1, 2, _Lacquered, bamboo dish with plaited cover_. 3, _Wooden comb_. 4, 5, 6, _Baskets for carrying cooked rice_. 7, _Ladle for water_. 8, _Bamboo lantern_. ] Whatever one may think of the habit of eating with one’s fingers, it is much more seemly than the Chinese custom of feeding with chop-sticks. It is simply disgusting to watch a Chinaman shovelling in his food, and attempting to convey it neatly to his mouth, with these curious and most unsuitable implements. [Illustration: 1, _Divider for cotton_. 2, _Basket and bow for carding cotton_. 3, _Wheel to spin cotton_. 4, 5, _Spinner for silk_. 6, _Divider for silk_. ] As in olden time in England, so now in the Shan States, every unmarried woman is a spinster, and makes homespun garments for the household. Each house has its native loom and spinning implements, and the women, rich and poor, spend much of their time in providing clothes for the monasteries and for their home-folk. Many are skilled in embroidery, working beautiful patterns in gold and silver thread, and in worsted, cotton, and silk. Both cotton and silk fabrics are woven at the looms, and many of the embroidered goods are taken to Burmah, where they fetch a high price. The cotton is grown in the gardens surrounding the house, or purchased in the neighbourhood. Some of the silk is produced from the cocoons of the local silk-worms, and the rest is brought by the Chinese from China. The dyes used by the people to within the last few years were solely vegetable; but these, and pity ’tis so, are being displaced by German aniline dyes. The favourite colours are indigo, orange, maroon, and a reddish brown. Many of the Muhseurs and Upper Shans use a black dye made from the berries of the ebony tree. Turmeric and safflower give a yellow dye; soap-acacia, green; tamarind-fruit a deep red colour, approaching purple; and sapan and _thyt-si_ wood, red. After breakfast we left Htong Htau, the monk and his acolytes coming to the bank to see us off. Half a mile farther the Meh Khan, a river 150 feet broad, enters from the west. In the village at its mouth is a large teak-built house in an extensive stockade belonging to a Chinese _hong_ or merchant company. We soon afterwards reached Wang Hluang Pow—the Wang Pow where Phya Cha Ban removed his court after deserting Zimmé in 1775. The houses about here are thatched under the gable-ends as well as on the roofs. The village extends for over two miles, chiefly along the east bank of the river. Rows of women, approaching each other in lines extending from bank to bank, were fishing with drop-nets, formed of a wire frame 2 feet 6 inches square, to which the net is attached. The frame of the net is suspended from four pieces of bamboo string, one at each corner, tied together to form a handle.