The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-06-11

Alt0I VHI1OU6 00vVutOAOO " ONss ssAs~s
by land we had been resting and luxu-
rating in the beautiful Anglo-Indian
bungalows and amid the really good
English society in the old Burmes city
of Rangoon. But we had not come so
far across the waters to study the
homes and habits of our own people,
congenial as are both. and pleasant to
be met with in that far-off land Of the
tropics. So, after having gratified our
curiosity by inspecting all the "lions'
of this quaint city, once the pride OF
the Burmese monarchs, with its Ky
oungs and pagodas, its huge bells and
far-famed Golden Temple" we called
q cabinet council and decided on tour
among the Karens, of whose primitive
habits and strange religious creed we
had heard marvellous accounts. These
people, who are wholly distinct from
the Burmese, and in natural endow-
ments vastly their superiors, occupy
the jungles and rocky promontories of
Aracan and Tenasserim provinces, as
we'll as the upper or mountainous por-
s tons of the empire bordering on Thib-
ct and Cochin-china. There, on the
misty mountain tops, they have from re
mote ages had their eyry dwellings and
lived in total isolation, social. religious
and political, even from the people
in nearest proximity to them. Very
many of their settlements, being in the
vicinity of small streams, are easily ac-
cessible by boats, and some of these
we resolved to visit So, hiring ma
tive sampan measuring FIVE feet by
thirty, with six stout men as rowers,
we set about laying in the comforts and
necessaries that would be required for
q ten days tour through regions where.
we are told, we should find neither
shops nor hotels, nor probably even a
convenient camping ground, unless we
fancied the familiar proximity Of tigers
and cobra-de-capellos. We must ex-
pect, therefore, to eat and sleep in our
boat, and stock of mats and leather
cushions was to furnish US with seats
by day and beds by night, while snug
mosquito net was fitted to the boats
cover in a way to be folded back or
outspread at will as a protection
against the voracious attacks Of the
myriads of insects that swarm about
these inland watercourses. A Benga-
lese cook, who, according to the GUS
tom Of the country, came furnished
with the pots and pans needed to ply
his vocation, was duly installed as
master Of our commissariat; . suffi-
Gent complement of tea, sugar, hard
tack and rice was laid in to stand us in
case of emergencies; while our daily
supplies of fruit, fish and poultry We
thought we might safely depend on
purchasing from native boats as we
needed them. We did not then know
what we afterwards learned through
experience, that hospitality to stran-
gers, and especially foreigners, is the
cardinal virtue Of the East, and that al
most any Oriental, rich or poor, would
sooner starve himself than suffer his
guests to want. But so we ever found
It, even among the Karens, wild, un-
cultivated people, most Of whom are
wretchedly poor, paying tribute or Ia
Dor and goods to these Burmese lords,
and deriving but q scanty subsistence
from fishing and the. cultivation Of the
little patches Of ground about their
dwellings,. Yet these poor villagers,
wherever we stopped, loaded us with
excellent jungle fowl, eggs, fruit and
fab, generally declinining to be paid
for them, and only oonsenting to do 80
when we refused otherwise to receive
the supplies. s
We had bright moonlight for our
journey, and when the tide was favorar
BE we travelled ct night and lay over
during the most oppressive hours of
he day. Rapidly sped our light bark
np the picturesque little streams that
borm the delta Of the Ifrawaddy, some
Zines >comepietely hidden in the tall
IIrasa lhat waved IL athery heads
lbove our own. We spent - dsy Ct