Amongst the Shans

Front matter

BY

ARGIIDIALD l(OSS COLQUHOUN

IKTRODUCTION

Chapter I

The golden country — Mineral wealth — M. Mouhot’s account — Precious stones — Fortune-hunters — Golden pagodas — Khmer ruins — Their design — Enormous stones — Indian

vii

Contents

viii art — Indian migration to Cambodia — Advance of the Mekong delta — Volcanic action — The French expedition — Ambition — Hardship and disappointment — The Me'kong or Cambodia River unnavigable — Sickness — Exposure —

The French castle in the air — Tonquin as a base — M. de Camp’s views — Little known of the country — Effect of slave-hunting — Depopulation of Vien-Chang — Population west of the Mekong — Richness of the valley of the Mdnam — Importance of Zimme — Railways proposed — Opening up China and the Shan country — Mission . . . i

Chapter II

Leave Bangkok — Reach Maulmain — Our start for Zimmd — Arrive at Pahpoon — Mr. Davis — A dacoit hunter — Intended murder — Presence of mind and pluck — Saved by his spectacles — Importance of Pahpoon — Moung Deepah — Quieting a district — Mr. Bernard — Improved communications— Our mission — Elephants — To the Dahguin ferry — Police-stations — The Salween River — Catching timber . 19

CHAPTER HI.

Foiled in crossing — Frightened Elephants — In Siam — Police — Pitching tents — Building houses in an hour — Wild beasts — Miasma — Sleeping in howdahs — Hmine Long-gyee valley — Population destroyed — White Karens — An oppressed people — American missionaries — A fruitful field —

Mr. Bernard’s report — Main Long-gyee — Large game — A vast breeding-ground — ^Value of youths and maidens — Slave-hunters — The Red Karens — A block to trade — Decency versus Mrs. Grundy — Steep roofs — An immoral priest — Quiet people — A Siamese official — Gentlemanly nails — Pain-killer — Kindness of the town-eater — Arrogance of the Burmese ........ 30

Chapter IV

March to the Baw plateau — The water parting of the Menam and Salween — Lawas — Cultivation of cotton, indigo, sugar-cane, tobacco, and safflower — Preparation of cotton —

CONTENTS.

IX

Chinese purchasers — Iron manufactured — Women miners — Taxes of hill-tribes — Lawas — Lawa converts to Buddhism — Lawas called “ Man-bears ” — Singular custom — Difference between hill-races on the Anam and Shan mountains — Value of slaves — Highlanders of the Shan country . < . -47

Chapter V

Sources of information — Karen habitat — Orang-outang — Lawas and Kachyens — Ka-kuis — Bamboo ornaments — Cultivation — Kakuas — Pig-tails — Buried in their bonnets — Ka-koi — A Jack-in-the-green costume — Independent Lawas — Heads for ornaments — Thugs — Bartering gold — Red Karens — Remnant of a Chinese army — Sacrificing to nats — Pixies’ pranks— Offerings — Divination by fowls’ bones — Frequent sacrifices — Propitiation — Marriage Feast — Divorce — Funerals — Money for the next world — Black-mail — Burmese oppression — Karen-nee — Terraced cultivation — Mineral wealth — Rich soil — Dress — Language — Dacoits — Slaves — Debt — Loss of freedom as a legacy — Serfs not slaves — Kidnapping — Selling wife and children — Slavery on our border — A clever catch — Mutsa — A mixed language — Si-sun — Opium cultivated — Kapin — Corpses as messengers — Kadams — Curly hair — Goitre — Palongs — Tea and opium — Yins — Fixed garments — Toung-thoos — Motsoos — Becoming dress — Shan-Tayoks — Poppy — Sugar-cane — Yendalines — Change of husbands — A degraded race — Let-htas — Tusks as ornaments — Elongated skulls — Girlsand boys separated — Offerings of fruit and flowers — Suicide from shame — Karens — Sgaw — Sho — Pye-ya — Ma-meepgha — American missionaries — Christians — Pa-koo — Magic stones — We-wa — Not weavers — Pie-do — A strict people — Koohto — Love-locks — Brass coils for ornaments — Shoung — Border-guards — Ha-shoo — Degraded race — Ka-roon — Slaves buried alive — Daring men — Rosy cheeks — Pye-ya — Bghai-ka-tew — Bghai-ka-hta — Pray — Naked — Ma-noo-manawTshaw-kho — Karen language — The La-la — Yem — Kali — Putai — Kalau — Ka-kau — Hair like buffalo-horns — The Kama — Kamet — Tsen — Thin — Nga — Ka — La . • 58 b

