Among the inhabitants of the villages, both those who visited our camp and the southern hillmen seen on the homeward route, the variety of faces is striking. This may be probably owing to admixture of Shan and Burmese blood, but two types may be said to predominate; the one with a fine outline of features, which recalled the womanly faces of the Cacharies and Lepchas of Sikkim. In it the oblique eye is very strongly marked, and the face is a longish, rather compressed oval, with pointed chin, aquiline nose, and prominent malars. One Kakhyen belle met with at Bhamô, with large lustrous eyes and fair skin, might almost have passed for a European. The other and by far the most prevalent type is probably the true Chingpaw, presenting a short, round face, with low forehead and very prominent malars. The ugliness of the slightly oblique eyes, separated by a wide space, the broad nose, thick protruding lips, and broad square chin, is only redeemed by the good-humoured expression. The hair and eyes are usually a dark shade of brown, and the complexion is a dirty buff. The average height for men is from five feet to five feet six inches, and four feet six inches to five feet for women. The limbs are slight, though well formed, one peculiarity being the disproportionate shortness of the legs. This is also observable among the Karens, to whom the Kakhyens bear a general resemblance, suggesting a common origin, which is further indicated by their language. Though not muscular, they are very agile, and the young girls bound like deer along the hill-paths, their loose dark locks streaming behind them. They bring down from the hills loads of firewood and deal planks which we found as much as we could lift. However interesting and picturesque their appearance may be, closer inspection dissolves the enchantment lent by distance. Both persons and clothes appear never to have been washed, and the dress, once put on, is never changed till it is worn to pieces. Neither men nor women use combs, and the state of the thick matted felt of hair can better be imagined than described. Although they never seemed to wash except faces, hands, and feet, some of the men were good swimmers and divers, and proudly exhibited their skill, disclosing thereby the fact that their bodies were tattooed with blue dots, chiefly on the chest and back. The dress of the men usually consists of a Shan jacket and short breeches of blue cotton cloth, supported by a cotton girdle. The hair is coiled in a blue or sometimes a red turban; the moustache and beard are very scanty, but their custom of eradicating the natural growth renders it hard to judge. They insert in the lobe of the ear a piece of bamboo, or a lappet of embroidered red cloth, a leaf or flower, or a piece of paper, our old newspapers being in great request; and a number of fine ratan rings encircle the leg below the knee. It seemed to us that the Kakhyen men were ready to adopt any dress; some even wore their hair in the Chinese pigtail. The “Red Pawmine,” on grand occasions, turned out in a bright red turban, rose-checked breeches, and a red blanket over his shoulders. The chiefs usually wear Chinese padded jackets, leggings made of rolls of blue cloth, and Shan shoes. They are distinguished, especially in the case of those who rigidly adhere to the ancient Kakhyen costume, by neck-hoops of silver, resembling Celtic torques, and the necklace of beads or cylinders of an ochreous earth. These are found in the Mogoung district, and are highly valued, being reputed to be the authentic handiwork of the earth nats. Some Kakoos met with at Sanda wore a broad piece of blue cotton cloth, with a red embroidered border of woollen stuff, like a kilt, reaching to the knee. This seems to be the true Kakhyen dress; and they also wore their hair uncovered, and cut straight across the forehead, like the Kakhyen maidens. No hillman is ever seen without his dah, or knife; it is half sheathed in wood, and suspended to a ratan hoop covered with embroidered cloth and adorned by a leopard’s tooth. This is slung over the right shoulder, so as to bring the hilt in front ready to the grasp of the right hand. Two sorts of dahs are in use: one the long sword, such as the Thibetans use, two feet and a half in length, with a long cylindrical wooden hilt, bound with cord and finished with a red tassel. The other is shorter and broader, widening from the hilt to the truncated tip. This knife the Burmese call “the Kakhyen’s chief”; it is wielded with great dexterity either to cut down trees or men, or to execute the fine lineal tracery with which their bamboo opium pipes and fan cases are decorated. It is appealed to in every argument, and drawn on visible foes and invisible nats with equal readiness. On one occasion we espied a woman on the hillside writhing on the ground in evident pain. A passing villager came to her assistance, and at once out flashed his dah, with which he executed several cuts in the air over the prostrate woman. This was to drive away the nat who had taken possession; he then threw earth over her head, and ran off to the village to procure help to carry her home. During the latter part of our stay, one of the police escort, during a chaffing argument with a Kakhyen visitor, was without warning felled by a blow of the dah. The savage decamped to the jungle, leaving the sepoy bleeding from a gash on his head, and another on the arm, with which he had warded off the blow and so saved his skull from being split. These dahs are made by the Shans of the Hotha valley, who are the itinerant smiths of the country. Other arms are a long matchlock, and a cross-bow, with arrows poisoned with the juice of an aconitum. They are much used in hunting; the flesh round the wound being cut out, the rest of the animal is eaten without danger. An invariable article of equipment is an embroidered bag worn over the right shoulder, containing pipe, tobacco, lime and betel box, money, and a bamboo flask of sheroo. A most ingenious apparatus supplies a light for the constant pipe. It resembles a child’s popgun, and consists of a small cylinder four inches long, open at one end, into which is very tightly fitted a piston, with a cup-shaped cavity at the lower end. In it, a small pellet of tinder is placed, the piston is driven down smartly, and as quickly withdrawn, when the tinder is found to be ignited.

KAKHYEN AND SHAN PIPES, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, ETC.

