Shan letters were sent to the tsawbwa of Muangmow, and Margary despatched Chinese letters to the governor of Momien and to Li-sieh-tai, who had sent Kakhyen messengers to Tsitkaw to carry them forward. It subsequently appeared that the letter had not reached Li, as he had left Nantin before the arrival of the messenger, and proceeded to Muangmow to await our coming.
The 21st was a day of heavy rain, which seriously interfered with packing arrangements; and as it was full moon, all amusement was interdicted by the observance of the Burmese worship-day, which was ushered in by the tolling of the Woon’s gong at seven, and at eight o’clock we found him presiding over a congregation which assembled in his house, the prayers being led by several priests. Our tai was quite free from the motley group of Burmese, Shan, and Kakhyen visitors who had daily thronged it. This strict observance of what may be called the sabbath was due to a recent revival of piety, stimulated by royal orders on the subject.
CHAPTER XIV.
SAWADY.
The hun pooay—Mission proceeds to Sawady—Visit from Woon—Rumoured opposition—The Woon as a musician—Sawady village—Royal orders—Baggage difficulties—Arrival of Mr. Clement Allan—Paloungto chief—Kakhyen pilfering—Abandon route—Adopt Ponline route—Reasons for change—Tsaleng Woon—Departure of mission to Tsitkaw—Elias and Cooke proceed to Muangmow—Dolphins—Up the Tapeng—Tahmeylon—Arrive at Tsitkaw.
On the following day the greater part of the baggage was stowed in boats ready for departure to Sawady, which was fixed for the 23rd. The Woon made his appearance at an early hour, bent on inviting Margary and his writer, and all of us, to spend this the last day with him. In the forenoon the usual ying pooay, or dance, went on, but in the evening a hun pooay, or pooay acted by marionettes, was given. This was a much more artistic affair than that of the Chinese puppets, the marionettes being well made, regularly dressed figures about three feet high. The stage on which they are presented is removed to a distance, the proscenium forming, as it were, a frame proportioned to the size of the figures; and the movers of the puppets stand behind a screen at the back, and manipulate the little heroes and heroines by means of strings. To the spectators they have a most real appearance, being very cleverly handled, and the speeches are made by the invisible actors with such art as to really seem as if proceeding from the puppets, so as to suggest ventriloquism. This performance was evidently the most popular form of entertainment. The Woon sat eyeing the puppets intently through his binocular, just as his royal master had eyed us at the audience, and the townspeople, squatted in rows, remained till midnight eagerly watching the mannikins. The Woon produced an alarum clock which had been rendered incapable of going, and amused himself tinkling the alarum; but he was quite ignorant of the value of the hours, and even after several lessons illustrated by a watch, he utterly failed to fix the hands.
On the next day, most of our party rode to Sawady, to which place the guard and all the baggage had preceded them. Mr. Elias and I, however, remained behind until we should receive the mot d’ordre from Browne, as the operation of packing the bullocks was likely to occupy some days. The Woon, whom I had not seen that day, came in the afternoon to apologise for his apparent neglect, as he had been engaged in receiving public subscriptions for the regilding of the Shuaykeenah pagoda. He was delighted at my offering a small contribution, and waxed eloquent on the entente cordiale engendered by such conduct, and sent for his wife to bring a large silver vase containing the collection, to which my donation was duly added. We had a long talk on the archæology of the district, the old cities of Tsampenago and Kuttha, and the founder of the Shuaykeenah pagoda, whom he asserted to have been a king of Ceylon, named Thee-yee-da-ma-thanka, a legend commonly current regarding the more ancient pagodas of Burma. In the evening he sent the tsare-daw-gyee and the two tsitkays to pay a visit, from whom I learned that there existed ancient histories of the district in some of the khyoungs, one of which they promised, if possible, to obtain. When they were shown a photograph of the Soolay pagoda at Rangoon, they expressed their regret that during the municipal improvements of the town the site of the sacred building had become the junction of cross-roads, which seemed in their minds a desecration. They were, however, relieved by the assurance that this must have been done by the British authorities in ignorance of the religious prejudices thereby affected.
