the jungle.

[37] There is not a specimen quite like them in S. Kensington.

It was dark when we made for the river and the soft, dusty track through
the green grass at its edge. Big beetles passed us humming, and we met
some children with lamps swinging, and they sang as they went, to keep
away the Nats or spirits of things.

Our steamer looked pleasantly homelike, lying a yard from the shore. The
purdahs were up and showed the lamp-lit table on deck, set for dinner,
and flowers, books and chairs, a cosy picture. The light was reflected
in the grey river, and waved slightly in the ripple of the current from
the anchor chain. A cargo steamer, forsooth! a private yacht is the
feeling it gave.

There are only two passengers besides ourselves, a Mr and Mrs S. With
the master and mate we make six at dinner, and the concert after, in
which the first mate plays piano accompaniments to all the chanties we
can scrape together--"Stormy Long,"--"Run, let the Bulgine Run,"--"Away
Rio:" cheerful chanties like "The Anchor's Weighed," with its "Fare ye
well, Polly, and farewell Sue," and sad, sad songs of ocean's distress,
like "Leave her, Johnnie; Its time to leave her." Neither the master nor
mate have seen salt water for many a day, but I know their hearts yearn
for the wide ocean and tall ships a-sailing; for all the beauties of all
the rivers in the world pale beside the tower of white canvas above you,
and the surge and send of a ship across the wide sea.

... 23rd February.--Kyonkmyoung--not pronounced as spelt, and spelling
not guaranteed. We spent the night at above village. Now we are passing
a wooded shore, and two remarkable pagodas side by side, like two
Italian villas, with flat roofs and windows of western design, each has
a white terrace in front with a small pagoda spire, and in the trees
there are many white terraces and steps up to them from the river's
edge.

... The up-river mail has passed us, it had been delayed on a sandbank;
we ship an American family party from it. Having lost some hours on the
sandbank, they cannot now proceed up the river to Bhamo, as they had
intended, so they returned with us to Mandalay. The first gangway plank
was hardly down when they were ashore and away like a bullet, with a
ricochet and a twang behind; a Silver king, they say, and a future
president!--How rapidly Americans travel, and assimilate facts, and
what extraordinary conclusions some of them make.

[Illustration]