of a mountainous region, the necessaries of life are not easily obtained as in the fertile deltas of the Irrawaddy and Menam. They are good agriculturists, but excel in trading, by which they supply themselves with food and merchandise not obtainable in their own country. The houses of the better class exhibit a cleanliness and comfort not found among the Burmese of the same rank. They have much independence of character, but are given to jealousies and personal dislikes which have kept them divided politically and socially. In warfare they are often cruel and vindictive, not only seeking to put to the sword all men of a hostile region, but often slaughtering the male children who fall into their hands. In time of peace they are cheerful, hospitable, and ready to render help to one another. An innate restlessness gives rise to frequent changes of residence in the Shan country itself, so that often a good percentage of the population in a principality is not native born to that principality.

Dr. Cushing in his lifetime was considered the only real authority on the Shans. He says that the migrations of the Tai into Burma probably began about two thousand years ago. Probably the first swarms were small and were due rather to the restlessness of character, which has always characterized the Tai race. The early history of the Shans in Burma is very ob scure. There is little doubt that a powerful Shan kingdom called Muang Mao Long grew up in the north in the neighborhood of the Shweli River, near Nam Kham. There are ruins of old cities in that region covering large areas, enclosed by walls and ramparts, and hills surrounded by entrenchments.

Tai chronicles indicate that the Mao Shan kingdom began in the seventh century of our area. Successive campaigns were undertaken and their dominion was caused to be acknowledged as far south as Maulmein and as far east as Kenghung. Assam passed under the rule of the Tai in 1229 A.D., who were henceforth styled Ahom in that country. It is claimed that even the Tai Kingdom of Tali acknowledged allegiance to the Mao King before its fall under the attack of Kubla Khan in 1253. A new capital called Man Maw was established in A.D. 1285, near the present site of Bhamo, and it is claimed that the Mao territories were increased by the conquest of the Menam valley to Ayuthia.

From this time on the Tai chronicles became more local and parochial. The prosperity of the Mao Kingdom "began to wane soon after it had attained its greatest area of territory. The Tai became gradually separated into groups. The moun tainous nature of their country made this easy as no doubt it also helps to explain their want of coherence; the influence of neighboring nations did the rest. Some of these were conquer. ing, some were absorbent; all were greedy and combative."

So this region of the present habitat of the Western Shan figured largely in the history of the rise and fall of the Tai race. Of its present state the Upper Burma Gazetteer from which this chapter is largely compiled says that they were completely subjugated by the Burmese and have become largely assimilated with them. Even their country has for years been considered as a part of Burma proper. They have long been debarred from any sympathy or connection with the main bulk of their race. Even their women have adopted the Burmese dress, language, and habits. It is only the extraordinary tenacity of Tai tradition which has prevented them from becoming indistinguishable from their conquerors many years ago. Their written character is becoming less and less used and known and is likely to disappear everywhere but in Khamti Lōng in the extreme north.

Previous to British occupation the administration of the Shan States was at no time justly or consistenly carried on. "After the death of King Mindon it fell into complete disorder like that of every part of King Thebaw's dominions." Insurrections, executions and massacres, private quarrels, bickering and raiding, destruction of towns and looting and burning of districts were the rule. "The State of Hsenwi had been in a state of chaos for a whole generation. Every part of the cis-Salween states was in a state of war."

In 1885 an insurrection sprang up under the Limbin Prince, a son of the Crown Prince. By this time the Burmese government had been overthrown and the Burmese troops had been withdrawn from the Shan country. This left an open field. This was the state of affairs through 1886.

In January, 1887, a column under Colonel Stedman (now Sir Edward Stedman) marched in, with A. H. Hildebrand, the Superintendent of the Shan States. Some desultory opposition was encountered at a fortified position not far from Taunggyi but it was overcome without difficulty. A site for the establish

ment of the headquarters of the Superintendent, with a fortified post, was chosen. This station has since been known as Fort Stedman. One after another the states were brought into submission with but little difficulty. By the middle of June, 1887, the whole of the Southern Shan states had been brought under the influence of the superintendent and were free from distur bance.

