About ten miles from Pechaburi I found several villages inhabited by Laotians, who have been settled there for two or three generations. Their costume consists of a long shirt and black pantaloons, like those of the Cochin Chinese, and they have the Siamese tuft of hair. The women wear the same head-dress as the Cambodians. Their songs, and their way of drinking through bamboo pipes, from large jars, a fermented liquor made from rice and herbs, recalled to my mind what I had seen among the savage Stiêns. I also found among them the same baskets and instruments used by those tribes. The young girls are fair compared with the Siamese, and their features are pretty; but they soon grow coarse, and lose all their charms. Isolated in their villages, these Laotians have preserved their language and customs, and they never mingle with the Siamese. [Illustration: Drawn by M. Bocourt, from a Sketch by M. Mouhot. VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS OF PECHABURI.] CHAPTER XVI. RETURN TO BANGKOK--PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH-EAST OF LAOS--PHRABAT--PAKPRIAU--SAOHAÏE. After a sojourn of four months among the mountains of Pechaburi, known by the names of Makaon Khao, Panam Knot, Khao Tamoune, and Khao Samroun, the last two of which are 1700 and 1900 feet above the level of the sea, I returned to Bangkok to make the necessary preparations for my new expedition to the north-east of Laos, my intended route being to the basin of the Mekong, towards the frontier of China. I had an additional motive for coming here again, namely, to get cured of that annoying complaint the itch, which I caught at Pechaburi; how, I really cannot guess, for, in spite of the mosquitoes, I bathed regularly two or three times a day; but I hope that a short course of rubbing with sulphur ointment, and proper baths, will effect a cure. This, one of the ills of a traveller’s life, is, however, trifling in comparison with the misfortune of which I have just heard. The steamer ‘Sir James Brooke,’ in which Messrs. Gray, Hamilton, and Co., of Singapore, had sent off all my last boxes of collections, has foundered at the entrance of that port. And so all my poor insects, which have cost me so much care and pains for many months, are lost for ever--some of them rare and valuable specimens, which, alas! I shall probably never be able to replace. [Illustration: Drawn by M. Thérond, from a Sketch by M. Mouhot. PAVILION CONTAINING THE ASHES OF THE LATE KING OF SIAM IN THE GARDENS ATTACHED TO THE PALACE AT BANGKOK.]