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 through uninhabited forest country, where the river is obstructed by rapids every few miles; above this stretch the stream flowed for some distance between magnificent marble cliffs, while limestone bluffs reappeared on its banks. The rapid of Keng Luong necessitated the un- loading of the boats, and this operation had to be re- peated at Keng Saniok. At Ban Koksai, a Laotine village, the hills in the vicinity were found to be peopled by the wild tribes called Khmus, whose numbers and spirit have enabled them to occupy towards their more civilised neighbours a position vastly superior to that of most of the hill-folk of southeastern Asia. These wild folk are, as it were, the rats of humanity, but while the Khas of lower Laos and the Sâkai of the Malay Penin- sula are the timid and defenceless water-rats, the Khmus may be likened to the old, grey, English house-rat, and have like him an excellent notion of how to stick up for themselves.

On April 29th, Luang Prabang was reached, the larg- est town which the Frenchmen had met with since their departure from Cochin-China. Garnier estimated the population of this place at 8,000 souls; that of the prov- ince at not less than 150,000. It owed its prosperity partly to the fall of Vien Chan, when Luang Prabang stood neutral, and partly to the fact that it alone among the States of Laos had fallen less effectually than any of its neighbours under the yoke of Bangkok. Founded in the eighteenth century, it did not come into prominence until after the decline of the power of Vien Chan, and its prudent rulers were content with a much-tempered form