Shans at home . ing the fingers one by one, alwaysbeginning by closing the smallest finger first. It maybe noted here that when a Shan beckons he holdshis hand palm down, as if he were playing the piano ;he moves all his fingers, in beckoning, as a handstriking a chord. He never pointswith one finger. Should his handbe empty, he points with the wholehand; should both his hands be full,he protrudes his lips in the directionin which he wishes to point. Hedoes not nod for Yes, or shakehis head for No, and he nevershrugs his shoulders, or raises hiseyebrows superciliously. He some-times scratches
Shans at home . ing the fingers one by one, alwaysbeginning by closing the smallest finger first. It maybe noted here that when a Shan beckons he holdshis hand palm down, as if he were playing the piano ;he moves all his fingers, in beckoning, as a handstriking a chord. He never pointswith one finger. Should his handbe empty, he points with the wholehand; should both his hands be full,he protrudes his lips in the directionin which he wishes to point. Hedoes not nod for Yes, or shakehis head for No, and he nevershrugs his shoulders, or raises hiseyebrows superciliously. He some-times scratches his head when puzzled,and when very much surprised givesan exclamation and immediatelycovers his open mouth with hishand. When he calls to any one at a distance heshouts Hu! in a high tone of voice, and continuesto shout Hu! until the answer Hu! comes inreturn. Uneducated Shans still use oblong make a little notch at one side to represent eachtwo-anna piece, longer notches at the other side are. 54 BOYS AND GIRLS cut for each four-anna piece, longer cuts at one endfor the eight-anna piece, and still longer scores at theother end for the rupees. Besides reading and writing, and a very little arith-metic, the monks teach the schoolboys geography, butit is not the geography known to the Western teach that our world is one of four great islands,and that it is flat. In the middle of the islands isa great and sacred mountain, whose foundationsrest on an enormous fish. This fish generally sleeps,holding its tail in its mouth, but sometimes it wakes,bites its tail, then shakes itself with pain. This causesthe mountain to shudder and quiver, and the fourgreat islands—of which our world is the southernone—tremble. This is the origin of great earth-quakes. Small shocks, that are hardly felt, are causedby the little men who live below us, under the crustof the earth. Sometimes they feel lonely in their darkhome, so they knock on the roof of their world, and
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