-*> Over the Paung-Laung Hills
change on the face of the little river. For in truth
there was some serene quality^,In this place, which
made it, for all its remoteness and its isolation, attractive,
and as the evening faded, it passed insensibly
into the category of places in the world I would fain
re-visit.
The next morning there was a dense fog in the
valley of the river, and the sun was long up before I
could make certain of the sky. It had rained hard
during th|§ night; but in a little while the sky
showed blue and clear, the fog-curtain rolled away,
an ill no longer had any hesitation in setting out. But
now there was unlooked-for trouble with the elephant-
men, who had grown sullen and wished to return.
They were persuaded, however, to proceed.
We made a very long and tiring march that day,
and though, we got away by seven, the elephants did
not reach their destination until half-past two, and
it was three before I' got any breakfast. On my way
I passed the new hamlet of which I had been told,
and there were symptoms of Karen villages, evident
in plantations of the betel-palm, in taung-gya jlearings,
and in rough bamboo fences with wickets across the
road.
From one of these a slight footpath led away to
a village, but neither this nor any other village throughout
my route, although I was travelling through a
Karen country, was visible to my eyes as I went.
This Karen instinct .of concealment furnishes, in itself,
an epitome of the history of the race>
701