his cocoanuts. Ask the engineer to
whistle sharply," he added to one of the sailors; and it was done.

Suddenly the man on the raft sprang to his feet, and looked around him.
The launch was stopped to enable the party to see his craft.

"You can see that his boat is a lot of cocoanuts, a hundred or more,
strung together with lines. The raft easily floats the man, with the
current, down to the city, where he sells his fruit, and then walks
back, or rows in a passage-boat for his fare," Mr. Webb explained
forward, and Mr. Gollan aft.

Presently they came to a little village where half a dozen dark-colored
girls, with their long hair dragging in the water, were swimming in a
small bay at the side of the stream like so many nymphs. It was an
aquatic frolic, and the Naiads were enjoying themselves to their hearts'
content. By the riverside was a house on stilts, with an open door, from
which the tourists saw two girls dive into the stream, and swim away as
though the water were their natural element. They cut up all sorts of
capers, to the great amusement of the party; and then two of them swam
to the launch, and held out their hands. They received a couple of
pesetas each from the captain and the pacha. Then all the rest of them
followed their example, and were rewarded in like manner.

The Blanchita resumed her course up the river at her usual speed; and
the voyagers found enough to interest them, and enough in the
explanations of the consuls to instruct them. The boat rushed by the
barges and passage-boats as though they were at anchor. The villages and
the houses reminded them of those they had seen on the Menam in the
vicinity of Bangkok.

"Do you notice the horned cattle?" asked Mr. Webb. "They call them
buffaloes here."

"They are what we should call broad-horns at home," replied the captain.
"I never saw any such wide-spreading and long horns as I see here."

"I am told that you have a quartet of Nimrods in your company; and I am
sure they would find plenty of sport in the country beyond the lake,
where the wild buffalo is to be found in herds as on our Western
prairies formerly. But they are a dangerous beast to hunt; for they will
fight like tigers, and not a few hunters have been killed by them."

"We should like to try them; and with rifles good for nine shots, I
think we could take care of ourselves," replied Louis.

They found plenty of buffaloes on the shores of the river, but they were
as tame as d