The Laos are also skilled in the manufacture of silver-ware. Each village has usually one or more native artists engaged in executing orders for the princes and wealthy classes. The modus operandi is primitive, and the work lacks finish, but the general effect is bold and pleasing. A thin plate of the right shape is filled with a composition of wax and resin. The patterns are from memory, usually a medley of mythical birds and beasts, and the design is hammered out with a style and sort of blunt chisel, the plastic filling yielding readily to each blow; the figures and scroll-work stand out in high relief. The value of articles is determined by the weight, with fifty per cent. added for labor.
Occupations.
Life in Laos is exceedingly monotonous. The women do much of the hard work in the field as well as in the household. During the dry, cool season, from November to May, even the trees and grass seem dried up and lifeless, only the orchids showing any signs of vitality. Heavy thunder- and hail-storms in May often herald the opening of the rainy season. Then all nature takes a fresh start: the rice is planted; new leaves shoot out; the heat becomes intense; vegetation is almost spontaneous. After planting, only a very little labor is needed to secure a good harvest in a favorable season. Both buffaloes and oxen are used for ploughing, and are guided by reins attached to the noses of the animals. Elephants abound, and are also employed as beasts of burden, especially in the wood-yards. Carts are few, and the rude native ones sometimes used to transport rice are drawn by men. The paddy-granaries are simple, huge barrel-shaped bamboo baskets, plastered to keep out mice and insects.
There are few amusements. Men, women and children are adepts in fishing, and thus provide food for the household. The chase is sport little indulged in by the lower classes, with the exception of professional tiger-hunters. Two or three times a year grand hunting-expeditions are organized by the principal chiefs and cause much excitement.
The habits of social and domestic life among the Laos present some striking contrasts to those of most heathen nations. Women are kindly treated, and even honored by special favor and consideration in cases of litigation with men. The baby-daughter is cared for as tenderly as the little son, and child-marriage is unknown, while old age is respected and watched over. Marriage is not as much a matter of trade as it usually is among heathen people, and divorce is less common and more governed by just and humane laws. Their treatment of the sick is absurd in the extreme, so far as true care and healing are concerned (as will appear in the chapter on that subject), but their intention seems to be to do for their suffering ones all that their limited knowledge and superstitious beliefs allow.
Traveling.
The great need of Laos is a better outlet for trade. At present these little kingdoms are practically shut in from the outside nations. There are parts of this country which can only be reached by elephant-traveling, so dense are the jungles and so difficult the passage. Missionaries laboring here are more isolated from the rest of the world than at most stations, as will appear from the following statements: There is no established line of boats going and coming, as upon our own waters, but all transporting is done by private individuals, and is only an occasional or incidental occurrence. For this reason our inland missionaries have to wait sometimes from three to five months before receiving any mail-matter from Bangkok, and in one instance Cheung Mai had no mail for eight months. At Rahang gentlemen may leave the river and complete the journey to Cheung Mai by elephant, but ladies could not endure the ride, it is such a very tiresome mode of travel. The elephant is a faithful and indispensable servant in that land of mountains. All overland transportation throughout Laos is carried on by means of elephants and oxen. Large droves of oxen are frequently seen traveling single file behind a leader decked with a mask fancifully made out of shells covering his whole face, while from between his horns a large peacock tail rises and sweeps gracefully, though comically, over his back. Each ox is laden with an immense pair of baskets thrown over saddle-bag fashion, and in these are placed the articles for transportation. Sometimes every ox is covered nearly all over with strings of little bells, which add some life to the scene. The peddlers from the north do a large trade with Siam and Laos, and the Shan caravans are almost entirely composed of these oxen, which give warning of their approach by a musical sound of tinkling bells echoing through the forest glades and from the steep mountainsides. The object of the mask upon the leader is to protect the caravan from the assaults of evil spirits. The Yunnan caravans are composed of small ponies and mules. To prevent delay from grazing along the road, a ratan muzzle is provided. Elephants also are decorated with bells to give notice of their approach to caravans coming from an opposite direction. As they tramp steadily along they regale themselves with the tender shoots of overhanging trees. When crossing a stream they generally take a trunkful of water whether thirsty or not.
Official passports are curious documents, consisting of long narrow strips of palm-leaf coiled into a ring, and at each end is an embossed stamp. This stamp determines the real weight of the document, and is the first point examined before reading the order. These leaves are almost imperishable, being tough and entirely unaffected by water, and for such a purpose are superior to paper. When the writing grows indistinct it is easily made legible by wetting the finger and rubbing it over the leaf, thus cleansing the smooth surface and filling the scratches with a thin film of dirt. Such a passport frequently includes an order to inferior officials to furnish the traveler with the necessary elephants for his journey. Throughout Laos written official documents are almost invariably thus scratched with a style on a strip of palm-leaf.
The enormous number of wild elephants in the forests and domesticated elephants in the towns strikes one with amazement. Tigers, deer, wild hogs, pea-fowls and jungle-chickens also abound in the forests; while dogs, cats, crows and lizards are among the domesticated pets. The country is rich, not only in valuable timber, but in minerals. The opening up of the market by railroad would result in immediate profit, bringing down the Laos products and taking back in exchange English and American manufactures, for which a large and increasing demand would be readily created.
Laos Oil and Wine.