X

CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

Leave Baw — Beautiful scenery — Dulness of natives— Rubies — Muang Haut — Silkworms — Fruit — Vegetables — Female labourers — The Me'ping — Karen villages — Looms — Glutinous rice — Felicity — A vast plain — Railway to Bangkok — Worked-out teak-forests — Deep potations — Inundation — Bastard sandal-wood — Stick-lac — India-rubber — Kiang Tong — Half-wild elephants — Devastation — Our train — Elephants necessary for travel in the rains — Not hardy animals — Grazing with cattle — Difficult to re-capture — Motherly affection — Baby elephants — Mahouts as footstools— Kind Karen drivers — Elephants rising in price — Catching and taming — White elephants — Inhabited by princes — A cause of war — Elephant artillery . . .84

CHAPTER VIE

Rest-houses provided — Hospitality — Paying for preseiits — Foolish scruples — Kiang Tong — Boats — Boat-women — A friendly official — Bathing incident — Curiosity of Shan ladies — Contretemps — Modesty triumphant — Pagoda serfs — Cities of refuge — Monasteries — Chinese ornamentation' — Avarice — Rudeness — Shameless priests — Lost in the forest — Kindness from villagers — Good-natured curiosity — White all over — Primitive modesty — The shameless people — Water-wheels — Rural life during harvest — Fertility of the Mdping plain — Two harvests — Sugar-cane — Pilferers — Hill cultivation — Fishing hamlets — Balachong — Nga-pee — Siamese Northern Shan States peopled by the Burmese Shans — People of Vien-Chang removed to Bangkok and Zimm^ Shans to Mopme — Return of descendants as slaves .......... 97

Chapter VIII

A chief — Shaking hands — Entry into Zimmd — A cottage orn'e — King of Siam’s kindness — Parisian knick-knacks — A Yunnanese cook — Zimmd — Large households — Bazaar — Women conservative — Shan costumes — Home manufactures— Distance from Bangkok — Dyes — Fair complexions and rosy cheeks — Quiet as Quakers — Cattle-thefts — Frogs

CONTENTS.

XI a delicacy — Chained and unfed prisoners— Punishments — Rule-of-thumb law — Palm-oil — Barbarity — Even-handed justice — Death for theft — -Fines for adultery — Her husband’s slave — The bad old times . . . . .118

Chapter IX

The Sooptip pagoda — Burmese forts— -An aqueduct — The Meping valley — A gigantic bell — A nest of monks — Entrance of Buddhism into Burmah, China, and Cambodia — Shamanism— Absorption into Buddhism — The Tha-tha-na-paing ; its former powers — Monasteries for the lazy — “ Pure from infancy ” — Burmese monks ; respectfully treated — Temples and monasteries at Zimme — Dissolute priests — Character 01 schools — Two bad to one good — A light of Buddhism - — Ruined pagoda — A nat’s temple — Human sacrifice — Religion of the Steins — -Shamanism the fount of nat worship . . . . . . . . . .137

Chapter X

Buddhists browsing in the missionary fold — Anamite converts — The last, best gift of France — An ugly race — The Giao-chi ; a distinct race ; character — A purgatory for missionaries—Hunting a tiger — The Steins — An opening for missionaries — Ancient belief of the Aryans, Chinese, and Jews— Shanti worshipped by the Emperor of China — Missionaries at Zimm^ — Voyage up the Mdnam — Difficult navigation — Bangkok — Its population — Sir John Bowring’s mistake — Population of Siam — Census not published — Need of further exploration — Siam an unknown country . 156

