The chief of a clan exacts toll of all travellers through his territory, and its payment secures his friendship and protection, and accordingly that of his people. The slaves who were stolen as children or kidnapped as adults belong to the tsawbwa, or head man of the clan. The females are concubines, and the men, if obedient and industrious, are kindly treated, their children being regarded as members of the chieftain’s family. A basket of rice is the annual tribute due the chief from every family, and if a buffalo be killed, a quarter must be presented to him.
With singular good taste the Kakhyens build their villages near a mountain stream in a sheltered glen, or a row of houses climbs some gentle slope.
These are constructed of bamboo in an oblong form, with closely matted sides, and raised on piles several feet from the ground. The roof is thatched with grass and slopes nearly to the earth; the eaves being propped by bamboo posts form a portico which is used at night as a stable for pigs, ponies, and fowls, and as a lounging place for the men during the day. These houses are generally built so as to face eastward, and in size are about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in length by forty to fifty feet in breadth. The front room is devoted to hospitality and reserved for guests. Those in the rear are occupied by different families more or less connected by blood or marriage.
Owing to the admixture of Shan and Burmese blood, there are two styles of face among these people, but the most common, that of the true Chingpaw, has these characteristics. The face is round and short, with a low forehead and prominent molars. The slightly oblique eyes, with a wide space between, the broad nose and thick, protruding lips, give a look of ugliness to their faces; but this is relieved considerably by an expression of good-nature and kindness. There is a disproportionate shortness of the legs, though they are slight, and otherwise well formed. The Kakhyen possess remarkable agility. The young girls bound along the hill paths with great fleetness, and bring down from the mountains loads of wood and lumber that would task the strength of full-grown Englishmen. With many attractions in personal appearance, yet it is the universal custom never to change a garment till it be worn out. Their clothes and persons are never washed, and they, both women and men, leave their hair uncombed, so that it becomes a thick, matted mass upon the head. A piece of bamboo or of embroidered red cloth is inserted in the lobe of the ear; sometimes a piece of paper is used, and old newspapers are in great demand. Around the leg, below the knee, they wear a number of rattan rings.
The dah, or knife, is the invariable companion of these Highlanders. “Half sheathed in wood and suspended to a rattan hoop covered with embroidered cloth and adorned by a leopard’s tooth, it is slung over the right shoulder so as to bring the hilt in front ready to the grasp of the right hand.” The most common style of knife is short and broad, widening from the hilt to the tip. This is called by the Burmese “the Kakhyen’s chief,” because of the dexterity with which it is handled by these mountaineers. It is the instrument for carving and tracing ornaments on pipes and other articles, as well as the weapon which is relied upon for attack or defence. With it the Kakhyen settles his dispute, and employs it with marvellous readiness against his visible enemies or the invisible nats or deities. They have other arms, such as the matchlock and a cross-bow, with poisoned arrows.
Though some of the more industrious of the men aid the women in their agricultural labor, yet it is characteristic of these hill men that they dislike work, and all the toil and drudgery are the lot of the women. The custom of the men is to wander from house to house and from village to village, to gossip and drink and smoke. Having no inventive talent, they do not work in metal, their dahs even, though they are the indispensable attendants of the Kakhyens, being made by the Shans of the Hotha Valley. Their artistic work does not exceed the simplest designs of tracery in straight lines and the rude figures of bird and animal.
The Kakhyens never undertake any enterprise or begin a journey without seeking to learn the will of the nats, through a meetway or diviner. Sala, a Ponline chief, whose co-operation Col. Sladen desired, privately intimated that the nats must be propitiated before any advance into his country was begun. He and his party were accordingly invited to the ceremony for ascertaining through a meetway, the will of the demons in regard to their expedition. Dr. Anderson thus describes it:—
“Accordingly after dinner we all adjourned to the hall of the tsawbwa’s new house, and reclining on mats brought by his wife, chatted for some time with the chiefs and headmen assembled round the fire. The meetway now entered and seated himself on a small stool, in one corner, which had been through sprinkled with water; he then blew through a small tube, and throwing it from him, with a deep groan, fell into an extraordinary state of tremor; every limb quivered, and his feet beat a literal ‘devil’s tattoo’ on the bamboo flooring. He groaned as if in pain, tore his hair, passed his hand with maniacal gestures over his head and face, then broke into a short, wild chant, interrupted with sighs and groans, his features appearing distorted with madness or rage, while the tones of his voice changed to an expression of anger or fury. During this extraordinary scene, which realized all one had read of demoniacal possession, the tsawbwa and his pawmines occasionally addressed him in low tones, as if soothing or deprecating the anger of the dominant spirit, and at last the tsawbwa informed Sladen that the nats must be propitiated with an offering. Fifteen rupees and some cloth were produced. The silver on a bamboo, sprinkled with water, and the cloth on a platter of plantain leaves were humbly laid at the diviner’s feet; but with one convulsive jerk of the legs rupees and cloth were instantly kicked away, and the medium, by increased convulsions and groans, intimated the dissatisfaction of the nats with the offering. The tsawbwa in vain supplicated for its acceptance, and then signified to Sladen that more rupees were required, and that the nats mentioned sixty as the propitiatory sum. Sladen tendered five more, with an assurance that no more would be given. The amended offering was again, but more gently, pushed away, of which no notice was taken. After another quarter of an hour, during which the convulsions and groans gradually grew less violent, a dried leaf, rolled into a cone and filled with rice, was handed to the meetway. He raised it to his forehead several times, and then threw it on the floor; a dah, which had been carefully washed, was next handed to him, and treated the same way, and after a few gentle sighs he rose from his seat and, laughing, signed us to look at his legs and arms, which were very tired. The oracle was in our favor, and predictions of all manner of success were interpreted to us as the utterances of the inspired diviner.”
The ordeal which a young man, who shows some signs of the diviner’s gift, has to undergo before becoming an accredited meetway is an extremely difficult one. “A ladder is prepared, the steps of which consist of sword-blades with the sharp edges turned upward, and this is reared against a platform thickly set with sharp spikes. The barefooted novice ascends the perilous path to fame, and seats himself on the spikes without any apparent inconvenience; he then descends by the same ladder, and if, after having been carefully examined, he is pronounced free from any trace of injury he is thenceforward accepted as a true diviner.”
Purchase and abduction, which constitute so prominent a part of the nuptial rites of many races, also enter very largely into the marriage ceremonies of the Kakhyens. A rich Kakhyen pays for his wife, a female slave, ten pieces of silver, ten spears, ten buffaloes, ten dahs, a gong, two suits of clothes, a matchlock, and an iron cooking-pot. Clothes and presents of silver are given by him to the bridesmaids, and he must pay all the expenses of the marriage feast.