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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Round the Wonderful World
+
+Author: G. E. Mitton
+
+Illustrator: A. S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #28783]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_
+
+A BOOK OF DISCOVERY
+BY M. B. SYNGE
+
+THE WORLD'S STORY
+BY E. O'NEILL
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+BY G. E. MITTON
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"THE BOOK OF LONDON" "IN THE GRIP OF THE WILD WA" ETC.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+WITH 12 DRAWINGS IN COLOUR AND 120 IN CRAYON BY
+
+A. S. FORREST
+
+LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, Ltd.
+35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+TO
+
+JIM
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP                                             PAGE
+
+I. WHICH WAY?                                       1
+
+II. REALLY OFF!                                    20
+
+III. FIERY MOUNTAINS                               36
+
+IV. THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD             51
+
+V. THE HIGHWAY OF EGYPT                            65
+
+VI. A MIGHTY MAN                                   75
+
+VII. THE CITY OF KINGS                             85
+
+VIII. ON THE NILE                                  95
+
+IX. A MILLION SUNRISES                            109
+
+X. A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM                         120
+
+XI. THE COUNTRY OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD             139
+
+XII. AN ADVENTURE                                 147
+
+XIII. THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST                     153
+
+XIV. THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN                      168
+
+XV. A TROPICAL THUNDERSTORM                       179
+
+XVI. A SACRED TREE                                192
+
+XVII. UNWELCOME INTRUDERS                         203
+
+XVIII. THE CAPITAL OF INDIA                       218
+
+XIX. TO THE DEATH!                                235
+
+XX. A CITY OF PRIESTS                             242
+
+XXI. THE GOLDEN PAGODA                            250
+
+XXII. THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE                   264
+
+XXIII. THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE                 271
+
+XXIV. ON A CARGO BOAT                             278
+
+XXV. JIM'S STORY                                  291
+
+XXVI. THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS         304
+
+XXVII. THE LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE              320
+
+XXVIII. IN A JAPANESE INN                         332
+
+XXIX. THOUSANDS OF SALMON                         345
+
+XXX. THE GREAT DIVIDE                             358
+
+XXXI. ON A CATTLE RANCH                           371
+
+XXXII. THE GREAT LAKES                            382
+
+XXXIII. OLD FRIENDS AGAIN                         388
+
+INDEX                                             395
+
+
+
+
+PLATES IN COLOUR
+
+
+THE MIGHTY SEATED FIGURES AT ABU SIMBEL                      _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY, PERHAPS FOR EVER            24
+
+ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS                                  56
+
+JEWS' WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM                                         128
+
+SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH THE TUNE        200
+
+A CARPET SHOP, DELHI                                                   224
+
+THE GOLDEN PAGODA                                                      256
+
+A BURMESE PLAY                                                         288
+
+A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA. LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY
+ABOUT AND FISH                                                         312
+
+OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN                                           336
+
+INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW                                                376
+
+THE FALLS OF NIAGARA                                                   388
+
+[Illustration: STRANGE BRIDGE AT MARSEILLES.]
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHICH WAY?
+
+
+When you have noticed a fly crawling on a ball or an orange has it ever
+occurred to you how a man would look crawling about on the earth if seen
+from a great height? Our world is, as everyone knows, like an orange in
+shape, only it is very much larger in comparison with us than an orange
+is in regard to a fly. In fact, to make a reasonable comparison, we
+should have to picture the fly crawling about on a ball or globe fifty
+miles in height; to get all round it he would have to make a journey of
+something like one hundred and fifty miles. It would take a determined
+fly to accomplish that! Yet we little human beings often start off on a
+journey round the world quite cheerfully, and it is more difficult for
+us than for the imaginary fly, because the globe is not a smooth surface
+of dry land, but is made up of jungles and deserts and forests and
+oceans. There are some places where people can do nothing in the heat of
+the day, and others where their flesh freezes like cold white marble in
+a moment if they don't take precautions.
+
+To set out on foot around such a world would be folly, and man has
+invented all sorts of ingenious machines to carry him,--trains and
+steamers, for instance,--and with their help he can do the journey in a
+reasonable time. It costs money, of course, but it is a glorious
+enterprise.
+
+Here, in our own homes, we see pretty much the same things every
+day--green fields and trees, cows and sheep and horses, if we live in
+the country; and houses and streets and vehicles, if we live in the
+town. Everyone we meet speaks the same language; even if we were to go
+up to a stranger to ask a question we are tolerably sure that he would
+understand us and answer politely. We have cold days and warm ones, but
+the sun is never too hot for us to go out in the middle of the day, and
+the cold never so intense as to freeze our noses and make them fall off.
+The houses are all built in much the same way; people dress alike and
+look alike. Someone catches me up there, "Indeed they don't; some are
+pretty and some are ugly and everyone is different!"
+
+Yes, you think that now, but wait until you have travelled a bit, and
+seen some of the races which really _are_ different from ours, then
+you'll think that not only are British people alike, but that even all
+Europeans are more or less so.
+
+You are not likely to travel? Well, I'm not so sure of that, for I'm
+going to offer to take you, and, what is more, you need not bother your
+head about expenses, and we will have all the time we want. I am going
+to carry you away with me in this book to see the marvels of other
+lands; lands where the burning sun strikes down on our own countrymen
+wearing white helmets on their heads and suits of snowy white as they
+walk about amid brown-skinned natives whose bare bodies gleam like
+satin, lands where lines of palm trees wave their long fronds over the
+pearly surf washing at their roots. We will visit also other lands where
+you look out over a glowing pink and mauve desert to seeming infinity,
+and see reflected in bitter shallow water at your feet the flames of
+such a sunset glory as you never yet have imagined. Or you can ride out
+across the same desert lying white as snow beneath a moon far larger and
+more glistening than any you ever see here. You shall watch volcanoes
+shooting out columns of fire which roll down toward the villages
+nestling in their vineyards below, and you shall gaze at mountains which
+raise their stately heads far up into the silent region of eternal snow.
+You shall see the steel-blue waves rising in great heaps with the swell
+of an unquiet sea. You shall talk to the mischievous little Burmese
+women and watch them kneeling before their pagodas of pure gold, and
+shall visit the little Japs making merry in their paper houses; you
+shall find the last representatives of the grand races of North American
+Indians in their wigwams. And these are only a very few of the wonders
+of the world.
+
+Where shall we begin? That requires some consideration. As the world is
+not a solid block of level ground we shall have to choose our track as
+best we can along the routes that are most convenient, and we can't
+certainly go right round in one straight line as if we followed a piece
+of string tied round the middle of the earth. Of course we shall have to
+start from England, and we shall be wisest to turn eastward first,
+coming back again from the west. The eastern part is the Old World, and
+the western the New World, of which the existence was not known until
+centuries later. It is natural, therefore, to begin with the older part
+first. If we do this we must start in the autumn so as to arrive at
+some of the hottest countries in what is their winter, for the summer is
+unbearable to Europeans. So much is easily settled.
