MANDALAY TO MOILTEN.* THE public interest excited by the death

of Mr. Margery and the repulse of the mission to which he was attached have suggested to Dr. Anderson, the scientific member of the expedition, the publica- tion of a brief narrative of the disastrous journey of last year, pre- ceded by a compendious statement, compiled from official records, of a former expedition undertaken in 1868, under the command of Colonel Sladen, with a view to examine the possibility and probable results of reopening the Bham0 trade-route from British Burma to China. Colonel Sladen's instructions, received from the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, directed him to in- vestigate the causes of the cessation of trade, to discover the exact political position of the Kakhyens, the Shane, and the Panthays, and to influence those communities in favour of the restoration of commerce. The volume before us does not contain the results of Dr. Anderson's special work as a naturalist, of which he tells us that a full and illustrated report is in preparation, by direction of the Government of India ; the chief interest of the present work lies in the description given of the communities through whose country the expeditions passed or intended to pass, and upon an intelligent co-operation with whom the success of the overland trade scheme must depend.

The mountain ranges which on the Burmo-Chinese frontiers define the basin of the Irawady are the country of the Kakhyens, a Burmese appellation given to tribes which designate themselves as Chingpaw, or " men." These are a wild race of mountaineers, supporting themselves upon such scanty crops as the natural fertility of the soil permits the laziest of mortals to raise, supplemented by salt-fish acquired from their neighbours, if possible, by purchase, and by buffaloes acquired, if possible, by the process known as " cattle-lifting." For the luxuries of life, they depend upon the black-mail which their position, on hills that every mission or trade-convoy must pass over, enables them to levy. Dr. Anderson remarks, with a seemly apology for the comparison, that it was impossible for him to help being re- minded, by these Kakhyens, of Scottish Highland clans of the olden time, so many were the points of resemblance that occurred in their customs and character :—

"Each clan is ruled by an hereditary chief or tsawbwa, assisted by lieutenants or pawmines, who adjudicate all disputes among the vil- lagers. Their office is also hereditary, and properly limited to the eldest son, whereas the chieftainship descends to the youngest son, or failing sons, to the youngest surviving brother. The land also follows this law of inheritance, the younger sons in all cases inheriting, while the elder go forth and clear wild land for themselves. Between Tsitkaw and Manwyne, seven clans under separate chiefs are met with, each chief considering himself entitled to exact a toll of four annas por mule-load from travellers through his district. The chieftain's good- will being secured by payment of his toll, that of the people follows as • Mandalay to Momien: a Narrative of the Two Espeditions to Western china of 1868 and 1875. By J. Anderson, M.D. London : Macmillan and Co.

a matter of course. The tsawbwa is the nominal owner of the land, but a suggestion to a villager that the chief might evict him from his sawing was replied to by a significant sawg motion of the hand across the throat."

Those of the Tsawbwas who adhere to old Kakhyen fashions wear, as an outward and visible sign of authority, neck-hoops of silver, resembling Celtic torques, and necklaces of beads or cylin- ders. But of the equipment of male Kakhyens, of all ranks, the most essential article seems to be the dab, or knife, which is worn half-sheathed in wood, and suspended to a ratan hoop, covered with embroidered cloth, and adorned by a leopard's tooth. These dabs are of two kinds,—one, two feet and a half in length, with a long wooden hilt ; the other, shorter and broader, widening from the hilt to the truncated tip. They are wielded with great dexterity, either to cut down trees or men, or to execute the fine lineal tracery with which the bamboo opium-pipes and fan-cases of the Kakhyens are decorated. Other arms are a long match- lock and a cross-bow, with arrows poisoned with the juice of an aconitum. Of a more peaceful nature is an ingenious apparatus for lighting the constant pipe. " It resembles a child's pop-gun, and consists of a small cylinder four inches long, open at one end, into which is very tightly fitted a piston, with a cup-shaped cavity at the lower end. In it a small pellet of tinder is placed, the piston is driven down smartly, and as quickly withdrawn, when the tinder is found to be ignited." Why should not English clubs and mess-rooms be provided with similar apparatus ? It would surely be superior to the flint-and-cord arrangement now in vogue among officers, so fatal to thumb-nails.

In the country about Rome, when a degenerate Italian has been forced to do a little hard work, his form of complaint is, "It is work only fit for a woman," and similar notions seem to pre- vail among the lazy ruffians of whom we are speaking. The men, as our author mildly puts it, are " averse to labour," but the women of all ranks spend their lives in constant drudgery. Their work, besides those domestic concerns comprehended in the American term " chores," includes the cutting and carrying of wood, spinning, dyeing, weaving, and the preparation of sheroo, a kind of beer, a beverage much consumed by the smoking, drinking, and gossiping husbands. The brewing of sheroo is regarded, we are told, as a serious, almost solemn task, and the women engaged in it have to live in a kind of vestal seclusion. Where women do all the work, a marriageable girl is naturally an article of value. A wealthy Kakhyen pays for his wife a female slave, ten buffaloes, ten spears, ten dabs, ten pieces of silver, a gong, two suits of clothes, a matchlock, and an iron cooking-pot. Unchastity be- fore marriage does not lessen the selling-price of a wife, and should an unmarried girl die enceinte, the father of the child is bound, under penalty of being sold as a slave, to pay the parents a suitable compensation.

