At harvest-time Sharoowa and his wife are worshipped in a similar manner by the chief and villagers. All animals sacrificed must be males, but a woman’s dress and ornaments are offered to the female nat. The namsyang, or tutelary nats of the village, are also husband and wife; he ruling the western and she the eastern portion; they are venerated twice a year with other nats by the tsawbwa. All the people repair to the head village, and the chief offers buffaloes, &c., and a grand feast is held. The skulls of the animals offered and eaten are affixed to the tsawbwa’s house, where they remain as memorials of his piety and hospitality.
These recurring seasons of seed-time in May and June and harvest-time in December seemed to us to be the only divisions of time known to these mountaineers, but they were said to have a succession of months.[25]
The language of the Kakhyens is monosyllabic, and is spoken in an ascending tone, every sentence ending in a long-drawn “ee,” in a higher key, thus—“Chingpaw poong-doon tan-key-ing eee?” “Do the Kakhyens dance?” Monsig. Bigandet says: “It is the same as used by all the Singpho tribes, and bears a great resemblance to that of the Abors and Mishmees, and other tribes of the south-western spurs of the Himalayas. The pronunciation is soft and easy, and the construction of sentences simple and direct as in English. It is totally different from the Burmese, and belongs to a completely different group.” We found very few that could speak Burmese, except the Ponline and other chiefs bordering the plain; but almost all the chiefs both north and south of the Tapeng, and many of their clansmen, could speak Chinese, and a few, such as the chiefs of Mattin, Seray, &c., could write Chinese; but the Kakhyens possess no written characters of their own.
As warriors the Kakhyens cannot be ranked high. Quarrelsome and revengeful as they are, prone to exact atonement for a wrong or feud to the last, their attacks are always made stealthily, and generally at night—they may be said to crouch and spring like the tiger. As hunters, so far as we could learn, they are not very daring, but our opportunities of observation were limited, and the hills about Ponsee did not seem to contain much animal life. Their chief quarry is the barking deer, but leopards and porcupines are said to be sometimes found, and wild elephants were reported as occasional visitors. The fierce and pugnacious bamboo rat is esteemed a dainty and valuable prize. The young lads set ingenious traps for jungle fowl and pheasants. A miniature fence of the stems of tall jungle grass is constructed down the hillside for two hundred feet, through which little runs are opened. At each a pliable bamboo is firmly fixed at one end, while the other is lightly fastened to the ground. A noose fixed to this end snares the birds, which are hoisted in the air like moles in the familiar trap. We also observed boys liming small birds in an ingenious manner, with a bird-lime obtained from the root of some plant. This was smeared on the prongs of a wooden trident fixed in a bamboo handle, which was hidden in the jungle bordering a path. On a cord across the trident, a number of ants were so fixed that they could move their wings; the constant flutter allured the birds to perch on the trident and be caught. The small boys were stimulated in the pursuit of “small deer” and all sorts of birds by the rewards given for any specimens. The collection and preservation of all manner of living things was a constant source of wonder to the Kakhyens, as well as of gain. Even the young tsawbwa caught the infection, and, moved either by greed or gratitude for medical help, brought in a young example of a red-faced monkey, closely allied to Macacus tibetanus (Milne-Edwards).
It will be evident that they are a perfectly wild race of mountaineers, supplying themselves with most of the necessaries of life by rude cultivation. They are altogether dependent on their neighbours for salt and dried fish; and as their own scanty crops furnish little superfluity, their great object is to obtain compraw, wherewith to purchase what they need. They rear no animals but pigs; and the buffaloes they own have been stolen from the plains. This habit of “cattle-lifting” causes them to be regarded as natural outlaws by the Burmese; hence the constant state of hostility and reprisals on both sides. Since the time of our visit the mountaineers have been better treated at Bhamô, and a zayat has been erected for their use outside the stockade, besides one built for them near the British Residency; but no Kakhyen can enter or leave the town without a pass, for which he has to pay toll, this licence-duty being farmed by residents in Bhamô. It must be owned that, whether their character has been deteriorated by knavish injustice on the part of Chinese traders, or high-handed extortion and wrong on the part of Burmese, they are at the present time lazy, thievish, and untrustworthy. Their savage curiosity leads them to pry into every package entrusted to them. During the return journey all the collecting-boxes were opened, and every specimen unrolled and examined, with what results of utter confusion may be imagined. They consider themselves entitled to levy blackmail on all passing through their districts, and each petty chief tries to represent himself as an independent tsawbwa, with a full control of the portion of route near his village.