+
+Have you ever realised that Great Britain is an island? I hear someone
+say "Silly!" under their breath; it does seem an absurd question, for
+surely every baby knows that! Well, of course even the smallest children
+have been told so, directly they begin to learn anything, but to
+_realise_ it is a different matter. An island is surrounded by water,
+and none of us have ever sailed round our own country and made the
+experiment of seeing for ourselves that it is so. You have been to the
+sea certainly, and seen the edge of our island home, but have you ever
+thought of that long line which runs away and away from your seaside
+place? Have you followed the smooth sandy bays and the outlines of the
+towering cliffs; have you passed the mouths of mighty rivers and so gone
+steadily on northward to the bleak coasts of Scotland where the waves
+beat on granite cliffs; have you rounded stormy Cape Wrath, and sailed
+in and out by all the deep-cut inlets on the west of Scotland, and thus
+come back to the very place from whence you started? If you can even
+imagine this it gives you some idea of what being an island means. We
+are on every side surrounded by water, and nowhere can we get away to
+any other country without crossing the sea.
+
+The very nearest country to us is France, and at the narrowest point of
+the Channel there are only twenty-one miles of sea to get over. One way
+of starting on our great enterprise is to cross this little strip of
+water and take the train across France, right to the other side, there
+to meet a ship which will carry us onward. Or we can start in the same
+way across the Channel but go much farther on by train, all along Italy
+as well as France, and then we can catch the same ship a considerable
+way farther on in the Mediterranean.
+
+Or there is another way, the quickest of all, and the newest; by this
+means--after crossing the Channel--we can go the whole distance across
+Europe, and Asia too, by train, and come out on the other side of the
+world, near China, in about ten days! To do this we should have to get
+to Russia first by any European line we pleased, and on arriving at the
+town of Moscow change into the train which does this mighty journey. It
+starts once a week, and is called The International. It is quite a small
+train, though the engine is large. There are only half a dozen coaches,
+and one of these is for luggage and another is a restaurant. First-class
+people are put two together into a compartment. It certainly sounds as
+if that would allow plenty of room, but then if anyone has to live and
+sleep and move for ten days in a train, he can hardly be expected to sit
+cramped up all the time, he must have some space to stir about in. At
+night one of the seats forms one bed and another is let down crossways
+above it. There is, alas, no bath, but there is a small lavatory for
+every two compartments where we can wash after a fashion. There are even
+books provided in the restaurant car, some in Russian, some in French,
+some in German, and some in English.
+
+The journey itself is not very interesting, and we should be glad enough
+to get to the end of it I fancy. No, I am not going to allow you to take
+me that way, not even if you begged hard! It is very useful for business
+men, whose one idea is to save time, but for us who want to see all we
+can of this glorious world it would be folly.
+
+On the contrary, the route I should like to take is the very longest of
+all, and that is by sea the whole way, on one of the great liners
+running east. The real choice lies between this and the railway journey
+across France to the seaport of Marseilles, or Toulon, according to
+which of the great British lines of steamships we choose--the Peninsula
+and Oriental, known as the P. & O., or the Orient. I am willing you
+should decide between these routes. Think well. In order that you may
+understand better what the choice means I will tell you what you will
+see if we take the railway journey.
+
+[Illustration: AT CHARING CROSS.]
+
+We shall have to start one morning from Charing Cross Station in London.
+All around us people are carrying bundles of rugs and magazines. Some,
+like ourselves, are going far east and they are parting from those who
+love them and will not see them again for a long time. That fair young
+man standing by the carriage door looks little more than a big
+schoolboy, but he is going out to India to help to govern there. He is a
+clever fellow and has passed a very stiff examination to gain this
+position, and he eagerly looks forward to all the new scenes in the life
+awaiting him. His charming mother and sister are seeing him off; they
+are so much alike they might be mistaken for sisters; they are trying to
+talk and joke lightly, but you can see how hungrily the mother's eyes
+are fastened on her son, as if she could never see him enough. Rightly
+too, for when she meets him again, he will not be the boy he is now. His
+face will be browned by the tropical sun, and he will have become a man;
+he will have an air of command which comes naturally to a man who lives,
+often by himself, in charge of a district, and has to rule and judge and
+decide for the dark-skinned people.
+
+Close beside us there are several men smoking big cigars, and one of
+them says loudly, "All right, old chap, I'll bring one back for you next
+week; I shall cross again on Monday." He runs over to Paris on business
+every week and thinks no more of it than of going to his office in the
+morning. A trip to France is very easy when you have the means to do it
+comfortably.
+
+Then we take our seats, and the train steams out of the station, leaving
+the crowd on the platform to scatter. After a long run, with no stops,
+we reach Dover and go on board a steamer which seems quite large enough
+to anyone who is not used to steamers. Our heavy luggage has been sent
+on board the big ship which will meet us at Marseilles, so we have only
+our handbags to carry. The crossing is quite short, and it is best to
+stay on deck if you don't want to be ill. The very first thing to
+notice, as we gradually draw away from the land, is the whiteness of the
+towering chalk cliffs which stand out prominently near Dover. Often you
+must have read of the "white cliffs of Old Albion," and if you live in
+the north or away from the sea, you must have wondered what they were;
+now this explains it all. When the Romans came over from the Continent
+they crossed the sea the shortest way, and in approaching this unknown
+island were struck with astonishment at the high gleaming white cliffs,
+unlike anything they had seen before; they were so much amazed that ever
+after the "white cliffs" were the chief feature of Britain in their
+eyes.
+
+There is a break in the cliffs, where Dover now stands, and here the
+Romans later on made a port, and a port it has remained to this day.
+
+If we are lucky in getting a fine day for the crossing we can sit on
+deck-chairs, looking at the dazzling milky-blue sea and sky until
+someone cries out, "There's France!"
+
+[Illustration: NUMBERS OF EAGER LITTLE PORTERS.]
+
+You will not be able to make out anything at all at first, because land
+does not look in the least what you expect when you see it first from
+the sea. You would naturally search for a long dark line low down on the
+horizon, but it isn't like that at all. There is a hazy bluish cloud,
+very indistinct, and seemingly transparent, but as we draw nearer it
+grows clearer, and then houses and ships can be discerned, and after a
+good deal of manoeuvring and shouting and throwing of ropes and
+churning up the water with the screw, two bridges are pushed across to
+the dock, and numbers of eager little porters, dressed in bright blue
+linen suits with very baggy trousers, surround us and implore us to
+allow them to carry our baggage.
