A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

The wife of the chief, a very homely lady, made kind inquiries after Dr Cushing’s wife, who was with him on his former journey, and said that she had often thought of them since they had left. On my presenting the chief with a watch, he was so gratified that he called for the royal annals and recorded my name in them, together with the fact of my being the donor of it. The chief was full of the late visit of Dr Paul Neis, and expressed his amusement and surprise that a European should wander about the country in native garb and accustom himself to native habits.

When we got back to our house, we found a group of La-hu (called by the Shans Mu-hseu or Moo-sur) squatting near the steps, and evidently much interested in our surroundings and the cooking of our Madras boys. The men, besides the ordinary Burmese Shan trousers, and jackets with loose sleeves, dyed with indigo, wore black turbans twisted about their hair, which was done up in a knot on the top of the back of their head. Their faces were a distinct oval, like that of their kinsfolk the Lolos of Ssuchuan and Yunnan. Their eyes were well opened, but had a slight tendency to the Mongoloid droop of the inner corner of the eyelid, but less than amongst the average Chinese.

The La-hu women were dressed in a petticoat, and a blue spencer folded across the chest, with tight sleeves reaching to the wrist. Like the men, they wore a black turban, one end of which hung down behind over their chignon. Their hair was drawn back from the face, in the Burmese fashion, but the chignon was placed higher up on the back of the head. Their forehead was higher than it was broad, their cheek-bones high, their nose and mouth well formed, the nose slightly expanding at the nostrils, and their face was a decided oval. Thin silver hoops, about three inches in diameter, hung from the lobe of each ear, and round their necks they wore finely plaited cane necklaces.

The clan to which the hill tribes belong is generally denoted by the pattern of the petticoat of the women. It may therefore be as well, for the information of future travellers, to describe that of the La-hu. The upper portion of the petticoat is worked with horizontal red stripes, having interwoven lines of gold-thread; then comes an inch of plain red, followed by an inch and a half of blue, one inch of red, four inches of black, two and a half inches of blue, and a turning of a quarter of an inch of red at the bottom. Both men and women carried tobacco-pipes made of the root and part of the stem of a bamboo. One of the men had some Shan writing and numbers tattooed in vermilion on his arm as a charm. None of the others were tattooed.

A La-hu youth.

The La-hu had very active figures, well set up, and, like all mountaineers, great freedom in their gait. There was not the slightest sign of timidity or shyness about them; the women were even more at ease than the men, did most of the talking, and were evidently the cocks of the walk. All came up into the sala as soon as they were invited, and at once squatted round us, like children round a Christmas-tree, bent on seeing and handling everything, and joyously receiving anything that might be presented. It was amusing to watch the signs of curiosity and eagerness in their eyes, as I showed them the bead necklaces and other trifles that they would receive after giving me their vocabulary and the information I required.

They all understood Shan as well as their own language; but even so, these monosyllabic languages have so many tones and inflections, that great caution and care have to be taken when translating, to prevent all chance of error. Professor Forchhamer gives an instance of this in the Shan word kan, which, although written with only two letters, k and n, “is capable of conveying sixteen totally distinct meanings, according as the vowel is pronounced with the high, low, middle, or rising tone; with teeth and lips either widely or but slightly opened; with full or restrained expiration of breath.” Luckily, I had with me two exceedingly capable and careful Shan scholars, Drs Cushing and M‘Gilvary; and even then we had at times the greatest trouble to agree upon the true sound that was uttered in a strange language; many of the consonants might be taken for one or another, as the sound was strangely between the two—W running into V, H into R, L into D, aspirates into non-aspirates, and single consonants into double ones. How the men and women did laugh as they tried to put us right by pronouncing a word dozens of times over. To see Dr Cushing leaning over, with his hand up to imply the request for perfect silence, and then eagerly become as if all ear for the sound of the word, was better than a play. I was of little use, except in taking the letters down whilst they were being haggled over by my two companions, and stating the words and sentences I wished to be translated.

To show that the La-hu are a Lolo tribe, I will compare a few of the words in the La-hu vocabulary with words taken by Mr Bourne from the Lolo tribes in Yunnan. In Lolo, father, fire, foot, gold, hand, head, iron, and moon, are ha-pa, um-to and mi, t’u chieh, shi, la, ê-ku, shu, la-pa; in La-hu they are, nga-pa, am-mee, keu-sheh, shee, la-sheh, o-ku, shō, ha-pa. The resemblances would be still greater if the same person had taken down the two vocabularies—as mee and mi, chieh and sheh, am and um, and perhaps other syllables, would have been similar.

Having given us their vocabulary, the La-hu said good-bye, as they wanted to return home; took up their presents, smilingly accepted the rupee offered to each of them, and promised to return the next day. More could be got out of us, and perhaps out of them, in two visits than in one.