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.
On the 25th, objections began to be raised to the size of the packages,
which had been previously altered at Bhamô, and next the tsawbwa
appeared to say that he had brought three hundred and thirty-six
bullocks, although we only required two hundred. He explained this,
by stating that Elias had doubted their ability to provide two
hundred bullocks. The chief, therefore, had brought three hundred and
thirty-six, to prove the contrary, and expected to be paid for the lot,
although he admitted that the Resident had contracted for one hundred
and fifty bullocks and twenty ponies. This proposal being got rid of,
the next demand was for payment of the hire in advance, which Colonel
Browne also negatived, but promised to pay him one-half the amount,
provided all was ready for a start in two days.
The next day was accordingly spent in transferring all the remaining
baggage, with the exception of the boxes containing the wardrobes of
the officers and the cash, which were placed under the immediate care
of the Sikhs.
The 27th found the preparations for starting still backward, a state
of things which was not improved by heavy rain, against which the
Englishmen and their followers were but slightly protected, and the
baggage not at all. The chief and his pawmines appeared to receive the
promised advance of hire, but he declined to fix a time for starting,
as he required salt wherewith to load the extra bullocks. When met
by a refusal to delay for this purpose, he departed in a bad temper,
leaving his pawmines to continue the discussion. They finally settled
to start the day but one after, on condition of receiving one viss
of silver in advance, and one hundred and forty rupees as demurrage
expenses, being ten rupees for each of the fourteen villages whence the
bullocks had come. This was a fair charge, as the men and their beasts
had been awaiting our arrival for some days. Elias and I arrived while
the payment was being made in lumps of sycee silver, one of which was
declared by a pawmine to be bad, and, being bitten, proved to be hollow
and filled with sand. Soothed by the receipt of the _compraw_, the
Paloungto chief declared that we were brothers, and he would be ready
to start “the day after to-morrow.”
The evening brought a pleasant surprise to our party by the arrival of
Mr. Clement Allan, who had come from Mandalay in ten days, in a royal
boat. While passing on the river, he heard one of the Sikhs talking to
a Chinaman on the bank, and, hailing them, discovered our whereabouts.
He was thus saved the journey to Bhamô, and all our party were now
assembled, and notwithstanding the heavy rain, we spent a pleasant
evening in anticipation of a speedy departure.
While at breakfast, we were disturbed by hearing a number of gun shots,
and learned that the Kakhyens had endeavoured to remove our clothes
boxes in order to add them to the general baggage. The Sikhs on guard,
having received orders not to lose sight of them, declined to permit
their removal, whereupon the indignant Kakhyens fired their muskets
in the air. The Burmese tsitkay expressed uneasiness as to the temper
of the Kakhyens, and seemed to fear a collision with them, as they
numbered about four hundred men armed with muskets. There evidently
existed some ill-feeling between the Kakhyens and the Burmese, and
it unfortunately happened that all interviews with the chief were
conducted in presence of the Burmese officials. It came out in the
course of the day that the Paloungto chief had not entered into any
convention with the other tsawbwas of the route. The Resident had
been assured that a passage through their territories was certain on
payment of the ordinary dues. The chief had declared that most of
them would support his arrangements, but that it would be necessary
at Mansay to agree with the Phonkan tsawbwa, who would not come to
Sawady. The inveterate curiosity and pilfering habits of the hillmen
were exemplified by their boring holes in several provision tins in
order to ascertain the contents, the holes being afterwards carefully
stopped with cotton; our sugar, salt, and bags of rice were taken
toll of, and sundry bottles of brandy had mysteriously disappeared;
and it was subsequently discovered that the screws had been drawn
out of the boxes. Still, when it is remembered that a number of wild
hillmen had been detained in this place for a fortnight, with scanty
provisions, allowance must be made for petty thieving, without arguing
a deliberate intention of plunder. Our leader, however, began to be
seriously anxious about the prospects of safe transit through the hills
by this route. To the difficulty arising from the known antipathy of
the Burmese to the Lenna Kakhyens, there was now added the declaration
of some Shans of Muangmow, that the hillmen would not be permitted to
cross their borders, and this tended to make Colonel Browne suspicious
of the real intentions of the Paloungto chief. The climax was reached
when the old interpreter, Moung Mo, announced in the evening that our
expected start was postponed _sine die_, and that the chief, displeased
at being refused the charge of our clothes boxes, declined to accompany
us, devolving our escort on his pawmines. Upon this, Colonel Browne
resolved to return to Bhamô, and make arrangements for proceeding by
the old Ponline route, instead of that by Sawady and the Shuaylee.
