538 
PROCEEDINGS OE SECTION E. 
changing their clothes, or removing in the hottest weather even 
one of: their innumerable garments, and their dislike of washing, they 
are no more sweet of savour than of face and manners. 
Their packs, as they stand in rows in camp, are guarded hv 
ferocious dogs, who take after their masters in their want of cordiality 
to strangers. The only things we used to find to like about them were 
the walnuts, which they bring down from the north, and deal out to 
the delighted Lao children by way of advertisement. 
To make up, perhaps, for their own striking want of attraction, 
they deck their poor thin mules and decrepit-looking ponies (I won’t 
quote the usual line about them !) in gorgeous trappings, which, after 
a few months among the bamboo jungles and slippery torrents, get a 
bedraggled appearance which only adds to the breadth of the griu 
with which the Lao jungle man greets them. 
They usually bring, besides the walnuts, opium, raw silks, bee’s- 
wax, and slieepskin-liued coats, which are admirable things before the 
sun is up on a January morning, as you stalk through mists at 40° 
Eahr. 
Erom Chieng Mai they go down to Moulmein to replenish their 
stock for the return journey, often making this trip two or three 
times, before starting out homeward, laden with edible birds’ nests, 
mostly from the Mergui Archipelago, cotton goods, pots and pans, 
and betel-nut, which they sell by degrees on the way. 
Betel . — It is by chewing this areca nut with lime that the men 
and women of the Tai race delight in making objects of themselves ,* 
it is said to aid the digestion, and is a stimulant, and in moderation, like 
opium and tobacco, has great sustaining qualities, especially for men 
on short commons in the jungle. Biit used to excess, as it generally is 
by the idle classes and the people of the capital, it blackens the teeth, 
reddens and enlarges the gums; and, although credited with keeping 
the teeth healthy, it; loosens them to such an extent that old men and 
women have to do most of their talking at the hack of their throat 
to prevent their tongues knocking the unfortunate things overboard 
in an unwary moment; labials are impossible, and half one’s difficulties 
in the language arise from the extraordinary sounds produced. 
So fashionable, however, are black teeth, that a distinguished 
dentist procures sets of false black teeth from America with which to 
patch up dilapidated dandies in Bangkok; and lately over in Burmah 
when I asked the lady-killer of the party what he thought of the 
Burmese damsels, he replied, “ Oh, they are not pretty — they have 
white teeth,” and that w r as the verdict of all the Siamese of the party. 
Caravans ( Shins ). — Another trade route into Chieng Mai from 
the north is through Mining Sing, the new capital of Chieng Kheng, 
and up the fair plain of Chieng Sen ; while occasionally a Lao party 
comes up to that place from Luang Prabaug, either in boats or with 
elephants, hearing gum benjamin, raw silk, and the roe of the famous 
Pla Bilk. The Shan States in British territory send up a fair number 
of caravans every year to the Chieng Mai neighbourhood. They use, 
as a rule, docile and plucky little pack oxen, and with their bells and 
gay colours they are merry people to meet on a lonely jungle trail, 
especially as they often travel in large numbers with 100 to 200 
bullocks. 
