[38] Analysis by Dr. Macnamara.
One gallon contains:—
- 49·7 grains of solid matter;
- 3·6 ” salts of alkalies, chloride of sodium;
- 19·7 ” silica, earthy salts, and oxide of iron;
- Traces of sulphuric, carbonic, and phosphoric acids;
- No nitric acid.
[39] Thaï-neua is applied to the northern Shans. ‘Voyage d’Exploration,’ p. 409.
CHAPTER XI.
FROM HOTHA TO BHAMÔ.
Adieu!—Latha—Namboke—The southern hills—Muangwye—Loaylone—The Chinese frontier—Mattin—Hoetone—View of the Irawady plain—A slippery descent—The Namthabet—The Sawady route—A solemn sacrifice—A retrospective survey.
On the 27th of August we bade adieu to our friends at Hotha, the wife and daughters of the chief coming out to “see us off”; while their tears, and reiterated requests that we would soon come again, might have been called forth by the departure of some near relatives or very dear friends. We offered to shake hands, “English fashion,” which the eldest daughter declined, as it was contrary to Shan etiquette, but the young wife of the chief mustered up courage to defy public opinion. The saluting guns were fired, and we started amidst the good wishes of a large crowd. The tsawbwa rode with us as far as the boundary of his domains; and all along the route his people turned out with many demonstrations of goodwill to the departing strangers. On the borders of Latha, our friend took leave of us with evident regret, and handed us over to the care of the Kakhyen chief of Namboke.
The Latha district is naturally even more picturesque than that of Hotha. The hills are nearer, and the glen, as it might be called, is more thickly wooded. The town of Latha, which we passed near at hand, though separated from the road by the Namsa river, appeared to be the largest and most populous in the whole valley. We were precluded from visiting it by the unwillingness of the old chieftain to receive the foreigners. A present and polite messages were, however, sent by our leader en passant, and a return present and complimentary message, personally dictated by the chief, were brought back by our messengers. The message attributed his inability to receive us to the prejudices of some of his subjects. He promised that, whenever we should come again, he and his people would be prepared to welcome our presence. His subjects seemed to be no less thriving than those in the other section. All along the route, many-roofed khyoungs, rising above the rich greenery, marked the whereabouts of villages, and pagodas of a very striking type covered the rounded hills and thickly wooded knolls.
We crossed the Namsa by a long wooden bridge, and soon found ourselves involved in a perfect maze of little conical grassy hills, which blocked up the western end of the valley. The road turned to the left from the narrow glen of the Namsa, and gradually ascended, following the course of the Namboke stream, and, crossing a number of small hills, attained the summit of the first spur of the easterly barrier of the valley. From this point to Namboke, the road wound over a succession of spurs, till the village was reached, lying among a group of little wooded hills formed by the junction of spurs of the secondary Hotha range with the great southern barrier of the Tapeng valley, which here unite. After a march of fourteen miles, performed in five hours, we arrived at 5 P.M. in a downpour of rain, which did not make the roofless shed provided as quarters at all inviting. The tsawbwa then conducted us to his house, where we alighted under a salute of three guns, and were accommodated partly in the strangers’ hall and partly in the portico, which latter proved populous with enemies to sleep. The urgent hospitality of the Namboke chief compelled us to gratify him by a day’s halt; and it was only by dogged determination that our leader succeeded in effecting a start at midday on the 29th.
From Namboke we descended into a deep hollow, and thence gradually ascended to the ridge of the main range bordering the Tapeng gorge, along which we travelled to Ashan, eight miles distant, where we put up for the night in Kakhyen houses. The footpath which did duty for road had been recently cleared of jungle by the Kakhyens, the fresh marks of whose dahs were visible on either side, as we wound through magnificent virgin forest. From occasional points of vantage on open hill brows, we looked down on a sea of foliage, unbroken by any clearing or sign of human habitation. From the summit level of the ridge, we looked to the right across the valley of the Tapeng, and saw Ponsee lying, a little speck, on the opposite slope, halfway between the Tapeng and the summit of the lofty Shitee-doung, also called Shitee Meru, as if after the Sacred Hill. The territory of Ponsee extends from this summit to that of Kad-doung, which rose behind us, so that Ashan with its dozen houses lies within the Ponsee borders. Below us, to the left, two narrow deep valleys ran east and west, separated by a low ridge, the termination of the southern boundary of Hotha, which speedily lost itself in the bewildering maze which results from the division and commingling of the great spurs of the main lines of upheaval of these mountains. In every direction, as far as the eye could reach, extended a sea of hills, some rising in great dome-shaped masses six thousand feet above the sea, clothed to their summits with dense forest, unbroken by any cultivation. The greater number of the lesser hills had been evidently cleared, and their abrupt slopes seemed, as it were, fashioned into huge flights of broad steps, the terraces for the rice and maize crops, while by the aid of a good field-glass little Kakhyen villages could be detected dotting the slopes.