had come down and avenged themselves on their
enemies ; but when I asked them who built this city,
as we stood together on the forest-clad battlements of
a dilapidated fortification, they replied: ‘ These cities
of our jungles were in ruins when we came here. This
country is not our own. We came from the north,
where we were independent of the Burmese and the
Siamese and the Talaing who now rule over us. Then
we had a city and a country of our own near Ava,
called Toungfoo, All the Karen o of Siam’ , Burma' , and
Pegu came originally from that region.’ When I asked
for the time of their dispersion they were silent. The
fact was clearly before them ; but the retrospect was too
obscure to determine the distance. Yet they saw far
beyond Toungoo. On the edge of the misty horizon
was the river of running sand which their ancestors had
crossed before coming. That was a fearful trackless
region, where the sands rolled before the winds like the
waves of the sea. They were led through it by a
chieftain, who had more than human power to guide
them.’1 The. river o f running sand is boldly identified
by Mason with the Gobi desert, of which Fa Hian, the
Chinese pilgrim, has left this description: “ There
are evil spirits in this river of sand and such scorching
winds that whosoever encountereth them dies, and
none escape. Neither birds are seen in the air, nor
quadrupeds on the ground. On every side as far as the
eye can reach, if you seek for the proper place to cross,
there is no other mark to distinguish it than the skeletons
of those who have perished there ; these alone seem to
22
A YOU NG BURMAN