nd from Mandalay here, two of the crew, one on either side of
the bows, takes sounding with a bamboo, alternately singing out the feet
in a sing-song melancholy cadence that briskens and changes a little
when the water suddenly shoals.

[Illustration]

We draw four feet, and yesterday went over a bar covered by three feet
nine inches only,--went towards it, backed, and went over it on our own
following wave!

Kyankyet--We take on more wood faggots here to fill our bunkers. The
wood smoke gives rather a pleasant scent in the air--pretty much like
last halting place, same sunny dusty banks, plus a few rocks, and
similar village of dainty cottages and of weather-bleached cane and teak
showing out of green jungle. Above the place we stop at, a spit of sand
runs into the river with a hillock and on it, there is a little golden
pagoda amongst a few trees and palms: a flight of narrow white steps
leads up to it, and below in the swirl of the stream are wavering
reflections of gold, and white, and green foliage. And as usual there
are figures coming to the ship along the shore, each a harmony of
colours, each with a sharp shadow on the sand.

Whilst the wood goes on board we wander through the village and look at
people weaving fringes of grass for thatch, much as grooms weave straw
for the edges of stalls; then to the pagoda on the hillock, and up the
narrow flight of steps. It is not in very first-class repair, the river
is eating away its base. To obtain merit the Burman prefers to build
anew rather than to restore, and this one has done its turn. We saw
several bronze and marble Buddhas under a carved teak shed; some fading
orchids lay before them. Two men were making wood carvings very freely
and easily in teak. Miss B. and G. coveted a little piece of furniture
in brown teak, covered with lozenges of greeny-blue stone. It looked
like a half-grown bedstead, the colour very pretty. If we had had an
interpreter, we might have saved it from the ruin. What I carried away
was a memory of the blue above, the gliding river below, hot sun and
stillness, and the hum of a large, irridescent black beetle that went
blundering through scarlet poinsettia leaves into the white, scented
blossoms of a leafless, grey-stemmed champak tree.

I am told there are barking deer and jungle fowl within an hour of the
ship, elephant, rhinoceros, sambhur, and much big game within thirty
miles, but we are on the move again, and my heart bleeds.--