
 future can show. With regard to the fishing methods of the natives, I may just 
 say that these arrangements may be very well when you are descending the river, 
 but they are the greatest inconvenience when ascending, as they form a formidable 
 barrier if there is a strong current, and when you have to face this rigid fence of 
 bamboos, it then becomes a matter of great difficulty to force the boat through. 
 
 Mr. Warington Smyth mentioned the difficulties made by the mud; this, of 
 course, in the wet season renders all travelling impossible. The sliminess of the mud 
 is almost inconceivable, and I can recollect, when between Chieng Upeng and 
 Mung Sai, I used when climbing to keep on all fours, and probably slip down until 
 arrested by a twist in the path ; and it was amusing to see the efforts made by boys 
 and men to mount the slimy slopes. This was in the dry season ; in the wet season 
 travelling with loaded animals becomes impossible throughout the greater part of 
 the Indo-China peninsula. Mr. Archer came across from Chieng Kong into the 
 Nam Nan valley ; now Mr. Warington Smyth describes the country from Nong 
 Khai to Khorat; and there is an account waiting to be published by, Mr. Beckett, 
 of the diplomatic service, of a journey still further down the Mekong and along the 
 Nam Mun river to Khorat. We are thus in possession of descriptions of a country 
 that, owing to political exigencies, will play an important part in the future, and all 
 information we derive concerning it must be very valuable to us. 
 
 I apologize for addressing you at such length, and thank you for your kind 
 remarks about my efforts to instruct public opinion about Siam. I imagine I must 
 be a lineal descendant of Cassandra, because I have noticed that all I have said has 
 been disregarded. I am glad to see Mr. Curzon has torn himself away from the 
 
. APPENDIX. 103 
 
 charms of the allotment question. He has given much information, and has asked 
 many searching questions in Parliament with reference to Siam, and has been 
 successful in eliciting some valuable information. 
 