But I think it doubtful that the Paloungto chief had any dishonest
intentions. He could not have divined the presence of the specie in
the boxes, and it was natural that he should require all the baggage
to be made over on the eve of starting, and should resent the obvious
imputation on his honesty, implied in the refusal to surrender these
boxes.
We rode to Bhamô through jungle grass fifteen feet high, interrupted
occasionally by hollows studded with trees. The intersecting creeks
were difficult to cross, as the path, or rut, through the high
sandbanks was steep, and barely wide enough for a passage, so much so
that one of the ponies, with his rider, rolled back into the water,
which was only about three feet deep. Having arrived at Bhamô, and
decided to go by the Ponline route, if practicable for the led horses,
the Resident started for Tsitkaw, to summon the Kakhyen chiefs, and
provide mules. The Woon, fearing that the Paloungto chief would not
surrender the baggage, despatched a reinforcement of armed men on board
of four war-boats, mounted with gingals. We returned to Sawady by
water, bringing several large boats for the baggage, which were left
at Yuathet, by way of precaution against alarming the Kakhyens. On the
30th the tsawbwa and his pawmines came in from their camp, and Browne
recapitulated the delays and broken promises of the past week as well
as the want of arrangements with the other tsawbwas of the route. The
chief replied that his refusal to start had been caused by his anger at
being refused the care of the boxes; that he was willing to start “the
day after to-morrow;” but if we refused to go by his route, he should
expect to be paid the agreed hire for the bullocks brought down. The
reply to this was that, whatever the Resident and pawmines, who had
made the original contract, agreed to as justly due should be paid.
Browne, however, offered a douceur of a viss of silver as soon as the
baggage was restored. This was agreed to; and the men at once set to
work to bring back the boxes, which were transferred to the large
boats, and on January 31st the entire mission, escorted by the Burmese
war-boats, returned to Bhamô, having definitely abandoned the route by
Sawady, and elected to travel by the northern or Ponline road.
Letters had been received from the Resident, written from Tsitkaw, to
the effect that plenty of mules were procurable, and that the Burmese
officials had summoned the Kakhyen chiefs. On our arrival at Bhamô, we
found a force of three hundred men in war-boats armed with gingals,
collected under the command of the Woon, who had been about to come in
person to Sawady to deliver us, if necessary, from the hands of the
Lenna Kakhyens. This was an additional proof, if any had been needed,
of the care of the Burmese for our welfare, and of the uncertainty
of their relations with the southern hill tribes. It was with great
reluctance that I for one turned my back on the Sawady route, the full
exploration and eventual establishment of which as the future trade
route had been proposed as a special object of our mission. It was
generally understood to be, though the longest, the one which presented
fewest physical difficulties; and of its actual employment we had
ocular demonstration in the trading parties, numbering many mules and
bullocks, which were continually coming and going during our stay at
its terminus.
The northern route had been thoroughly explored six years before,
and full information collected concerning its physical and social
conditions, while the change in the political relations affected all
routes alike. As was afterwards ascertained, we were expected by the
Chinese at Muangmow, whither, it appears, Li-sieh-tai had gone to meet
the mission, and, as far as may be judged by his conduct, without
hostile intentions; and besides all this, Mr. Elias, cooperating with
the British Resident at Bhamô, had visited the Lenna Kakhyens a month
before, and had made arrangements with them, according to which they
had brought down their beasts of burden for the conveyance of the
mission. Among various reasons assigned for abandoning the route were
the suspicious bearing of the Paloungto chief, and the possible, if not
probable, risk of delay in the hills. This would have been aggravated
by the chance that the provisions of the Sikhs, who were only supplied
with flour for thirty-five days, might run short. Another danger was
conceived to lie in the want of arrangements with the Phonkan chief,
who might prove as obstructive as he of Ponsee had done, and either
stop or fleece the mission. With regard to the behaviour of the Lenna
chief of Paloungto, it might have been expected that any lurking
ill-will would have been aggravated by the disappointment experienced
at losing the fair profits of a convoy, for which he had brought down
carriage and waited so long. At the time, the presence of the large
Burmese force may be thought to have restrained him; but the subsequent
reception given by him and his brother of Wurrabone to Mr. Elias and
Captain Cooke showed him to be thoroughly well affected, and almost
anxious to prove the absence of any ill-feeling. It was a generally
wise and proper policy to thoroughly conciliate the goodwill of the
Burmese officials, and to carry them with us in all our proceedings.
