s important that I
should leave as favourable an impression as possible for the benefit of
future travellers. More than one of my ancestors I brought to life again
and endowed with a patriarchal age and a beard to correspond. As to my
own age they marvelled greatly that one so young-looking could be so
old, and when, in answer to their earnest question, I modestly confessed
that I was already the unhappy possessor of two unworthy wives, five
wretched sons, and three contemptible daughters, their admiration of my
virtue increased tenfold.

The officers left me after this, but till late at night I held _levees_
of the townsfolk, our landlady, who was most zealous, no sooner
dismissing one crowd than another pressed into its place. The courtyard,
I believe, remained filled till early in the morning, but I was allowed
to sleep at last.

A large crowd followed me out of the town in the morning, and swarmed
with me across the beautiful sward, as level as the Oval, which here
widens into the country. No guest was ever sped on his way with a
kindlier farewell. The fort is outside the town; we passed it on our
left; it is a square inclosure of considerable size, inclosed by a mud
wall 15 feet high; it is in the unsheltered plain, and presents no
formidable front to an invader. At each of the four corners outside the
square are detached four-sided watch-towers. No guns of any kind are
mounted on the walls, and there are no sentries; one could easily
imagine that the inclosure was a market-square, but imagination could
never picture it as a serious obstacle to an armed entry into Western
China. The river was well on our right. The plain down which we rode is
of exceeding richness and highly cultivated, water being trained into
the paddy-fields in the same way that everywhere prevails in China
proper. Buffaloes were ploughing--wearily plodding through mud and water
up to their middles. We were now among the Shans, and those working in
the fields were Shans, not Chinese. Ganai, Santa, and other places are
but little principalities or Shan States, governed by hereditary
princelets or Sawbwas, and preserving a form of self-government under
the protection of the Chinese. There are no more charming people in the
world than the Shans. They are courteous, hospitable, and honest, with
all the virtues and few of the vices of Orientals. "The elder brothers
of the Siamese, they came originally from the Chinese province of
Szechuen, and they