When at Maing Longyee some large images were being made, and in my walks I watched the process from day to day. A core of clay is first accurately carved into the required shape. It is then plastered over with a layer of cloth. Over this is spread a thick coating of _thyt-si_ varnish mixed with sawdust. Other coatings are then added until the required stiffness is acquired. The casting is then removed from the core by slitting it up along the sides. It is then carried to the temple and erected on the pedestal that has been prepared for it. The halves being placed together, other coatings are applied which cause the halves to adhere. The whole is then perfected with a layer of gold-leaf. Some of the larger idols are made of bricks plastered over, others of stone, and some of bronze. Under a shed in the temple grounds were several musical instruments—amongst them two large tapering drums, one 2 feet 9 inches long, 11 inches in diameter at the larger head, and 9 inches in diameter at the smaller head. The other drum was of the same size, but had only a single head; its tapered end was fixed in a hollowed-out pedestal of _padouk_ wood, which was so resonant as to be nearly a drum in itself. After visiting the abbot, who had a few novices with him in the monastery, and trying to bargain with him for some of his palm-leaf documents, we returned to the _sala_. On our way back we noticed two boats discharging their cargoes of rice, and at once hired them for our journey to Zimmé. They were flat-bottomed, and each about 40 feet long. When all the luggage and men were on board, we had only space enough to sit in a cramped position on a mat, the mat roof nearly touching our heads. At 6 A.M. the temperature was 54° in the shade; at 2 P.M., 89° in the shade, and 118° in the sun; at 3 P.M., 92° in the shade; and at 8 P.M., 77° in the shade. [Illustration: MAUNC HAUT TO KIANC HSEN ] CHAPTER VII. LEAVE MUANG HAUT—LEGEND OF THE RAPIDS—FOOTPRINTS OF BUDDHA—POWER OF ACCUMULATED MERIT—INDRA’S HEAVEN—RIVER SCENERY—FISHING-DAMS—LOI PAH KHOW—LARGE FISH—NAKED BOATMEN—A PLEASANT RETREAT—WARS BETWEEN THE BURMESE AND SHANS—A SUGAR-PRESS—SILVER-MINES—PATH FOR THE RAILWAY—WATER-WHEELS—THE TIGER-HEAD MOUNTAIN—PLEASANT MORNINGS—A RIVER SCENE—CHANTING PRAYERS—THE VALLEY OF THE MEH LI—COUNTRY-HOUSE OF THE CHIEF OF LAPOON—VIANG HTAU—VISIT TO A MONASTERY. Having loaded the boats, we started from Muang Haut a little after 8 A.M. on the 20th of February for Zimmé. After passing through the fishing-dam at the north of the island which stretches for half a mile above the town, we turned a bend, and at the end of the next loop reached Pa-kin-soo, a celebrated sand-cliff which stands up like an old sandstone castle with towers and buttresses weatherworn and crumbling into ruins. LEGEND OF THE RAPIDS.