lav Journal of the Aswutic Socrety of Bengal. (March, 1913. 
The dress of the male A-ch ang is much the same as that 
of the Chinese Shan, but the woman’s dress has many distine- 
tive features. i : 
excellent descriptions, which appear to have been overlooked 
by other writers. therefore propose to rescue them from 
the unmerited oblivion of an ancient report and to reproduce 
them here:— . 
‘‘The costume of the male peasantry is a double- 
breasted loose jacket reaching to the loins, and buttoned 
down the right side. The buttons are frequently jade, am- 
ber orsilver. Their turbans are thick blue cotton cloth, 
with a long fringe at the free end, which is usually wound up 
with the pigtail, and brought round the outside. In rainy 
and sunny weather a very broad straw hat, covered with 
oiled silk, is worn over the turban. Their trousers are 
very loose, and reach only a short way below the knee. 
The shins are bound round with long strips of blue cloth 
to protect them against injury, a fashion that seems to 
prevail not only among the Shans and Kakhyens, but also 
among the Chinese peasantry generally. Their shoe uppers 
are made of thick blue, almost felt cloth, embroidered 
with narrow braid, and with thick leather soles.’’ ! 
With regard to the women’s dress Anderson writes :— 
‘«They wear the Shan jacket, and loose trousers like 
the men, but with the ends unhemmed. The back half of 
the jacket is prolonged downwards to below the knees like a 
the apron is about six inches broad, and dilates behind into 
ing feature in their attire, and consists of a hoop about 
six inches in diameter, made of cloth wound round a rat- 
tan, and placed on the crown of the head, with the hair in 
front transversely divided and gathered up, with that of 
the back, into the centre of the hoop, and plaited into the 
ends of a flat chignon of the dimensions of the internal 
diameter of the hoop. The latter is kept in position by 
about 25 to 30 silver pins fastened into the chignon and 
mass of hair, with their heads resting on and completely 
: hiding the hoop. The pin heads are large, thin, flat plates 
1 (1), p. 102. 
