Shans at home . him thathis dinner is ready, or that it is prayer time, but theyare a sign to people outside the house that he mustnot be disturbed. Ordinary people sleep and eatwithout the sounding of gongs, but they are alwaysstruck, in house or monastery, after a prayer. The bedrooms of a Shan house are behind theliving-room. There is no fixed rule as to the occu-pation of the bedrooms. A young married coupleshare a room, and when a baby is small it sleepsbeside the mother; the father generally sleeps alone inanother room for three months after the birth of achild. As children grow up, girl
Shans at home . him thathis dinner is ready, or that it is prayer time, but theyare a sign to people outside the house that he mustnot be disturbed. Ordinary people sleep and eatwithout the sounding of gongs, but they are alwaysstruck, in house or monastery, after a prayer. The bedrooms of a Shan house are behind theliving-room. There is no fixed rule as to the occu-pation of the bedrooms. A young married coupleshare a room, and when a baby is small it sleepsbeside the mother; the father generally sleeps alone inanother room for three months after the birth of achild. As children grow up, girls sometimes share aroom with the mother, boys sharing the fathersbedroom; but this is only when the house is verysmall. If possible, the beds are placed so that theheads of the sleepers do not lie towards the north,the position in which the dead are laid. To sleepwith the head towards the east is considered mosthealthy. Pillows are shaped like short bolsters; thee^ids^are embroidered in coloured silks with geo-. io6 THE HOME metrical patterns and flowers, surrounded by stripsof brightly coloured velvet. They are covered withpillow-slips, open at both ends, made of washing material. A favourite designfor the embroidery which isnot covered by the pillow-slipis a variation of the svastika,Jj*!, not, as usual, severelysimple, but with flowers andleaves bursting from eacharm. Pillows are never stuffedwith feathers, but with cottonor the dried shoots of youngpaddy. Shans use mosquitocurtains of very thick whitemuslin, not in order to prevent fever, but simply toward off the annoying bites of the little the rice lands begin to be flooded the mosquitoesswarm in countless myriads, but they are not verytroublesome in the day-time, only at night. Shans do not sleep with their wives during thenights of the fast days of each month; they carrytheir beds and mosquito curtains to the zayats ^ nearthe monastery. There they spend the night in readingaloud or listening while others r
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