Chapter XI

Burmese contempt for the Shans — Theatres as schools for manners— Matrimony in Burmah — Madras women sold in British Burmah — Value of slaves in Cambodia, Siam, and French Cochin-China — Laws of slavery — Slaves from gratitude — Voluntary slaves — K’ai fak and K’ai kat — Wives and children for sale — -A lesson for servants — Forced marriage — Wives purchasing each other — Wives and husbands mutually responsible — Bond-service not slavery — King’s

CONTENTS.

xii slaves — Debt-bondage — Heavy interest — Compound interest not allowed — Mortgaging one’s person — Debtors in chains — Consent of slave required before he can be sold — Can change his master — A bill of sale — Slaves kindly treated — Heavy taxation, gambling, and improvidence — Government in Siamese provinces — Small pay, and exactions of officials — One-third of the people slaves — Clans — Chiefs and vassals — Danger of feudal power — Weakness of Siam — Railways required — A nation of slaves — Effect of slavery — Chinese traders — France is taking advantage of Siam’s weakness — Enlightenment of the present rulers — Fear of France — Siam at present our market — French jealousy and intentions — ^Intended annexation — M. Blanscubd’s programme — The French railway — Siam’s helplessness— The French toils — France’s action depends upon us — Our stake — The protection of Siam vital to British Burmah — Friendliness of the king to the English — Peace on the frontier — Eagerness for our alliance — The French a cause of disturbance in Indo-China — A warning given by The Times ... ..... 174

Chapter XII

The home of the Shans — Various names for diverse races — Origin of tattooing — Description of the Youe — Tattooing tribes — The operation — Different styles — The History of Siam — A strange story — Scepticism of the King of France — Regal brooms at work in the monasteries — The maxims for monks — Difference between Buddhism and Christianity 206

CHAPTER XHI.

Influence of education upon habits — Woman’s superiority in Burmah and Siam — Training girls — A moral people — Bishop Bigandet’s opinion of Burmese and Siamese women — Equality of sexes — Rules of the novitiant — Duties — Life in a monastery — Condition of priesthood — Zeal dying — Gross pictures of purgatory — The Zimme military — Visit from a chao — The tsobua and his wife — A dominant queen — Morganatic marriages — A moral police — The chao hona — American exiles — A Cingalese “woondouk” in his cups A married man — Number twenty-three . . . .232

CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV

The Siamese commissioner — The power of Siam — Phra Yahna Rangsee — A well of information — The confidence trick — Description of chiefs and people — Light taxation — Elephants of chiefs — Value of slaves — System of slavery — Corvee and Military service — The King of Siam extirpating feudalism — Regeneration of Siam — A patriotic king and minister — Progress under the present King — An Augean stable — The long purse wins the day — Law and justice — Trials — Ordeal by water — Contented people . . .258

Chapter XV

Tyranny in Burmah — Character of Shans — Weapons — Warfare — Rewards for killing tigers — Monkeys with tigers and crocodiles— Chasing deer — Killing a rhinoceros — Buffaloes our foes — Pocketing the French flag — The breeding-ground of our cattle — Cattle disease in Burmah — Difficulties of travel — Rivers unbridged, and without ferries — Pestilence and heat — Fate of Dr. Richardson’s party — A quack and his medicines — Causes of disease — Various cures — Burial and burning — Theatres — Child actors and actresses — Plays — Marriages — Go-betweens — Girls in hiding — Enforced matrimony — Divorces — Monopoly of spirits — Gambling-houses — Opium — Children ...... 268

Chapter XVI

McLeod’s journey — The “Golden Road” — Advice of the Chinese — The former tsobilas of Kiang Tung and Kiang Hung anxious for trade — A great thoroughfare for Chinese — Bazaar at Kiang Tung — Siamese hostility to Burmah —

Shan States independent — Trade route again opened — Zimm^ towards Kiang Hung — Zimme to Kiang Tsen —

Carl Bock on Zimmd — Carl Bock on North Siam — Exploration required — Proposed railway — The field open to our enterprise ......... 300

XIV'

CONTENTS.

SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS.

BY HOLT S. HALLETT.

Part I. History Of Upper Shan

Our neighbours the Shans — Extent of their location — Incorporated with the Chinese — La Couperie’s remarks — The progress of the Aryans and Chinese — Death of feudalism — Annexation of Ss’chuan — Foundation of Yueh and Wu — Shan kingdoms b.c. 2208 — Conquest by the Chinese — Migration to Burmah — Old towns — Birth of the Mau empire— Increase of Shan kingdoms — Effects of having no rule of primogeniture — Killing brothers — Rise of the Mau empire — Conquest of Shan States, Assam, Tali, and Arracan — Shattering Burmah-— Conquest of Yun and the Malay Peninsula — Disruption of Burmah — Arrival of the Shan alphabet — A reign of a hundred years — Theinni as large as Paris— Conversion to Buddhism — A career of conquest — Killing monks — A Shan iconoclast — A Peguan emperor — Burning people by thousands — A depopulated country — The kingdom of Piao — Conquest of Yunnan — The Karen country — Advance of the Thibeto-Burmese — Kolarians and Dravidians — The Mun aborigines of Burmah — A mongrel brood — Resemblance of Talain to Kol — Indo-Chinese languages — Conversion of Malays and Thiamese to Mahomedanism — Lewas — Karen tribes — Connection of the Karens with China — Their early kingdom of Yun — Entrance of the Shans — Their vassalage — Yun and Yun-gyee — Kingdom of Lin-y, or Lam-ap — Karen kings — Zimmd a Karen State — Advance of the Laos Shans — Foundation of towns by the Yun Shans — Origin of the Siamese era — Extent of Zimme' — A refractory infant — Contradictory chronicles — Conquest of Zimme — Ousting of the Siamese — Shans in Yunzaleen — Changes of capital- — Rebellion against Cambodia — Phra Ruang — Shan conquest of Cambodia— The ancient Khmer — A masterful language — Savage, a misapplied term — Civilized and courteous mountaineers — The Bannavs — Influence of China — An early phonetic language — Anam tributary to China — The

CONTENTS.

XV end of the Thang — Disruption of China — Kublai Khan’s conquests — Lin-y, a bar to the Shans — Movements of population — Absorption of Lin-y — A magic sword — Remains of great nations — Disastrous effects of independence — Wars and riches of Lin-y — The Laos Shans of Vien- Chang — Rise of their power — Zimmd annexed — Wars with Pegu and decrease of prosperity — Independence of Luang Prabang — Settlement in Bassac — Destruction of Laos cities — Attack of the Tonquinese — Conquest by Siam . 327

Part II. History Of Lower Shan

Cambodia — Prea Thong — Entrance of Brahmanism, architecture, and sculpture — Conversion to Buddhism — Divisions of empire — Homage to China — Prosperity — Arrival of Portuguese and English — The commencement of the French empire in Indo-China — Brahmanism and Buddhism— Description of people — Conquest of Cambodia by Shans — Wars of Siam, Zimme, Cambodia, Burmah, and Pegu — Peace after 2,000 years of warfare — Growth of French power in Indo-China — French action in Anam — Investiture of Anamese King by China necessary — Concluding remarks 352

Appendix 373

Index 387

J •

I#

I

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Rapids at Keng-Luong, on the Mekong River (to face title page).

