In the drug-shops a powder was vended as a nervous restorative, made of the horn of an antelope ground down, and sold at one rupee per tickal;[27] and the pharmacopœia also included the powdered shells of a tortoise (Testudo platynotus, Blyth), imported from Upper Burma, and snuff made of sambur horn, used as a styptic for bleeding from the nose. We were much surprised to find stone celts openly offered for sale. When it was known that we would purchase, numbers were brought in, and we acquired a collection of one hundred and fifty specimens, at prices varying from two shillings to sixpence. Their poverty and not their will constrained the owners to part with them, for they are believed to confer good luck on the owner, and to possess curative properties if dipped in medicine, and are exhibited to procure easy parturition. They are usually turned up by the plough; and the popular belief is that they fall from the sky as thunderbolts, and take nine years to work up to the surface. The high estimation in which they are held suggests that a Chinese Flint Jack made a profitable business of imitating the real implements, or manufacturing amulets of the same type. A large number of those purchased are small, beautifully cut forms, with few or no signs of use, and made of some variety of jade; but there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the larger forms which were brought to us. Bronze celts are also found, but are valued at their weight in gold; we managed, however, to purchase one at Manwyne on the return journey. It belongs to the socketed type of celts without wings. The composition of the bronze is the same as that of the celts found in Northern Europe—tin 10, copper 90.
In consequence of a long period of drought preceding our arrival, the slaughter of animals had been forbidden, as it was feared that the rain would be withheld as a punishment, a curious instance of Buddhist superstition affecting the Panthays and Chinese; but in two days the rains set in, and the prohibition was removed. The markets were thenceforward well supplied with bullocks, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and pigs. The buffaloes are chiefly used for agriculture; the beeves have no hump, and are small but well made, generally of reddish-brown colour, deepening to black. The numerous sheep belong to a large blackfaced breed, with convex profiles. Two kinds of goats are common; one with long shaggy white hair nearly sweeping the ground, and flattened spiral horns, directed backwards and outwards; the other kind has very short dark brown hair, short shoulder list, and full beard, with similar flattened spiral horns, but not so procumbent. The pigs seemed to be all black. Remarkably fine ponies were common; but the mules, which were much more numerous, are more prized. Fowls, ducks, and geese are abundant and large; and last, though not least, cats, all of a uniform grey, with faint darkish spots, made themselves at home everywhere. But we noticed very few dogs, those seen being black with shaggy coats, resembling the shepherd dogs of the south of Scotland.
It has been mentioned that the rains set in soon after our arrival. From June 1st the south-west monsoon prevailed, with very few fair intervals. The sky was obscured by thick, misty clouds, that wrapped the hills in dense folds. As a rule, the rain fell very heavily; but there were days together when it was little more than a thick Scotch mist in a dead calm. Occasional thunderstorms of terrific grandeur burst over the valley, accompanied by strong gusts from the south-west; but the most characteristic feature of the weather was the generally perfect stillness of the atmosphere, while low leaden clouds poured down incessant rain, generally heavy, but sometimes only a gentle drizzle, all which combined had a sufficiently depressing effect on us. The temperature was by no means oppressive, the mean maximum in June being seventy-four degrees, and the minimum sixty-two degrees. The natives strongly assert that the climate is unhealthy for strangers, and we all suffered more or less from intractable diarrhœa. Smallpox, too, was prevalent; and one of our collectors and a Kakhyen sub-chief, who had accompanied us, died from it. We were strongly cautioned against the use of the river water, to which the natives attribute the prevalence of goitre, which is most unpleasantly remarkable among men and women and children, some goitres being so large as to require special support; even young infants were observed affected by it, and in their case it must have been congenital. Otherwise the children seemed very healthy, notwithstanding their rags and dirt, and not a single case of fever was observed, though about sixty or seventy patients were treated for other diseases.
The fact that by far the greater part of the valley is under water for six or seven months, during three of which it is little better than a huge morass, would not seem to recommend it as salubrious; but it must be remembered that it lies more than five thousand feet above the level of the sea, in the twenty-fourth parallel of north latitude, and is a comparatively dry and temperate country, singularly destitute of trees, which conditions would combine to place it beyond the range of miasma.
The worthy governor showed great anxiety about our health. He refused, on the score of security against prowling robbers, to let us shift our quarters, but sent guards to accompany us in an occasional ramble round the precincts of the city. So great was the insecurity that we dared not venture more than a few hundred yards from the walls unattended. A favourite walk was to a place less than a mile to the north-west of the town. Here the Tahô, after flowing through the valley, precipitates itself, in an all but unbroken sheet of water, over a cliff one hundred feet high; thence it foams down a steep glen to the little valley of Hawshuenshan. Immediately above the fall the stream is spanned by a substantial stone bridge of three arches with roofed approaches. Below this the thick bed of basaltic trap, over which the river leaps, is worn into a miniature horseshoe; and the overhanging luxuriant vegetation of ferns and brambles, and wild roses with double flowers, formed a strikingly beautiful scene. In the rains the body of water was so great that a column of spray ascended which was visible two miles off. From this point the crenellated walls of Momien, with the distant background of lofty ranges, completed a striking picture. Above the bridge the Tahô flows down in a tortuous stream twenty yards broad, well stocked with large gold carp (Cavassius auratus, Lin.), between banks ten feet high; and the rice fields on either side are irrigated by large wheels raising the water in long bamboo buckets, which discharge themselves into wooden pipes leading to the fields. These wheels are numerous in the valley.
WATERFALL OF THE TAHÔ; MOMIEN IN THE DISTANCE.
