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water-divide between the Ta-ping and the Shweli Rivers, and close to the point where this minor divide joins the main N'Maikha watershed. Under the Lang Ya peak there is a track leading from Tan Tsa to Ma Li Pa at the head of the Tien Tan Valley (see below) by a pass often closed by snow (10,800 feet) and so over to the headwaters of the Chi Pwi River.
Between the Manung Pum and the Lang Ya tracks there is no recognized path over the hills.
No claims were seriously put forward to any territorial or other rights beyond the watershed on behalf of the Tien Tan Headman.
II. Tien Tun and the Chi Pwi River.
A surveyor having been detailed to map in the Tan Tsa Valley, our party proceeded in sectious, and by various routes, eastwards to the Tien Tan Valley, which is watered by the most westerly of the three main sources of the Shweli or Lung Chiang, the other two being the Ming Kwang (the middle or maiu source) and the Ta Tang or eastern source. The Ming Kwang and the Tien Tan join near Ku Tung bazaar, 22 miles north of Tengyueh, and the river so formed joins the Ta Tang Stream near Chuchih bazaar, 16 miles east of Tengyueh, from which point the joint river is known as the Lung Chiang to the Chinese.
The Upper Tien Tan, the Ming Kwang, and the Ta Tang are little more than mountain streams; except after heavy rain, they are everywhere fordable, and nowhere more than 50 yards broad.
The Tien Tan Valley is under Headman Tsai, who represents the eighth generation of his dynasty. He has no sort of administrative force or machinery except that be has a few village Headmen under him; his feebleness and incompetence even in such matters as levying his subjects to repair the roads excited the Taolai's bile, and Tsai came to me, as an old friend, to ask how he had best deprecate the great man's wrath.
Our camp was formed at Ma Li Pa (6,500 feet), the last village on the track to the Chi Pwi, situated in a very beautiful valley surrounded by hills and under the east flank of the Lang Ya Mountain. Just below Ma Li Pa the three brooks which form the Tien Tan Stream join :-
1. To the west, issuing from the east of the Lang Ya Mountain, is the Mo Shih ("Stone-grinding") Brook," I ascended this through dense jungle to the crest of the X'Maikha watershed, 7 miles from Ma Li Pa. On the pass I met three Lisa, who said that proceeding by this track to the N'Maikha theirs would be the first village reached, and it was three days' march for a laden coolie.
2. To the east, the Main or Hei Tao Yuan source of the Tien Tan, which springs from a hill on the watershed known as the Sisters Hill, and flows through a romantic gorge past several small villages subject to Tien Tan to Ma Li Pa.
3. Between these two, the Pau Wa Brook, which flows from the pass leading from the Tien to the Chi Pwi Valley in the N'Maikha basin.
The Headman Tsai made the same statement to me as he had made the year before, namely, that he claimed a kind of overlordship over a few villages of Lisu along the headwaters of the Chi Pwi, based apparently on the occasional exchange of presents and on the fact that Chinese incursions over the watershed had occasionally taken place.. He admitted, however, that since the disturbances caused by the Panthay rebellion fifty years ago no such exchange of presents had taken place, and that most of the Lisu on the Upper Chi P'wi had dispersed. The number of 100 Lisu families subject to him. which he had given me last year, included all those who had moved over from the Chi Pwi to the Tien Tan side.
The following day, however, the Taotai gave me a "map" of Tien Tan, which professed to have been drawn up by Tsai. It was a work which possessed the merit, if not of accuracy, at least of imagination, and went to prove that the Taotai's geography, like Dogberry's reading and writing, comes by nature. With the exception of a part which had been "cribbed" from me, the map was totally inaccurate, but it showed the whole of the valleys of the Shi-Ngaw, Tumi-maw, and Chi Pwi Rivers as subject to Tien Tan. This includes part of the ordinary jurisdiction of the Myitkyina district. The Taotai further informed me that the Mali-kha was the true Irrawaddy and the proper frontier. This was so contrary to Tsai's statement to me the day before that I inquired what had happened, when it appeared that the map and the claim was the work
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of Mr. Chu, the Taotai's interpreter, who had been on the Southern Boundary Com- mission with General Liu and had given much trouble by his obstructiveness and impertinence. Shortly after, however, this young gentleman was discovered by the Taotai to be levying a private contribution in the neighbouring bazaar, as was the custom in the good old days of General Liu. The Taotai ordered him out of the camp in disgrace, and we heard no more of him.
