Vol. rks 3.) The A-ch’ang (Maingtha) Tribe. 141 
[V.S.] 
of silver, placed longitudinally to the length of the hair, 
and either embossed or engraved with figures of leaves or 
of flowers. The result of this arrangement is that the 
crown of the head is encircled with a silver wreath of the 
pins, four much larger, usually richly-enamelled, ones are 
worn at the front, back, and sides of the circle. ........ 
Full dress chignons and their pins are a foot in diameter. 
The head of a pin of this kind is eight inches in length, by 
two in breadth, and of the most intricate construction. 
The simplest is made of silver wire, and flat pieces of the 
same metal cut into fantastic figures and representations 
of trailing plants, in full flower, the colours being given by 
various enamels, of which green, blue, purple, and yellow 
are the chief. In some the leaves are worked out in the 
finest filigree, and in one specimen I purchased, there is a 
figure resembling a swan resting on its outstretched wings 
among a bed of flowers.’” ! 
For the sake of comparison I give here Anderson’s descrip- 
tion of the dress of the ordinary Chinese-Shan woman of Kanai 
or Nan-tien, the neighbours of the A-ch’angs on the north, 
and with whom the latter are constantly confused :— 
‘‘Their ordinary garb is very sombre, but their peculiar 
head-dress, like an inverted pyramid, gives them 
outré appearance in the eyes of a stranger. It consists of a 
tened at the neck, 
and down the centre, by a number of thin, square, enam- 
elled plates of silver; and in full dress, the shoulders and 
a line down the back, and another in front, are covered 
1 (1), p. 104 