After visiting the waterfall, we ascended the pagoda hill, about one thousand feet above the town. The path led through potato-fields now in full bloom, the plants grown in ridges, and earthed up with a home-like effect. The leaf is smaller than that of the home plant, and the tubers in the market had a thin red skin; but they were very good, and in great demand at fourpence for three pounds and a half. Nothing could be learned of the introduction of this plant, nor of the celery, which is also largely cultivated, and seemed quite as out of place. The potato, however, is called yan-gee, evidently the same as yang-yu, foreign root, which, according to Mr. Cooper,[28] is its name in Sz-chuen, where it is said to have been introduced by the foreign teachers, i.e. the French missionaries, long ago. The lower slope of the hill was covered with stone tumulus-shaped tombs, the arched head of each containing a tablet with an epitaph. Ruder graves were simple earthen tumuli, each with its arched opening blocked by a large stone. The slopes of the hills surrounding the valley are dotted with similar graveyards—mute records of the population that once thronged the ruined villages lying below. Near the summit stood a pagoda, a whitewashed round brick tower on a stone base with six projecting rings. The hill itself, like all the eminences around, was covered with fine grass, and a number of mules were grazing under the protection of a Panthay guard. A pleasant illustration of the prevailing insecurity was given a few days later, when this guard was attacked and forty mules driven off by imperialist Chinese. We were unmolested, and climbed to the summit, flushing from the bracken beds a magnificent cock pheasant (Phasianus sladeni, And.), with long tail feathers, resembling some noticed in a Panthay head-dress. Sladen afterwards bagged the hen; and we also obtained a young fox with a golden-yellow coat and white-tipped brush, apparently of the Himalayan race. Returning, we observed a large arched cavern, which proved to be an old quarry of trachytic rock, which had probably furnished the city walls. On one occasion we were permitted to make a longer excursion to the valley of Hawshuenshan. Our party must have consisted of thirty-five men, all armed, the Panthay guard, equipped with spears and muskets, being commanded by the governor’s nephew, with several other officers: all this being necessary for safety during a mere suburban stroll. Turning southerly from Momien, we soon came in sight of the town of Yay-law, the deserted ruins of which stretched for more than a mile along the foot of the Deebay range. We skirted the pagoda hill, remarking a curious isolated heap of lava; no other rock was visible for miles around, and it had all the appearance of a small volcanic vent, and the rock was identical with that of the extinct volcano.
Rounding the hills two miles from Momien, a slight westerly descent led to a short narrow gorge, at the south-eastern angle of the little circular valley of Hawshuenshan. The once wealthy village of Shuayduay occupies an abrupt slope at the head of the gorge, rising in a series of terraces faced with mortarless walls of very porous lava, laid as closely as the facing of the Momien ditch, and protected by parapets of sun-dried brick. A small stream runs down the ravine, which is not more than a quarter of a mile long and fifty yards broad, to a substantial tank crossed by a broad stone platform, arched on one side to allow the overflow to escape. Facing Hawshuenshan valley, the platform expands into a handsome, crescent-shaped terrace, enclosed by an elegant stone balustrade, which forms the entrance to a temple built on the southern slope, opposite to Shuayduay. This temple, rising in terraces on the steep hillside, standing out beautifully against the background of green hills, was the only one spared by the Mahommedans, whose stern bigotry could not resist its beauty. The approach to the temple buildings lay through two curved courtyards with handsome arched gateways. The first enclosure was an open square with three sides built on the same level, the nearest one of which contained the priests’ apartments; to the right and left lay a neat garden of dwarfed fruit trees, the centre of which was occupied by a few stunted trees covered with a profusion of yellow orchids in full flower, and a magnificent hydrangea in a colossal vase; the furthest side next the hill was raised on a stone terrace four feet above the level of the rest. On this higher platform stood life-sized gilded figures of deities, with incense always burning in small black stone vases, and on a table in front of the images lay a large drum and grotesque hollow wooden fishes, which the priests and worshippers beat with short sticks. A passage led through each side of the court to stone staircases proceeding to the terrace above, and converging in its centre in an hexagonal tower, supported on stone pillars seven feet high; these formed an archway from which ascended a short flight of steps, dividing to the right and left to reach the highest terrace, nearly on a level with which was a chapel forming the upper chamber of the hexagonal tower. The upper temple occupied the whole of its terrace, built entirely of wood, except the back and end walls. The front was panelled with richly gilt lattice work, while the eaves and ceilings were coloured in imitation of porcelain. Behind a screen, adorned with richly coloured carvings of birds and flowers, sat three life-sized gilded figures on altars, apparently of porcelain. The central figure, of marble, represented a woman seated on a lotus, with a flower of the lily beneath her feet; she held forth a naked male child, seated on one hand, and supported by the other in front, the child’s sex being strongly marked. This was the goddess Kwan-yin, goddess of mercy and conception, and her presence would seem to mark the shrine as a Taouist temple. These terraced rock temples resembled those described by Mr. Cooper as visited by him at Chung Ching. The stone walls of the shrine were not carried to the roof, but finished with wooden panelling, pierced with circular windows of elegant tracery. These were so arranged that the light fell full on the seated figures. From the centre of this terrace a narrow stair led down to the chapel on the top of the hexagonal tower, within which sat a fine Buddhistic figure, with the head in white marble tinted brown.
Following a well-paved track along the hill to the east of the valley, a ride of a quarter of a mile brought us to the walled Chinese town of Hawshuenshan, built on the slope of the hill. The valley is abruptly closed in on three sides by rounded grassy hills rising suddenly round the dead level of the centre, then inundated for the rice crop. The south-west side is closed by the long low range of the extinct volcano, with a white pagoda standing out in strong relief from its black and barren side.