I told the Taotai that these so-called claims of Tien Tan were entirely beyond discussion, and that I must refuse to talk about them. The Taolai acknowledged that Tsai had no sort of control over the country in question and no documentary evidence to support his map," that Tsai was hopelessly incompetent, and that the claims might be considered as withdrawn. I therefore hope that no more will be heard of them or of the Mali-kha frontier.
The claims of Tien Tan to the headwaters of the Chi Pwi seemed to call for examination on the spot. So, accompanied by Mr. Lakin, one of the surveyors, and a Chinese deputy, I went over the Pau Wa Pass towards the N'Maikha. This pass is the easiest of all those which cross the divide, being only 7,800 feet and approached by a broad track ascending across downs. The crest is only 7 miles from Ma Li Pa, and after a short descent on the other side we struck one of the headwaters of the Chi Pwi. The country is very wild and grand; precipitous mountains covered with patches of dense forest and bamboo brake descended to the narrow broken valley of the river. A lofty snow-capped ridge which forms the divide on the right bank of the Chi Pwi was a conspicuous object. It is known locally as the Kao Liang Kung, a common name for a high peak in this country. The first village passed on the N'Maikha side was Chang Yin Kon, 6 miles from the Pan Wa Pass. It consisted of three small wretched tracts, inhabited by Lisu. Five miles further on we passed Chung Shan, which used to give its name to the whole district, but now consists of only four huts and some deserted gardens. Descending along the Chi Pwi for 4 miles further, we passed Lu Pi, where we found extensive remains of orchards and paddy-fields, a fact which seems to support the statement that formerly the valley was cultivated by a considerable population of
Lisu.
Three miles beyond Lu Pi is, or rather was, Shi Pao; this was the last Lisu settlement down the Chi Pwi. We found that the only inhabitants were a cock pheasant and a covey of partridges, the villagers having all dispersed. Doubtless much of this desolation was the work of the Chinese, who came over and ravaged this country in 1902.
From Shi Pao the surveyor ascended the Kao Liang ridge to a pass 9,000 feet, whence he was able to connect his work with the first Kuchin (Maru) village of Lachang,
We the position of which had already been fixed by Mr. Hertz's party in 1900. then returned to Ma Li Pa after a pleasant excursion of five days; on the way we met a party of Marus from the Lower Chi Pwi, who had been across to the Tien Tan Valley to trade.
None of these Lisu hamlets on the Chi Pwi now give anything to Tien Tan, for various reasons, of which the principal is that they have nothing to give. There are no permanent Chinese residents in the Chi Pwi Valley, but in the open season some wood-cutters go over from Tien Tan.
III. Ming Kwang Valley, Hparè, and Teu Chu.
From Ma Li Pa the main camp was then moved east across the hills into the Ming Kwang Valley, where the Taotai took up his abode at the official residence of Tso, the Fu Yi or Chief of Upper Ming Kwang, while Mr. Leveson and I formed camp about 14 miles higher up in the Valley of Cha Shan Ho, a brook which runs down from the pass leading from Ming Kwang over the watershed to Hparè.
The arrangements which the Regent of Ming Kwang (the Fu Yi being a minor) made for the Taotai were no better than Tsai's in Tien Tan, and the Regent felt a good deal of the rough side of the Taotal's tongue. Neither he nor the young Fu Yi came to see us, though I understand that this omission was by order of the Taotai; but several Lashi Kachins from Hparè, who had been to the Ming Kwang bazaar, came into Mr. Leveson's camp, including one of the Headman's sons. They gave valuable information, which persuaded Mr. Leveson that we should meet with a friendly reception at Hpard, if the Chinese could be kept from insulting or molesting the natives.
A survey party having been despatched to map in the watershed along the west of
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