In the open season of 1887-88 Mr. Hildebrand proceeded with a considerable military force on an extended tour, which took him through all the Shan States, receiving the submission of all the Sawbwas and subordinate officials. "This tour ended at Mandalay without a single shot being fired. The general peace which ensued has not since been disturbed, except by some cause beyond the area then in the Shan States charge."

So the different branches of the Tai race living in Burma and Assam, delivered from the chaos of internecine wars and taught each to rule his own little state, are now enjoying peace and prosperity under the beneficent rule of Great Britain in Burma and India.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAO

The Lao of French Laos State (pronounced by the French Lah-oos) seems to be the only branch of the ancient Ai-Lao or Tai race that retains the traditional name. The name has been applied to the Tai of North Siam for a generation or two, but it seems to have been borrowed from their next door neighbors and applied to them while they themselves were until recently innocently ignorant of the fact. The Lao of Luang Prabang and the whole French State, however, call themselves Lao and have been called Lao from earliest history, as Holt Hallet speaks. of the Laos or non-tattooing branch of the Shans as "pushing down to the eastward through the country to the southwest of Tongking as early or earlier than A.D. 574." According to him, their kingdom as far south as Vieng Chan was already in existence at the time of the founding of the Yûn Shan towns of Lampun, Lakawn, Pitsanulok, Kampangpet, and Sawankalok in the Menam valley, in A.D. 574. It is said in the chronicles of Lampun, that the first king reigning at that city married the daughter of the King of Vieng Chan.

The English and French put an s to the word Lao whether singular or plural. Later, Mr. Hallet records, that the Laos Shan principalities were growing in power:

The seventeenth monarch of the Laos Kingdom of Vieng Chan, Lan Sang, who had married a daughter of the King of Cambodia, came to the throne about 1350, and carried on many wars. By 1373 Laos had arrived at a great degree of splendor; a census taken at this time gave for this Kingdom three hundred thousand heads of houses, not counting slaves and mountaineers. One of the grandchildren of the King then reigning married a daughter of the King of Siam and another a daughter of the King of Zimme (Chiengmai).

Between 1501 and 1508 Vieng Chan joined in the civil wars of Annam, and became ruler of Zimme. In 1558 the King of Pegu seized the latter country and ravaged Laos. In 1592 it was conquered by Burma, and the inhabitants

removed to Pegu, where the population had been destroyed during thirty years of warfare. But they soon revolted and escaped back to their country. The last period of prosperity for Vieng Chan was during the time that lapsed between 1628 and 1652; from that time a number of civil wars destroyed its power, and Luang Prabang declared its independence, and became a separate kingdom; Cambodia being weakened, immigrants from Laos settled at Bassac in 1712, and that portion of the country became part of the kingdom. In 1777 it was made tributary to Siam, at which time Vieng Chan and Bassac were left in ruins. The Tongkinese destroyed its capital in 1791, and it was finally conquered and became a province of Siam in 1827.

Again it passed into the hands of the French in a treaty with Siam in 1893, when the whole of the Lao country came under the dominion of France and is now the French Laos State.

The Laos State in its present boundaries is about 600 miles in its greatest length, extending from the southern boundary of China, in the Lü country, down to the northern border of Cambodia. Its northern half is a comparatively compact territory about 250 miles square with Luang Prabang in the center. The southern half is a long arm reaching down to Cambodia, which at its narrowest point is only about a hundred miles wide. At the widest point in the north it extends from old Chiengsen on the Siam frontier to the border of Song La or Muang La, the Tai Dam country in Tongking. Its largest cities are Luang Prabang, Vieng Chan, Sawannakhet, Saravane, and Bassac. The Mekong divides the upper half of the state and forms the western boundary of the lower half. So the noble river waters the valleys of this Tai state throughout its length.

At Song Khone on the lower Mekong near Sawannakhet there is a single station of an independent Swiss Mission. At present there is only one missionary there, Rev. F. Audetat with fifty or more adherents. He is working among the Tai Lao. He has translated the Gospel of John in the character of Luang Pra bang, that is in their business character not in the character of their monasteries which is the same as in Chiengmai monasteries. As stated before, M. Audetat is the only worker for the Tai in all Indo-China. He is 500 miles from any mission station in Siam, and about 400 miles from Chiengrung, our new station in China, although we are not far from the border of the French