To me, of course, he was very polite, and gave me the best seat he had, while Laotseng prepared me a bowl of cocoa.

Then we rode along the right bank of the river, but kept moving away from the stream till in the distance across the plain at the foot of the hills, we saw the Shan town of Santa, the end of our day's stage.
Native women, returning from the town, were wending their way across the plain--lank overgrown girls with long thin legs and overhanging mops of hair like deck-swabs.

They were a favourite butt of my men, who chaffed them in the humorous Eastern manner, with remarks that were, I am afraid, more coarse than witty.

Kachins are not virtuous.

Their customs preclude such a possibility.