He spoke Chinese unusually well and was naturally proud of his accomplishment.

Now the ordinary Chinaman has this feature in common with many of the European races, that, if he thinks you cannot speak his language, he _will_ not understand you, even if you speak to him with perfect correctness of idiom and tone.

And Baber had an experience of this which deeply hurt his pride.

Walking one day in the neighbourhood of Bhamo, he met two Chinese--strangers--and began speaking to them in his best Mandarin.

They heard him with unmoved stolidity, and, when he had finished, one turned to his companion and said, as if struck with his discovery, "the language of these foreign barbarians sounds not unlike our own!" In Bhamo I had the pleasure of meeting the three members of the Boundary Commission who represented us in some preliminary delimitation questions with the Chinese Government.