The land of the giraffe women as polish explorer Vitold De Golist called it. Lies in Eastern Burma Plateau dimpled by terraced, paddy-filled valley. Here lives padang, a tribe of about 7000 members.
     Legend claims that the brass rings portect the women fromtiger bites. But actually the practice of waring them helps main tain individual and tribal indentity.
     Rings worn on arms and legs may weigh a woman down with and additional 30 pounds of brass. Since leg coils hamper walking. the women waddle. Constrained from drinking in the usual heak-back position, a ring wearer leans forward to sip though a straw. And the voices of wearer, wrote British jouralist, sound " as if they were speaking up the shaft of a well"