FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



valued highly ; it was measured in small hand-scales against frag- 

 ments of pottery as weights. I saw also a sort of brown wick 

 like that for lamps, which, soaked in opium, was used in the 

 preparation of a drink. Amber from the south was pretty plenti- 

 ful, and I was shown a bit of rough jasper and some garnets like 

 those in the Himalayas. 



In the people themselves we recognised the Laotian type, 

 which is not a strongly marked one. They had straight-set 

 rather wide-open eyes with slightly puckered lids, broad nose, 

 arch of eyebrow and frontal bones prominent, thick lips, and 

 olive complexion somewhat deeper than among the folk of Laos. 

 Most of the men were ugly ; but the younger females had pleasant 

 faces and sometimes fine eyes. As a whole, they were less in- 

 quisitive and annoying than a similar Chinese crowd, and did not 

 mind being dispersed. The costume of the men was the langouti, 

 and a garment passing under the left arm and fastened on the 

 right shoulder. Nearly all carried the short sword across the 

 breast, Kioutse fashion ; these had finely tempered blades and a 

 good balance. A rather coarse thread stuff, with a red or blue 

 pattern on a light ground, is made in Khamti itself, and calico 

 prints are seen equally with vests of Thibetan poulou. The 

 women invariably wore a blue cotton skirt, rather long and fitted 

 to the figure. Their bosoms were not exposed as in Laos, and 

 they no longer bathed openly in the river like their sisters of the 

 south-east. Their carriage was erect and graceful, with short 

 steps. Both sexes smoked pipes, bamboo-root with silver mounts, 

 or a lone cig-arette made of the leaf of a tree. Other charac- 

 teristics in common were the wide-brimmed, cone-crowned Burmese 

 straw hat, and the ear-rings either of amber, bamboo, or even 

 leaves. Except in the case of two or three chiefs who had 



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