De la
Prop de la Foi, XXXVI. 320.)
Gold is said still to be very plentiful in the mountains called Gulan
Sigong, to the N.W. of Yun-nan, adjoining the great eastern branch of the
Irawadi, and the Chinese traders go there to barter for it. (See J.A.S.B.
VI. 272.)
NOTE 5. - Salt is still an object highly coveted by the wild Lolos already
alluded to, and to steal it is a chief aim of their constant raids on
Chinese villages. (Richthofen in Verhandlungen, etc., u.s. p. 36.) On
the continued existence of the use of salt currency in regions of the same
frontier, I have been favoured with the following note by M. Francis
Garnier, the distinguished leader of the expedition of the great Kamboja
River in its latter part: "Salt currency has a very wide diffusion from
Muang Yong [in the Burman-Shan country, about lat. 21 deg. 43'] to Sheu-pin
[in Yun-nan, about lat. 23 deg. 43']. In the Shan markets, especially
within the limits named, all purchases are made with salt. At Sse-mao and
Pou-erl [Esmok and Puer of some of our maps], silver, weighed and cut
in small pieces, is in our day tending to drive out the custom, but in
former days it must have been universal in the tract of which I am
speaking.
