han village we had ever seen, and
regretfully we rode away across the plain between the walls of waving grass
toward the Nam-ting River. Two canoes, each dug out of a single log, and
tightly bound together, formed the ferry, but the packs were soon across
the muddy stream and the mules were made to swim to the other bank. Shortly
after leaving the ferry we emerged from the vast stretches of rank grass on
to the open rice paddys which stretched away in a gently undulating plain
from the river to the mountains. Strangely enough we saw no ducks or geese,
but three great flocks of cranes (probably _Grus communis_) rose from the
fields and wheeled in ever-widening spirals above our heads until they were
lost in the blue depths of the sky.

Away in the distance we saw a wooded knoll with a few wisps of smoke
curling above its summit, but not until we were well-nigh there did we
realize that its beautiful trees sheltered the thatched roofs of Meng-ting.
But this was only the "residential section" of the village and below the
knoll on the opposite side of a shallow stream lay the shops and markets.

We camped on a dry rice dyke where a fringe of jungle separated us from the
nearest house. As soon as the tents were up I announced our coming to the
mandarin and requested an interview at five o'clock. Wu and I found the
_yamen_ to be a large well-built house, delightfully cool and exhibiting
several foreign articles which evinced its proximity to Burma.

We were received by a suave Chinese "secretary" who shortly introduced the
mandarin--a young Shan not more than twenty years old who only recently had
succeeded his late father as chief of the village. The boy was dressed in
an exceedingly long frock coat, rather green and frayed about the elbows,
which in combination with his otherwise typical native dress gave him a
most extraordinary appearance.

We soon discovered that the Chinese secretary who did all the talking was
the "power behind the throne." He accepted my gift of a package of tea with
great pleasure, but the information about hunting localities for which we
asked was not forthcoming. He first said that he knew of a place where
there were tiger and leopard, but that he did not dare to reveal it to us
for we might be killed by the wild animals and he would be responsible for
our deaths; bringing to his attention the fact that tigers had never been
recorded from the Meng-ting region did not impress him in the slightest.