WITHIN THE WALLS OF MOMIEN OR TENG-YUE-CHOW.
The following day having been appointed by the governor for our reception, we entered the town in state, preceded by twenty Mahommedan sepoys of the escort, carrying the presents. These consisted of green and yellow broadcloths, muslins, gaudy rugs and table covers, double-barrelled guns and revolvers, with all appliances, powder and shot, penknives, scissors, a binocular glass, telescope, and musical-box, and a quantity of Bryant and May’s matches.
A large but well-behaved crowd of poverty-stricken Chinese had assembled, who matched well with the ruinous houses of the suburb. We entered by the south-western gate into a narrow dirty street, from which a lane led to the governor’s house, surrounded by a low wall. The gateway, about fifteen feet high, was formed of plain squared stone pillars, with others laid horizontally across them, like the cross beams of a doorway. This led into the usual Chinese succession of quadrangular courts. In a small circular pavilion were stationed some ragged musicians, who struck up a lively air on gongs and cymbals. As we crossed the court to the house, a salute was fired from three small cannon that were stuck into the ground, with muzzles upwards. A rabble followed into the doorway leading to the inner court, at the end of which, in the reception hall, sat the governor. He rose to receive us, and motioned us to sit on his left hand, at a long table, on which the presents were laid before him. Behind his seat there was a raised recess, covered with red cloth, in which stood a small chair of state. The sides of the room were hung with long narrow strips of blue and red cloth, covered with Chinese characters in gold-leaf. The superior officers occupied chairs along each side of the room, and a crowd of underlings blocked up the entrance. The governor was a powerful man, fully six feet three inches high, with prominent cheek-bones, heavy protuberant lips, slightly hooked nose, and faintly oblique eyes. His face was bronzed by exposure, and a deep indentation between the eyes, with other scars, told of campaigns, in which he was said to be ever foremost in the fight. He wore a grey felt hat, resembling a helmet placed sideways, the front half of the rim being turned up, and the back part downwards. A gold rosette, set with large precious stones, formed a handsome ornament in front, and a long blue silk topknot hung down behind. A pale blue silk coat, richly figured, exactly resembling a dressing-gown, completed his costume. Sladen expressed our deep regret at the death of the two officers, and promised to suggest to our government to compensate their families. The governor replied that we were not to distress ourselves, as they considered it an honour to die as those men had done. As to the opening of trade, he declared that any number of English merchants might visit Momien in the ensuing November; that he had arranged with the Shan tsawbwas, and could manage the Kakhyens, so that caravans should pass safely; but he hinted that there were too many people then present to admit of this question being discussed. He expressed great pleasure at the presents, and the musical-box being set agoing excited universal admiration; the matches astonished the company; but the sincerest satisfaction was called forth by the guns and powder. Tea, preserved oranges, jujubes, and sugar-candy were served round. In the course of general conversation the governor stated that the Sultan had been pleased to hear of our intended visit to Momien; but he feared that the road to Tali-fu was too infested with Chinese bands to allow of our proceeding further.
The governor, attended by an armed retinue, paid his return visit of ceremony the next day, carried in a gorgeous chair, and dressed in full mandarin robes, while his officers were gaily attired in white cotton jackets, braided, and adorned with silver buttons. They made a gallant show of gold swords, silver spears, banners, and other insignia. Presents were brought in, consisting of a bullock, sheep, trays of confectionery, and forty thousand cash. The latter were at first declined, but the courteous Tah-sa-kon would take no refusal, and the cash furnished an acceptable largess to the escort and followers, giving each about one rupee. The mission funds were, in truth, rather low about this time, which, it may be noted, operated against the acquisition of specimens of the local manufactures, save to a very limited amount. Among the confectionery sent was a quantity of fine white granulated honey, and a strong warning was given against the use of onions, as the combination of onions and honey in the system would be a certain poison.
When taking leave, the governor suggested that now the claims of etiquette had been satisfied, we should consider ourselves free of government house, as well as the town in general, and come and go as we liked, and promised that he would visit us sans cérémonie. Our guard and the Panthays fraternised completely, their common faith uniting them, and the Chinese Mahommedans treated the true believers from India with great respect. The jemadar was indeed in constant request to officiate at the mosque, till he lost his voice by over-exertion.