+
+"Me Engleesh speaking, sir."
+
+"Good me, good man me."
+
+"Baggage carrying me."
+
+They are here, there, and everywhere, so good-natured, so lively, so
+different from the stolid English porters. Their eyes are very bright
+and they will take money of any kind, French or English, it matters not
+to them.
+
+We have had to get our money changed on the boat, and that is the first
+thing that makes us feel we are really out of England. In exchange for
+an English gold pound we get twenty-five--not twenty--French shillings;
+these shillings are called francs and are not unlike our shillings at a
+first glance, but they are thinner and lighter. Some have the head of
+Napoleon, the last French Emperor, on them--these are old; the latest
+new ones are rather interesting, for they have a little olive branch on
+one side and a graceful figure of a woman sowing seed on the other, so
+one can interpret the meaning as peace and plenty. If you change a franc
+into copper you get ten--not twelve--pennies for it, and French pennies
+look very much like those of England. There are also half-franc pieces
+like little sixpences, and two-franc pieces like smaller florins, and
+gold pounds called Louis or Napoleons, and half-sovereigns too, but all
+the money seems light and rather unreal when one is accustomed to our
+more solid coins.
+
+We walk up the gangway into a large barn-like place, where we meet some
+smart-looking men in uniform with pointed moustaches turned up to their
+eyes and a fierce expression. They stand behind a shelf, on which all
+the baggage from the boat is put, and we approach this with our bags in
+our hands.
+
+[Illustration: PASSING THE CUSTOMS.]
+
+The official demands in French if we have anything to declare, meaning,
+are we bringing across anything which it is forbidden to sell in France,
+such as brandy, matches, or cigarettes, for if so we must declare it and
+pay something to the Government for allowing us to bring it. We answer
+that we have nothing. "Rien, Monsieur," very politely, hoping to soften
+his heart, and as we both have honest faces he believes us and scrawls a
+chalk-mark on our bags and lets us pass. We are lucky, for now we can go
+straight on to the train and get good places before the crowd follows.
+Some unfortunate people, however, are caught. One woman who is wearing a
+hat with enormous feathers and very high-heeled shoes, has two huge
+trunks.
+
+She tries to slip a five-franc piece into the hand of one of the
+custom-house officers. It is a silly thing to do, for it at once makes
+him think she is concealing something; very loudly and virtuously he
+refuses the money, hoping that everyone notices how upright he is, and
+then he insists on the contents of her trunks being turned out on to the
+counter. Piles of beautiful underclothing are spread out before all
+those men; silk and satin frocks come next; numberless dressing-table
+ornaments in silver and gold, and little bottles by the dozen; boots and
+shoes and books follow, while Madame begins to weep and then changes to
+screaming and raving. She is a Frenchwoman who has been staying in
+England, but she did not escape any more than an English-woman. How she
+will ever manage to get all her finery stuffed back into those boxes
+without ruining it I don't know, and we haven't time to wait to see.
+
+The platform is very low and the train looks in consequence much larger
+than an English one, as we have to climb up into it almost from the
+ground. It is a corridor train, and the first classes are lined with a
+kind of drab cloth, which does not seem so suitable for railway work as
+our dark blue colour. The guard sets us off with a little "birr-r-r"
+like a toy cock crowing. When we move out of the station at last we find
+ourselves going at a snail's pace along a street, and at once we catch
+our breath with interest--it is all so strange! Never will you forget
+that first glimpse of a foreign land! The very air is different, with a
+sharp pleasant smell of wood-smoke in it. Some people say that every
+foreign country has its own smell and that they would know where they
+were with their eyes shut! This must be an exaggeration, still there is
+something in it!
+
+As the train goes slowly forward a clanging bell rings on the engine to
+warn the people to get off the lines, which are not fenced in in any
+way. On every side you see neat little women wearing no hats, with their
+hair done up in top-knots; they are out marketing, and most of them
+carry immense baskets or string-bags stuffed with cabbages and carrots
+and other vegetables. The children are nearly all dark, with brown skins
+and bright black eyes, and they look thin but full of life. The boys
+wear a long pinafore or overall of cheap black stuff, and even the
+biggest go about in short socks, showing their bare legs, which looks
+rather babyish to us. The sun is shining brilliantly, and on most of the
+pavements there are chairs set out around small tables where men in
+perfectly amazingly baggy corduroy trousers and blue blouses sit and
+drink variously coloured drinks. A little boy who was too near the line
+is caught away by his agitated mother, who pours out over him a babble
+of words, and the child, laughing roguishly, answers her as volubly. Not
+one sentence, not one word, can we understand, though we are quite near
+and can hear it all. When you remember the painfully slow way you have
+learnt _avoir_ and _�tre_ at school it is maddening to think that this
+child, much younger than you, can rattle away in French without any
+trouble, and it is still more annoying that when you _did_ think you
+knew a little French you cannot make out one single word! French spoken
+is so very different from French learnt out of a book! However, for your
+comfort you must remember that that little bright-eyed boy, whose name
+is probably Pierre or Jacques, would think you very clever indeed to be
+able to talk in English.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE FRENCH BOY.]
+
+The houses have a strange look; it is chiefly because every single one
+of them, even the poorest, has sun-shutters outside the windows, set
+back against the wall; they are of wood, mostly painted green and
+pierced with slits. In countries where the sun is hot and strong at
+midday the rooms must be kept cool by such shutters.
+
+When we are once clear of the town the train soon gets up great speed,
+and we race through green fields with hedgerows and trees as in our own
+land, and yet even here there is something different. It may be because
+of the long lines of poplars, like "Noah's Ark" trees, which appear very
+frequently, or it may be the country houses we see here and there, which
+are more "Noah's Ark" still, being built very stiffly and painted in
+bright reds and yellows and greens that look like streaks. At the level
+crossings you see women standing holding a red flag furled, for women
+seem to do as much of the work on the railways as men; and waiting at
+the gates there is often a team of three or four horses, each decorated
+with an immense sheep-skin collar, that looks as if it must be most hot
+and uncomfortable. Occasionally we catch sight of what looks like a
+rookery in the trees seen against the sky; however, the dark bunches are
+not nests at all, but lumps of mistletoe growing freely. Rather a
+fairytale sort of country where mistletoe can be got so easily!
+
+We can stay all night in Paris if we like, and travel the next day to
+Marseilles, and stay a night there too. That is doing the journey
+easily. Many people go right through, running round Paris in a special
+train and being carried speeding through France all night. There are
+sleeping cars made up like little cabins with beds in them and every
+luxury. But it is tiring to travel on continuously in a French train, as
+the carriages are made very hot by steam, and French people object to
+having the windows open at all, so the atmosphere gets almost
+unbearable, according to our ideas.