 Hon. GEonGB Cubzon : Lord Lamington has indulged in some amiable chaff 
 at the expense of the House of Commons, to which we are accustomed on the 
 part of those noblemen who belong to the upper chamber. I may tell him, in 
 reply, that what concerns ua much more than the question of allotments for the 
 parishes in England is the question of the future political allotment of Siam. My 
 interest in Siam is more than a purely physical or geographical interest in the 
 country ; and all those who belong to the country, or have a friendly concern in it, 
 may rest assured that neither Lord Lamington or I will abate any efibrt for its fair 
 treatment in the politics of the future. I don't know that I have much right, 
 perhaps none, to address you at all this ovcniug, because, in the first place, I have 
 not been upon these upper parts of the river Mekong which have been visited and 
 so admirably described successively by Lord Lamington and in the paper this 
 evening. My own acquaintance with the Mekong is limited to its lower portion, 
 where it flows through Cochin-China, Cambodia, and at Priom Penh, the capital of 
 Cambodia, sends northwards a branch that disembogues into the lake Tall Sap. 
 Now, this Mekong river is one of the most remarkable rivers in the world, whether 
 contemplated in the lower parts, where it spreads out in broad tranquil reaches from 
 200 yards to' half a mile in width ; or whether you examine its middle sections, 
 where, as we have been told this evening, the French are finding furious and stormy 
 rapids ; or whether you go northward beyond the exploration of Lord Lamington 
 and Mr. Warington Smyth, the river pursues its course unknown and unexplored 
 far away, amid the mountain masses of Western China and Tibet. This river 
 Mekong seems to me, during the last twenty-five years, to illustrate a lesson, ever 
 since 1865-6, when the French expedition under Lagree, Gamier, and De la Porte 
 went up the river to explore it, — one of the most heroic of expeditions in its conception 
 and execution, and most pathetic in its result, undertaken by pioneers. Ever since 
 then it has had an extraordinary fascination for Frenchmen — so much so, that they 
 have claimed for themselves a sole right of interest in the Mekong, no matter what 
 reports may be brought home by travellers, commercial agents, or explorers, as to the 
 unnavigability of the river. They have maintained these ideas to the present day, 
 and I cannot imagine a more interesting study than that of the parts which the 
 great rivers of Asia, the Euphrates, Oxus, Ganges, and Mekong, have taken in history 
 not merely by their geographical features or commercial aspect, but by what I may 
 call their moral influences, exercised on the moulding of the peoples and on the 
 destinies of empires. We have heard a most interesting paper from Mr. Smyth. 
 He has given us a most faithful and vivid account of boat life, raft life, camp life, 
 village life, and jungle life in Siam, and, as Lord Lamington said, has given us 
 not only a faithful, but a singularly attractive, picture of the various tribes who 
 inhabit that country. I was glad to hear what Lord Lamington said about these 
 Laos peoples, because there is too great a tendency in the world to assume that, 
 because the tribes of little-known and comparatively unexplored districts have not 
 all the abominable manners of civilization, they must necessarily be described as 
 barbarians. As he remarked, no more amiable, docile population exists — a people 
 possessed of esthetic and musical tastes, who are entitled to the epithet, " the 
 Greeks of the Indo-Chinese peninsula." There is another strip south of Luang 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 Prabang, right down between the mountains and the Mekong, into which no- 
 Englishman has ever been : and, looking to the fact that the French have taken 
 possession of it, I don't suppose we are likely to go there. Further down is a 
 curious people called Ladans, amongst whom an adventurer, either French or Italian, 
 established himself a short time ago, called himself king, and, I believe, wanted to 
 appear in the " Almanack de Gotha ; " but, having retired for a short time, on his 
 return found his subjects unwilling to receive him, and the kingdom has disappeared. 
 The interest to us in this room is not that of acquisition or conquest, but a friendly 
 sympathetic interest in the Oriental people who are playing their own part in the 
 world, in proportion as they come into the mesh of British trade. I was interested 
 to hear about Manchester goods at Luang Prabang, seeing the advantages the French 
 have for shipping by Hanoi and up the Black river. You would never expect 
 Manchester goods there, and the fact that they are there means, not only that they 
 ought to be kept there, but ought to be seen all over the peninsula, I am pleased 
 to say that Mr. Smyth, in the latter part of his journey, travelled over a lino that is- 
 to be taken by the railway from Khorat to Bangkok, of which I saw the embank- 
 ments. It was largely the anticipation of the results of that railway that induced 
 the French to go on, for the flow of trade has been for some time past from the 
 Mekong river south-westwards. They want to divest it towards their possessions. 
 Conceive how it will be emphasized if you have a railway instead of the carts that 
 take goods laboriously by the way Mr. Smyth described I I am sorry that there is 
 difficulty about this railway — that the contractor has had a dispute with the Siamese 
 Government; but I hope that this will be settled, and, at all events, that Siam will 
 make the railway. A year ago I was in Siam, and the king told me he meant to 
 take the railway to Kong Khai. It will be the best thing for the salvation of his 
 country, and there is no Englishman present who does not wish to see Siam strong, 
 independent, and wealthy, and capable of holding its own. For my own part, I 
 shall never cease to feel the greatest and warmest interest in that singularly 
 attractive country, and my own opinion is, that it is the duty of every British 
 Government to see that the integrity of that country is not wiped out, and that its 
 vitality is maintained, 
 
 Mr. F. Vernby : I have the honour of being connected with Siam by being a 
 member of the Siamese legation. I have watched with intense interest the advance 
 of that country, and have been concerned in its connection with Europe even more 
 than with Siam itself. I can thoroughly confirm everything that has been said by 
 Lord Lamington on the one side and Mr. Curzon on the other, from what I have 
 heard, not from what I have seen. I was in Siam for a very short time, and was 
 treated there with the greatest possible kindness and hospitality. To judge fairly the 
 civilization of that country, we should take, not our own standard of civilization 
 only, but a wider standard applicable to communities differing entirely in their 
 origin, their histories, and in their development from our own, and it is very 
 gratifying to hear a man in Mr. Curzon's position in the House of Commons express 
 his opinions in the emphatic and eloquent langaage to which we have just listened. 
 It is true that only recently England has awakened to the extreme importance of 
 that distant country. It was not until tho other day that Englishmen had an 
 idea that Siam produced anything much besides twins, but this cynical ignorance 
 is rapidly disappearing. You cannot listen to travellers like Lord Lamington and 
 Mr, Curzon (and when Mr. Warington Smyth comes back we shall listen to him) 
 
