is a long stretch of deck going
right to the stern, all covered by a roof; on this deck sit and lie
Burmans, singly or in family groups, in pretty silks, on neat mats and
mattresses and pillows with tidy little bundles of luggage beside them.

We do not stop steaming to-night, for we have barely enough of the flood
to take us over the shallow midway part of the creek, where the east and
west tides meet, so as the sun went below the flat shore and reeds, and
it grew dark, the search-light on the lower deck was turned on.

Now we have wonderful theatrical pictures continually
changing--bluey-green round pictures framed by the night, first on one
bank then on the other, as the light sweeps from side to side, and
always down its rays a continuous shower of golden insects seems to come
rushing towards us. In the dark behind the lantern, the deck below is
crawling with them. The trees we light up on the banks have the green of
lime-lit trees on the stage, and the same cut out appearance. Fantastic
boats suddenly appear out of the velvet darkness. They have high sterns
elaborately carved, and the red teak wood and the brown bodies of the
rowers pushing long oars glow in the halo of soft light; other figures
resting on their decks are wrapped up in rose and white and green
draperies, and each soft colour is reflected quivering in the ripple
from the oars.

By the way, as we slept the Bassein mosquitoes did come on board, and
answered their description--they do raise lumps! Horses have to be kept
in meat safes on shore, and they say you can tell a man who has lived in
the district years afterwards, by the way he slips into a room sideways,
and closes the door after him. Two or three bites make a whole limb
swell; therefore travellers, bring mosquito curtains if you travel here
for pleasure.

18th.--Fresh--cool--sun--and this is a wide river in Fairyland, for the
colours of foliage, water, and sky are too delicate and bright for any
real country I have ever seen. Where, in reality, do you see at one
glance, delicate spires in gold and white rising from green foliage, and
dainty bamboo cottages of matting and teak; and women in colours as gay
as butterflies, coming from them into the morning sun; and fishermen in
hollowed logs with classic stems and sterns, their clothing of the
colour of China asters, their faces coppery gold, and their hair black
as a raven's wing, drawing nets of rusty red, of the tint of birch twigs
in wi