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Show 2 PAPERMAKIN IN INDO-CHIN in holes dug along the roadside. Every flag was of larg dimensions and most elaborately embroidered in lovel colours with lions, dragons, and all manner of symboli designs, each banner fringed with rich, heavy silk in tone that could only have been produced by the permanen vegetable dyes such as were used before the introduétio of European synthetic colours. I could not learn the reason for the display of flags, but they apparently extende for hundreds of miles along the roadsand lanes throughout Tonkin. The flags were probablyin commemoratio ofa cherished event or for a special religious ceremony they certainly had nothing in common with the gaudy ephemeral decorations of banners and bunting so ofte seen in America. Each flag along the Tonkin roadway represented months of tedious toil by the nimble finger and weary eyes of highly-trained artisans,skilled throug many generations in silk and damask craftsmanship. A we speeded over the highway I was genuinely impresse by the beauty of the spe&acle of hundreds of these ex quisitely executed silken flags, cach individual banner masterpiece of the embroiderer's art We continued along in the bus at breakneck spee constantly passing the endless cavalcade of humanity; n regard was shown for their comfort or preservation. On cannot help but feel, that of the many countries of th Far East, the oppressed people of Indo-China are give the smallest measure of consideration for even the mos meager emergencies of life; indeed, life itselfis regarde Digital mage© 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah, All rights reserved |