■+> Over the Paung-Laung Hills
as usual, were already occupied by parties of Shan,
and Burmese. My elephants had gone on, so while
a messenger went to call them back, I waited in the
shelter of one of the huts.
It is an unfailing charm of travel in these countries
that the traveller is left alone by the people he meets.
The innate good-breeding of these races sweetens the
atmosphere of the land they live in, and one is often
happier therefore amongst them, in a wayside hut, than
in the midst of more imposing surroundings, where
the strain is coarse. N o one, as I sat here alone, came
to pry, or to ask me questions, and no one was in a
hurry to be abject or useful. My coming, though the
passing of an Englishman must be of rare occurrence
in these wilds, seemed to make no sensible difference
to the occupants of the hut, or to my other neighbours.
Each man pursued his vocation ; one sang as he collected
some bits of bamboo for a fire, another went gravely
to and fro fetching water from the stream ; a third
cleaned rice for the evening meal—each had his laugh
and his joke in season. Not that there was any question
of ignoring the stranger, for a strip of Brussels carpet
quietly found its way to where I sat, and an English
folding chair, the" pride of its possessor, was dusted and
set up for my comfort. At a word they were willing
to vacate any one of the houses which sheltered them,
but they made no fuss in anticipation.
And for my part I was more than content to sit
down quietly in their midst. One big fellow exercised
a decoy-cock, another displayed a gorgeous pheasant
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