The great, high houses on either side of the street were dilapidated and
gaunt, let out for the most part in flats and tenements. Screaming
children swarmed naked and entirely unconcerned upon every landing, and
out on the verandas that gave publicity to the way of life in the
native quarter. Sometimes a rag of curtain covered the entrances to the
houses, but just as often it did not. Women washed the big brass and
earthenware pots, cooked the food, and played with the children in the
smoky darkness, or sat to watch the evening show of the street.

At one corner of the upper end of the street was a curio and china shop
owned by a stout and wealthy Burman, Mhtoon Pah. The shop was one of the
features of the place, and no globe-trotting tourist could pass through
Mangadone without buying a set of tea-cups, a dancing devil, a carpet,
or a Burmese gong, from Mhtoon Pah. A strange-looking effigy in tight
breeches, with pointing yellow hands and a smiling yellow face, stood
outside the shop, eternally asking people in wooden, dumb show, to go in
and be robbed by the proprietor. He had stood there and pointed for so
long that the green glaze of his coat was sun-blistered, but he
invariably drew the attention of passing tourists, and acted as a
sign-board. He pointed at a small door up a flight of steps, and behind
the small door was a dark shop, smelling of sandal-wood and cassia, and
strong with the burning fumes of joss-sticks. Innumerable cardboard
boxes full of Japanese dolls, full of glass bracelets of all colours,
full of ivory figures, and full of amber and jade ornaments, were piled
in the shelves. Silver bands, embossed in relief with the history of the
Gaudama--the Lord Buddha--stood under glass protection, and everything
that the heart of the touring American or Britisher could desire was to
be had, at a price, in the curio shop of Mhtoon Pah. Umbrellas of all
colours from Bussan; silk from Shantung; carpets from Mirzapore; silver
peacocks, Japanese embroideries, shell-trimmed bags from Shan and
Cochin, all were there; and the wealth of Mhtoon Pah was great.Everybody knew the curio dealer: he had beguiled and swindled each new arrival in Mangadone, and his personality helped to make him a very definite figure in the place. He was a large man, his size accentuated by his full silk petticoat; a man with large feet, large hands and a round bullet head, set on a thick neck. He had a few sleek black hairs at the corners of his mouth, and his long, narrow eyes, with thick yellow whites and inky-black pupils, never expressed any emotion. Clothed in 

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