Shans at home . ff. The first low rays of the sun fill the inside of abamboo house with hundreds of tiny lights: eachchink in the mat walls is a brilliant star. By six oclock the village is astir, but with themovement and bustle of the women only, as they dotheir housework, and call their morning greetings totheir neighbours. Men sleep longer than women, andthey seldom leave their homes before eight or nineoclock, unless there is a pressing need for work, or areligious feast or fast. Shans prefer to have theirbreakfast about eight oclock, before they go when they start on a long journ
Shans at home . ff. The first low rays of the sun fill the inside of abamboo house with hundreds of tiny lights: eachchink in the mat walls is a brilliant star. By six oclock the village is astir, but with themovement and bustle of the women only, as they dotheir housework, and call their morning greetings totheir neighbours. Men sleep longer than women, andthey seldom leave their homes before eight or nineoclock, unless there is a pressing need for work, or areligious feast or fast. Shans prefer to have theirbreakfast about eight oclock, before they go when they start on a long journey they preferto eat their breakfast, and have their smoke andchew of betel-nut before they set out on their waythrough the jungle. Once started they are goodwalkers, and can do their twenty-five to thirty milesa day, and carry sixty pounds of a load as v( always carry their loads in two baskets, mostcarefully weighted, so that one basket does not weighmore than the other; these hang at either end of a. KINDNESS TO ANIMALS 113 bamboo pole, which rests sometimes on one shoulder,sometimes on the other. The pole is never carriedat right angles to the body; if one basket hangs infront of the right shoulder, the other hangs behindthe left. When Shans carry their goods on oxenthey are considerate for their welfare, and start onthe journey before dawn, so that the animals mayrest and feed during the heat of the day. In the early mornings of winter the plain is lostin a sea of mist, the near bamboos float like islands,and in the distance the mountains hang rose-colouredand mysterious. CHAPTER IX CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS Shans call themselves the Tai race. They are Mon-golian in type, but until their heads can be scientificallymeasured, it is not possible to know from whom theyare descended. Their language is allied to Chinese,but that does not prove their ancestry, as the fact thatmany Hottentots in Cape Colony speak only Dutchdoes not prove that they are descended from Du
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