The Kakhyens worship " mats," good and evil spirits, in a " good-god, good-devil " kind of way, rewarding and giving thanks to the benign and endeavouring to bribe the malignant, and they consult the will of the nats by a possessed medium. Their belief in a future state is shown by the nature of their funeral rites. Among many curious superstitions, they believe that when a woman dies in child-birth, the mother and her unborn child become a fearful compound vampyre :—

" The young people fly in terror from the house, and divination is resorted to, to discover what animal the evil spirit will devour, and another with which it will transmigrate. The first is sacrificed, and some of the flesh placed before the corpse; the second is hanged, and a grave dug in the direction to which the animal's head pointed when dead. Here the corpse is buried with all the clothes and ornaments worn in life, and a wisp of straw is burned on its face, before the leaves and earth are filled in. All property of the deceased is burned on the grave, and a but erected over it. The death-dance takes place, to drive the spirit from the house, in all cases."

From Mandalay to Bham8, a distance of 250 miles, Colonel Sladen's expedition had travelled by steamer up the Irawady. From Bham8, 450 feet above the sea-level, they had climbed over the Kakhyen hills to the Sande valley, which at Manwyne, the place where Mr. Margery was afterwards killed, lies at least 2,000 feet above Bham8. The Sande valley is 48 miles in length, and passing out of it by a &tour over the Mawphoo height, the party reached the valley of Nantin, 1,000 feet above Manwyne. From this, the Hawshuenshan glen rises 1,400 feet to Momien, a city 135 miles from Bham8, on a plateau elevated 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. Momien is the Shan name of the Chinese city of Teng-yue-chow, and at the time of Colonel Sladen's expedition was held by the Panthays or Chinese Moham- medans of Yunnan, who had acquired possession of it in the successful issue of a revolt against the Mandarins. Their tenure of the country was, however, of brief duration, and before the

middle of 1874 the rebellion had been crushed, and the power of the Chinese Imperialists completely re-established. This turn of events was not anticipated by the members of Colonel Sladen's expedition, who were induced, by the temporary success of the Panthay arms, to believe that Yunnan would in the end become an independent Mohammedan kingdom. In the state of things which they found existing in Yunnan, any advance beyond ,. Momien would certainly have been dangerous, and might have led to serious complications with the Chinese constituted authorities. From Momien, accordingly, the mission returned to Bharat). In Dr. Anderson's narrative of the return journey, he gives an agreeable and picturesque account of the Shan tribes, the remnants of the Shan kingdom of Pong, conquered by the Chinese in the fourteenth century :—

" They belong to the Tay-shan, or Great Shane of the Tai race, the branches of which, under different names, are found extending to the eleventh parallel, their various States being tributary to Siam, Burma,

or China Throughout the valley of the Upper Irawady above Bhamo, but with the Kakhyen hills interposing their stratum of hill tribes between them and their brethren of the Chinese States, the Shan element predominates. The inhabitants, though speaking Burmese, still preserve the Shan language, and retain the physical and other

characteristics of their race The great body of the Shan popu- lation is engaged in agriculture, and as cultivators they may take rank even with the Belgians. Every inch of ground is utilised, the principal crops being rice, which is grown in small, square fields, shut in by low embankments with passages and flood-gates for irrigation. Daring the dry weather, the nearest stream has its water led off, and conducted in innumerable channels, so that each block, or little square, can be irrigated at will."

The Shan women appear to possess in a remarkable degree the qualities extolled by Solomon in the virtuous woman whose price he set above rubies. They lay their hands to the spindle, and their hands hold the distaff, yea, they work willingly with their hands. They make themselves coverings of tapestry ; they make fine linen and sell it ; their households are clothed with fair colours. They gather also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces :-

" The yarn from home-grown cotton is spun, dyed, and woven by their industrious fingers. They are adepts at needlework and silken embroidery, and all the clothes worn are made and ornamented by the women of each household. Straw-plaiting is another of their industries, and the broad-brimmed straw hats made in the valley would compete with the finest Leghorn fabrics. Another art in which they excel, ap- parently borrowed from the Chinese, is the manufacture of elaborate ornaments for the hair from the sapphire-blue feathers of the roller- bird (Coracias affinis). These are fastened on paper cat to imitate wreaths and flowers, and with copper-wire, gold-thread, and feathers laid on with the greatest nicety, very pretty, simple ornaments are produced, which are often brightened by the addition of a ruby or some other gem The chief beauty of their textile fabrics consists in the wonderful beauty and harmony of the colouring ; and in the em- ployment of their vivid full and half-tints of blue, orange, green, and red, they are all but unrivalled artists."

The men are expert silversmiths :-

"Their enamels are very brilliant, and employed with beautiful effect in the floral patterns, which form the principal stock of designs. The only other forms of ornamentation, the rope-shaped fillets and rounded studs or bosses, singularly resemble those found on the diadems or armlets of the early historical periods of Scandinavian art. The plain torques or neck-rings in use, especially among the Hotha Shane, only differ from the ancient Irish type by their more rounded form, and by the pointed ends being bent outwards, in lien of being expanded into cymbal-shaped faces. Another kind of torque is of the same shape, bat covered with leaf ornaments and cones in filigree and enamel, alternat- ing with red and blue stones or pieces of glass. Torque-like, hollow rings, covered with floral enrichments, are worn as bracelets; sometimes they are gilt with very red gold and enamelled, a jewel being usually set in the centre. Another form is a silver hoop, nearly two inches in breadth, with rounded edges and filigree borders, most elaborately set with floral rosettes of three circles, rows of leaves, brown, green, and dark purple, centred by a large silver stud."

We have not space, nor is it necessary for us to dwell upon the second part of Dr. Anderson's work, which relates the motives, the brief progress, and the disastrous termination of the expedition to which the tragic end of Mr. Margery has given a melancholy importance. The principal details of that journey, frequently recapitulated by the Press, must be fresh in the memory of most of our readers. Whether the murder of Mr. Margery was the work of local marauders, or of the Momien efficials, actuated by commercial jealousy, national prejudices, and a fear lest the presence of the English should encourage the revolutionary spirit of the Mohammedans, is a question yet to be settled.