As any mission or trade-convoy must, however, pass through their hills, and strong and impartial justice should characterise all our relations with them, it will not be thought presumption to suggest what appears to be the best and fairest method of dealing with them. It is thoroughly well established that the Kakhyens themselves possess no mules, or at least so few as to be insufficient for the carriage of any large amount of baggage or goods. When the chiefs have been employed to procure mules, they hire them from the Shans, acting thus as middle-men, and in our case making an exorbitant profit. Their incurable habits of pilfering and meddling curiosity render them unfit to be employed as porters. All beasts of burden, and coolies, if required, should be procured either in Burma or by direct agents, hiring them in the Shan districts subject to China; in the latter case no payments in advance should be made. The chiefs of the Kakhyens occupying the portion of the route lying within the Burmese frontier line should be summoned to Bhamô by the Burmese authorities at the instance of the British Resident, and, a proper sum, in recognition of their territorial dues, being fixed, should be informed that this will be paid at the Residency on the safe passage through their territory being accomplished and certified. A similar course can be pursued by communication with the Chinese authorities with regard to those who live within the Chinese frontier. The duties to be performed by the chiefs should be limited to guaranteeing an undisturbed passage, and providing such accommodation or supplies as may be required. With regard to provision for an open trade route, a fair tariff should be fixed upon: this has been done by the Chinese, and could be accomplished by the Burmese also. The mountain chiefs may then be required to keep the roads open and in repair, and to suppress any attempt at brigandage, on pain of being fined, and otherwise punished. It must be remarked, however, with all deference to the political branch of our service, that one cannot help thinking that it will be needful in all cases that our Residents should not issue independent summonses and orders to the hill chiefs. The ill-feeling of the Burmese has not unnaturally been excited by British officers dealing, independently of the Woon, with the chiefs, nominally at least, subordinate to him as the officer of the king of Burma. It is surely incumbent on the British Resident in the town of an independent foreign power to co-operate with and recognise the local authorities, and cultivate an entente cordiale with them. If this policy be systematically observed, the Burmese will be most fairly and properly held responsible for the conduct of the chiefs whom they claim to be dependent on their authority, and who have accepted titles and insignia from the king of Burma. It may seem fanciful to suggest ways and means of removing the difficulties of the route for a future trade; but the passage of a mission, or of future explorers of the interesting country beyond the Kakhyen hills, will be only thus made possible. The arrangements must be made with the Burmese and the Chinese; the Kakhyens, being only regarded as outlying people, paid their dues, not from fear, but from generous justice; while they are sternly repressed, and taught their own insignificance and almost inutility. These remarks may seem an example of shutting the door after the steed is stolen; but if the plan proposed widely differs from that pursued by our expedition, let it be remembered that we were pioneers in an unknown country, feeling our way through tribes and populations, the political relations of which were at that time as little known as were the physical difficulties of the route we had been commissioned to explore through their midst.
These observations are the result of the experience gained in the course of this first attempt, and the opinions then formed have been confirmed on a more recent occasion, when it was not in my power to make any practical application of the knowledge of the ways and habits of the mountaineers which had been formerly gained.
If the reader is somewhat tired of the Kakhyens, he can better understand the wearisome and anxious time passed by us at Ponsee, as all through April we alternately hoped and despaired of escaping from our open-air prison. At the end of that time our party was reduced in numbers by the departure of Williams and Stewart, who acted upon the circular already mentioned as issued by the leader of the mission. They started, under the guidance of Moung Mo, on April 29th, and reached Bhamô without delay or difficulty.
[23] “En langue Mou-tse et Kong un homme se dit Ho-ka, en langue Kho il se dit Ka-sya.”—‘Voyage d’Exploration,’ tome i. p. 378.
[24] See supra, page 77.