In the ordinary attire the Shans, except the Chinese Shans, are almost uniformly dressed in sombre dark blue, the dye being obtained from the wild indigo. In full dress, however, the women display an appreciation of colour which would delight an artist. The peculiar head-dress, like an inverted cone, has been already alluded to. It consists of a series of long blue scarves, a foot broad, and of a total length of forty to fifty feet, wound round and round the head in a huge turban, towering upwards with a backward slope, like that of the Parsee head-dress. The folds are arranged in a crescent over the forehead with most exact precision; the free end, embroidered in gold and silk, and sometimes adorned with silver pendants, hangs gracefully down the neck. The hair, left uncovered in the hollow of this structure, is adorned with silver hairpins, the heads of which are richly enamelled to represent flowers and insects. The jacket, of blue or green, and sometimes pink, is short and loose, with a narrow and erect collar. Thin square plaques of enamelled silver fasten it at and below the neck, to which are sometimes superadded three rows of large round silver bosses, enriched with birds and flowers enamelled in various colours. The loose sleeves are folded back from the elbow, displaying massive silver or silver-gilt bracelets. A tight thick skirt of cotton cloth, deeply bordered with squares of embroidered silk or satin, close-fitting leggings, and embroidered shoes, complete the toilette, a richly variegated cloth being sometimes worn as a girdle. A Shan lady thus attired is incomplete without a silver flask-shaped scent-bottle about three inches across, adorned with silver studs and pendants terminating in round silver bells, which jingle as the wearer moves. Silver chatelaines are also worn, and a needlecase formed of a silver tube, enamelled and studded, enclosing a cushion, which is attached to the waist. Silver neck-hoops, ear-rings, and rings, which deserve particular description, complete the adornments of the Shan belle, who, moreover, is seldom seen without her long-stemmed pipe, with its small bowl of glazed clay.

The male peasants wear a long double-breasted jacket of blue cotton, buttoned down the right side, often with jade, amber, or silver buttons. Of the same material are their short wide trousers and thick turbans, with a long fringe at the free end, which is usually coiled up with the pigtail on the outside. Long strips of blue cloth wound round the shins serve as leggings, and their shoes are made of cloth resembling felt, embroidered with narrow braid and soled with leather. A very broad straw hat covered with oiled silk serves as an umbrella against rain or a scorching sun.

The better classes, such as the headmen of the towns, wear long blue Chinese coats reaching to the ankles, and black satin skull caps ornamented with Chinese figures worked in gold braid. The little boys don blue cotton caps, braided, with a red topknot, and garnished with a row of silver figures of guardian nats. A silver chatelaine, with a number of little instruments, such as tweezers to depilate the face, ear and tooth picks, is frequently worn by the men. It hangs from the button-hole by a long silver chain, ornamented with beads of jade, amber, or glass, or with grotesque figures of animals carved in jade or amber. Two essentials in a Shan’s equipment are his dah and tobacco-pipe. The dah has a blade two feet and a half to three feet in length, expanding from the hilt to the almost square point, which is nearly three inches broad. The wooden handle is bound with cord covered with silver foil, and ornamented with a tassel of goat hair. The wooden half-scabbard is attached to a ratan hoop worn over the right shoulder. These dahs are chiefly manufactured by the Muangtha Shans from iron imported from Yunnan. They use charcoal as a fuel, and a bellows made of the segment of a large bamboo, with a piston and valve at each end. They supply all the hill tribes with weapons, and, as before remarked, resort to Bhamô and elsewhere to work during the winter months. These weapons exactly resemble those made by the Khampti Shans, and, like them, are keen and well tempered. The tobacco-pipes are remarkable on account of their elaborate silver stems, which are frequently a yard in length, and enriched with enamelled flowers and silver twist. Sometimes the stem swells at intervals into elongated silver spheres. A long bamboo stem intervenes between the silver and the bowl of glazed earthenware. The wealthier Shans frequently use the Chinese hookah, and the poorer the Chinese brass or iron pipes with small bowls. Tobacco, home-grown and of very excellent quality, is carried in small round boxes made of buffalo hide covered with red varnish. They are made in two halves, the upper overlapping the under, the hide being moistened and stretched over a wooden mould.