APPENDIX. 10& 
 
 without finding out that there is a great deal both of material and what we may 
 call^ moral progress in that distant country. Let me say one word as regards his 
 Majesty the King of Siam, on whose character and personality so much depends. 
 For many years past the king has been known as a man of wide interests, of a 
 very high order of intelligence, and of an unusual charm of manner. He comes of 
 a family distinguished in the past both for statesmanship and scientific culture. A 
 member of his family was one of the greatest astronomers in the East ; another was 
 described to me by one of the greatest Oriental travellers, and perhaps the most 
 cultivated linguist in Germany, as being the master of more languages than any 
 other man he had met ; and you may be assured that the royal family of Siam will 
 produce many more distinguished men. There are members studying at Oxford, 
 others at our public schools, growing up surrounded by all the best English 
 influences. Let us hope that Siam and England will go band-in-hand, and that 
 other countries in Europe will come round to see that this is not a country for 
 invasion or annexation, but worthy of support and sympathy, on account of its 
 people, its products, its achievements in the past, and its possibilities for the 
 future. 
 
 Mr. Louis : I am afraid I can add very little to what Mr. Warington Smyth 
 has said, because my explorations were in a diametrically opposite direction. I had 
 the pleasure of his company when exploring some diamond and ruby mines in the- 
 south-east, and this was more interesting to me as my knowledge of mineralogy 
 was acquired under Mr. Warington Smyth's father. On one point only I have to 
 differ from Mr. Warington Smyth — as to the Burmese way of washing rubies and 
 sapphires. It is not at all to my mind the crude, rough way he mentions. Their 
 baskets are the most beautifully finished work made of bamboo in thin strips, and 
 handled with all the deftness and practised skill of an Australian or Califomian 
 gold-washer; they scarcely ever miss a gem, so far as I could see, much bigger 
 than a pin's head. As regards the geology of these districts on the east of Chanta- 
 bun, the formation is simply gravel from 2 to 5 feet deep overlying the trap rocks,, 
 and these gems have been worn out of the trap rooks by natural agencies. Mr. 
 Smyth describes the gems as coming from a black crystalline rock very similar to 
 that I have mentioned. This formation seems to be quite different from the white 
 limestone occurring in Burma. I should like to mention one thing that must have 
 struck very few when hearing Mr. Smyth's paper; it not only gives a wonderfully 
 accurate description of the people, but is an accurate reflex of his own plucky and 
 cheery nature j very few can have any idea of the real hardships and difficulties 
 and dangers involved in such an expedition. It takes an Englishman to go through 
 such dangers and hardships, and then write such a bright account of everything as 
 Mr. Smyth has done. 
 
 The Pbesident : I am sure the meeting will agree with me that we have 
 never in this hall heard so graphic and so picturesque an account of this little- 
 known region as is contained in Mr. Warington Smyth's paper. Mr. Smyth is 
 evidently a keen observer of nature, and has the gift of sympathy — of being able 
 to place himself in the position of the people with whom he travels and whom 
 he comes across, as well as a, kindly feeling for the animals serving with him. 
 These are very high qualities. His narrative is so lively and cheery, that we can 
 hardly realize the amount of hardship and danger the journey entailed. These 
 are all admirable qualifications, which are due almost entirely, I have no doubt, to 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 his own individuality ; but perhaps we may put something down to his education. 
 Mr. Warington Smyth was a Westminster boy, like his father before him, who 
 was a valued member of our Council. I cannot help taking this opportunity of 
 saying that there are very few places of learning in this country that have done 
 in times past so much for geography as that glorious old school which nestles 
 round the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Richard Hakluyt, the father of English 
 Oleography, was a Westminster boy ; Edmund Gunter, the first introducers of the 
 use of Napier's logarithms; Neville Maskelyne, to whom we owe the Nautical 
 Almanac ; Dr. Vincent, one of our greatest comparative geographers, were all West- 
 minster boys; and one of the seven founders of this Society, and two of your 
 Presidents, were also Westminster boys. Now we find a Westminster boy training 
 himself, hereafter to be a great explorer, and perhaps discoverer. Let us wish him 
 all success in his career, and I am sure the meeting will desire me to convey to 
 rhim a hearty and unanimous vote of thanks. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Adjutants or nolc harien of the Mekong 
 
 district, 67 
 Archer, Mr., journey in Siam, 102 
 
 B. 
 
