A mile from the camp we passed through Ban Doo, the village where import duties are levied. Here, on my return, I purchased from the abbot of the monastery several books concerning astrology, alchemy, sorcery, cabalistical science, and medicine. Seeing two silver images of Gaudama, with resin cores, I haggled with him for a long time over their price. At first he pretended that it was impossible for him to part with these images, as offerings had been made to them; but at the sight of many two-anna and four-anna bits his compunctions gave way, and I carried them off in triumph. They cost me dear, however, for on my sending them home, with other things, to my sister, our canny custom-house officials charged the resin as solid silver. Large herds of cattle and buffaloes were feeding in the plain, and waging ceaseless war with their tails against myriads of bloodthirsty gad and elephant-flies. The elephants were likewise greatly annoyed by these flying leeches, and carried leafy branches in their trunks to switch them off their bodies. No one who has seen elephants fanning themselves with great palmyra-leaves, switching at the flies, or scratching themselves with twigs, could consider man the sole tool-using animal. On leaving the rice-fields at Done Ban Kwang, we crossed the Meh Khow Tome, near a village of the same name, and halted for the night. The Meh Khow Tome is 12 feet broad, 5 feet deep, and had 9 inches of water in its bed. Its name implies the “river of cooked rice,” and is said to be derived from Gaudama having cooked rice on its banks when proceeding to impress his footprint on Loi Pong Pra Bat. On reaching the camp I noticed rain-clouds gathering overhead, and asked the Chow Phya to arrange for our occupation of a large vacant house that had just been completed. On the arrival of the village head-man, he told us that owing to the spirits not having been propitiated, if any one slept under the roof misfortunes would certainly happen; and he begged us to refrain from doing so. He said game was exceedingly plentiful in the neighbourhood, and that wild elephant, rhinoceros, wild cattle, and pigs were often seen by the hunters; and deer, hare, pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, and quail were abundant. Tigers, and, I believe, leopards, were prowling round the camp after nightfall; the clear “peet, peet” of the tiger and the “myow” came from different directions. The Shans, however, declared that they were both the cries of tigers—one when they were angry or in search of food, and the other when they were satisfied.