As Regards Those People Of The Country Who Dispose Of Gold So Cheaply, You Must Understand That Nobody Is Acquainted With Their Places Of Abode, For They Dwell In Inaccessible Positions, In Sites So Wild And Strong That No One Can Get At Them To Meddle With Them.

Nor will they allow anybody to accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes.[NOTE 1]

After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near to India, and this province is called AMIEN. You travel therein for fifteen days through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts. There are no dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate which you shall now hear[NOTE 2].

NOTE 1. - In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he found markets held every fifth day. This custom, he says, is borrowed from China, and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now bring gold for sale to Momein, though it is found to some extent in their hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported towards Assam.

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