The tsawbwa possessed great influence over the Kakhyen chiefs through whose territory this route passes, an instance of which was speedily given by the arrival of the chief of Namboke, accompanied by his pawmines, and a strong armed guard, the chief and his officers being mounted on ponies. As soon as he saw Sladen, he went down on one knee, in the most respectful manner of greeting, and recalled himself to his recollection as having visited us at Bhamô and received a present of a head-dress. This chief scarcely resembled a Kakhyen, his naturally Tartar-like cast of countenance being heightened by his Chinese skull-cap and dress. After remaining one night and expatiating on the advantages of the embassy route, he set out for home, bearing a letter from Li-lot-fa to all the Kakhyen chiefs, which the pawmines were to carry forward, inviting them to come in and arrange for our safe progress to Bhamô.
The bazaar or market, which is held every fifth day, took place on the 12th. There are no shops or shopkeepers, except where the Chinese reside, among the Shans, and all sale or barter is necessarily conducted at these regular markets or fairs, which are thronged by the people of the valley and adjacent hills. The Hotha fair was held on a grassy slope, about half a mile distant from the town. There were no permanent or temporary stalls, the vendors simply sitting down in long lines with their goods before them. One section was devoted to the sale of sword blades, the manufacture of which is a speciality of this valley, and another to the wooden scabbards and handles. After buying two fine blades for four shillings each, I was assured that the vendor had charged one-third over the value.
Another quarter was devoted to the sale of samshu, and close by it were the restaurants, where the hungry customers refreshed themselves with hot pork, vermicelli, or an article exactly like it, various vegetables, and peas, all hot and nicely served in little white bowls. The butchers’ quarter was amply supplied with pork and beef, and fowls and ducks were plentiful. Long lines of Kakhyen women from the hills offered for sale joss-sticks, pears, apples, plums, peaches, mustard leaves, and a variety of hill vegetables, along with basketfuls of nettles, as food for the swine, which are an invariable adjunct of a Shan household.
In the centre of the market, on a double row of stalls, were displayed various kinds of Shan cloth, Shan caps, Chinese paper, rice cutch, flint, and lime, which are brought from Tali-fu, white arsenic, yellow orpiment, &c. In another quarter, English green and blue broadcloth was selling at twenty shillings per yard, along with red flannel, for which the Kakhyens have an especial affection. It seemed to us, however, that, although the price was high, a very few pieces would “glut the market.”
Indigo, the universal dye of the dark blue-clad Shans, Kakhyens, and Chinese of Western Yunnan, also had its own quarter. The fair was thronged with people, the elder busy chaffering over their few wares, and the younger strolling about and gossiping. Almost all were clean and well-dressed, and there was an absence of the poverty-stricken class, which had been so numerous in the various towns of the Sanda valley, all appearing to be well-to-do, to judge from their appearance. The women, as a rule, were little and rather squat, with round, flat, high-cheek-boned faces, and slightly oblique eyes. Some of the younger women, with fair skins and rosy cheeks, might have been accounted good-looking, but were disfigured by the strange custom of dyeing the teeth black, which is the fashion among Shans of the better class. The dye is probably a preparation of cutch, and, according to the tsawbwa, the custom originated in a desire to preserve the teeth from decay.
For the first time we noticed the peculiar and picturesque dress of the Chinese Shan women. The men, with the exception of an occasional red turban, were dressed in the universal dark blue. The costume of the Hotha Shan women only differed from that remarked in the Sanda valley in the prevalence of dark green jackets and the number of large silver hoops worn round the neck.
It will be well here to summarise, even at the risk of repetition, our observations on the Shan inhabitants of these valleys, who belong to the Tayshan or Great Shans of the Tai race, the branches of which, under different names, are found extending to the eleventh parallel, their various states being tributary to Siam, Burma, or China. The Shan population where it has been absorbed into the Burmese kingdom has become assimilated in language and customs with the dominant race, from which they can scarcely be distinguished. Throughout the valley of the upper Irawady above Bhamô, but with the Kakhyen hills interposing their stratum of hill tribes between them and their brethren of the Chinese states, the Shan element predominates, though contending with the wilder Singphos to the west of the valley. The inhabitants, though speaking Burmese, still preserve the Shan language, and retain the physical and other characteristics of their race.
The little states of Manwyne and Sanda, Muangla, Muangtee, Muangtha, or Hotha and Latha, and Muangwan and Muangmow, which lie on the right bank of the Shuaylee, are the remains of the Koshanpyi or Nine Shan States, forming the chief component parts of the Shan kingdom of Pong, conquered by the Chinese in the fourteenth century. Bhamô or Tsing-gai, with the country extending to Katha, or perhaps to Tsampenago, and the upper part of the valley of the Irawady, with Mogoung as its chief town, were the last remaining independent remnants of this state, and have been included in Burma since the annexation by Alompra in 1752 of the semi-independent state of Mogoung.
