We observed that the village of Thileng had some attempts at protection against the Chin raids. At each of the four ends of the village, where the two main roads, placed at right angles, lead out to the jungle, there are log huts erected, where a police guard can be sheltered against their arrows and spears, and the gates are shut at night. The remaining protection consists of a broad hedge of dead thorns heaped all round the village. At this and several villages in the vicinity sad tales were told us of Chin raids, in which Burmans were taken captive, and some of them detained amongst the Chins for many years. The various British expeditions sent up to the Chin tribes, with a view of reducing them to order, have released from time to time a great many of these unfortunate people, and the practice will soon come to an end, if it has not already ceased. This is one example of the ways in which English rule is a great blessing to a country like Burma, in removing such an intolerable burden as this constant dread of these murderous and disastrous raids, and the subsequent miseries of the unfortunate captives. The distance from Thileng to Pinloak, the nearest Chin village, is about sixteen miles, and over as rugged and difficult a path as ever I travelled. About noon we halted, and had our lunch at the bottom of a very lovely gorge, by the side of an icy-cold stream, just the picturesque kind of place that would become a favourite with tourists in England. At about two o’clock we approached the village, and we halted, under cover of the tall grass, while our Burman guide went forward to announce our approach. Presently they called to us to come forward, and we emerged from the tall grass upon a clearing, on the steep hillside, of several acres. The forest trees and undergrowth had been felled and burnt, and crops of various kinds of grain, cultivated in a rough and ready manner, and a few vegetables, were growing. The people received us in a friendly way, and we went forward and rested in the nearest house, which was of bamboo, something like the houses of the Burmans. We found the Chins in many respects different from the Burmans—far more backward in civilisation. In colour they are about the same complexion, a light brown, but altogether dirty and unwashed. The men wear the merest rag of a garment, the women wear a kind of tunic covering the body, but the legs and thighs and feet are quite bare. The peculiar custom of tattooing the faces of the women, described in Chapter X., gives them rather a hideous appearance, and when seen in such a dress, with the face tattooed in that fashion, and with a bamboo pipe stuck in their mouths, smoking, the effect is not the most lady-like imaginable. Still it is only fair to say that the women we saw, despite all these disadvantages, did not strike us as looking particularly unwomanly. Some of the faces, both of the men and women, were of rather a fine cast, notwithstanding their barbarous,