This line of conduct was carefully and consistently adopted by our
leader, but, consequently, there was no opportunity afforded to the
Kakhyen chief of expressing his sentiments as to the Burmese guard.
His only intercourse with our party was by interview held in presence
of the tsitkay, at which he was expected to take the position of an
inferior, squatting on the ground before men to whom he acknowledged
no subordination; and it is to be regretted that he did not find an
opportunity for confidential communication which might probably have
led to a better understanding. It must also be remembered that Kakhyen
chiefs do not comprehend the value of time, or share our notions as
to procrastination, and are not above “trying it on” in order to gain
a little more silver. As regards the possible complications with the
Phonkan tsawbwa, who six years before had announced his wish for the
passage of British commerce through his country, although he could not
or would not come into Sawady, he might have been induced to have met
and conferred with us at Mansay, while, if supplies of flour were not
procurable at Bhamô, yet, according to the experience acquired in 1868,
they were available in the Shan valleys and at Momien.
On February 1st, we were all assembled in our old quarters at Bhamô.
The Woon was rather nonplussed at the adoption of the Ponline route,
and anxious as to the dangers of attack to which the mission might be
exposed before reaching Manwyne, though no whit relaxing his efforts to
carry out our wishes. Another Woon, he of Tsaleng, arrived in the royal
steamer, and seemed to fill the post of counsellor to his colleague,
who was perplexed by the news which arrived from Cooke, that all the
tsawbwas were at Manwyne discussing the tariff, and could not return
for some days. The same steamer brought up from Mandalay two Kakhyen
chiefs of the central route, viz. Muangkha and Poonhya. In return for
services rendered to the recent Burmese embassy, these two chiefs had
been received with high honour, and presented with gold umbrellas and
gilded saddles. They rode through Bhamô on ponies decorated with the
gilded equipage, while each rider wore a golden head-band bearing his
titles, preceded by a man carrying the golden umbrella, and escorted by
others beating gongs and proclaiming his rank.
On the 3rd, the heavy baggage and guard were embarked in boats to
proceed to Tsitkaw, accompanied by Fforde and myself, leaving Colonel
Browne and Margary to follow by land, while Elias had arranged to
attempt the passage by the Sawady route, and join the rendezvous at
Momien. The flotilla started from the river bank at Bhamô, and poled
up the Irawady to the mouth of the Tapeng, our progress against the
rapid stream being slow, and impeded by numerous projecting snags and
occasional sandbanks, where the water was so shallow that the crew
were obliged to jump overboard and push or drag the heavily laden
boats along. Immediately outside the mouth of the Tapeng extended a
bar of sandbanks, beyond which the great river suddenly deepened to
about eighty feet of water. In this deep reach numerous round-headed
dolphins were sporting. This being the pairing season, the males were
chasing the females. Some were swimming with their heads half out of
water, and _jerking from their mouths_ large quantities of water to
some distance. One or two were noticed apparently standing erect in the
water, with their heads elevated straight above its surface, so that
nearly the whole of the pectoral fins was plainly visible; others, in
pairs, were rolling about on their sides. One was fired at, but simply
responded by a splutter and a dive. The boatmen, seeing our interest in
them, declared that they would come if called, and proceeded to utter a
peculiar sound of _hrr, hrr_, and to drum on the side of the boat with
a stick. They informed us that the dolphins do not proceed higher up
the river than a rocky headland in the first defile, called Labein-hin,
or Dolphin Point, because the nats have established a customs station
there to collect an impost, which the dolphins are not willing to pay.
The dolphin of the Irawady (_Orcella fluminalis_, Andr.) is the only
round-headed form as yet known to be found in fresh water, individuals
having been rarely observed much below Prome, three hundred miles
from the sea, or nearly so. The colour of the body is a dusky slate,
and the under part of a dirty white; they attain a considerable size,
individuals ten feet in length being not uncommon. Besides the round
head, they are distinguished from the long-snouted dolphin of the
Ganges (_Platanista gangetica_, Lebeck), which also inhabits fresh
water exclusively, by the much larger, fully proportioned eye. The
latter, as a tenant of the muddy water of the Ganges, which must be
almost impervious to vision, has a very minute eye. In the Yang-tze and
in the great lake of the Cambodia, dolphins are also found, and will
probably prove to be closely allied to those of the Irawady; but as
yet we have no knowledge of their characters. In the estuaries of the
Bay of Bengal there is a small, round-headed dolphin closely allied to
this Irawady cetacean, but it never ascends to the fresh water of the
rivers. Apart from the scientific interest of these large fluviatile
mammals, they form a striking feature in the river scenery of the
Irawady as they roll and tumble in long lines up the deep reaches, and
seem to delight in keeping pace with or outracing the steamers. They do
not appear to migrate through the whole distance of the river’s course,
but to confine themselves within certain districts. The fishermen of
the river regard them with a superstitious respect, and each village
is believed to be under the protection of a particular dolphin, which
guards the fishery. An offer of one hundred rupees altogether failed to
induce the people to catch a specimen; and it was only by the fortunate
acquisition of a dead carcass thrown upon the bank, and secured by
Captain Bowers, that I was enabled to make a thorough comparison of
the structure of this remarkable inhabitant of the river. It should be
added that the great black-headed gull is so regular a companion of
the dolphin that it is called by the fishermen the _labein-nuet_, or
dolphin-bird.
