We were awakened the next morning to the sound of gibbons wailing in the neighbouring forest, and were detained for about an hour and a half owing to one of our elephants having strayed in search of pastures new. Soon after starting we passed through a _Viang Hau_, where huge teak-trees were growing, and met a caravan of fifty oxen laden with tobacco for Zimmé, having brought rice thence for the new settlers in Muang Fang. One of the leading oxen wore a mask, formed like a cage, of thin strips of wood painted red, and surmounted by a bunch of pheasant-tail feathers; another had a mask made of tiger-skin, and surmounted by peacock’s plumes. We halted for a few minutes at the village of Ngio-Kow, containing ten houses, and found many of the people suffering from trichinosis, owing to their having feasted on a wild hog, which they had pickled and eaten raw. We subsequently learned that all the people of Viang Pow had suffered from the same cause two years before, and that it had caused the death of two of them. Continuing through the forest and some large savannahs, we reached Muang Fang and passed through the fortified courtyard into the city, where we halted at a rest-house which was placed at our disposal. CHAPTER XXVIII. MUANG FANG—DESERTED FOR 200 YEARS—PROCLAMATION RESETTLING THE PROVINCE—POPULATION—SETTLEMENTS OF NGIO OUSTED BY SIAMESE—LAND YIELDING 250–FOLD—RUINED CITIES—320 RUINED TEMPLES—PURLOINING IMAGES—MR ARCHER’S REPORT—METHOD OF FORMING NEW SETTLEMENTS—SEPARATION OF RACES IN THE CITIES—COLONIES OF REFUGEES AND CAPTIVES—CHINESE SHANS AS LABOURERS—CITY SACKED BY THE BURMESE—GOVERNOR AND WIFE DROWN THEMSELVES—COST OF CARRIAGE—DR TIGER THE HUNTER—BARGAIN FOR A DAGGER—SWORN BROTHERS—CAMBODIAN AND KAREN CEREMONIES—THE AUGURY OF FOWL-BONES—PASSING MERIT BY COTTON-THREADS—FIRST HAIR-CUTTING IN SIAM—LAO MARRIAGE—VISIT THE RUINED CITIES—FALLEN IDOLS—PUTTING FUGITIVES IN CHAINS—A DEER-HUNT—SKETCHING THE HILLS—VISIT TO BAN MEH HANG—OUT OF PROVISIONS—FEVER AND DYSENTERY—MAHOUT ATTACKED BY VICIOUS ELEPHANT—SPREADING CATTLE-DISEASE. The city of Muang Fang, the capital of the province of the same name, forms part of the ancient city of Viang Fang, and measures 5950 feet from north to south, and 2700 feet from east to west. It lies 83 miles from Zimmé, and 1621 feet above the sea, and contained, at the time of my visit, 250 houses.