of mountain-side, diversified with yellow hamlets and
dark monastery spires, Every moment, as the narrow
bridle path ascends, the landscape widens, gaining in
clarity and beauty, and with each step the little valley
of Mogdk falls farther behind. All that is human of
it grows l^ s and lesSj shrinking away to its true
proportions; and the discontent of one, the satiety
of another, the little pride, and the little jealousies,
and the little animosities, are withered in the splendour
of the broadening world.
It is a very little valley,, shut in by lofty mountains,
and greatly cut off from the world ; and those who
go to live in it grow very tired of each other, very
weary of looking at the blue-green hills, and the
shadows of the restless clouds. They have an article
of faith that the only fools in IVIogok are the Burmese,
who, finding rubies, give them away again in pious
works for the sake of a vague and far-away Nirvana ;
and down there in the midst of the turmoil of the
trucks and engines, in the heart of the pits where
the diggers toil, in the crowded market-place where
the rubies gleam on brazen trays, in the maelstrom
of the little mining town where thousands, from the
untutored Meingtha digger to the cultivated English
gentleman, labour, giving all their time and their zeal
and great part of their lives to the digging, the buying,
and the selling of the little red stones, it seems very
foolish indeed to,give them away again, to so shadowy
an end as the accumulation of merit.
Yet here is the truth : that almost the only note
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