File:Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature (1910) (14577618920).jpg

Identifier: shansathomewitht00miln (find matches)
Title: Shans at home. With two chapters on Shan history and literature
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Milne, Leslie, Mrs., 1860-1952 Cochrane, Wilbur Willis
Subjects: Shan (Asian people)
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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t is ready to listen to complaints, andinterfere where the complaint seems just, is a greatpreventive to extortion and bribery. The chief cause of complaint by the people in out-of-the-way districts is that very little is done toimprove the state of the bridle-paths which unite onevillage to another. Traders who know the roads ofLower Burma—that have been long under Britishcontrol—grumble very much when they speak of thepaths in the Shan States, where good roads areurgently needed. There are a few cart roads leadingdown to the railway; but the majority of trade routesand paths to the hill villages are often indescribablybad, and in the rainy season are sometimes impassable.Many of the cultivators have no outlet for their crops,and, when the produce can be used only locally, thereis no inducement to reclaim the jungle, where fruittrees of almost every kind might be grown. Owingto deep holes in the paths, the export of agriculturalproducts by pack bullocks takes so long that perish-
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BAD ROADS 191 able goods—such as fruit and vegetables—would spoilbefore they could reach a large market, so it isnecessary to dispose of them locally. If the larger villages could be connected by cartroads instead of by bad paths, trading would increase,and agriculture would be encouraged. Buffaloes andbullocks wear deep hollows across the paths wherethe ground is soft by constantly stepping into eachothers footsteps; these hollows are sometimes twofeet in depth—they may be even deeper—so thestirrups of a rider may touch the ground as the ponysteps out of one hole into another. Walking undersuch circumstances would seem preferable to riding—as one can step from ridge to ridge between theholes—but for the fact that there are many streams,and the fords must be crossed in deep black mud. Inwet weather, when people come to the markets fromthe country, their feet and legs are so covered withmud that they appear to be wearing long black boots.Sometimes the chief street of a vill

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