+
+We shan't have time to see much of Paris if we just stay the night
+there, but as we drive through in a taxi-cab we can see how full of life
+it is, though at this time of the year people do not sit out at the
+little tables on the pavements late in the evening as they do in the
+summer. There are taxi-cabs everywhere, and they all pass each other on
+the right side, you notice, the opposite side from that which we use;
+you will find this in all other foreign countries but Sweden, and in
+some Provinces of Austria. Though Great Britain stands almost alone, in
+this case she is certainly in the right, for the driver ought to be on
+the side near the vehicle he is passing, and also the whip coming in the
+middle of the street is less liable to flick anyone than if it was on
+the pavement side.
+
+The hotels in Paris are many and magnificent; when we arrive at one all
+gilt and glitter, we ask for small rooms, as it is only for one night,
+and are taken up to two tiny apartments simply crammed with furniture.
+It is enough to make anyone laugh, for there is hardly room to turn
+round. Both are alike. In each the bed is covered with a magnificent
+yellow satin brocade coverlet; there is a large arm-chair, which quite
+prevents the door of the huge wardrobe from opening. The washing-stand,
+which has taps of hot and cold water, is crammed into a corner so that
+one can hardly get at it. There is a writing-table with ink and
+blotting-pad and everything else for writing, but no dressing-table and
+nowhere at all to put one's brushes. Above the mantelpiece is a big
+mirror, too high for you to look into, though I can peer round that
+immense gilt clock to do my shaving. The rest of the mantelpiece is
+taken up with heavy marble ornaments--utterly useless--and gilt
+candlesticks. There is a telephone on the wall, and down this we can
+give our orders into the hall. Luckily I know enough French to ask for
+what we want, though if you stand giggling at me every word will go out
+of my head when the man below inquires my wishes.
+
+It is by means of this telephone I order breakfast for us both to be
+sent up next morning. All we can get is coffee, or tea, with rolls and
+butter and two poached or boiled eggs. You'll have to make this do. It
+is the custom here. In France people start with only coffee and rolls
+and then go off and do a good morning's work, and come back again to eat
+a large meal which is a sort of breakfast and lunch rolled into one, at
+about twelve o'clock. It all depends on what one is accustomed to, and
+certainly we look very hungrily at the small dish of eggs that appears!
+
+Meantime I am getting a little anxious about my boots. I put them out
+last night to be cleaned, but this is such a large place, with so many
+people coming and going, that I began to wonder if they have been taken
+to the wrong room; timidly I ask the waiter, who brings the breakfast,
+if he can find them. With a knowing smile he stoops down and opens a
+tiny cupboard in the wall near the door, and there, slipped in from
+outside, are the boots! "Voil�!" he says triumphantly, as if he had just
+brought off a successful conjuring trick. Certainly what with the taps
+and telephone and trap-doors for boots this hotel is very much up to
+date.
+
+North of Paris we have seen orchards of apple and cherry trees, but
+farther south, as we rush along, we get into a land of vineyards, where
+rows of little vines are being cultivated on every foot of ground on the
+hillsides. By nightfall we reach Marseilles, and if we were going on to
+Toulon it would have taken two hours more.
+
+Marseilles is the largest seaport in France, and is second only to Paris
+in size and importance.
+
+Do you know those preserved fruits which generally appear about
+Christmas-time in oval cardboard or long wooden boxes? Have you ever
+wondered if they are real fruit, and where they come from? They _are_
+real fruit, boiled and dipped in syrup, though they taste very different
+from the same fruit freshly gathered. A great deal of the preserving is
+done in France, especially along the south coast, and when we get to
+Marseilles we are in the very heart of the business.
+
+After passing the night in an hotel we have time to wander about a bit
+before going down to the docks to find our ship.
+
+The sun is shining brightly as we turn out after another breakfast,
+which only seems to have given an edge to our keen British appetites.
+There is a nasty cold wind blowing round corners and buffeting people.
+The pavements are very lively; we see women and girls hurrying about
+doing household shopping, and boys in heavy cloth capes and military
+caps, so that they look like cadets, this is the uniform worn by
+better-class schoolboys in France. The French policemen, called
+gendarmes, are also in uniform of so military a kind that unless we knew
+we should certainly mistake them for soldiers.
+
+There are stalls set out on the pavements, heaped up with embroidery and
+odds and ends, including soap, which is manufactured here very largely.
+Bright-eyed girls try to entice us to buy as we pass. One street is just
+like a flower garden, lined with stalls piled up with violets and roses
+and anemones and other blossoms. Trams follow one another along the
+rails in an endless procession. We walk on briskly and turn down a side
+street; here at last is what I have been looking for, and well worth
+finding it is too! It is a shop with great plate-glass windows; on one
+side is every kind of preserved fruit, and on the other a variety of
+chocolates, tarts, and expensive sweets. Look at that dainty box filled
+with dark green figs, artistically set off by sugared violets pressed
+into all the niches! These are rather different from the flat, dry brown
+figs which is all that English children recognise under that name.
+Another box glows with tiny oranges, mandarins they call them here, and
+piled up over them are richly coloured cherries shining with sugar
+crystals. In the centre is an enormous fruit like a dark orange-coloured
+melon, surrounded by heaps of others, while the plain brown chestnuts,
+that don't attract much notice, are really the best of all, for they are
+the _marrons glac�s_ for which Marseilles is famed, and once you have
+tasted these, freshly made, all other sweets will seem insipid to you.
+
+[Illustration: THE FRENCH POLICEMAN.]
+
+Inside the shop there are many carefully dressed ladies, daintily
+holding little plates, and going about from one counter to another,
+picking up little cakes filled with cream and soaked in syrup. They eat
+scores of them, and they do it every day and any hour of the day, in the
+morning or afternoon or whenever they happen to pass. No wonder they
+look pasty-faced! We are only here for once, so we need have no
+compunction about our digestions, especially as there is an empty place
+left after that tantalising bacon-less breakfast. We are soon provided
+with a plate each and a little implement which looks as if it had
+started life as a butter-knife and suddenly changed its mind to become a
+fork.
+
+The shop-girls take no notice of what we eat; we can pick and choose
+freely, and at the end they trust us to say how many cakes we have had.
+We can get here also cups of thick rich chocolate, and, if we wanted
+it, some tea, though it is only of late years that French people have
+taken to drinking tea at all freely, for coffee is their national
+beverage.
+
+Well, come along, tear yourself away, we must get a cab and go down to
+our ship which is at the docks.
