“Many baits and guileful spells
T’ inveigle and invite the unwary sense
Of them that pass unweeting by the way.”
Should travellers succumb to their wiles, they die on the instant, and become for ever their companions. These spirits assume such beautiful faces and figures, such winning ways, and such melodious voices, that it is said no man within their influence can withstand them. Great precautions are therefore taken to keep them at a distance. In every path leading to our camping-places, figures made of twisted twigs or bamboos were set up so as to delude these lascivious spirits and keep them at a distance. Other offerings are made to the rest of the jungle demons, varying according to the supposed inclinations of the spirits.
The next morning we reached the mouth of the Meh Teun, which drains an area of country 55 miles long and 15 miles broad, lying between the Meh Ping and the crest of the range which separates the affluents of the Salween from those of the Meh Nam, and forms the spinal range of the Malay Peninsula. This stream was followed by M‘Leod for some distance when on his return from Zimmé to Maulmain in 1837. From the junction of the Meh Teun the Meh Ping trends in a north-easterly direction for 5 miles, and then runs nearly due east to 159½ miles, when it again turns to the south.
Close to the mouth of the stream is the fifteenth rapid. Some distance beyond it the river is contracted by two great rocks protruding from the west bank, and another from the east bank, which must at one time have extended across the stream, and formed a formidable barrier to boat traffic. This barrier is known as Vin-a-tum.
A short distance farther another rapid occurs at the entrance of the most dangerous part of the defile, which is here formed by Loi Teun on the south and Loi Ap Nang on the north. The bold red-coloured precipitous face of the latter hill has been cut into for a depth of about 30 feet by the fierce current of the next rapid.
The boatmen were here seen at their best. The pilot and the steersman both laid hold of the long broad oar that formed the rudder, and the other men held long bamboos to prevent the boat from dashing against the side as we rushed under and alongside the overhanging cliff. The seven minutes taken in descending this rapid must have carried us more than a mile, and the sensation was exhilarating and delightful. The slightest mistake on the part of the steersmen would have brought us to grief.
At the next rapid the cliffs on either side rose 3000 feet above the river, and the section of their summits so perfectly resembled each other that they looked as if they had only lately been rent apart.
After dashing down four more rapids, and being roped down the next one, we halted for breakfast where the river widens, near an island, to 1000 feet. Here the hills on both sides retreat for a time, and I noticed granite outcropping in the stream-bed, and forming the base of the limestone. Just below the island, which is called Song Kweh, is a very long rapid, down which we were roped; a passage had been made by heaping the boulders on the sides.