It is worth recording that the men invariably smoke opium, but not to excess; rarely, if ever, did we see them use tobacco for smoking, though they were addicted to chewing it. The juice of the poppy, exuding from incisions made in the green capsules, is collected on plantain leaves, which are dried, and in this form the opium is smoked either in hookahs made of the segment of a peculiarly shaped bamboo or in brass pipes of Chinese manufacture. Whether the cultivation and use of opium have spread from Assam or from Yunnan is uncertain, but we found it universal from the Burmese plain to Momien, although the method of smoking it among the Kakhyens differs altogether from that of the Chinese. Dr. Bayfield, in 1837, observed of the Singphos, on the western side of the Irawady valley, that, “from whatever source derived, the cultivation of the poppy is now universal;” and he describes the methods of collection and use as the same, save that coarse cloth was used instead of leaves.

The men rarely employ themselves in manual labour; a few of the more industrious assist the women to fell the jungle and set it on fire, but most of this labour is left to the women. In general, the men till the land; but between the seasons, they wander from house to house, and village to village, gossiping, drinking, or smoking. Journeys to dispose of produce, or carry goods, hunting excursions, and occasional fights or forays, are not reckoned labour. They do not work in metals, but are very skilful in adorning bamboos or wooden implements with carving. The designs of their tracery are the simplest combinations of straight lines, and rude figures of birds and animals, characteristic of the most primitive art.

The Kakhyen women have adopted the short loose Shan jacket of blue cotton, slashed with red cloth, variously ornamented, according to the means of the wearer, with cowries and silver. This covers the arms and breast, but leaves the waist exposed, save for a profusion of ratan girdles, adorned with lines of white seeds. These also support the kirtle or kilt, which reaches from the hips to the knee, the border of the skirt being chequered in red, blue, and yellow. Cowries form a favourite ornamentation of every part of the dress, and the daughters of chiefs wear broad belts of these shells. Besides the distinctive bell-girdle, fine ratan rings encircle the leg below the knee, but no shoes are worn. Most of the matrons coil their hair in the folds of the Shan turban, but the original Chingpaw head-dress is a puggery of embroidered cloth, twisted round the head, while the end, fringed with beads, falls gracefully on the shoulder. Unmarried women wear no head-dress, and cut their hair square across the forehead in a fashion not unknown in England, while their back hair, unrestrained by any fastening, streams down behind. The ears are pierced both through the lobes and upper cartilage. In the latter orifice is inserted a lappet of embroidered cloth tasselled with small green and black beads; silver tubes, reaching to the shoulder, are also worn by the wealthier belles, while the poorer display fresh flowers or leaves. Anything seems convertible into an ear-ring: thus a cheroot, or, as seen by us, a freshly plucked leek, is stuck into the ear. All who can, wear necklaces of beads, but silver hoops called gerees, and the komoung of red ochreous beads, are peculiar to the necks of high-born damsels.

It has been remarked that the men are averse to labour, but the lot of all women irrespective of rank is one of drudgery. They are not allowed to eat with the men, and are looked on as mere beasts of burden, valued only for their usefulness; but they seem contented with their lot, and are always cheerful and light-hearted. Their brisk activity forms a pleasing contrast to the lounging idleness of their lords. Much, if not most, of the field-work falls to their share, and their daily routine is one of incessant and hard labour. Their first duty in the morning is to clean and crush the rice for the daily consumption, and late at night the dull thud of the heavy pestle, with the accompaniments of their regular wild cry and the jingling of the bell-girdles, was to be heard. They fetch water from the stream, and firewood from the jungle. This latter is a most laborious task, as the girls have to search for dry wood, cut it into faggots, and bring it home on their backs. Their bare legs are often lacerated in the jungle, and the wounds, aggravated by dirt and neglect, form intractable ulcers. Many such cases were brought to our camp for treatment. Another effect of the hard work and exposure is to be observed in the frequency of grey hair among the young women, the matted locks of even girls of ten and twelve years being abundantly silvered as if by premature old age.

Their ordinary house labours include the preparation of sheroo, or Kakhyen beer, a beverage always in demand. This is regarded as a serious, almost sacred task, the women, while engaged in it, having to live in almost vestal seclusion. Certain herbs and roots dried in the sun are mixed with chillies and ginger, to avert the interference of malignant nats; the mixture is pulverised with some rice in a mortar, and reduced to a paste which is carefully preserved in the form of cakes, wrapped in mats. Crushed rice mixed with fresh plantains is steeped for half a day, and allowed to dry. It is next boiled, or “mashed,” with a due proportion of the “medicine” or powdered cake in a paungyaung, or wooden tub, placed within a copper caldron, from which it is, after cooling and fermenting for a week in a leaf-covered basket, transferred to a closely covered earthen jar. After twenty days the sheroo is fit to drink, but is better if left for six months. This forms the stock, to which water is added, and the beverage is offered in a bamboo, closed with a fresh plantain leaf. This liquor resembles very small beer, but is pleasant and refreshing. A similar beverage is found among the Lepchas of Darjeeling, who imbibe it through a reed, the Looshais and Nagas. The Khyens and Karens also prepare a rice-beer like the congee of the Burmese; the Nagas also prepare “moad” from rice, and the Khamtis and Singphos of the Hoo-kong valley distil a spirit which the latter call sahoo; but the Kakhyens procure all their supplies of samshu, or rice-spirit, from the Shan-Chinese.

It is naturally the business of the women to spin, dye, and weave the home-grown cotton. Their loom is of a primitive form, the same as that used among the Khyens, the Munipoories, and other tribes on the north-east of Assam. One end of the warp is held in position by pegs driven into the ground, and the other is kept on the stretch by a broad leather strap fastened round the back of the woman as she sits on the ground with her legs straight before her. A long piece of wood keeps the threads of the warp open, so that the shuttle, which is thirty inches long, and worked by both hands, can pass easily. With this they produce a strong thick cloth, and weave fanciful patterns of red, green, and yellow. They are also adepts at embroidery in silk and cotton, which is only applied to the decoration of the bags or havresacks worn by the men.