234 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



bedecked with bright tassels slung over the shoulder, and 

 wearing the usual dark blue or white, baggy trousers, tattooed 

 from the waist to the ankles. Again, if we look down that 

 side street, the Chinese quarter, the prosperous, smiling, pig- 

 tailed celestial will be seen, child-like and bland, jabbering 

 away to his neighbour in the most voluble manner. There 

 again, on their daily begging rounds, accompanied by their 

 novices and scholars, go a string of Buddhist pongyis or 

 priests, patient and contemplative, looking neither to the right 

 nor left, but stopping in front of each house, the inmates of 

 which, having been warned by the clear, reverberating notes 

 of the half-moon-shaped metal gongs carried by the " kyaung 

 thas " or scholars, are ready with their charitable doles of rice, 

 fish, and vegetables. Then again down that street, wearing 

 huge turbans, go a few fierce-eyed, flat-nosed, dirty, ragged- 

 looking, wiry Kachins, with their shifty and treacherous nature 

 depicted in their every look and action. Arrakanese with 

 their European type of features and hirsute appendages, 

 jolly, mild-faced, converted Karens, stolid, hard-working 

 Maingthas, active Chins, malodorous of "khaung" or rice 

 beer, Hindus and Mussalmen, also swell the motley throng to 

 be met with in this wonderful town of queer tribes and 

 primitive superstitions. In the bazaar, representatives of the 

 above-mentioned races may be seen sitting side by side with 

 the Burman, busily engaged in plying their trade. The 

 panorama now presented before one, of the various bright- 

 coloured dresses of the many different nationalities, is pictur- 

 esque in the extreme, and the impression thus conveyed to 

 a new-comer is one which will not easily be forgotten. 



To one who has any knowledge of the native of India, a 

 marked difference will at once be apparent between him and the 

 Burman. The former, clad invariably in loose, white, flowing 

 robes, turban and hirsute appendages, is easily identified from 

 the latter, who is brightly attired in silks of every shade and 

 pattern, with a face invariably as bare as it was when he first 

 saw the light of day. In character they are quite as strongly 

 contrasted. The Hindu, Mussalman, Corringhee or Madrassie 

 is full of caste prejudice, deceitful, mean, and cringing ; the 

 Burman, on the other hand, is more pliable, tractable, honest, 