+
+In the cab we pass what is called the Old Port with picturesque rows of
+weather-beaten sailing boats; only the sailing boats are allowed to come
+in here. Rising up against the sky at the far end of the port is a
+curious bridge quite unlike any other you have seen, for the bridge part
+is at a great height and there is nothing below by which people or
+vehicles can cross over. How is anyone going to take the trouble to
+climb up there? How, above all, are carts or carriages going to manage
+it?
+
+You can easily make a rough model to see the principle of this bridge
+for yourself. Get a couple of the tallest candlesticks in the house, and
+put a stick across them, run a curtain ring on to the stick, and to the
+ring attach numerous threads fastened at the lower end to a flat bit of
+card or board like a raft. Then, by pushing the ring along the stick,
+you can make the raft follow across below. The stick represents the high
+bridge, and the raft in reality rests on the surface of the water, and
+when the machinery above, represented by the ring, is set in motion, it
+rumbles across and draws with it the floating raft, which is large
+enough to take a great number of men and vehicles. Every ten minutes or
+so this floating bridge passes over from one side to another, and people
+pay a sou, which is the French halfpenny, to travel with it. Thus, you
+see, when a tall ship comes in she has only to avoid the raft, and she
+can sail in beneath the high bridge without any trouble. We could, if we
+wished, go up in a lift to the high bridge; but the railings up there
+are far apart, and there is a high wind blowing, you are not very big,
+and if you slipped between I should have to give up my voyage round the
+world; so I think we won't, if you don't mind!
+
+Besides, we have to catch our ship waiting at the docks, and she will be
+off very soon.
+
+Now that you have heard what we should probably do and see if we went
+across France, will you take this journey or will you start from England
+and go right round in the ship?
+
+You answer that though you would like to see the little blue-bloused
+porters, and that it would amuse you to think that the little French
+boys and girls could speak no English, and though you would certainly
+_love_ the _marrons glac�s_, you think, after all, having heard about
+it, we might just as well go the other way round, though, of course--the
+_marrons glac�s_----
+
+Sensible boy! Forget about them! We'll go round. In the very next
+chapter we'll be up and off in earnest.
+
+[Illustration: OUR OWN POWERFUL AND UGLY IRONCLADS, LIKE BULLDOGS
+GUARDING THE FORT.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+REALLY OFF!
+
+
+It is exciting to start on any journey, even if it is only one we have
+done before, but to go off round the world that is a real adventure!
+
+There are many lines of steamers we could choose to go by, but we will
+select for this first part of the journey the Orient Line. The choice
+really lies between that and the P. & O., as we have already decided,
+and for many reasons it is best to begin with the Orient and join the
+other later. The main reason being that I want you to see a little of as
+many European countries as possible, and the Orient ships stop at
+Naples, in Italy, while those of the other line do not.
+
+The ships in the Orient fleet all begin with an O; there are the
+_Otranto_, _Otway_, and many more, but the boat which suits us and
+happens to sail on the date we want to start--in the beginning of
+November--is the _Orontes_. She is not the largest ship in the fleet,
+having about half a dozen before her on the list, but she is a good ship
+and very steady.
+
+Our jumping-off place is London, whence a special train runs from the
+station of St. Pancras down to the docks at Tilbury, where the _Orontes_
+is waiting for us. The long platform beside the train is covered with
+people when we arrive there, so that we have some difficulty in finding
+seats. If all these people were coming with us we should have a full
+ship indeed, but the one half of them is only seeing the other half off!
+
+The line passes through dreary flat country, and at last we catch sight
+of open water and funnels and feel as if we must be right down at the
+Thames' mouth, but we are very far from that yet.
+
+[Illustration: THE _ORONTES_.]
+
+The heavy luggage has all been sent on ahead, and passengers are told
+only to bring with them what can be carried in the hand; judging from
+the piles of boxes that are tumbled out of the train many of them must
+have tolerably large hands!
+
+[Illustration: A STEWARD.]
+
+We pass through a great shed, and coming out on the other side find our
+ship there, right up against the dock side. It towers above us, blocking
+out the sky as a street of six-storey houses would do. In fact, it is
+rather like looking up at a street side, and when we see the sloping
+ladder leading to the deck, like those used for hen-roosts but on a
+giant scale, we feel our adventure is well begun. Hang on to the
+hand-rail, for the wind is blowing hard, and if you went down into the
+black dirty water between the ship and the dock there would be very
+little chance of getting you out again; even as we climb up something
+flicks past us and is carried away, and we see it floating far below; it
+is an enormous white handkerchief which the man up there on deck has
+been waving to his wife in farewell. It is gone, and it is to be hoped
+he has another handy, he'll need it to-day. At the top of the ladder a
+man in uniform looks at our ticket and calls out the number of our
+cabin. He is so smart and has such a dignified manner we might well
+mistake him for the captain, but he is an officer, called the purser,
+who looks after the passengers. A bright-faced steward, unmistakably
+English, takes possession of us and pilots us down some well-carpeted
+stairs, through a large room where small tables are laid for lunch, and
+into a very long narrow passage shining with white enamel paint. There
+are little doors with numbers on them on one side, and about half-way
+along the steward stops and ushers us into our cabin. It is a tiny room.
+If you lay down from side to side you could touch each wall with head
+and heels, and if I lay down from end to end I could do the same, and I
+am rather bigger than you! There are two shelves, one above the other,
+made up as beds, a piece of furniture with drawers and a looking-glass
+in it, a fixed basin such as those you see in bathrooms, and a few pegs
+to hang things on, and that is all. Our cabin trunks, which we sent on
+ahead, are here before us, and through the open round port-hole we catch
+a glimpse of grey water. We are lucky indeed to get a cabin to
+ourselves, for in many, not a bit larger than this, there would be a
+third bunk or bed, and a stranger would be forced in on us. When we have
+settled our things you will be surprised to find how comfortable it all
+is, for everything is so conveniently arranged. It is just as well to
+put out what we shall want at once while the ship is steady, for once
+she begins to roll----
+
+When we have done this we go back to the saloon, encountering many
+people rushing wildly to and fro with bags and bundles, still unable to
+find their cabins, having come on at the last minute. In the great
+saloon, those who are going ashore are hastily swallowing cups of hot
+tea, and just as we arrive a bell rings to warn them to get off the ship
+if they don't want to be carried away with her.
+
+They flock down the gangway while we stand high above, and many
+good-byes are shouted, and some are tearful and some are quite casual
+and cheerful. Then the gangway is moved, but just before it goes down
+with a run there is a shout, and two policemen hurry along the quay
+hauling two shamefaced-looking men who are hustled up into the ship
+again. They are stokers who fire the furnaces for the engines far down
+below in the bowels of the ship. They had signed on for this voyage and
+at the last minute tried to slink away, but have been caught and forced
+back to their work.