True to his promise, the governor appeared bent on carrying us off to an entertainment at his house. We were received in the same room as before, but were invited to sit with our host on the dais at the further end; constant relays of tea-cakes and sweetmeats were brought in, to all of which each man was expected to do his duty. Shouts of laughter reached our ears from time to time, as the ladies, our host’s four wives and their maids, amused themselves in the adjacent zenana with the magnetic battery. Our circle was presently joined by the tsawbwa-gadaw of Muangtee, who was on a visit to the governor. She was attended by several well-dressed Shan ladies, and they chatted and laughed with that charming good humour which seems characteristic of the Shans.
We were then shown over the private apartments by the governor himself, who led us first to his bedroom, a snug little windowless room, lighted by two doors facing each other, containing a large four-post bed, with blue silk curtains looped up by silver chains, and a comfortable couch, while the walls were decorated with an English eight-day clock, and Chinese pictures and old armour. Passing through the room, we entered a small court, where a number of tailors sat busily at work in a verandah. This led to the zenana, or women’s apartments, a pretty range of buildings, surrounding a small garden, ornamented with large vases, containing dwarfed fruit and pine trees, and stone tanks filled with goldfish. The trees included peach, plum, orange, box, &c., about two to four feet in height, which had been dwarfed by tying knots in the stem of the sapling. On our way back, we passed through a room hung round with war hats gorgeously decorated with the tail feathers of the Lady Amherst and golden pheasants, and with the handsome fox-like brush of the wah (Ailurus fulgens, F. Cuv.). After this inspection, we were conducted to an open hall, in which a theatrical entertainment was to take place. More tea and cakes were produced, while large copper vases of incense burned close to us, and the heavy fumes produced a drowsy feeling. The stage was a pavilion about twenty feet long, closed on three sides, with two doors behind it, one for the entrance and the other for the exit of the players. The orchestra of violins, gongs, and cymbals, occupied the back of the stage, and discoursed most monotonous music, like the clatter of crockery, with occasional bangs and screeches. A small panelled picture of birds and flowers served as scenery, and the properties were a table like an inverted pyramid, with a chair on either side of it. The characters were all sustained by male performers, who, on this occasion, presented a tragedy, turning on the Chinese virtue of filial obedience. This required the hero to obey his mother by rebelling against his father-in-law and killing the princess, his wife; but the latter solved the difficulty by suicide, and mother and son joined in lamentation over her. The hero had his face painted red, and adorned with a long black beard and moustache; he was accoutred in a gorgeous coat, richly embroidered with dragons and flowers, a hat with a fine bushy tail of Ailurus fulgens, red trousers, and black satin boots. He bellowed and blustered, and strode about the stage as if practising the goose-step; the close of every speech being emphasized by a bound in the air. While the play was going on, we were expected to consume the contents of eight bowls containing fowl chopped up with salted goose, dried prawns, mushrooms, vegetables, &c., each dish being evidently a choice specimen of Chinese cuisine. Ahyek, or samshoo, was then served round, but the governor, as a good Mussulman, abstained from the forbidden liquor; small saucers of rice and condiments came next, but after three hours of eating we beat a retreat from the still interminable feast and drama.
The hospitable governor renewed his invitation the next afternoon, when a farcical comedy was played, which was very broad, but fortunately brief. As this was the market-day, two officers were detached to escort us through the bazaar, the principal street of which extended half a mile straight from the south-western city gates. Each side was occupied by permanent shops, and a double row of stalls, protected by huge umbrellas, lined the whole length of the street. A dense crowd of Chinese, Shans, and Panthays, with a small sprinkling of Leesaws and Kakhyens, thronged every avenue; the people were quite good-humoured, but their curiosity would have been very troublesome but for the presence of the officers. This, however, was only at first; during our stay we roamed at will through the streets of the bazaar suburb, as well as within the walls. The shops were small, one-storied cottages, each devoted to a particular trade. Drapers, booksellers, druggists, dealers in tobacco and nuts, provision merchants, displayed their several wares, but, except on the market-day, with little custom. Numerous eating-houses were crowded by the better class of customers, while the poorer villagers were supplied by lads hawking comestibles. The stalls made a rich display of vegetables and fruit; among the former were peas, green and dried beans, potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, yams, bamboo shoots, cabbage and spinach, and ginger; the fruit comprised apples like golden pippins, pears, peaches, walnuts, chestnuts, brambleberries, rose-hips, and