Next morning we set out for the frontier. Riding most of the day and night, stumbling after dark on narrow ridges[242] between rice-fields, at about midnight we came into camp, not without some slight risk of being shot by a zealous sentry. All escorts within range having been bidden by telegraph and signal to combine, quite a considerable force of military police and a dozen British officers were assembled. It was as if the Deputy Commissioner, fulfilling Pompey’s thrasonical boast, had stamped upon the ground and raised legions. This sudden show of strength, coupled with Mr. George’s tact and management, speedily restored peace. Leaving him to distribute rewards and penalties, I rode back with a tin of bully beef for sustenance, and a couple of sowars as escort. On the way I slept at the Kachin village of Pônkan, where I was hospitably entertained by the Duwa, who not many years before had literally held Bhamo in terror. He was a tall and handsome savage, but somewhat given to drink. At Bhamo I spent the next hundred hours in making up six weeks’ arrears of office-work. Then I took a day’s rest. This was my best tour. But all the travelling in the Northern Division was full of interest. Mogôk and the Ruby Mines provided an agreeable interlude. Katha, a pestilential district in the rains, was perfect marching ground in the dry season. Wuntho, but lately brought into line, was revisited, and Piulebu, on the bank of the Mu River, once the Sawbwa’s strong place of refuge, inspected. With me rode my old friend Maung Aung Zan,[243] now subdivisional officer. Though of the girth regarded as suitable for a high official, and weighing, as he told me, 45 viss,[244] Aung Zan found a pony to carry him. His local knowledge was invaluable. We came to Mansi, at the end of the Banmauk road, which breaks off so abruptly that one feels as if another step would take one over the world’s edge into the abyss. Here was some excitement, the police post being threatened by a jungle fire rapidly nearing the wooden stockade. In these remote parts the people, of Shan race, were primitive folk of simple and engaging manners. Extremely poor, they earned a scanty livelihood in the forests, or by fishing, or by laborious cultivation of miscellaneous crops. Here, as elsewhere, courtesy and hospitality abounded. At the entrance of every village the headman and villagers came out to welcome us, the girls dressed in their simple best, bearing offerings of water and flowers. Inspecting a Court on this tour, I was refreshed by finding a case in which trial by ordeal for witchcraft was the main incident. The suspected witch was tied up in the fearless old fashion, and thrown into a stream. As she sank, and was with difficulty rescued, her innocence was made clear. The cause of action in the judicial case was her claim for damages for defamation. She was awarded £4 and costs.