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124
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1897.
beds, being cooler than anything else. The Salones, wlro generally fall into bad hands when they visit our villages and conclude most of their bargains in the armck-shops, get an average price of four annas per mat at Mergui. The mats aro in demand. I paid a Rupee for one the other day. They are chiefly made by women, and a woman does not occupy more than a day in completing a mat. As I have elsewhere mentioned to you, one of the most valuable of the articles in which the Salones trade is a sort of flexible and waterproof covering for boats, mannfactured from the leaves of a plant which are stitched together with bamboo-splinters. These are made in a very short time, and sell here for eight anuas a piece. The leaf is not, I believe, obtainable on the mainland, hence tlie high price realized for these simple, but most useful, articles of traffic. The Salones also bring to market sea-slugs, sea-snails, béche-de-ner, wax, fish, and mother-o'-pearl.
00 Pay informs mo that though he has, as it were, divided the Salones into four settlements, yet that they constantly leave one of these to join another, and that these recognize him as having supreme authority. I am afraid he is sufficiently civilized to be aware that truth is not always consonant with the furtherance of his personal interest, and that he connects assumption of snpreme authority with retention of his monthly stipend. I should doubt his having much influence over Lo Way, whom he so heartily abnses, or the immediate following of that individual: similarly with the other headmen and those who acknowledge their rule. He states the head men he names (see suprá) are all aged, about his own age, which I should say was between 50 and 60. These men, I believe, occasionally visit Mergui, and they should be encouraged on such occasions to present themselves, as from them much information might from time to time be obtained regarding the Salones.
I have told Oo Pay that I shall expect him to be able to speak with some greater certainty than he now can regarding the number of the Salones, etc., when he visits Mergui after the termination of the south-west monsoon and has had an opportunity of seeing the Southward islands. His knowledge of numeration being limited, the population return is to consist of a bundle of sticks with notches on them, showing boats (their houses), men, women, and children of both sexes. He seems willing, and with encouragement might be made more useful than he has hitherto proved. He estimates the number of boats in the possession of the Salones at present at 140. This scarcely corresponds with the estimated aggregate of souls, but it is possible that they manage to pack into them when moving from island to island.
I may mention here, as you may possibly never have seen & Salone boat, that it differs much in construction from, and a9 regards sea-worthiness and elegance of shape is far superior to, the ordinary Burmese boat. The bottom of the boat is solid wood scooped out and opened ; rising to the total height of the boat at each extremity, but almost flattened in the centre; yingan sticks, thick in the centre, and tapering to each extremity, though round, are bent into the rounded form of a boat's side and neatly placed one above the other. The ends being smaller than the centre, they are easily compressed into the required space at stem and stern, so as not to interfere with the general symmetrical appearance of the boat. The interstices are caulked with dammer. The objection to this boat is that the yingan portion of them requires annual renewal and the process is not easy. To the sufficient beam given to these bonts, as compared with those in use with Burmans, may be attributed their possession of greater buoyancy and safety in a rough sea. At the stem and stern, a semi-circle is, scooped out; this gives to the boat an odd look, but the object is patent; were it not for the step wbich is then formed, the younger children would be unable without aid to get into or out of the boats. Siamese sometimes build similarly witbyingan, but the crescentshaped bow and stern is never adopted by them, and invariably distinguishes the Salones' boats from all others.
The Salones possess a host of most mangy, ill-fed dogs. They seldom lose an opportunity of adding to the number. These dogs are employed in hunting wild pigs, with which some of
