26 NOTES OF A JOURNEY ON
valley, and I never saw results commensurate with the destruction caused.
The
sala at M. Lini, where we slept, is on the east bank, the town being
opposite, and the " Chow Muang " or Governor came wading over with the
water up to his neck, and his clothes in a bundle on his head. There
are numbers of very fine ducks here, but, as usual, we had great
difficulty in getting any in exchange for money. They have not great
use for money here, as they themselves say, and they prefer their
ducks. This happens constantly, especially when buying rice. Each
village has enough for its consumption for the year, and very often no
more; and naturally they prefer to keep the necessaries of life to
having comparatively useless silver buried under their house. As the
country is opened up, this will no doubt change, but at present it is
not worth their while to grow more than they can consume themselves.
Again,
a few irresponsible travellers have been in the habit of provisioning
themselves at the expense of the villages without paying, and the
consequence is that when a European appears (or, indeed, often a
Siamese official), there is a general stampede into the jungle, and
everything is hidden away, for they expect nothing but robbery at his
hands. Until, after infinite pains, they are persuaded that they will
be dealt honestly by, and treated with the consideration which the
wildest from their own hills would never fail to show, you can get
nothing but negatives, and small blame to them. It is humiliating in
the extreme, after travelling with men for some weeks, to be asked one
night over the camp fire why the nai farcing (the foreign
master) doesn't kick and thrash the men on the march, or flog the Chow
Muang into handing over all the rice in the village, and do other not
less objectionable things. Yet such is the conduct expected of one, as
a matter of course, from the past repute of the farcing which
travels far, and no doubt also does suffer from exaggeration. Still, it
shows what our methods too often have been. With these people you get
the measure you mete to them; firmness is first of all necessary, but
brutality is lowering to all concerned, and never has done anything
but harm, and is more far-reaching than the contemptible authors of it
understand.
Another
day's march through a good deal of evergreen brings one, after crossing
the Nam Pur, flowing in from the east, to M. Chieng Kan. An hour
further north is M. Chieng Klan; and the confusion of the two names is
endless. The latter is the better stopping-prace,
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