The progress of the flotilla of six laden boats against the rapid
stream of the Tapeng was necessarily slow. The right bank presented a
wide stretch of level country studded with tall cotton trees and oil
trees. The highest leafless branches of the former furnish eyries for
the ring-tailed eagle (_Haliaetus leucoryphus_, Pallas), a pair of
which birds were perched on a tree close to the bank commanding the
river. One bird was added to our collection. The left bank was clothed
to the water line with an impenetrable forest of magnificent trees,
rising from a jungle with ratans and luxuriant musæ. Numerous peacocks
displayed their splendid plumage on the high branches, most provokingly
out of shot. Hornbills, brown doves with violet necks abounded, and in
the jungle, barking deer, hog-deer, and sambur. The exposed sandbanks
were covered with snake-birds; terns, black-headed egrets, plovers, and
Brahminy ducks and wild geese also were frequent. We moored for the
night at the village of Queyloon, in time for a short excursion to some
abandoned rice plantings, in search of wild ducks; returning from which
we observed numerous small owls, the soft eccentric flight of which
resembled that of the goat-sucker.
Soon after sunrise we were again _en route_, having waited some
time for a promised supply of buffalo milk, this being an almost
unattainable luxury in Burma; but the baby buffalo had anticipated our
demand, and disappointed our hopes. At the village of Tahmeylon, where
we had made a stoppage on the first ascent of the Tapeng in 1868, the
changes of the river channel were exemplified. At that time the water
ran deep under a high bank, but now a broad sandbank extended in front
of the village. We had landed on the other side of a neck of land which
caused a bend in the river, intending to strike the public path, which
we missed, and had to make our way by buffalo runs, which penetrated
the tall thick grass like tunnels. Along these we had to proceed nearly
doubled up, occasionally caught and almost choked by creepers, drenched
by the dank grass overhead, and knee-deep in miry clay. By dint of
keeping the sun before us, we succeeded in reaching Tahmeylon by noon.
Beyond this, the course of the river winds in a remarkable manner,
doubling successive long tongues of land, and enclosing a large island
overgrown with impenetrable jungle, until the village of Maloolah is
reached, on the left bank. The villagers warned us to moor our boats
for the night at some distance from the bank for fear of tigers, which
are numerous, and attack boats near the bank, and even the villages, at
night. In the neighbouring village of Tsitgna, ten of the inhabitants
had been killed by tigers in the preceding twelve months. We crossed
the stream in the morning in a dug-out, intending to shoot peafowl in
the forest which covered the rising ground on the right bank, but the
margin of the forest proved so swampy as to prevent all access. Jungle
fowl and squirrels were numerous, and our servants reported hog-deer.
We rejoined the boats at the outflow of the Manloung stream, having
breakfasted at the pagodas of Old Tsampenago. A labyrinth of streams
and swamps extends on the right bank to the place where a branch of
the Tapeng flows round and joins the Manloung stream. On the left
bank the forest is dense and high, and beyond it rises the irregular
outline of the Kakhyen hills, gradually becoming more distinct as
Tsitkaw is approached. At this village we found a khyoung outside the
stockade prepared for our accommodation, and the baggage was stored
in a large shed used for the storage of the royal cotton. A Burmese
guard, under the command of the tsare-daw-gyee, formed a cordon around
our residence, and by night had erected a number of huts, while their
fires formed a circle within which no robbers nor tigers were likely to
penetrate.
At five in the afternoon of the next day, Browne, Margary, and Allan
arrived from Bhamô, which they had left at 10.30. The necessity of
avoiding the network of streams and swamps had obliged them to cross
the river three times in boats, while the two led horses and the ponies
swam across.