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thick lips, and the narrow oblique-set eye of the Chinese. Their 

 general expression is good-natured and pleasing, and some of the 

 young girls approach on prettiness. After marriage, the women 

 blacken their teeth, which is a great disfigurement, and their mouths 

 are distorted to an unnatural shape by the perpetual habit of chew- 

 ing pan supara, the discoloured saliva trickling down either 

 side as they talk, in a most disgusting manner. I was the first 

 European they had ever seen ; and men, women, and children 

 flocked round me in curious amazement. My musical box was a 

 source of great amusement, and the self-revolution of the barrel 

 attributed to a supernatural power. The sleight-of-hand tricks I 

 displayed seemed to strike them dumb, and when I changed the 

 little pebbles they kept handing me, into two and four-anna bits, 

 there was a dead silence for a few minutes and a horror-stricken 

 expression written on their faces ; then followed a burst of applause, 

 and they all sheehoed (bowed in obeisance) proclaiming me a great 

 ndt, and begged I would remain until they could collect offerings 

 worthy of my acceptance, but I declined, and took my departure. 



220. Made fast at Myintha for the night. The defile ends here, 

 and the river widens out considerably ; the hills also recede rapidly 

 to the west, but more gradually decline to the east, and the country 

 has a general flat, though well- wooded, appearance. This is a village 

 of considerable size and importance, inhabited by Shans and Pwons. 

 It is strongly stockaded, and each house within, protected by a sub- 

 stantial log barricade. The streets are only wide enough to admit 

 of a single head of cattle passing at a time, with an object to prevent 

 the place being unexpectedly stormed and overrun by Kakhyens. 

 Around, and within the enclosure, grow Fkus elastica (three) averaging 

 six feet high, said to have been grown from cuttings brought last 

 year from Mogoung. Limes, oranges, pine-apples, plantains, areca, 

 cocoanut, papaw, and jatropa were also cultivated. The following 

 indigenous trees and shrubs were likewise noted : Shorea robusta, 

 which is tapped for the gum thatexudes from it ; Erythrina, Ccesalpinia, 

 Nauelea, Bauhinia, Urena, Calamus, and a wild jasmine, the leaves of 

 which the Kakhyens use as a substitute for phan. Podostemon and 

 Lohit campanula common on rocks. Small patches of Sinapis are 

 cultivated here and there on the river-bank, the tops serving as a 

 substitute for greens. It had been bitterly cold all day ; the sun 

 had not once appeared — north-easterly wind, and drizzle towards 

 evening ; thermometer never rose above 69° Fahrenheit. 



221. The scenery throughout this defile is sublimely grand and 

 picturesque, but in places awful to contemplate as one stands watch- 

 ing the trackers encouraging one another by fiendish yells that echo 



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