“If anybody wishes to settle in Muang Fang, let him be enrolled in my list of names; and let no one forbid them, until they number 1000 fighting-men (freemen between twenty years and sixty years of age). If more than 1000 apply, the Government has power to restrain them. This proclamation is made on Sunday, the fifth day of the waning of the fourth moon in Pee-Ma-Kong 1242, and is submitted to Tow Tun Nun Chai to carry out.” This Tow at the time of my visit had become Chow Phya Chai, the head judge and district officer of Muang Fang. On asking the Chow the population of the province, he said he could not tell exactly, because they did not count the women and children, but there were 630 fighting-men upon the list. There were 250 houses in the city, and 411 in the Muang, and each house contained on an average from 7 to 8 people. This would give a gross population of over 3000 souls. [Illustration: _View looking south-west from Muang Fang._ ] He said that the Ngio (Burmese Shans) had held possession of, and settled in, the upper valley of the Meh Teng ever since 1870; and that up to the year before, there were some of their villages in the lower part of the valley of the Meh Fang, but the Zimmé Shans had forced them to retire from Muang Fang, and meant ultimately to drive them out of Muang Nyon and Muang Ngam. As these two provinces form part of the Burmese Shan State of Muang Sat, and have never been included in the Zimmé possessions, the talk of this Chow must have been either sheer brag, or the Zimmé Shans intended at that time to provoke and commence hostilities with their Burmese Shan neighbours. The land in the province, according to our informant, was very fertile, yielding fully 250-fold what was sown. The inundation that occurs near the banks of the river will probably cease when the land nearer the hills is brought under cultivation, and the water is spread over the fields by means of irrigation-channels. When giving us the names of the three ancient cities, Viang Fang, Viang Soop Tho, and Viang Prah, built touching each other at Muang Fang, he said that the country contained many ruined cities, and at one time must have been very populous. Mr Archer, who journeyed through the province in 1887 when on his way to Kiang Hsen, was of the same opinion as the Chow. In his report he states:—