TIGERS NEAR BOATIOUME.
Tigers, which are rare at Khao-Khoc, are more common in the environs of Boatioume, where they destroy many of the cattle.
Drawn by M. Catenacci, from a Photograph.
CEMETERY AT BANGKOK.
CHAPTER XVII.
Town of Chaiapume—Journey to the Town of Korat—The Province of Korat—Temple of Penom-Wat—Return to Chaiapume—Poukiéau—Monang-Moune-Wa—Nam-Kane—Louang Prabang, Capital of West Laos.
On the 28th February, 1863, I arrived at the town of Chaiapume, and presented myself before the governor to request his permission to hire some elephants or oxen to enable me to continue my journey. I showed him my French passport, and also gave him the letter from Khrom Luang, and another from the Governor of Korat; but all in vain. He replied that, if I wanted oxen or elephants, there were plenty in the forest. I might easily have done without the assistance of this functionary, and procured animals from people in the village; but they would have made me pay two or three times the ordinary price, and my purse was too slenderly filled to allow of my submitting to this extortion, which would probably be repeated at every station.