t
of a blanket grills one's mind--also to book shops to get books about
India, which I am pretty sure never to have time to read. In my
innocence tried to get my return tickets on P. & O. changed to another
line, and signally failed to do so. Then drew a little and loafed a good
deal on the Bundar watching the lateen-rigged boats. These boats take
passengers to Elephanta or go off to the ships in the Bay with cargoes
of brightly coloured fruits. The scene always reminds me of that
beautiful painting by Tiepolo of the landing of Queen Elizabeth in our
National Gallery--I daresay one or two Edinburgh people may know it. The
boats are about twenty feet long with narrow beam. Figures in rich
colours sit under the little awnings spread over the stern; the sailors
are naked and brown, and pole the boats to their moorings with long,
glistening bamboos, which they drive into the bottom and make fast at
stem and stern. It is pleasant to watch the play of muscle, and
attitudes, and the flicker of the reflected blue sky on their brown
perspiring backs as they swarm up the sloping yards and cotton sails to
brail up. No need for anatomy here, or at home for that matter; if an
artist can't remember the reflected blue on warm damp flesh, he does not
better matters by telling us what he has learned of the machinery
inside--that is, of course, where Michael Angelo did not quite pull it
off.

As I sat on the parapet a beautiful emerald fish some four feet long
came sailing beneath my feet in the yellowish water; a little boy
shouted with glee, and a brown naked boatman tried to gaff it, then a
brilliant butterfly, velvet black and blue, fluttered through the little
fleet; and with the colours of the draperies, of peaceful but piratical
looking men, the lateen sails, and sunlight and heat, it all felt "truly
Oriental." To bring in a touch of the West, one of the "Renown's" white
and green launches with brass funnels rushed up and emptied a perfect
cargo of young Eastern princes in white muslins, and pink, orange, and
green turbans with floating tails to them. They clambered up the stone
slip with their bear leader and got into carriages with uniformed
drivers, six or more into each carriage quite easily; the basket trick
seems nothing to me now--they were such slips of lads--but what colour!

At lunch we talked with Miss M. She gave us the latest ship news about
our late fellow passengers--the mutual interest has not quite evaporated
ye