al feet and the sides of the houses were open so that the free passage
of air kept them delightfully cool. Moreover, they were surprisingly clean,
for the floors were of split bamboo, and the inmates, if they wore sandals,
left them at the door. In the center of the single room, on a large flat
stone, a small fire always burned, but much of the cooking was done on the
porch where a tiny pavilion had been erected over the hearth.

The Shans at Nam-ka had "no visible means of support." The extensive rice
paddys indicated that in the past there had been considerable cultivation
but the fields were weed-grown and abandoned. The villagers purchased all
their vegetables from the Mohammedan hunter and two other Chinese who lived
a mile up the trail, or from passing caravans whom they sometimes
entertained. In all probability they lived upon the sale of smuggled opium
for they were only a few miles from the Burma border.

Virtually every Shan we saw in the south was heavily tattooed. Usually the
right leg alone, but sometimes both, were completely covered from the hip
to the knee with intricate designs in black or red. The ornamentations
often extended entirely around the body over the abdomen and waist, but
less frequently on the breast and arms.

All the natives were inordinately proud of these decorations and usually
fastened their wide trousers in such a way as to display them to the best
advantage. We often could persuade a man to pose before the camera by
admiring his tattoo marks and it was most amusing to watch his childlike
pleasure.

The Shan tribe is a large one with many subdivisions, and it is probable
that at one time it inhabited a large part of China south of the Yangtze
River; indeed, there is reason to believe that the Cantonese Chinamen are
chiefly of Shan stock, and the facial resemblance between the two races
certainly is remarkable.

Although the Shans formerly ruled a vast territory in Yuen-nan before its
conquest by the Mongol emperors of China in the thirteenth century A.D.,
and at one time actually subdued Burma and established a dynasty of their
own, at present the only independent kingdom of the race is that of Siam.
By far the greatest number of Shans live in semi-independent states
tributary to Burma, China, and Siam, and in Yuen-nan inhabit almost all of
the southern valleys below an altitude of 4,000 feet.

The reason that the Chinese allow them to hold such an extent of fertile
land is beca