16 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON
blue distance eastward the Nam Pat range lies dim, and north and west the eye loses itself among endless cloud-capped ranges.
The
sala at Muang Faek is on the west side of the river, and consists of a
number of separate bamboo shelters; here we had to rest our elephants,
all eighteen of which were tired out by the climb from Cherim, and we
had to engage two more to reduce the weights on our tired beasts.
Elephants in Siam are never idle, and the animals I got from Pechai,
which belonged to the Minister of the Mining Department, had all been
hard at work hauling teak and such things before our arrival. At Muang
Faek there are a good many, and the two which now joined us were a male
and female of magnificent proportions. They had a swinging gait, with
which they travelled much faster than the others, evidently not being
accustomed to dragging heavy timber, but to light weights and hard
climbing. At first they didn't like their new surroundings at all, and
it was most curious to see how, when the one began to trumpet and back
out of the crowd, the other rushed up, caressing him with her trunk all
over, and even pushing it into his mouth, and stood by him till he was
pacified; but if she left his side for a moment, round he whirled in
search of her, and the mahout could do nothing to stop him. I never saw
them separated by more than twenty yards the whole time they were with
us; they had always to be loaded and unloaded together, as they stood
side by side, entwining their trunks lovingly, and in the evening,
after the march, they bathed together and squirted one another in huge
enjoyment. The howdahs are simply rough saddles like big baskets, and
are generally fitted with a close plaited roof with a long peak before
and behind, like those fitted on the Mens, or ox-carts, of the plains.
From
M. Faek the trail, which is well trodden, passes along the steep wooded
banks of the Meinam, which, however, is here known as the Nam Nan. The
clay slate dips 65° W., and makes long black ridges in the river-bed,
which can be seen deep down in the clear water, or rising in sharp
crags above it, and forming the rapids, which make the river a
difficult highway at the best, and only navigable by the long narrow
dug-outs.
It
is a short march to Hoay Li, where there is a sala kept, as they all
are in Nan, in excellent condition; but there is a stream close by. The
next day's march was a heavy one, over more lofty ridges without water,
and it is, therefore, a good stopping-place. Leaving
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