CHAPTER V.

Leave Maing Loongyee—A hundred-foot waterfall—A beautiful hill-torrent—A lugubrious tale—Gibbons—Gigantic tree-ferns—Shans cruel elephant-drivers—Method of driving—Droves of pigs and laden cattle—Loi Pwe—An accident—Wild raspberries—Shans bartering goods—The Meh Laik valley—A fall of 2049 feet—Paths for the railway—Lawa villages—Aborigines—Burial custom—Human sacrifices in the Shan States and China—Legend concerning the conquest of the Lawas by the Shans—The virgin of the lotus-flower—Gaudama sacrificed to as the goddess of mercy—Sacrifices to ancestors and demons—Similarity of superstitions in ancient Chaldea and the Shan States—Photographing Lawas—Clothing worn for decency’s sake—Costume of Lawas—Cold nights—View of the hills—Bau-gyee—Iron-mines guarded by demons—A young blacksmith, 42