 Ban Bab, 76 
 
 Bodibun, 87 
 
 Mai, 95 
 
 Nam Pi, iron mines at, H 
 
 Satan, 35 
 
 Soap Ta or Pak Ta, 46 
 
 Ton Kluay, 34 
 
 Turn, 87 
 
 Banana trees, wild, 31 
 
 Bangkok to Muang Nan, route from, 1 
 
 Bells of wood in the wats, 78, 79 
 
 Birds and fish of the Siamese rivers, 7 
 
 Birds of the Mekong, 66 
 
 Boat-travelling in Siam and China, 1 
 
 Boria, Wat, 12 
 
 Buddha, statues of, 11, 12 
 
 Buffaloes of Siam, 85 
 
 Burmese gem-digging, 37, 38 
 
 houses, 39 
 
 method of washing rubies, 105 
 
 C. 
 
 Chanteuk, copper mines near, 94 
 Oherim, road to, 15 
 Chieng Kan, 71 
 
 Kong, 36, 37 
 
 and Chieng Klan, 24 
 
 — district, temperature of the. 
 
 40 
 
 from, 43 
 Chieng Tong, Wat, 56 
 Chinareth, Wat, 10, 11 
 Chinese boat-travelling, 1 
 
 • to Luang Prabaug, voyage 
 
 Chinese houses and trade at Khorat, 92, 
 
 93 
 Chow Muang, funeral ceremonies of the, 
 
 39 
 Chulabut, 87 
 
 Cormorants of the Mekong, 66 
 Curzon, Hon. G., remarks on Mr. Waring- 
 
 ton Smyth's journey, 103 
 
 D. 
 
 Doi Luang range, 53 note 
 
 Doug Choi, 30 
 
 Phya Yen forest, 94-96 
 
 E. 
 
 Eagles of the Mekong district, 67 
 Elephant travelling on the Upper Mekong, 
 
 42 
 Elephants in Siam, 16 
 
 F. 
 
 Fa Pa rapids, 41 
 
 Fevers in travelling in Siam, 97 
 
 Fishing stakes and shelters on the Nam 
 
 Go, 65 
 French commerce at Luang Prahang, 
 
 57,58 
 
 on the Mekong, 103, 104 
 
 Funeral ceremonies of the Chow Muang, 
 
 39 
 
 G. 
 
 Gem-diqgivq in neighbourhood of Nam 
 
 Ngau, 36, 37 
 Geology of districts east of Chantabun, 
 
 105 
 Gold and silver at Luang Prabang, Note 
 
 on, 98 
 washings on the Nam Ngau, 43, 44 
 
108 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haws people, 46 
 
 Herons on the Mekong, 67 
 
 Hoay Chang Kong, 81 
 
 Pakham, 37, 38 
 
 Sakeng, 29 
 
 Si, 70 
 
 Tok, 30 
 
 I. 
 
 Ibon mines at Ban Nam Fi, 11 
 
 JuKGLE knives, 52 
 
 travelling, rate of, 17 
 
 K. 
 
 Ka Eaw people, 65, 66 
 
 Kan reed organ, Note on the, 80 
 
 at Luang Frabang, 60 
 
 Kao Chom Pu Si, 56 
 Keng Koi, 95 
 
 Luang rapid, 62, 64, 70 
 
 Mai, 71 
 
 Khache bill clearings, 51 
 Khacbe people, 46, 69 note 
 Khorat, panungs of, 98 
 
 railway, 87, 96, 104 
 
 to Nongkhai, route from, 87 
 
 town and district, 90-93 
 
 Kien, caravan cart, 77, 84, 89 
 Kingfishers on the Mekong, 67 
 Kob village, 33 
 
 L. 
 
 Ladan people, 104 
 
 Lamington, Lord, remarks on Mr. Waring- 
 
 ton Smyth's journey, 101 
 Laos, ailments of the, 43 
 
 , amiability of the, 102, 103 
 
 boats, 3, 47, 48 
 
 districts, silk and cotton-work in 
 
 the, 98 
 
 people of Nan, 21, 22 
 
 states, gold and silver of the, 98 
 
 states, " wats " of the, 9 
 
 Louis, Mr., Bemarks on Mr. Warington 
 
 Smyth's journey, 105 
 Luang Frabang, coinage at, 79 
 
 , French commerce at, 58 
 
 , Government offices at, 59 
 
 ~, Note on gold and silver 
 
 at, 98 
 
 — , people and market of, 57 
 ■-, population of, 68 
 -, town of, 54 et teq. 
 
 M. 
 
