* 'For Richer for Poorer ' 3 9 



make Chinese bird's-nest soup. The owning and leasing 

 of these caves is native high finance. 



The country about us swarmed with game. Tracks of 

 bear, deer, and leopard were literally everywhere. I asked 

 my bearer to gather some beaters and we tried a drive, 

 but since the vegetation was so thick and since we could 

 post only one watcher, myself, there was only a small 

 chance that whatever game they moved would come in 

 sight. Plenty of game was moved — of that there was no 

 doubt, as I could hear both it and the excited shouts of our 

 beaters. Unfortunately we saw nothing. 



From the bungalow everything which went on in the 

 neighborhood, however, could certainly be heard. It was 

 a little building set up on high posts with a good roof but 

 more or less open on all sides. I knew well the inordinate 

 racket made by peacocks where they were really common, 

 for I had heard them abundantly in Jeypore in India. This 

 was just another place where the constant noise made by 

 the peacocks was well reinforced by numbers of jungle 

 fowl. These wild chickens would crow in the morning 

 with high, shrill calls like those of leghorns multiplied a 

 hundredfold; all these birds saw to it that there was no 

 oversleeping. We got butterflies and some other insects but 

 our Burmese collections were by no means outstanding. 

 We were just loafing and enjoying ourselves to the very 

 fullest. 



I shall always think of this country in vivid contrast to 

 India. When we were there, the people were singularly 

 friendly. The wide variety of gay costumes worn by Shans, 

 Kerens, Kachins, and Burmese made up a satisfying va- 

 riety. The Burmese young men and girls were especially 



