'''For Richer for Poorer' • 37 



looking flotilla that I thought she must have been a tame 

 elephant which had wandered off from some lumber opera- 

 tion. I found that there was no lumbering going on in the 

 area and that she was unquestionably a wild animal and 

 a very fine one to boot. Birds were a great source of in- 

 terest — pigeons and paraquets especially — and the occa- 

 sional pairs of hornbills crossing the river were always im- 

 pressive. Their heavy wing beats were accompanied by a 

 noise like the puffing of a locomotive on a heavy grade a 

 mile or so away. 



In most of the villages there were little monasteries 

 where the yellow-robed Buddhist monks ran what might be 

 called their parochial schools, and of course these people 

 never killed anything. Hence the great Tokkay geckos 

 which lived in the thatched roofs were always undisturbed. 

 Sometimes the monks frowned upon our catching these 

 lizards to preserve them, albeit not very actively. We 

 learned that the gentle monks sitting around in the evening 

 would make pools and gamble moderately on the number 

 of times that these lizards would call, for their name "Tok- 

 kay" is taken from the sound which they make, and it is 

 usually repeated from five to nine times at each bout of 

 singing. 



The trip ended at Bhamo, where the caravans outfitted 

 and loaded up to carry the goods of British India to Teng- 

 yueh or Talifu in China. We were impressed by the hand- 

 some mules and by the singularly good-looking muleteers, 

 for these Chinese were tall and sturdy. They were well 

 dressed in blue and their queues, which they all wore in 

 those days, reached down almost to their heels. The people 

 around Bhamo are not Burmese but Kachins, a primitive 



