Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/543

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city the plain is bounded by high mountains, which reach to the river and form its banks. A small river, the Ma-Kahn, comes in from the east and divides the city into two unequal portions. The plain immediately back of the city is not cultivated nor inhabited. We were told that there were a number of villages on the banks of the Ma-Kahn. During the season of high water boats ascend this stream—a month's journey. I presume it is then the highway on which the Kamoos bring their produce to the Muang-Luang-Prabang market. The city is more compact than any of the Laos cities which we visited. Its market is not so large as that in Cheung Mai, but we found in it, besides the fruits and vegetables of the country, many articles, especially cloths, of foreign manufacture. These are brought from Bangkok. The meats in the market are fish, pork and fowls. The former are abundant; many of them, taken from the Cambodia River, would weigh over a hundred pounds each.


Different Tribes.

The Laos of Muang-Luang-Prabang differ somewhat from those of Cheung Mai. That province and Wieng-Chun are the provinces of the "Eastern" (or "White") Laos—the four cities or provinces of Nan, Praa, Lakawn and Lampoon, of the "Northern" (or "Black")