and rose in the wide river.

... The lights go on, and I assure you our open air saloon, with its
table set for dinner with silver, white waxy champak flowers, and white
roses in silver bowls are delightful against the blue night outside. The
scent of the champak would be too heavy, but for a pleasant air from
up-stream, which we hope will help to clear out the piratical longshore
crew of Mandalay mosquitoes which we brought with us. We are only a few
miles short of our proper destination for the night, but no matter, _we_
are not in a hurry; the Burmans up-stream, waiting for their market,
are not either, they will just have to camp out for the night.

[Illustration: Mid-day on the Irrawaddy, distant Ruby Mountains]

Before bedtime, G. and I and Miss Blunt, the only other passenger, go
round the booths and make small purchases, and try to make ourselves
understood by the jolly Burmese shopkeepers: the Indian shopkeepers
speak English. A little later the family groups go to sleep in their
stalls, their merchandise round them. A father and mother and child I
saw, in pretty colours under a lamp, curled up in the space a European
could barely sit on. And near our cabins there is a couple asleep on the
deck, a dainty Burmese woman, her figure so neat, with narrow waist and
rounded hip, and her hand and cheek on a dainty pillow, her husband lies
opposite, and between them, also asleep, on the deck their mite of a
child. Almost touching them is a priest still sitting up, his thoughts
his company--possibly they are of Paternity. They all keep pretty quiet,
they are not like those beasts on the B.I. boat; I daresay the quiet
here is also due to better management. Now as I write the electric light
goes out, and we light our candles--the ship is quiet fore and aft, the
only sound the rippling of the Irrawaddy against our anchor chain and
plates.

29th.--Second day from Mandalay. We have stopped three times at the
river-side to-day. At each place a cascade of elegant people in heavenly
colours came smiling down to our gangway planks, and when these were
fixed, trooped on board; to buy purple velvet sandals, strips of silk,
seeds, German hardware, American cigarettes, and goodness knows what
else. I suppose I shall forget all these groups--and, colours, and
expressions, in time--that is the gall and the wormwood of seeing
beauty; I'd fain remember them longer and more vividly than I do.

At the first place we stopped two hours