been on an elephant before, to my knowledge, nor had I ever experienced
the sensation of the black hair pricking through thin trousers, or the
besom of a tail whacking my boots--I consider we entered Bhamo with a
good deal of eclat.

[Illustration]

4th February.--We all went shopping on the elephant, Captain Kirke
kindly showing us round. He and his pony might have passed under our
steed's girth. It made a pretty fair block in the traffic of China
Street, but the style of shopping seemed to take the popular taste; and
from our point of view we could study at ease the various types of
people. The old ladies in tall blue serge turbans and tunics and putties
of the same colour rather struck me--they are Shans from the East--with
little shrewd twinkling black eyes, short noses and a gentle expression,
and that break in the eyebrow, which I think characteristic of a certain
dark Celtic type.

The above sketch represents a corner of the market; in the centre a
Kachin fairly characteristic but too tall, beside him his sturdy kilted
wife, with the usual basket on her back; other figures, a Burmese girl,
a Chinese woman, Sikhs, and distant Shan woman.

China Street, the principal street in Bhamo, is only about two hundred
yards long, but it is fairly wide and crammed full of interest to the
newcomer; it is so purely Chinese, you only see a Burman, a Burmese
woman rather, here and there, the wife of some Chinese trader. Burmese
women they say, incline to marry either Indians or Chinese, for though
these men are not exactly beautiful they are great workers, whilst the
Burman is a pleasure-loving gentleman of the golden age. The Burmese and
Indian cross is a sad sight.

We stopped at a leading citizen's house with whom Captain K. conversed
in Chinese, and why or how I don't know, but we found ourselves sitting
in his saloon, beyond his outer court, and it was just as if I'd dropped
into an old Holbein interior, it was all so subdued and harmonious and
perfect in finish. There was lacquer work-and ivory-coloured panels on
the walls, brown beams above, and orange vermilion paper labels with
black lettering hanging from them in rows, each purporting the titles of
our host; he wore a loose black silk waistcoat with buff sleeves, buff
shorts, black silk skull-cap, and a weedy black moustache which he
touched every now and then with little pocket comb; the colouring of his
dress, and complexion, and background, all in perfect harmo