Two or three days passed without any incident of consequence, save that on the 25th a Chinaman came to the Residency to report that he had overheard some Yunnan Chinese talking in the bazaar, and had gathered that an armed force had been despatched from Momien and Tali-fu to Muangmow, under the command of Li-sieh-tai, to oppose our entrance into China. His account, however, was very confused, and he had not succeeded in hearing any very distinct statements, as the men had evidently been suspicious of him. It is probable that this was merely a garbled version of the fact that Li-sieh-tai had crossed from the Tapeng valley to Muangwan with a few men en route to Muangmow. The same day letters arrived from Sawady to say that the departure of the mission was fixed for the following day, upon which we went at once to the Woon to secure boats, who most readily placed them at our disposal. He afterwards paid us a visit, bringing his Burmese harp of twelve strings, on which he showed himself no mean performer. He was accompanied by a boy who played a sort of harmonicon, or musical glasses constructed of slips of hard wood, which vibrated with a sweet, full tone. Another performer clashed a pair of cymbals, and clicked split bamboos like castanets. The airs were sweet and plaintive. After the music we had a long conversation about England, Prussia, France, and Persia, with the general relations of which governments he showed himself to be well acquainted. Railways and the mode of transit to England were also discussed; my interpreter, however, though an educated Burmese and son of a native official, proving very incompetent, and putting absurd statements into my mouth. The Woon had brought a present of a fruit, which he said was a great rarity from Yunnan. It was the size of an apple, of a bright yellow colour, with a delicate skin enclosing a jelly-like pulp, the coolness of which he expressed by a pantomimic passing of his hand from the throat to the epigastric region. He called it tsay-thee; but inquiries from Elias and Margary identified it as a persimmon. Of this fruit, quantities in a dried form are imported to Burma, where they are a favourite sweetmeat; but the fresh fruit is unknown.
On the 27th we were ready to take boat to Sawady, and I bade farewell to my friend, the Woon, who charged me to write to him. Elias and myself started from Bhamô about 11.30, and arrived at Sawady in a little more than a couple of hours.
Sawady is a miserable village of about forty houses, though formerly containing five times that number; but continual inroads by the Kakhyens have reduced it to its present scanty dimensions. It is under the protection of the Phonkan tsawbwa, who also, for a yearly payment of salt, protects the village of Yuathet, situated about three quarters of a mile to the north on the high bank of a small creek called Theng-leng, which flows into the Irawady between high alluvial banks. The village of Sawady is defended by a double bamboo palisade, and a similar palisade runs along the narrow path dividing the two rows of houses. As a further protection, boats, corresponding to the number of houses, are moored to the river bank, and nightly the inhabitants retire to them for sleep, and thus secure themselves against the not infrequent nocturnal attacks of the Kakhyens. Sawady and Yuathet are both small emporiums for trade, whither the Kakhyens resort to procure fish and salt, and they bring bamboos to be floated down the river; they are also ports for the trade to the interior. Around stretches a vast plain, bounded by the distant hills, profusely covered with forest and jungle, sometimes of underwood, sometimes of thick grass fifteen feet high, with frequent swamps, which in the wet season are covered with water. Before our arrival, Margary and Fforde had made expeditions into the forest in search of game. Peafowl abounded there, perched at inaccessible heights, on the highest trees, and they found the tracks of tigers and other large game, but the solitudes were still as death, and they returned without having started any animal. We found the convoy of bullocks, under the charge of some hundred Kakhyens, encamped outside the village. The Paloungto tsawbwa, a respectable-looking man, clean and well dressed, with a huge roll of gold-leaf by way of ear-ring distending the lobe of his ear, along with his pawmines, was ready to receive the baggage. The Burmese guard encamped in hastily improvised tais, while the Englishmen were accommodated in a rickety zayat screened with curtains.
On the second day (January 24th), orders came from Mandalay that the Burmese guard should escort the mission right up to the nominal frontier of Burma and China or to Kwotloon, instead of Mansay, as previously arranged and approved by the Kakhyens, whose opinion of the change was not given. They continued to take over the packages, giving receipts for each, and making panniers suitable for carriage on the bullocks, into which the boxes were to be packed.