 Manohesteb goods at Luang Frabang, 57, 
 104 
 
 Markham, 0. B., Bemarks on Mr, Waring- 
 ton Smyth's journey, 101, 105 
 
 Masse', Dr., 59 
 
 McCarthy, Mr., journey in Slam, 101 
 
 Meinam Chieng Kun, 87 
 
 Kong, squalls of the, 76 
 
 valley, dacoits of the, 8 
 
 Mekong river, 35 
 
 , birds of the, 66, 67 
 
 — , French exploration of the,. 
 
 103 
 
 the, 43 
 
 — , gold in the, 99 
 
 — , limestones and forests of 
 
 — . " mermaids" in the, 83 
 — , navigability of the, 102 
 --, rapids of the, 61, 62, 63, 73 
 ', sandbanks of the, 40 
 
 LuB people of Nam Ngau, 45 
 
 Monasteries at Luang Frabang, 55 
 
 Monks and " wats," 8 
 
 Monsoon, north-east, 10 
 
 Muak Lek Nua, 97 
 
 Muang Chieng Kong, Boute to, 24 
 
 Faek, 16 
 
 Hin, 17 
 
 Kob, 31, 33 
 
 Le and Monastery, 27, 20 
 
 Nan, 18 
 
 Ngau, 34 
 
 Ngob, 28 
 
 Ngoi, 65 
 
 Fechai, 13 
 
 , Journey from, 6 
 
 N. 
 
 Nam Ihg, 34 
 
 Nan, 17, 18, 28 
 
 Ngau, gold washings on the, 43, 44 
 
 Ngum, 53 
 
 Co, 61, C4 
 
 Pote, 31, 33 
 
 Sak, 96 
 
 Nan, province of, 15 
 
 , town, 18, 19 
 
 Ngau river and town, 34, 36 
 
 ' , gold washings and people o f 
 
 the, 44, 45 
 Ngum river, 53 
 
 Nok poot of the Mekong district, 08 
 Nongkhai, 77 
 to Khorat and Bangkok, route 
 
 from, 83 
 to Muak Lek Nua, weather 
 
 from, 97 
 Noiuft of Siam, 88 
 
INDEX. 
 
 109 
 
 0. 
 
 Oo river, 61, 64 
 
 Oxen for travelling in Slam, dieadvan- 
 tages of, 96 
 
 P. 
 
 Faok-mbn in Siam, 89 
 
 Pak Fai Mai voloanio vents, 52 
 
 Ngao,25 
 
 Prio,95 
 
 Ta or Ban Soap Ta, 46 
 
 Paltlai, 70, 71 
 Paku, villages above, 49 
 Pavie, M., 58 
 Peohai river, 6 
 
 town, 13, 14 
 
 Pe Rung Ngau forest, 45 
 Fla huh fish, 50 
 Pla liu ma, 73 
 Ponies of Siam, 85 
 Prakaon, Wat, ruins of, 74 
 
 E. 
 
 Eeed organs or leans at Luang Prabang, 60 
 Bioe boats of the Cbiueso, 1, 2 
 
 mills, 28 
 
 rafts on the Mekong, 49 
 
 Sua pet and Bua nua boats of the Siamese, 
 
 1,8,4 
 Rubies in Siam, absence of, 39 
 Buby mines, 105 
 
 S. 
 
 Sala Pangue, 34 
 
 Sandbanks of the Mekong river, 40 
 
 Sapphire-mining, 36, 102 
 
 Saraburi, route to, 93 
 
 Siam, birds and fish of the rivers of, 7 
 
 , boat-travelling in, 1 
 
 , gold and silver of, 101 
 
 , king of, 105 
 
 , political allotment of, 103 
 
 Smyth, Warington, qualifloations of, 105 
 Snakes in Siam, 97 
 Susaket, Wat, 75 
 
 T. 
 Teak rafts, 13 
 Tern on the Mekong, 67 
 
 Vekney, P., Remarks on Mr. Warington 
 Smyth's journey, 104 
 
 W. 
 
 Wat Chinareth, 10, 11 
 
 Prakaon, ruins of, 74 
 
 Susaket, 75 
 
 " Wats," or mouaateries, 8, 9 
 Wats of Luang Prabang, 55 
 Wieng Chan, 73, 74 
 Chan men, 81 
 
 fRINTBD DV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS, 189+. 
 
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