embedded in the dark slush at the well’s mouth. These
girls get fourpence a day for their toil, and they prefer
the hard laboyr of it to more lucrative employment,
“ because they can flirt here all day long.” “ Only
girls in search of husbands go to Yenan-Gyaung,” is the
envious comment of the women along the river, to
whom such opportunities are denied.
The Burmese process is literally the same to-day as
it has been for generations, with one single exception.
They have found an air-pump and a diver’s helmet
useful for the digger, and these may be seen here
and there in use.
The diggers are better paid than any one else in
Yenan-Gyaung. They get one rupee (ij. 4^.) a day for
their toil, and would prosper accordingly if they could
be persuaded to work when they had some earnings
in hand. Diggers are no longer brought up in articulo
mortis, their tongues lolling out of their mouths ; but
their calling still claims an occasional victim. Only
the other day a digger on his way up from the pit
lost his hold of the rope and was killed; and the party
of rope-pullers found themselves on their backs on the
towing path. The Burmese well is by preference
always on a slope, where a good towing path can be
found, leading away at times down to the very bed
of the ravine. One can measure the depth of a well
from the length of the towing path, for they are
exactly equal. From the heaving centre of the wire
suspension bridge which spans the biggest of the
ravines, there is a curious view of these wells, on little
H A UL IN G
ledges protruding from the slopes, each with its dark
circle of oi y refuse and its winding path beaten white
by the feet of the towers.
But it is at the receiving station, where the Burmese
output of oil >is measured and taken over by the
company’s agents, that the bizarre character of
Yenan-Gyaung becomes intense. The inner space, where
these operations are gone through, is surrounded by a
wide circle of black, greasy pitch, an amalgam of oil
and mucj, .stamped with the footprints and the hoof-
marks of men and cattle, and crowded with carts full
of glistening jars of oil. Beside them are the great