three sorts of unknown fruit. Mushrooms were in great demand, as well as a dried, almost black lichen; black pepper, betel-nut, and poppy capsules were seen on almost every stall, and salt sold in compressed balls, marked with a government stamp. Other departments contained coloured Chinese cloths and yarns, and buttons, English long and broad cloth, needles, and brass buttons, Mahommedan skull-caps, embroidered in gold thread, rings, mouth-pieces and brooches of amber and jade, opium pipes, and Chinese hookahs. Running at right angles to the principal street is another devoted to tailors and ready-made clothes stores, and coppersmiths, who supply all kitchen appliances, and manufacture the copper discs used in cutting jade. Along this street we came to the store of the principal Chinese merchant, who invited us in, and was very hospitable. His laments over the decay of the former trade with Burma, caused by the civil war, showed clearly to which side his sympathies inclined; and it was evident that he, as well as all the non-Mahommedan Chinese, were only kept to their present allegiance by the strong hand. The whole bazaar suburb was surrounded by a low brick wall with several gates, each guarded by a sentinel at night, and the Chinese resided here, being evidently excluded from the city. Although the manufactures seemed to be in a very depressed state, the quarters of the various artificers were still traceable; in a by-street we had an opportunity of viewing the manufacture of jade ornaments. The copper discs employed, a foot and a half in diameter, are very thin and bend easily; the centre is beaten out into a cup, which receives the end of the revolving cylinder. We watched two men at work, one using the cutter, and the other a borer tipped with a composition of quartz and little particles resembling ruby dust. Both were driven by treadles; the stone is held below the disc, under which is a basin of water and fine, silicious mud, into which the stone is occasionally dipped, the operator taking handfuls of the mud. The stones are cut into discs one-eighth of an inch thick, when intended for ear-rings, and handed over to the borer to be perforated. The most valuable jade is of an intensely bright green, something like emerald; but red and pale pink qualities are highly prized. In the extensive ruins outside the bazaar there was ample evidence, in the rejected fragments of jade, that the manufacture must have been formerly carried on on a much more extensive scale. The jade is obtained from the mines in the Mogoung district, where large masses in the form of rounded boulders are dug out of the pits; in former times a large quantity was yearly imported to Momien. One hundred rupees was the price asked for a pair of bracelets of the finest jade, and at Bhamô four rupees purchased rings worth £2 at Canton.
Of amber-workers, who manufactured rosaries, rings, mouth-pieces, &c., from the amber brought from the mines in the Hukong valley, near Mogoung, but few remained at the time of our visit. The amber most prized is perfectly clear, and the colour of very dark sherry. A triangular specimen, one inch long, and one across, cost ten shillings.
At the bazaar there was a plentiful display of the mineral wealth of Western Yunnan, which is rich in gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, tin, mercury, arsenic, and gypsum; and we obtained small specimens of most of these minerals, including a yellow orpiment, exported in quantities from Tali to Mandalay, whither a large amount of tin also is annually sent. The copper is brought from a range of hills near Khyto, three days’ march to the north-east. It is smelted on the spot, and brought in flattish pigs. The same hills are said to yield all the iron and salt used in Western Yunnan; but the most precious product of the Khyto mines is galena. Of this, a small specimen has been assayed by Dr. Oldham, who has pronounced it to be among the richest that he has ever seen; it yields 0·278 per cent., or 104 oz. of silver to the ton of lead. Flints and large quantities of lime are brought from Tali-fu, where large quarries of fine white marble exist. Sulphur is procured in the neighbourhood, but we could not learn the locality. Li-sieh-tai was subsequently reported to be raising sulphur to the south-west, and an Old Resident[26] in Western China mentions a rich mine of sulphur belonging to the northern frontier town of Atenze, behind a little mine of saltpetre. The Chinese report on the mines of Yunnan, appended to the records of the French expedition, states that in 1850 the copper mines of Yunnan, of which Tali-fu is the principal depot, produced over eleven thousand tons, and the silver amounted to two millions of francs. The Old Resident, however, says that before the outbreak of the rebellion there were one hundred and thirty-two copper mines, government knowing only of thirty-seven; and as the above account was calculated on the returns made to the government, who exact from thirty to fifty per cent. of the produce, it is plain that the mineral wealth of Yunnan is even greater than it is set forth in that report. Gold is brought to Momien from Yonephin and Sherg-wan villages, fifteen days’ march to the north-east; but no information could be obtained as to the quantity found. It is also brought in leaf, which is sent to Burma, where it is in extensive demand.