A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

When visiting Dr Peoples, the physician attached to the Mission, he told me of a strange case of hysteria which arose from the belief of the Shans in evil spirits. There was a man living in the northern quarter of the city who possessed a garden of areca palms and plantains. In the garden was a well, the abode of a Pee-Hong, or headless spirit: all deceased murderers, adulterers, and other people who have been executed become Pee-Hong. In its way to and from this well the Pee-Hong passed through a grove of trees, which the owner, against the wishes of his neighbours, who feared the wrath of the demon, determined to cut down. A short time after the trees had been destroyed he became very uneasy and unwell; and whenever thinking or talking on the subject, figures appeared on his limbs and body, in the form of regular welts, shaped like leaves and trunks and whole trees—sometimes resembling plantain-trees, at others areca palms. Having tried every form of exorcism, he applied to Dr Peoples for help through his medical assistant, but refused to display the spirit manifestations before him, saying that they would not appear before Christians. The doctor prescribed for the man, and went to visit him the next day at his house, but he had left his family and started for a famous shrine. Many months had passed since then, but nothing further had been heard of the demoniac.

The belief in the transmigration of the soul into the bodies of animals is apt to give rise to a peculiar form of hallucination. In one of the Siamese books a tale is told of a wife plotting the death of her affectionate husband with her paramour, and, on the success of the plot, marrying the latter. Soon afterwards the woman noticed a snake in the house, which she thought must be her late husband, as she imagined it looked lovingly upon her. After killing the snake she had a cow which she killed for the same reason. Then she had a dog which followed her everywhere with affectionate watchfulness, and she, thinking her husband’s soul must be in it, killed it. After the dog’s death a child was born, who, because it looked at her with loving eyes, she thought must be her husband. Not daring to cut short its life, and unable to bear the sight of it, she gave it out to be nursed. When the child grew up, it is said to have remembered the various migrations of its soul from the time that it was the husband of its own mother, and to have told the story to its grandmother.

CHAPTER XI.

VISIT THE SIAMESE COMMISSIONER—DESCRIPTION AND DRESS OF SIAMESE—DECEITFUL OFFICIALS—PRINCE PRISDANG’S LETTER—PIE-CRUST PROMISES—A MOUNTEBANK—CALL ON THE PRINCESS—TREATY OF 1874—SIAM‘S RELATION TO SHAN STATES—FORMER OBSTACLES TO TRADE REMOVED—VISIT FROM CHOW OO-BOON—ASSASSINATING A LOVER—SHAN QUEEN IN ENGLISH DRESS—FAST AND EASY-GOING ELEPHANTS PRIZED—KIAN YUEN, AN OLD CAPITAL—A CHINESE PAGODA—CITY OF THE FLOWER-GARDEN—MUANG LA MAING, THE SITE OF THE FIRST ZIMMÉ SHAN CITY—ASCENT OF LOI SOO TAYP—THE PAGODA OF THE EMERALD RICE-BOWL—PAGODA SLAVES—DR M‘GILVARY JOINS MY PARTY—VISITING BURMESE FORESTERS—RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS ERECTED BY THE BURMESE.

In the afternoon Dr M‘Gilvary went with me to call on the Siamese commissioner, who resides in a large, two-storeyed, whitewashed brick house, near the west bank of the river. We were shown into an airy upper room, which serves as an audience-chamber, and is furnished with a large round table surrounded by a number of chairs. On our entry we were welcomed by Chow Don, the junior Siamese assistant-commissioner, a bright, gentlemanly-looking young man about twenty-four years of age. A few minutes later the Siamese commissioner, an iron-grey-haired, well-built man above the average height of Siamese, and very plausible and courteous in behaviour, came in, and after shaking hands, offered us cigars and tea.

Amongst the Siamese the dress of the two sexes is exactly alike, but the women are shorter and more brazen-faced than the men, and wear a love-lock above each ear. Both have their hair cut short at the back and sides of the head, and wear it either swept back from the forehead or parted in the middle. It is very thick, coarse, and intensely black.

Their dress consists of a panung or waist-cloth, and a jacket. The panung is a plaid-shaped cloth about 7 feet long and 2½ feet broad, and made of cotton or of silk. It is passed round the body, held together tight in front, where a twist in the top is made, and tucked in. The two trailing ends are then picked up, passed under the legs, and tucked in at the small of the back. The upper classes wear stockings, often of gay colours, and elastic-sided boots or shoes, and girdle themselves with a cricketing belt, or with one fastened by a buckle set with precious stones.

The average height of the Siamese men is 5 feet 3 inches, or 3 or 4 inches less than that of the Zimmé Shans. The women seldom exceed 4 feet 9 inches in height. They seemed to me to be a cross between the Khas and the Shans, made more repulsive by a dash of the Malay and Chinese. They have broad, flat, lozenge-shaped faces; high cheek-bones; small bridgeless noses; low foreheads; small, black, pig-eyes; wide mouths; thick, non-protruding lips; a yellowish-brown complexion; and, generally, a sullen expression.

I had been warned before leaving Burmah that Siamese officials are deceitful above all things, and that I must not rely upon a single atom of information I got from them. From personal intercourse, I found that the gentleman who warned me was strictly correct in his judgment. In answer to your questions, they tell you the most plausible lie that trips to their tongue, and if you chance to test their accuracy by reverting to the subject in the same or a future conversation, contradict themselves most flatly. If you trouble yourself to point out the inconsistency of their statements, they are ashamed—but only of not having played their game better.

After a little preliminary conversation, I told the commissioner that Prince Prisdang, the Siamese ambassador in London, had promised about seven months before to write to the King of Siam about my mission, and had written to Mr Colquhoun as follows: “I have no hesitation in informing you that any well-digested scheme which has for its object the improvement of the commercial position of Siam, and the consolidation of the kingdom, will receive the attentive consideration of his Majesty and my Government; and that his Majesty will allow all facilities to be given for any purposes of exploration, or of gaining accurate knowledge, by properly qualified persons, of the nature of the country proposed to be traversed by the railway.”