+
+Now the strip of water widens and very slowly we move from the quay,
+being dragged ignominiously backward across the great basin in which we
+lie by a diminutive steamer called a tug. We are not out in the river
+yet and our own engines have not begun to work. You can understand that
+it would be very difficult to load a ship if she stood always in the
+river, where there are rising and falling tides, so, to make this
+easier, great docks have been built along the river, and in them the
+flow of the tides is regulated, so that the water remains always at
+pretty much the same level.
+
+The tug that pulls us across the dock on our way out looks absurdly
+small, like a little Spitz dog pulling a great deerhound; but it does
+its work well, and presently we glide into a narrow cut between high
+walls; this is the lock, the entrance to the dock, and the water is held
+up by great gates at each end as required, just as it is on river locks
+for boats. Once we are inside the great gates behind us are shut, and
+presently those at the farther end open and we see two other little tugs
+waiting there to take us in charge. We are going out at the top of the
+tide, and if we missed it should have to wait for another twelve hours,
+or there would not be sufficient water in the river to float the ship
+comfortably. We are still stern first, so if we want to see the fun we
+must climb up to the top deck at that end. The wind is blowing a perfect
+gale and almost drives us off our feet; it catches the side of the ship
+and makes it far harder work for the gallant grimy tugs, which are
+pulling and straining at the taut ropes till they look like bars of iron
+lying between us and them. They churn the water to a fury, and pour
+forth volumes of black smoke; inch by inch we feel the ship moving out;
+her stern is dragged up-stream, so that when she is finally swung clear,
+her bows are pointing seaward and she is ready to go. It is an exciting
+moment when the ropes are cast off, and there is a great deal of running
+about and shouting, and then our own engines begin gently but powerfully
+to do their work. The screws beneath the stern revolve and we have
+started on our long, long voyage!
+
+[Illustration: SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY. PERHAPS FOR
+EVER.]
+
+There are no waves in the river; only those who are very nervous will
+think about being ill yet awhile, and this is a good chance to examine
+the great ship which is to be our home for some time.
+
+There is plenty of room to walk about on the decks or to play games when
+we reach a more summer-like climate. There are many rooms where we can
+shelter in the wet and cold weather, a great lounge with writing-tables,
+and a smoking-room--and there is no house on earth kept so spotlessly
+clean as a ship!
+
+[Illustration: THE CAPTAIN.]
+
+When we go down to dinner we sit on chairs that swing round like office
+chairs, only they are fixed into the floor, and as they only swing one
+way, there are some funny scenes till people get used to them. We have
+hardly taken our seats when a very magnificent man with a white
+waistcoat and gold shoulder straps and much gold lace on his uniform
+comes and sits down too, and smiles and bows to everyone. This is the
+captain, and we must be more distinguished than we guessed, for we have
+been put at his table, where the honoured passengers usually find seats.
+Though this captain has such a kindly smile, a captain can be very
+terrifying indeed; he is king in his ship, and has absolute authority;
+his word is law, as, of course, it must be, for the safety of the whole
+ship's company depends on him, and there is the fine tradition, which
+British captains always live up to, that in case of any accident
+happening to the ship the captain must be the last man to quit her.
+Innumerable captains indeed have preferred to go down into the
+unfathomable depths with their ships sooner than leave them when they
+have been wrecked.
+
+For several days there are very few people to be seen about, and the
+rows of empty chairs at the table and on deck are rather depressing, but
+as the weather brightens a little people creep out of their cabins;
+white-faced ladies come to lie, rolled in rugs, on the sheltered side of
+the deck, and the chairs are filled. Yet it is still a little dismal,
+though we tramp sturdily up and down and would not admit it for the
+world. The strong wind blows endlessly and the great grey waves are
+always rolling on monotonously one after another, one after another, in
+huge hillocks. So we plough down the English Channel and across the Bay
+of Biscay, which is no rougher than anywhere else, though people ask
+with bated breath, "When shall we be in the Bay?" "Are we through the
+Bay yet?" as if there was no other bay in all the world.
+
+Then comes a day when all at once everyone on board seems to wake up and
+become alive again. The sun shines in patches along the decks and the
+sea is blue and sparkling. We are passing close beside a steep and rocky
+coast, and so near do we go that we can see the white waves dashing
+against it and even spouting up in sheets of spray through blow-holes in
+the cliffs. What we see is the coast of Spain, so we have set eyes for
+the first time on another country than our own. There are many other
+steamers in this stretch of water, some small and some as large as ours,
+some coming and some going. It is all much more lively than it was.
+Soon we have pointed out to us the place where the battle of Trafalgar
+was fought, when Britain won a victory that assured her the dominion of
+the seas up to the present time--a battle in which our greatest sailor,
+Lord Nelson, was killed in the moment of victory!
+
+It is the next morning after this that, when we wake up, we find that
+the tossing and rocking motion has ceased; it is curiously quiet, the
+iron plates that bind the ship together no longer creak and groan as if
+they were in agony. We are bewildered. Then in a moment the meaning of
+all this flashes upon us. We have reached Gibraltar!
+
+Coming up on deck we find the scene glorious. The sun is shining out of
+a cloudless sky on to a sea so blue that it gives one a sort of pleasant
+pain to look at its loveliness. The air is brilliant, as if we were
+living at the heart of a crystal. The ship is stealing along so silently
+and gently she hardly seems to move, and then she comes to anchor in a
+bay that seems to be surrounded on all sides with hills. Some of these
+hills, lying rather far away, gleam white in the sunshine; they are part
+of the great continent of Africa, and so, though it is only in the
+distance, we have set eyes on our first new continent. Towering up
+before us, with mighty bulk, is an immense rock, rising bald and rather
+awful into the pure sky. Near the summit its sides are completely bare,
+seamed by great gashes, and broken by masses of rock that look as if
+they might crash down at any moment. Apes live up there, wild
+mischievous creatures, who descend to steal from the orchards below, but
+are so shy that they are hardly ever seen of men. They are of a kind
+called Barbary apes, only found elsewhere in Africa; and it is thought
+that perhaps, many ages ago, Europe was joined to Africa at this point,
+and that when a great convulsion occurred which broke the two asunder
+and let the water flow through the Straits of Gibraltar some of the apes
+may have been left on this side, where their descendants still are,
+sundered for ever from their kinsfolk by the strip of sea.
+
+About the base of the rock is a little town running up the hill and
+brightened by many trees--this is Gibraltar itself, one of the most
+famous places in the world. For this alone it is well worth while to
+come round by sea.
+
+[Illustration: A BARBARY APE.]