The costume of the Chinese Shan women of Hotha and Latha differs in a marked manner from that already described. They wear the Shan jacket and loose trousers like the men, and usually are barefooted. The back part of the jacket is prolonged to the knees in a half skirt, and a double Chinese apron in front overlaps it, so as to complete the dress. Besides the large silver plaques, epaulets are worn, of small semi-spherical discs, connected by a line of silver buttons from shoulder to shoulder. The broad waistband of the apron expands behind into a richly embroidered piece, which is a peculiar characteristic of this people. A still more distinctive mark is the head-dress, from which the high turban is absent. The hair is divided and gathered up on the crown of the head, when it is plaited into the ends of a flat chignon encircled by a ratan hoop covered with red cloth. This is kept in position by means of twenty-five to thirty silver pins headed with thin plates of silver embossed or engraved with leaves and flowers, and so disposed as to form a silver coronal. Outside this is wound a slight blue turban, to the pendant fringes of which are suspended a number of silver rings. In full dress four much larger hairpins, with elaborate heads eight inches in length and three inches across, are worn. They are overlaid with silver wire cunningly wrought to represent the stems and leaves of plants, which are enamelled green, brown, and yellow, and enriched with flowers in the same material, the petals formed of red and blue stones, and little silver spheres representing the unopened buds. Sometimes yet another inner circle of smaller pins, each headed with a cluster of four small caps, is added; and an elaborate head-dress forms a circle or an aureole of silver flowers fully a foot in diameter. The various patterns of hairpins are of the most intricate construction. The simplest are made chiefly of silver wire and flat pieces of silver cut into fantastic figures or forms of trailing plants in full flower, the colours being enamelled in green, blue, purple, and yellow. Some are wrought in the finest filigree, one beautiful specimen representing a swan-like bird resting on its outstretched wings among a bed of flowers. The feathers of the wings are most effectively wrought in silver wire, and among the leaflets stand up little coils of silver wire, each terminating in two square cusped discs of silver. These strongly resemble the capsuled stems of mosses; and the general appearance of these pin-heads suggests that the artist has derived his inspiration from the study of a grassy sward covered with flowers and moss; indeed, the most fashionable form of this ornament consists of two tiers of leaf-work, the uppermost supported on fine wire, while through its interstices the capsuled stems rise from the lower tier, as flowers rise above the grass.

This distinctive head-dress of the Chinese Shans seems to characterise the Pa-y or Tai women in the south of Yunnan. M. Garnier describes those of Yuen-hiang as wearing long silver hairpins, from the ends of which hung a profusion of pendants. Their costume consists of a showy corset with a little jacket over it, a petticoat with a broad coloured border, and apron; and he particularly describes a high collar made of red and black stuff, on which little silver studs are arranged in patterns reminding him of the armed collar of a “bouledogue.” The front of the vest is also thickly studded with similar ornaments. The Pa-y ear-rings are of very delicate workmanship, the usual pattern being a large ring supporting a small square plate with numerous pendants, much resembling those of the Chinese Shans. The married women of the latter especially invariably wear a silver or silver-gilt ring, overlaid with studs or filigree work, to which is attached a jade or enamelled silver disc. The Chinese Shan girls wear a tube of silver, from which is suspended an inverted rosette set with a circle of club-shaped pendants. From the centre of this flower-like ornament hangs a filigree ball and rosette set with a garnet. The ear ornaments of the Shans proper are of two kinds, only one of which, worn by the young girls, can be called an ear-ring—the large circle of silver wire suspending a flat spiral ornament resembling a favourite pattern of the Roman period in Europe. There are three forms of the second or of the cylindrical type, necessitating a large opening in the lobe of the ear, but by no means so large as the ear ornaments of the Burmese beauties, which are sometimes an inch and a half in diameter. The first are made of a piece of bamboo, which is covered with silverfoil, one end being finished by a piece of cloth, which is effectively embroidered with the green wing-cases of a beetle, red seeds, and Chinese devices in gold thread. The second form is a short cylinder of silver, with a cross piece engraved with Chinese figures. The third is nearly two inches long, widening into a disc fully an inch in diameter, and terminating in a silver knob. The front is composed of open silver filigree.

SHAN HEAD-DRESS, BRACELETS, AND EAR ORNAMENTS.

These silver ornaments will be seen to be thoroughly characteristic of the Shans, who, it need not be said, are expert silversmiths, their simple tools consisting of small cylindrical bellows, a crucible, punch, graver, hammer, and little anvil. In the Sanda valley the phoongyees are the chief artificers; but in Hotha the trade is still confined to the laymen. Their enamels, of which we could not discover the materials, are very brilliant, and employed with beautiful effect in the floral patterns, which form the principal stock of designs. The only other forms of ornamentation, the rope-shaped fillets and rounded studs or bosses, singularly resemble those found on the diadems and armlets of the early historical periods of Scandinavian art. The plain torques or neck rings in use, especially among the Hotha Shans, only differ from the ancient Irish type by their more rounded form, and by the pointed ends being bent outwards, in lieu of being expanded into cymbal-shaped faces. Another kind of torque is of the same shape, but covered with leaf ornaments and cones in filigree and enamel alternating with red and blue stones or pieces of glass. Torque-like hollow rings, covered with floral enrichments, are worn as bracelets; sometimes they are gilt with very red gold and enamelled, a jewel being usually set in the centre. Another form is a silver hoop, nearly two inches in breadth, with rounded edges and filigree borders, most elaborately set with floral rosettes of three circles, rows of leaves, brown, green, and dark purple, centred by a large silver stud.

The finger-rings are generally made of rope wire, either with conical or flat spiral coils; but one curious type is formed of an oblong ornamented silver plate an inch long, and as broad as the finger. A half-circle from either side enables it to be worn on a finger of any size. Many of the rings are jewelled with garnets, moonstones, and pieces of dark green jade, but no valuable gems were observed. The men commonly wear ordinary Chinese rings of jade or amber.