PAGE

2. Ancor Wat : Western Entrance of Temple ... 4

3. A Laotian Raft ascending a Rapid . . . . .10

4. Specimen of a Laotian Raft . . . . . .16

5. The Giant’s Highway at Ancor Thom . . . .21

6. Whirlpools at Keng Kanien . . . . . -27

7. Type of Karen Man ....... 34

9. Eastern side of the Isle of Khong ..... 46

10. Type of Khmou (Man) ....... 55

11. Wild Tribes in the Vicinity of Muong-Lim ... 67

12. Wild Man of Ban Kon-Han (southern frontier of Yunnan) 74

13. Wild Man of Pak Ben ....... 82

14. View of Mekong, down Phou Fadang . . . -92

15. A Settlement in the Khong Island, on the Bank of the

16. A Street in Compong Luong 106

17. Fishing Utensils . . . . . . . .111

18. Fishing Utensils 115

19. A Laotian Ox-cart 122

20. Laotian Market Women . . . . . . .126

21. A Laotian Girl of Bassac . . . . . • i34

22. Section of a Ruined Pagoda at Xieng- hong . . • i39

23. Dress of People at Bassac 146

24. Hollow Dragon, used as Utensil for holding Consecrated

25. A Stieng Woman 153

xvii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

xviii

PAGE

27. Navigation in Inundated Forest Land . . . .166

28. Chinese Cultivator at Bassac . . . . . .170

29. A Laotian Woman (Environs of Petchaboury) . . 176

30. Wild Men near Stung Treng . . . . . .184

31. Domestic Utensils ........ 188

I, 2. Fruit Tray or Dish of bamboo, with plaited cover. 3. Wooden Comb. 4, 5, 6. Baskets of bamboo for holding rice. 7. Wooden Ladle for water. 8. Bamboo Lantern.

32. A Fresco in the Pagoda of Peunom .... 193

33. Gongs and Tam-tam inside a Pagoda . . . -197

34. View on the Mekong River below the Khon Cataracts . 202

35. Type of Cambodian ....... 209

36. A Pagoda Library in the Laos Country . . . .218

37. Temple or Sanctuary of Mount Crom .... 224

38. Fan Palms in the Ruins of Xieng-Sen .... 229

39. Implements used for Spinning Cotton, Hemp, and Silk, in

the Laos Country ....... 235

I. Winder to reel cotton. 2. Basket and Bow to card cotton. 3. Spinning-wheel. 4, 5, 6. Distaff, Spindle, and Winder, for hemp.

40. Entrance of the Cave of the Nam-hou . . . .241

41. Type of a Wild Woman at Ban Kon-Han (southern frontier

43. Types of Siamese (the late King and Queen of Siam) . 261

44. Hut or Cottage of the Poor People in the Country of Laos. 266

45. Weapons of the Laotian People ..... 270

I. Lance used in the chase of elephants, length 4 m. 20c. 2. Footsoldier’s Lance. 3. Plaited Bamboo Bullet-box. 4. A Wooden Powder-horn, the cover a being used as a measure. 5. Sword with scabbard.

46. Stag Hunting in the Laos Country . . . . -275

47. Agricultural Implements ....... 280

I. Iloe. 2. Harrow. 3. Plough for a buffalo, (a) iron share,

48. Crossing a Small Arm between The Khon Island and the

Waterfall of Salaphe ....... 283

49. Launching a Boat at Luan-Prabang 287

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

XIX

PAGE

50. Harvest of the “Toddy” extracted from the Corassus

Palm-tree 294

51. Laotian Weapons and other Implements . . . . 298

I. Bow and Arrow in Bamboo. 2. Razor and Case. 3,4. Knife.

5. Scissors. 6. Axe for felling trees ; the part f is movable.

7. Screw-driver, also used as a hammer for guns. 8. Small Axe. 9. Scissors used as areca-nut chopper. 10. Cleavingknife, to open the way through thickets and brambles.

52. Panelling in the Pagoda at Xieng-hong .... 303

53. Prospect of the Cataracts of Khon ; the Fall of Don

54. Laotian Coins 314

I. Iron money (lozenge shape) in use at Stung-Treng. 2. Siamese silver Heal, and its sub-divisions. 3. Copper lats, in use at Bassac and Abone. 4. String of cowries, a currency in use at Luang-Prabang. 5- Cast silver, in use in the Birman Laos.

55. Highway Stone at Wat-phou ...... 323

N.B. — The titles of the illustrations, — from F. Garnier’s “Voyage

d’Exploration dans ITndo-Chine,” — should be read according to the preceding list, where several errors of the context have been amended.