Previous to the establishing of Muang Fang, purchasers from Zimmé bought the surplus rice at a rupee for 8½ buckets; but in times of scarcity, like 1884, the people received a rupee for 5 buckets. No import duties are levied in the district. When telling us of the average number of people in each house, which, according to him, was six, he said that amongst the Zimmé Shans only one son-in-law is allowed at the same time to live with the wife’s parents. When the second daughter marries, the first removes to a house of her own. The journey from Viang Pow to Kiang Dow takes only one day. To Ban Nong Kwang, on the Meh Low, the journey is done in three days. The range of hills crossed on the latter route, according to him, is as easy, and about the same height, as those crossed between Muang Fang and Viang Pow. An ancient city called Viang Wai (the city of rattan-canes) is situated 8 miles to the west of Viang Pow. The next day we left Viang Pow, and continued through the plain some distance to the east of the Meh Ngat until the plateaux on either side commenced to draw in at 39 miles, when we crossed the river, which had enlarged to 55 feet in breadth and 8 feet in depth, with 1½ foot of water in the bed, and is 1300 feet above the sea. Up to this point the plain had continued from 9 to 7 miles broad. Several villages and large tracts of rice-fields were passed. Near the hills the plain had the appearance of a beautifully timbered park. [Illustration: _View across Muang Ken and the valley of the Meh Ping._ ] On a low plateau that rises some twelve feet above the fields, _padouk_ trees were in flower, and numerous cattail orchids adorned the branches of the smaller trees. The _Mai ma-kate_, a shrub bearing both white and yellow jessamine-shaped flowers, and the Rangoon creeper, were frequently seen, as well as the tree bearing the gooseberry fruit, and a small tree with fruit resembling lemons in scent, colour, and shape. This latter fruit is held in high esteem by the Shans for its supposed healing qualities. I noticed the men plucking it as they went along, and scrubbing their skin with it. At one place, when passing some clumps of stunted trees, we came suddenly upon a group of Karen villagers, who, with their cloth blankets hooded over their heads and clutched round their bodies, reminded me strongly of pictures of gnomes in the Black Forest. [Illustration: _Hills west of the Meh Ping at 11.55 A.M. 23d May._ ]