Reaching M. Phimai in the
Khorat district
On the 9th of January we marched
from the hill, a high wind from the south was blowing, and the
dreaded haze which retards all work began to show itself. There
yet remained one peak, Haw Chawi (which Nai Heng had cleared),
to ascend in order to complete the work before the regular haze
set in. Our route takes us to the deserted site of Chieng Di,
on the Nam Sen, a tributary of the Nam Niap or Nia. Chieng Di
is supposed to be in the possession of malignant spirits, the
souls of the Governor and his followers who are murdered by men
from Wieng Chan in the days of its prosperity. Though the place
is fertile, even many years ago, when Puann was well-populated,
it was difficult to get any man to take up his residence there
as Governor.
Marching along the bare slopes
of the hill, we pass through Ban Na Wan and ascend the "divide"
of the Nam Nia and Nam Ngum, which here is a couple of hundred
feet above the Nam Sen; a lesser descent takes one to a magnificent
plain destitute of ay trees, Kunng Lat Sen, about four thousand
feet above sea-level. Numbers of partridges were flushed by the
dogs, but though I could manage very well walking barefooted along
the path, it was not good enough to allow of following after the
partridges. For three marches we went over beautiful country
and across another magnificent, well-watered plain, Kunng Ma Len
(horses' playground), which joins the plain above-mentioned.
Over this plain at one time the famous Puann ponies roamed in
hundreds; now all is still, without a sign of life.
Arrived at Ban Sawt, I met the
transport sent by Prince Phrachak, but as the bullocks were slow
and expensive I managed to do without most of them. We had now
to part with our Luang Phrabang friends. The Kamuks were all
in excellent health and quite stout, never having had so much
to eat in their lives, and each was carrying with him a littte
money to his home.
On the 28th of January we completed
the work on Haw Chawi, but the haze had now regularly set in and
it was hopeless to expect to see our long rays until rain had
fallen. There was nothing to be done but to set about fixing
the positions of important places by short rays, until rainfall,
when we could proceed with the work.
At the foot of Haw Chawi, on
the side of the road to M. Yiw, are a number of large stone jars
peculiar to Puann, which puzzle every one; but with regard to
these in particular, the mystery seems to have been satisfactorily
solved, as it is discovered that they are made of cement. They
are neither so large nor so well-finished as other groups. In
a hollow there are some large ones, and those that are fractured
show large nodules of quartz buried in them, but what is still
more important is the number of smooth boulders on the slope of
the hill. These are irregular masses, and seem to be the material
from which the jars were made.
We dug out the earth beneath
one of the jars, a proceeding whcih seems to have been gone through
with all of them, and may account for their being in a learning
position. We found a jar of every inferior baked clay full of
clay and beads of amber; another containedan urn of superior workmanship,
ans almost white. It was cracked and showed traces of having
been searched before; there was a piece of iron which was possibly
used by a former depredator, it looked as though it had been brought
from the lamp-stand of the ruined wat near Ban Sawt. The natives
call the jars, Lao Chieng, and say they were made by angels for
drinking-vessels.
Continued
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