hes from Osaka were for sale here, and foreign nick-nacks, needles
and braid and cotton, and Manchester dress stuffs mixed with the
multitudinous articles of native produce. This is a Shan town, but large
numbers of native women--Kachins--were here also with their ugly black
faces, and coarse black fringes hiding their low foreheads. Far away
from the town an obliging Shan had attached himself to us as guide. He
was dressed in white cotton jacket and dark-blue knickerbockers, with a
dark-blue sash round his waist. He was barelegged, and rode as the
Chinese do, and as you would expect them to do who do everything _al
reves_, with the heel in the stirrup instead of the toe. His turban was
dark-blue, and the pigtail was coiled up under it, and did not hang down
from under the skull cap as with the Chinese. When I rode into the town
accompanied by the guide, all the people forsook the market street and
followed the illustrious stranger to the inn which had been selected for
his resting-place. It was a favourite inn, and was already crowded. The
best room was in possession of Chinese travellers, who were on the road
like myself. They were dozing on the couches, but what must they do when
I entered the room but, thinking that I should wish to occupy it by
myself, rise and pack up their things, and one after another move into
another apartment adjoining, which was already well filled, and now
became doubly so. Their thoughtfulness and courtesy charmed me. They
must have been more tired than I was, but they smiled and nodded
pleasantly to me as they left the room, as if they were grateful to me
for putting them to inconvenience. They may be perishing heathen, I
thought, but the average deacon or elder in our enlightened country
could scarcely be more courteous.

Ganai is a mud village thatched with grass. It is a military station
under the command of the red-button Colonel Liu, whom I met in Tengyueh.
The Colonel had earned his bottle of hair-dye. He had written to have me
provided with an escort, and by-and-by the two officers who were to
accompany me on the morrow came in to see me. As many spectators as
could find elbow-room squeezed into my room behind them. Both were
gentlemanly young fellows, very amiable and inquisitive, and keenly
desirous to learn all they could concerning my honourable family. Their
curiosity was satisfied. By the help of my Chinese phrase-book I gave
them all particulars, and a few more. You see it wa