My road lay at first along the edge of the kwins,
and through patches of dripping forest, and over the
river levels buried in tall grass, in which the elephants
became invisible. But for the most part I walked on
the soft, yellow leaves, through tunnels of bamboos
many miles long. I crossed the May-wine river four
times, and on each occasion the little fat policeman
found a new vocation in carrying me over on his back.
Happily he was as strong as he was lazy.
Once, in the course of my journey, I met a Shan
caravan on its way from Shwe-gyin, to which I was
proceeding, and as it went by me, it filled the forest
with its music. The road was level on the whole,
but there were short ascents and descents, at each of
which, although I was shut in in the bamboo tunnels,
I could tell that I was negotiating the minor hills that
run across the valley levels between Pha-pun and
Shwe-gyin. But, so far, except on the first day, I
had had very little hard climbing. My camp for the
night was pitched near Maw-pu, a Karen village of
twenty-three souls, all of whom had to be named, before
the headman could tell me its population.
The village itself was invisible ; but half a dozen
villagers, amongst whom I recognised a man who had
been presented to me at Pha-pun by the mission elder,
came to see me at the sa-khan, where the accommodation
was rougher than any I had yet encountered.
Yet the locality had its charm. A thousand betel-palms
stood about it in erect beauty ; blue hills towered over
the little valley, shutting it in ; a stream murmured
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incessantly a few yards away. The place was wild,
with the desolation of primitive nature, and of a
narrow valley shut in by lofty hills. It lacked the open
charm of May-wine. Yet for an hour or more, when
we were all rested and the cooking fires were lit under
the trees, and the blue smoke Curled upwards, as the
last rays of sunlight streamed through the encompassing
forest, there was a smile upon its face.
All through the night I caused a watch to be kept
upon the elephant-men, lest they should decamp and
leave me derelict in the jungle ; and more than once
I was awakened by the crashing of the great beasts
in the jungle, to find a solitary figure taking his turn
beside the flickering lantern, which threw its circle of
pale light over the other sleepers. Thus I knew that
the watch was being kept.
We were all up by five o’clock the next morning;
but it took us two hours to make a start, because of the
loading of !the baggage and the sullenness of the drivers.
Part of the freight consisted of green cocoanuts, which
had a particular attraction for the elephants, and it
was amusing to see them reaching out their trunks
for them while every one was busy with the baggage.
Occasionally they succeeded in purloining one, and
crushed it open with their forefeet. There is an endless
fascination dn the ways of elephants, that beguiles
many an hour of tedious travel, when they form part
of one’s retinue.
This day weiiad not gone a hundred yards when
we struck a bad bit of ground, along the slippery hill-
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