[16]. Butea frondosa.
[17]. The province of Kiang Hsen, not the city; the latter was only reoccupied in 1881.
[18]. The kwun among the Shans has a resemblance to the ka-la or guardian angel believed in by the Karens. The Karens believe that everything living, vegetable or animal, possesses a ka-la, which still remains with the soul of the plant or animal after its body is destroyed, and accompanies a man to his future abode of bliss or punishment. Its place is on the head or neck of every human being. As long as it remains seated in its place the Karen is safe from all attacks of evil spirits; but if it is enticed away by others, or jumps down and wanders away during the body’s sleep, then follow sickness and death. If a man is sick or pining away, his spirit is supposed to be wandering, and has to be enticed back with an offering of good.
[19]. Siam Repository, 1869.
[20]. The Karens sometimes bury an infant alive with its mother; and amongst the Kakhyens, a wild tribe in the north of Burmah, if a woman dies within seven days of childbirth, the corpse, living child, house, and every article in the house, are burnt. The child may be adopted by a stranger, but it must not remain in the village, and no Kakhyen will have anything to do with it.
[21]. It is strange to find a custom in vogue many centuries ago in Egypt still practised amongst the Shans in Indo-China. In Egypt frequently the whole skin of the embalmed body was covered with gold-leaf; in other cases the face, the eyelids, and sometimes only the nails.
[22]. Spirit-worship.
[23]. The Pee Song Nang, if belonging to the primitive Turanian spirits, so generally believed in by the Shans, are neither male nor female spirits. All such spirits, unlike the ancient Chaldean deities, have neither husbands, wives, nor children, and are utterly devoid of any of the good points appertaining to human beings. They know neither law nor kindness, do not listen to prayer and supplication, and are merely objects of dread to the people. They are sacrificed to only to keep them in a good humour, and to prevent them wreaking their vengeance and spite upon the people.
[24]. The length of the branch line is estimated at 160 miles, the cost at one and a half million sterling, which is equivalent to Rs. 136,363 a mile, taking exchange at 1s. 4¼d. The 108 miles opened in Upper Burmah up to December 31, 1888, cost, according to the last “Administration Report on the Railways in India,” only Rs. 50,349 per mile.
[25]. Two hundred and seventy-five British steamers and 16 British sailing-vessels visited Bangkok in 1888, and only 17 French steamers and no French sailing-vessels. The gross sea-borne trade of Bangkok in the same year was valued at over four millions sterling, the imports at £1,657,708, and the exports at £2,598,901. The import of cotton manufactures was valued at £302,746, and cotton yarns at £40,936.