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Rh The remaining Shan garments in the collection are not attributed to any special tribes. The rest of the chapter is devoted to descriptions of the most interesting of them.


 * Coats.

GS 23 (Fig. 16). The coat, the back of which is shewn in Figure 16 (p. 20), belonged to a Shan woman of the peasant class, and is interesting because cloth applique, embroidery and cowrie shells have all entered into its decoration. The body is made of two widths of black native cloth, with slightly wider pieces for each sleeve. The trimming on the front is incomplete, the garment having been mutilated, but the back is effectively treated by the application of pieces of white native cloth and imported scarlet flannel so as to form a stripe down the centre, and a deep panelled border at the bottom.

Each of the white cloth panels is outlined by a narrow fold of the cloth, with the addition, in most cases, of a fold of black. The two squares between the shoulders are sub-divided again by black and white and red and white folds placed along the diagonals of the red and white squares respectively. At the intersection of the diagonals cowrie shells are placed to form a quatrefoil, which is repeated at each side of the square. The shells are used, both in pairs and singly, at other points in the scheme of decoration and, on a black band at the bottom, alternate with wheels of buttonhole stitchery in yellow, and form a most attractive border (Fig. 16a.) Circles of buttonhole stitching are also used along the outer edges of the panelled portion, being worked in blue and red on the white panel at the left of Figure 16, and black, yellow and pink on the red panel. The sleeves near the shoulder have a band of pink cotton cloth decorated with cowrie shells, and at the wrist a band of pink attached to another strip which appears originally to have been pale blue.