t their feelings, as they meant to be polite, but
Joyce stuffed her skirt into her mouth and held her nose, and they all
laughed and took it away quite easily. There were no forks or spoons,
but we were very hungry, so we just fell to with our fingers on the rice
and it wasn't at all bad, I can tell you. When we had done they gave us
some very good bananas--I could have done with more of them--and then
they tried us with a lump of stuff that was simply a bit of wood; it
came from the Jack-fruit tree. I saw one growing right out of the trunk
on a little stalk by itself next day, but how anyone ever eats it I
can't imagine.

When we had finished they poured water over our fingers to clean them, a
very unsatisfactory sort of wash it was, and the water ran away between
the boards, quite convenient that!

When we were satisfied we began to take more notice of what the house
was like. The walls were made of very coarse mats, and there were no
tables or chairs. There were a number of people; the father of the
house, who had brought us in, had a kind shrewd face, so that you
couldn't help liking him, and the mother was a very thin, plain, little
old woman, with twinkling eyes. Joyce thought first she was the cook,
for she had no jewellery on at all and no fine clothes, while the two
girls, the daughters, were quite smart. They were all ready to laugh and
smile, but the two girls were the most friendly; they sat down by Joyce
and fingered her skirt and examined her very dilapidated shoes. "I wish
they wouldn't, Jim," she said, trying to pull them up under her very
short skirt, which was no use at all. At last she took them off because
they were so wet, and one of the girls put her little brown toes into
them, and then they all shrieked with laughter again. You couldn't help
laughing too, they were so jolly nice.

I put my finger on Joyce and said "Joyce," then on me and said "Jim,"
and then pointed at the two girls; they understood at once and said Mah
Kway Yoh (Miss Dog's Bone) and Mee Meht (Miss Affection). Then they
pointed to a young man at the back and said Moung Poh Sin (Mr.
Grandfather Elephant).

I tried to make them understand we wanted to get back to the ship, but
nothing would do it. "Draw it," suggested Joyce. She had a wee gold
pencil on her gold bangle, but we had no paper and there was none
there--there wasn't anything, in fact, except a box. "On your cuff,"
Joyce suggested, but I hadn't any cuffs, only a soft