It seems most probable that the walled Chinese town of Muanglon represents Muang Maorong, the ancient capital of the Pong kingdom, and the Chinese Shan states of Sehfan and Muangkwan, and possibly the state of Kaingmah, which is reckoned among the Koshanpyi, are under the jurisdiction of its Chinese governor, as the states we visited are dependent on Momien. Throughout Yunnan, and, according to Garnier, as far as the confines of Tong-king, the Tai race is widely diffused. The names of towns and districts seem to indicate that this region of lofty hills and great valleys was formerly the seat of the Shan kingdom, and still—though intermixed with the wild hill tribes, and the descendants of the Chinese colonists, who were settled in the newly acquired conquests—the Shans, under the name of Pa-y, hold their ancient ground. Mons. Garnier mentions that at Muang-Pong he found villages peopled with Tai-ya settlers, who had fled from the Mahommedan ravages, and settled beyond the borders of Yunnan. His description of their characteristic dress and silver ornaments would almost exactly apply to the Chinese-Shans of the Hotha valley. He describes some Tai-neua[39] refugees met with at Kiang-hung or Xien-hong itself, and remarks on the resemblance between these two divisions of the Shans. As soon as he had passed into the country where the Laotian language ceased to be understood, on the confines of Yunnan, near Se-mao, “The inhabitants presented an intermediary type between the Chinese and the Tai race. This mixed type faithfully represents that of the ancient population of Yunnan, or that of the Tai, who were conquered by the Chinese.” And at Yuen-kiang he remarks: “The Tai, whom the Chinese call Pa-y, are the ancient inhabitants of the country of Muong-Choung, which is now called Yuen-kiang. They are more numerous and more independent as the frontier of Tong-king is approached.” Thus the Chinese province of Yunnan on the one side and the upper portion of the valley of the Irawady on the other contain a largely preponderating element of Shan population, their national characteristics, however, gradually becoming obliterated by the influence of the ruling races respectively. Owing to their local position, which has preserved their subordinate independence, the little nest of valleys, cradled in the parallel secondary ranges which lie between the Salween and the Irawady, has preserved, almost unmixed, the relics of the ancient Shan kingdom, and it is with their inhabitants, so far as our observations extended, that we have to do. It is with some uncertainty that the terms Shans proper and Chinese Shans are used; not so much as indicating a theory of race as to serve as a practical distinction between the two divisions, which, though claiming to be one in race as in language, will be seen to present curious differences; while the Chinese-Shans, or Sino-Shans, as some have called them, may, according to the evidence of the French explorers, really represent the original Tai race more directly than the Shans of the Tapeng valley and the Irawady valley.
The Shans proper of these valleys are a fair race, somewhat sallow like the Chinese, but of a very faintly darker hue than Europeans, the peasantry, as a rule, being much browned by exposure; they have red cheeks, dark brown eyes, and black hair. In young people and children, the waxen appearance of the Chinese is slightly observable. The Shan face is usually short, broad, and flat, with prominent malars, a faint obliquity and contraction of the outer angle of the eye, which is much more marked in the true Chinese. The nose is well formed, the bridge being prominent, almost aquiline, without that breadth and depression characteristic of the Burman feature. The lower jaw is broad and well developed; but pointed chins below heavy, protruding lips are not infrequent. Oval faces laterally compressed, with retreating foreheads, high cheek-bones, and sharp retreating chins, are not infrequent; and the majority of the higher classes seemed to be distinguished from the common people by more elongated oval faces and a decidedly Tartar type of countenance. The features of the women are proportionately broader and rounder than those of the men, but they are more finely chiselled, and wear a good-natured expression, while their large brown eyes are very scantily adorned with eyebrows and eyelashes. They become much wrinkled by age, and, judging from the numbers of old people, appear to be a long-lived race. They are by no means a tall people, the average height for men scarcely reaching five feet eight, while the women are shorter and more squat in figure. The only difference between the Shans and Poloungs, so far as my limited observation went, seems to be that the latter are darker and smaller; but the Chinese Shans, or Sino-Shans, of the Muangtha valley differ widely from their congeners. They are a much smaller race, their little, squat figures and broad, short flat faces reminding one of Laplanders. The cheek-bones are very prominent, and their faces are much flatter and shorter than those of the other Shans. The breadth between the eyes, which are markedly oblique, is considerable, and the mouths are heavy, with protruding lips. In the women these characters are more pronounced, and their complexion strongly resembles that of the Chinese.