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20
BURMESE TEXTILES.

or some other colour than black. Excellent examples of the two types of jacket or coat worn by the women of these tribes are to be seen in the George collection, and two of them are described below in detail.

GS 53 (Fig. 12). The garment represented in this figure (p. 13) is the black cloth coat of a woman of the La’hu tribe. It is of a somewhat unusual and exceedingly uncomfortable shape, being extremely tight across the shoulders, very shortwaisted, and having very long, tight sleeves cut the same width throughout. When in wear the front of the coat does not reach the natural waist line. It is fastened by means of one scarlet cord attached to the seam under the left arm and another joined to the front edge of the right hand side of the garment, which folds over slightly.

Fig.16. G.S.23. Back of Coat, Shan peasant woman of Bhamo district. Cloth, cowries, and embroidery used in the decoration.
Fig. 16.

The decoration consists chiefly of folds of differently coloured cloths, stitched down by contrasting colours. A narrow braid provides a touch of scarlet on the collar and lower edge, but the place of honour in each case is given to imported material; on the collar the central part of the trimming consists of a strip of fine white calico, of Lancashire make, sewn down by a triple row of herringboning, in red, green and yellow, and the pattern at the lower edge includes a flat green silk braid with a design in white and purple woven in it, which is of Chinese origin.

GS 60[1] (Figs. 13a and 14). The extremely handsome coat shewn in Figure 13a, belonged to a woman of the Red La’hu or Mühso tribe. A rather coarse black cotton cloth of native manufacture, 27 cm. wide, forms the basis of the garment,

  1. Where colours are indicated in the figures a key is given.