On calling at the house of the Keh Ban, or head-man of the village, to get information, I was told that he had gone to the temple to worship. Following him there, I found him squatting on his heels before a wretched collection of images, holding up with both hands a brass tray with lighted tapers round its rim containing his offering. There he sat, without looking round or even moving, and had most likely hurried to the temple and turned himself into a worshipper on seeing my boats approach the landing, so as to avoid giving me any information. Suspecting this, I waited until I was tired of waiting, and then, seeing him still rooted to the spot, took out my pencil and made a sketch of him and the images; after doing which, I returned to the boat.
Ban Nah is situated on both sides of the river, the main body of the village and its suburb being on the west bank. From the village the path leaves for Maulmain, which was traversed by M‘Leod on his return journey in 1837.
Two miles below Ban Nah we entered the last defile which severs the Loi Pa Kha range from Loi Wung Ka Chow, and is 4 miles long, ending at a ford called Ta Pwee, where there is a pagoda near the exit of the gorge on the western hill. Half-way through the defile the boatmen asked for leave to land, as they wished to search for rubies in a hill called Kow Sau Kyow on the west bank of the river, where, they told me, valuable gems were sometimes found. After scraping at the gritty ground for half an hour, they brought me a few small—very small—pebbles to look at, which looked more like garnets than rubies. Soon afterwards we camped for the night. Whilst I was enjoying my bath, a large sambhur deer swam leisurely across the river about 1000 feet from the boat, whilst my boys and the Chinaman were taking long and fruitless shots at it.
Sketch at 188½ miles from Ban Pah Yang Neur.
The next morning, 2 miles beyond the mouth of the gorge, I noticed a low plateau-topped, red-coloured bluff near the west bank, with three niches or caverns in its face, with a scaffolding along the entrances, and a ladder leading up to it. These caves formed the temples of a village of twelve houses which was situated to the south of the hill. After passing three more hamlets containing together between thirty and forty houses, from one of which—Ban Pah Yang Neur—I sketched the exit of the gorge, we reached the mouth of the Meh Wung, which is situated about 193½ miles from Zimmé.
This is the river along which the railway would proceed to Lakon. Another line could be made from near its mouth, proceeding through a short gorge near the source of the Meh Phit and the silver-mines to Muang Li, and thence to Zimmé, and from thence through Muang Ngai and Muang Fang, to join the main line at Ban Meh Chun in the Kiang Hsen plain.
Three miles beyond the village, at the mouth of the Meh Wung, I halted at Ban Meh Nyah on the western bank to sketch the hills lying to the east of the Meh Wung. From Ban Meh Nyah onwards, the villages are continuous on the west bank as far as a small hillock called Loi Dee-at Ha, which juts up from the plain at 206 miles, and is faced on the east bank by Loi Meh Pah Neh—a hillock shaped like a great letter ∟, one limb of which skirts the river for a mile and a half.
Sketch at 196½ miles from Ban Meh Nyah.