two
hours at least.

... It is really very pleasant to feel we are actually going with our
own mule train into the wilds, where even Cook's tickets and Empires
peter out; there is almost the same exciting feeling as of sailing into
uncharted seas, and seeing new lands.

Our mule train cannot exactly be called interminable; but we have four
riding ponies to add to the live stock already mentioned, making a
caravan of ten beasts. Besides the three Chinese men, there is our
Madrassee boy, an Indian cook, in black top-coat and black Delhi cap; he
has a plain but honest face, and a stutter and a few words of English,
and there is a youthful Burman to help him, and three Indian soldiers,
Sowars, to ride behind our illustrious selves! Quite an interesting
crowd when you come to think of it, for its size and babel of tongues!
but, my certie! I'd nearly left out the cook's charming and stately
Burmese wife! She is the most decorative part of the show; with a yellow
orchid in her black hair, coppery-brown lungy, green-jacket and pink
scarf floating from her shoulders; she carries a black gingham umbrella
in one hand, and in the other, of course, a big white cheroot, and
behind her toddles her dog, liver and white, half terrier, half
daschhound.

We got our packages fast on the pack saddles, and the procession on the
road only three hours after the time we had aimed at, which we thought
not bad for beginners, and G. and I followed, in a pony trap, with the
four ponies and two Sowars, her maid being left in the care of the
American missionary's wife.

Out of Bhamo for some miles, the road is macadamised, broad level and
straight, with grand columnar trees on either side, and leaves on its
surface. Every mile or so you meet or pass groups of Kachins, Chinese or
Shans, or people you can't quite place. They walk in Indian file as they
are accustomed to in narrow hill and jungle paths. The Chinese men are
without women and carry burdens, the Kachins carry their swords slung
under the left arm, and their women carry their burdens. Some tribesmen
have bows and arrows as well as swords. The Kachin woman's costume is of
a pretty colour, a little dark velvet jacket with short sleeves, a kilt
to the knee, and dark putties, both of woven colours like tartan, in
diced and in herringbone and running patterns. She carries the load in a
narrow, finely-woven basket on her back, and her black hair is dressed
after the fashion in Whitechapel.