•) 1
H i II
Over the Paung-Laung Hills
Again,, when on the point of departing, I noticed
women’s faces peering through chinks in the bamboo
walls, each one being instantly withdrawn, like the
head of a turtle, on discovery. I have given them
a somewhat limited character for beauty, but I am
obliged to say that many of them look very well in
their marching costume, which leaves their arms and
shoulders bare, and shows them to be fair and plump.
But on meeting a white man on the road, they look
startled, pause, and seem in two minds whether to
stand their ground or fly. The smallest advance on
his part would certainly scatter them like jungle-fowl,
and at the best they generally make a détour, and
get out of reach as quickly as possible. I sometimes
wonder in what monstrous character I must, inadvertently,
have appeared to these timid creatures ; and
when I reflect on the natural gaiety of all the Indo-
Chinese people, and on the charm and curiosity of
the sex, I am haunted with a suspicion that at least
a portion of their disinclination to be seen is due to
the tutelage of their men. I fear that I must have
been painted by them in the most sombre colours.
Soon after we started, my elephants having preceded
me by an hour, I came upon a strange scene of
devastation. I found my baggage scattered in fragments
over the jungle; my followers shouting wildly
to each other, but .invisible ; and a single elephant,
his ears flapping, his trunk waving to and fro, and his
small eyes twinkling with excitement and fear. , His
fellow, it seemed, had been called upon to do battle
H