ode mine! I abandoned pedestrianism and
rode to Chiu-Ch'eng--two full days, and when, after a pleasant rest
under a sheltering banyan, we went our different ways, I was sorry
indeed to have to fall back upon my men for companionship.

But it was not to be for long.

Nantien is, or was, to be a fort, but the little place bears no outward
military evidences whatever which would lead one to believe it. It is
populated chiefly by Shans. The bulk of these interesting people now
live split up into a great number of semi-independent states, some
tributary to Burma, some to China, and some to Siam; and yet the
man-in-the-street knows little about them. One cannot mistake them,
especially the women, with their peculiar Mongolian features and sallow
complexions and characteristic head-dress. The men are less
distinguishable, probably, generally speaking, but the rough cotton
turban instead of the round cap with the knob on the top alone enables
one more readily to pick them out from the Chinese. Short, well-built
and strongly made, the women strike one particularly as being a hardy,
healthy set of people.

Shans are recognized to be a peaceful people, but a village squabble
outside Chin-ch'eng, in which I took part, is one of the exceptions to
prove the rule.

It did not take the eye of a hawk or the ear of a pointer to recognize
that a big row was in full progress. Shan women roundly abused the men,
and Shan men, standing afar off, abused their women. A few Chinese who
looked on had a few words to say to these "Pai Yi"[BD] on the futility of
these everyday squabbles, whilst a few Shans, mistaking me again for a
foreign official, came vigorously to me pouring out their souls over the
whole affair. We were all visibly at cross purposes. I chimed in with my
infallible "Puh tong, you stupid ass, puh tong" (I don't understand, I
don't understand); and what with the noise of the disputants, the
Chinese bystanders, my own men (they were all acutely disgusted with
every Shan in the district, and plainly showed it, because they could
not be understood in speech) and myself all talking at once, and the
dogs who mistook me for a beggar, and tried to get at close grips with
me for being one of that fraternity, it was a veritable Bedlam and Tower
of Babel in awfullest combination. At length I raised my hand, mounted a
boulder in the middle of the road, and endeavored to pacify the
infuriated mob. I shouted harshly, I brandished by bamboo