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floor, on one or two sides; while the upper storey is reserved for the various members of the family. Almost always a fire is kept going on the open verandah which looks onto the courtyard, and here the old men sit and smoke, the women boil the kettle, and the children play about. A kitchen somewhere in the background will generally be full of babbling women attending to the day's cooking.
The difference between Burma and China was noticeable immediately on crossing the border. Years of peace and security, but recently disturbed, told their tale. In Kokang the people looked more prosperous; they were more independent. Off the beaten track you could find chickens in plenty, pigs, cows, bullocks, mules and ponies. One day we suddenly came across a whole flock of sheep. The men all carried arms; generally a dah, sometimes with copper and silver bound handle. The headmen were usually attended by a follower or two armed with ancient muskets: and the hill-top people carried cross bows, beautifully made, fitted with a trigger to release the string. The arrow, a short length of hard wood, would be dipped in a deadly poison of which they retained the secret.
It was at Nancha that we had our first trouble with our escort. The parachute party had particular cause to complain of the officer in charge of the escort, who would leave them no freedom to do what they wished, but continually interfered, especially when it came to communicating with the natives. The officer, dubbed Percy, apparently received his appointment because he had misled his superiors into believing that he understood a lot of English. He only understood a little. I thought I had made it clear that I would not welcome any interference between myself and the local population, so when Percy was also appointed to command my escort I did not worry. But he began to behave in exactly the same way as before. He had obviously threatened the old circle-headman, who was terrified of being seen in solitary conversation with us: not that we had much opportunity for it; Percy was always on his heels. We even several times caught Percy eavesdropping on us, and when I had established some outside contacts and discovered how the whole countryside was held under intimidation, and that the people had been instructed to give us no co-operation or information, I decided the time had come to do without an escort. We were due to move further into Kokang and I told Percy that on arrival at our new destination I should no longer require the services of himself and his men. I thought there would be some trouble in getting rid of them but they left without fuss, only to be replaced next day by an entirely new detachment. I ordered
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