| caption: |
Chen to Niassia; effigies of the dead |
| text: |
48. Chen is a cluster of large villages, on a high but narrow ridge running down from the watershed, with very steep sides. We halted on the River Tilam, and the next day ascended to the two large villages of Saha, the headmen of which were very anxious that we should halt there for the day, promising all sorts of supplies if we would. Our time was too precious to avail ourselves of their hospitality, so we went on to Tang, where we were again well received, and descended to the Yangnu, on whose banks we once more encamped. On the 5th April, at midday, we arrived at Niassia. Here the Nagas were rather suspicious and sullen, but nothing more. In the afternoon, I visited Captain Badgley's station of last year, and restored the signal, leaving a note for Mr. Ogle in a small bamboo chunga half-buried by the mark stone; this note he found there a few days later. The weather had never been clear since we left Tablung; it had been fearfully hot and hazy, and the haze seemed to increase every day, and we went on the 6th to the Taokok, passing through Bor- and Huru-Kamlung. All the villages lately passed through are exceedingly pretty; instead of being divided into irregular streets, with the houses crowded together, as in the western villages, the houses at Tang, Niassia, etc., are dotted about on gently undulating grassy slopes, on which numerous white goats are grazing; tall clumps of the graceful bamboo springing up everywhere; brightness is introduced into the scene by the flowers of the butia-tree, and the large white geranium-like blossoms of another large tree. On one side, stone parapets, as a rule, guard the entrance, outside which are the tombs, the bodies, as usual placed on changs and covered with palm-leaves; under a shed hard by are the effigies of the departed, painted, tattooed, and dressed after life, with hair tied into gorgeous tubes of red, yellow, and black canework. |
