LAIHKA .117
with pashm or shawl-wool, borax, and cloth; ' while on their return
journey they bring metal vessels, sugar, rice, wheat; tobacco, pepper,
ginger, and turmeric. .
The Lahulis keep only a few sheep and goats, as the snow lies too
long and too deep in the winter for the flocks to live out of doors
as they do in Ladakh. For a very long time, therefore, the upper ends
of the main valleys, which are uninhabited, and the grounds high' above
the villages in the inhabited parts, have been utilized by the shepherds
of Kangra, Chamba, and Kula. The snow begins to disappear in-these
places about the beginning of June; the shepherds do not ordinarily
enter Lahul. before the end of that month, and they leave it again early
in September, by which time the frost is keen, and, the rainy season in
the Outer Himalayas has come'to an end. In the fine dry climate of
LAW the sheep escape foot-rot and other diseases which constantly
attack flocks kept during the rains on the southern slopes of the Outer
Himalayas. The sheep arrive wretchedly thin, but by the time they are
ready to leave are in splendid condition.
Lahul is administered by the Assistant Commissioner'of Kuld, under'
whom Tha;kur Amar Chand, a descendant of one of the old rulers
and a magistrate of the second class and a Munsif, exercises consider-
able local influence. The land revenue; as reassessed in 189 i, amounts
to Rs. 4,91[6.
Laihka (Burmese, Legya).-A large State in the eastern division of
the Southern Shan States, Burma, lying between zo° 47' and a r° 36' N. `
. and 97° 1[q' and 98' 9' E., with an. area of 1,433 square miles; It is
bounded on the north by Mongkiing and Mbngnawng; on the east by
Mt ngnawng and Mongnai ; on the south by Mt ngnai, Mongsit,,and
Mongpawn ; and on the west by Mongpawn and Lawksawk:' The
country is hilly and broken; the Nam Teng, an important affluent of
the Salween, running north and south through the centre of the State.
The early annals of Laihka are largely legendary. Its history in the
years following. the annexation of Upper Burma is briefly referred to in
the article on the SOUTHERN SHAN STATES. The country to the east
of the Nam Teng is only now gradually recovering from the ravages
caused by the troops of the Linbin confederacy in 1886. The greater
part of the rice cultivation of the State is low-lying, and" irrigated by
the Nam Teng and Nam Pawn, and their tributaries. The Taungthus
work taungyas on the hills in the south-west of the State, and small
gardens near their villages. Laihka is chiefly noted for its ironwork.
Iron ore is found in the south-west corner ndar Panglong, where it is
worked into all kinds of domestic and agricultural implements. The
population, which in 1[881[ was estimated at 3o,ooo, had been reduced
by 1887, in consequence of the attacks of the Linbin confederacy,
to something like roo. In r8gi it was estimated at about g,ooo,
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