civilisation, and another to live a dog’s life in the
jungle.
The timber-salvor himself, a half-clad son of the
forest, is oppressed with the isolation of his life.
Festivals and gaiety are little in his way, and at all
times he is surrounded by the spirits of nature, nearly
all malevolent, all to be appeased with sedulous care.
For one lives in his house, another in the whirlpool
before his door, a third in the tree he is cutting down,
a thousand in the
dark mountains
th a t shut his
country away from
the traffic of the
world. A decade
aOgo ,' to the malevolence
of spirits was
added the lust and
fury of his fellow
man. The headhunter
came raiding
for his head ; the cateran of the hills for his wife, his
cattle, for himself. From Ningin, inland, there is a road
of the Shan which climbs up to the crest of a hill,- its
ascent or descent on the far side being accomplished
by ladders ranged along the sheer face of the cliffs.
By this road the harassed people were used to retreat
before a Chin raid, lifting their ladders after them.
Here, as we steam on our way to the upper waters of
the Chindwin, we are well within the limits of the
424
A TRIBUTARY
empire, but very near for all that to the core of
unrestricted savagery. And I remind myself that, if
to-morrow the empire were to: withdraw its legions,
the curtain of savagery would be instantly let down
again.
Continuing from “ Nancy L e e ” the river runs on
under the open glades of the forest, its course broken
by sandbanks and grassy islands, till near Maulaikgyi
it presents again the spectacle noticed at Mingin. The
banks of the river disclose between them an island
green with noble trees, and silvery with the plumes of
kaing, round which, and under the broad barrier of
blue peaks and mountains, the divided stream circles.
Not very far from here there is a lake, where the
rhinoceros is shot. It is a fever-stricken place, a haunt
of the Chin, but carefully avoided by the Burman.
Kindat, the winter limit of the company s steamers,
is the last British settlement on the Chindwin. Above
this point Englishmen go as travellers, to inspect a
military outpost, to supervise the • construction of a
road, to control the work of a native magistrate. But
no Englishman lives north of Kindat. The vaguely
defined frontier is still several hundred miles away ; but
all that lies between is ruled by a native officer, or a
feudatory prince, or it is not ruled at all. To the
British official in Burma, accustomed to life in remote
settlements, Kindat is the ultimx Thule of official employment,
and, if he goes there, it is either because he
is young and must begin somewhere, or because he has
offended and must be pitnished, or because it is cheap