use the low plains are considered unhealthy and the Chinese
cannot, or will not, live there. Whether or not the malarial fever of
the valleys is so exceedingly deadly remains to be proved, but the
Chinese believe it to be so and the result is the same. Where the
Shans are numerous enough to have a chief of their own they live in a
semi-independent state, for although their head man is subordinate to the
district Chinese official, the latter seldom interferes with the internal
affairs of the tribe.

The Shans are a short, strongly-built race with a distinct Mongolian type
of features and rather fair complexions. Their dress varies decidedly with
the region, but the men of the southern part of the province on the
Nam-ting River wear a pair of enormous trousers, so baggy that they are
almost skirtlike, a white jacket, and a large white or pink turban
surmounted by a huge straw hat. The women dress in a white jacket and skirt
of either striped or dark blue cloth; their turbans are of similar material
and may be worn in a high cylinder, a low oval, or many other shapes
according to the particular part of the province in which they live.

CHAPTER XXXII

PRISONERS OF WAR IN BURMA

_Y.B.A._

The camp at Nam-ka was a supremely happy one and we left it on March 7,
with much regret. Its resources seemed to be almost exhausted and the
Mohammedan hunter assured us that at a village called Ma-li-ling we would
find excellent shooting. We asked him the distance and he replied, "About a
long bamboo joint away." It required three days to get there!

Whether the man had ever been to Ma-li-ling we do not know but we
eventually found it to be a tiny village built into the side of a hill in
an absolutely barren country where there was not a vestige of cover. Our
journey there was not uneventful. We left Nam-ka with high hopes which were
somewhat dampened after a day's unsuccessful hunting at the spot where our
caravan crossed the Nam-ting River.

With a Shan guide we traveled due north along a good trail which led
through dense jungle where there was not a clearing or a sign of life. In
the afternoon we noted that the trail bore strongly to the west and
ascended rapidly. Soon we had left the jungle and emerged into an
absolutely treeless valley between high barren hills. We knew that the
Burma frontier could not be far away, and in a few moments we passed a
large square "boundary stone"; a hundred yards on the other side the h