+
+Anyone can see at a glance why it is so important. That little strait,
+about a dozen miles across, is the only natural entrance by water into
+the Mediterranean Sea, which lies all along the south of Europe. At the
+other end men have had to cut a way out by means of a canal. If ever
+European nations were at war, the nation which held Gibraltar would be
+able to prevent the ships of other countries from getting into or coming
+out of the Mediterranean. It could smash them with big guns if they
+tried, or blow them up. So that even if the country on each side were
+flat this would still be an important place; but nature has made here a
+precipitous rock, which is a natural fortress, and by great good luck
+this belongs, not to the country of Spain, of which it is the southern
+part, but to Great Britain. To find out how this is so you must go to
+history. Gibraltar has been held by Britain for many years now, and
+though the King of Spain is very friendly with Britain, and has married
+an English princess, I think he must sometimes feel a little sore over
+Gibraltar.
+
+Lying in a basin on one side of us are some of our own powerful and ugly
+ironclads, like bulldogs guarding the fort, and on the other side are
+ships of all nations, come on peaceful trading errands or for pleasure
+cruises, including a dainty little white French yacht that looks like a
+butterfly which has just alighted.
+
+We go ashore in a launch and are met on the quay by a medley of strange
+folk and a great clamour of voices! The men and women are nearly all
+dark skinned and black eyed, and yet they are all speaking English after
+a fashion. A woman offers us a curiously twisted openwork basket of
+oranges, with the deep-coloured fruit gleaming through the meshes, a man
+implores us to take some of the absurdly neat little nosegays he has
+made up, picture postcards are thrust under our noses, and cabmen wildly
+beseech us to patronise their open vehicles. It is a brilliant scene,
+full of life and colour and warmth, and the people all seem
+good-humoured and jolly.
+
+Sitting huddled up against a wall, with some odd-looking bundles beside
+them, are a group of very poor people; they are emigrants about to leave
+their own country for South America. Out there in the bay is the
+emigrant ship, and dipping toward her over the open water are several
+boats loaded down to the gunwale going out; others have reached her side
+and the people swarm up like flies. This group on the quay are awaiting
+their turn. A small boy and girl are rolling about in the sun like
+little lizards and laughing gaily. The little girl is called Maria and
+is about ten years old; she has a tiny scarlet shawl pinned across her
+chest, and her bright black hair shines in the sunlight; in her wee
+brown ears are little gilt ear-rings, and she is hugging tightly to her
+bosom a large and very gaudy doll. It is not exactly the kind of doll an
+English child would care about, because its face is the face of an idiot
+and it is made of some sort of poor composition stuff; its clothes are
+tawdry material of tinsel and stiff muslin, and are pinned on by pins
+with coloured glass heads glittering in the sun. Maria thinks it lovely
+and shrieks if her young brother Sebastian lays a finger on it. She is
+on the point of leaving her own country, perhaps for ever, to travel for
+thousands of miles to a land where everything is different from what she
+is used to; but she is as unconscious of this as if she were a little
+kitten, and as long as she can roll in the sunshine and hug her doll,
+the first she has ever possessed, the thought of the morrow does not
+trouble her soul.
+
+Her home lies far away in the interior of Spain, and her parents have
+travelled to Gibraltar in carts and then in a marvellous thing called a
+train which made the children shriek with delight when it moved off
+without horses. Maria and Sebastian were brought up in a hovel with a
+mud floor, and only one room, shared with the donkey and the goat. They
+were never taught to obey, or to have their meals at regular hours, or
+to go to bed at night at a particular time; they ran in when they
+pleased, clamoured for something to eat or drink, or else fell down on a
+bundle of rags in the corner and were sound asleep in a moment. They
+often slept in the heat of the day and were up almost all night
+listening to a neighbour playing the guitar, or singing and rollicking
+with other children. Their usual drink was sour red wine made from
+grapes grown on the neighbouring hillsides after all the best juice had
+been already pressed out of them. This the peasants bought in immense
+bottles, swollen out below like little tubs, and cased in wicker-work
+with handles which made them easy to carry. In every hovel there was a
+bottle like this. To match it there was an enormous loaf of
+dark-coloured bread, made flat and round as a cart-wheel or a small
+table; bits of this were chopped off as required, and when Sebastian and
+Maria cried out they were hungry they had a lump of bread and sip of
+wine given to them, and then they became quite happy again. Sometimes
+they had olives with their bread, or chestnuts, or a salad made from
+herbs growing by the roadsides, and they had oranges very often and
+goat's milk cheese. On high days and festival days they had sometimes
+very thin hot cabbage soup out of a great black pot that boiled over a
+few sticks; they dipped their bread into it or supped it up out of large
+flat wooden spoons, wrinkling their little noses meantime because it was
+so hot. A grand treat was a purple or crimson pomegranate given by a
+kindly neighbour.
+
+When Maria was about seven the whole family moved into a town where the
+narrow streets were always dark between the tall thin houses. It was
+much more exciting here than in the country; there was always something
+to see, and in the evenings the whole place was like a bazaar with
+people coming and going, and shows and entertainments open half the
+night. On festival days the streets were gay with lanterns, and festoons
+of coloured paper and flags were waved until the children thought it
+like heaven.
+
+Then came a talk of crossing the sea. Some members of the family and
+very many friends had already made a journey to a far-away country
+called Argentina, and others were thinking of going. It seemed that in
+that land, which was as sunny and warm as their own, there was more
+money to be made than in Spain, and as party by party made up their
+minds and set off in one of the great emigrant ships Maria's father grew
+more gloomy and unsettled, until at last, by one means or another, he
+had scraped together enough money to pay for their passages, and then
+they all started on the great adventure, even a greater one than our
+going round the world.
+
+[Illustration: A FLOWER SELLER AT TOULON.]
+
+It is only a couple of days after leaving Gibraltar that we reach Toulon
+in good time in the morning. We anchor well outside the splendid bay, as
+Toulon is one of the most important French ports, and no prying eyes are
+wanted there. In the little steam-launch we run past the huge
+battleships _La Verit�_, _La Republique_, and others lying solidly in a
+row manned by French sailors with little red top-knots on their flat
+caps. Then we see the beautiful range of high hills surrounding the bay,
+and are landed on the quay. The market is one of the most interesting
+things here, and we are lucky to be in time for it. Up a long narrow
+street are lines of open-air stalls covered with masses of fruit and
+vegetables. The natty little Frenchwomen who sell them almost all wear
+blue aprons and black dresses, and have little three-cornered shawls
+over their shoulders.
+
+Look at that bunch of celery there, it is monstrous--the size of a
+child! Everything seems on a huge scale; there are artichokes on great
+stalks, melons gleaming deep orange-red and too large for any but a man
+to lift; scattered all about are bunches of little scarlet tomatoes not
+much bigger than grapes. But the oddest thing to us are the bunches of
+fungi, tawny-coloured, piled up in heaps, and evidently very popular!
