ills
were covered with bright green stalks and here and there a field glistened
with white poppy blossoms. The guide insisted that we were on the direct
road to Ma-li-ling which for the first time he said was in Burma. On our
map it was marked well over the border in Chinese territory and we were
greatly puzzled.

About six o'clock the brown huts of a village were silhouetted against the
sky on a tiny knoll in the midst of a grove of beautiful trees, and we
camped at the edge of a water hole. The pool was almost liquid mud, but we
were told that it was the only water supply of the village and its cattle.
As though to prove the statement a dozen buffalos ambled slowly down the
hill, and stood half submerged in the brown liquid, placidly chewing their
cuds; meanwhile blue-clad Shan women with buckets in their hands were
constantly arriving at the pond for their evening supply of water. We had
no filter and it was nauseating to think of drinking the filthy liquid but
there was no alternative and after repeated boiling and several strainings
we settled it with alum and disguised its taste in tea and soup.

After dinner we questioned the few natives who spoke Chinese, but we became
only more and more confused. They knew of no such place as Ma-li-ling and
our Shan guide had discreetly disappeared. But they were familiar with the
trail to Ma-li-pa, a village farther west in Burma and, moreover, they said
that two hundred foreign soldiers were stationed there. We were quite
certain that they must be native Indian troops but thought that a white
officer might perhaps be in command.

We did not wish to cross the frontier because of possible political
difficulties since we had no permits to shoot in Burma, but there seemed to
be no alternative, for we were hopelessly bewildered by the mythical
Ma-li-ling. We eventually discovered that there were two villages by that
name--one in Burma, and the other in China, where it was correctly placed
on the map which we were using.

While we were discussing the matter a tremendous altercation arose between
the Chinese _mafus_ and the servants. For some time Roy did not interfere,
supposing it to be a personal quarrel, but the disturbance at last became
unbearable. Calling Wu we learned that because we had been so careful to
avoid English territory the _mafus_ had conceived the idea that for some
reason we were afraid to meet other foreigners. Since we had inadvertently
crossed into Burma i