+There are squares of matting covered with chestnuts, and whelks, like
+great snails, sticking out their horns and crawling over each other in a
+lively way. A strange medley! The flowers are lovely; you can buy a big
+bunch of violets for a son, and sou is the peasant word for a halfpenny.
+Gladiolus, anemones, roses, and mignonette fill the air with fragrance.
+It is a beautiful place this market.
+
+After lunch we stroll down to the quay again and wander idly about
+looking at the people until the launch comes to take us back to the
+steamer. There is a huge fat man seated on a low stool cleaning the
+boots of another man equally stout. Wedged into the corner beside them,
+so that they cannot stir, are two small white boys with thin pathetic
+little faces. As we watch we see the boot-cleaning man, who has a cruel,
+mean expression, pull hold of the little tunic of the nearer one, and
+point to a smear upon it, then deliberately he raises his large hand and
+smacks the child hard across the cheek. The little chap makes no effort
+to escape,--he evidently knows it is hopeless,--he only crooks a thin
+little arm over his cheek as he shrinks back. Deliberately the great man
+holds down the thin little arm and strikes him again with savage force.
+It is sickening! If we interfere the child will probably only get it
+worse afterwards. There are a few brutes like this who make their own
+children's lives a misery, though mostly French people are very kind.
+The children look so ill and pale, too, they probably don't get half
+enough to eat.
+
+"May I get them some sweets?"
+
+Happy thought! We passed a shop a minute ago. Here, wait a second, say
+to the father in your best French this sentence--
+
+"Ils sont � vous, ces gar�ons, Monsieur? Tr�s beaux gar�ons!"
+
+You see you have put him in a good humour, he is pleased, though the
+poor little chaps are very far from being "beaux." They seem almost too
+stupefied to understand the sweets, but they know the way to put them in
+their mouths.
+
+While we are waiting on the tender before it starts we see a different
+set of little boys; one, a delicate, pretty-looking little fellow, about
+your age, but not nearly so tall or strong, raises his cap and begins in
+English, "Good-day, Monsieur." His little companions sit around in awe
+at his knowledge and audacity. His name is Pierre, he tells us, and that
+badly dressed sturdy little boy with a sullen face is Louis. Pierre
+tries to make conversation in our own language to entertain us. "Are you
+to Australie going?" he asks. We tell him we are going first to Egypt.
+"Monter au chameau!" he cries excitedly, going off into a gabble of
+French and beseeching us to take him with us as "boy." We tell him that
+he is too small and that it costs much money. "Have you money--English?"
+he asks. He is very much interested when we show him half a crown and
+explain that it is equal to three francs of his own money. Then he
+catches sight of some English stamps. "Timbres!" he cries, and then,
+with a great effort, "I college," meaning "I collect." We give him a
+halfpenny stamp, which he carefully puts away in a battered purse
+already containing two French pennies. Louis, who has been giving
+convulsive hitches to his little trousers, which threaten to part
+company altogether with the upper garment, bursts in eagerly, asking us
+to give him a penny, adding solemnly: "Ma m�re est morte," as if the
+fact of his mother being dead entitled him to demand it. We explain that
+it is not polite to ask for money. "Cigarette," he then says promptly.
+We tell him that in England the law forbids boys under sixteen to smoke,
+whereat they all shriek with laughter. So we add that Englishmen want to
+grow up tall strong men, and if they smoke as boys they won't, whereupon
+they grow grave again and nod their little heads wisely.
+
+The waves are quite wild out in the bay and we have considerable
+difficulty in jumping on to the slippery step at the foot of the long
+gangway up the ship's side. Hanging on with a firm grip we struggle
+upward, and when we reach the top we see the little French boys waving
+their good-byes to us from the tender, Pierre bowing gracefully, cap in
+hand, Louis with his disreputable air of being a little ragamuffin and
+rejoicing in it.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN POMPEII.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FIERY MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Do you learn Physical Geography? I did when I was in the schoolroom, but
+it is quite likely to have been given up now, or perhaps it is called by
+some other name. It sounds dull, but is not really, at least there was
+one part of it that interested me immensely, so much so that that
+particular page was thumbed and dirty with being turned over so many
+times. This was the page on which volcanoes were described. I never
+thought I should see a volcano, but the idea of these tempestuous
+mountains, seething with red-hot fire inside, and ready to vomit forth
+flames and lava at any time appealed to the imagination. This lava, it
+seemed, was a kind of thick treacly stuff, resembling pitch, which ran
+down the mountain-sides boiling hot and carried red ruin in its track.
+It seems nothing less than idiotic for people to live on the slopes of a
+volcano where such an awful fate might overtake them at any time, yet
+they not only _did_ so but still _do_.
+
+One of the reasons why we came by the Orient line is to see Naples,
+which stands almost under the shadow of one of the best-known volcanoes
+in the world--Vesuvius.
+
+[Illustration: VESUVIUS.]
+
+We arrive at Naples early in the morning and are the very first to be up
+and out on deck. The bay has been called one of the most lovely to be
+seen anywhere, but to-day at least it is disappointing, for there is no
+sun and only a dull grey drizzle, which carries our thoughts back to
+England at once.
+
+The houses of the town rise in tiers up the hillside, very tall and
+straight, and seem to be filled with innumerable windows.
+
+However, it is not the view of Naples itself which is called so
+beautiful but rather that of the bay _from_ Naples, especially on a blue
+and golden day, and that we have no chance of seeing. On one side of the
+bay rises the mighty mountain whose furious deeds have made him known
+and respected all over the world. There is a heavy cloud hanging around
+his crest so that we cannot see the crater; the cloud looks as if it
+were composed of smoke as much as anything else, for even yet Vesuvius
+is terribly alive.
+
+We get a hasty breakfast, for though we are going to be here till late
+afternoon, there is much to see, and we have no time to spare. Then we
+get into a little launch and steam past all the great ships lying at
+anchor. On the quay we find ourselves in a great crowd of grey uniformed
+soldiers, many of them mere lads, carrying their kit, and drawn up in
+lines waiting their turn to march on board the towering troopship
+anchored alongside, while some of them wind up the gangway like a great
+grey snake. Those already in the ship are letting down ropes to draw up
+bottles of wine or baskets of fruit from the women who sell such things.
+Within a short time Italy has become mistress of Tripoli, a country in
+Africa, and now she is finding she will have to garrison it in order to
+hold it; and though it costs her a great deal of money she is sending
+out many of her young soldiers to guard the new possession.
+
+We get some money changed on the quay, receiving in exchange a number of
+lire; the lira is very like a franc and corresponds with it and the
+English shilling, though a little less in value.
+
+This done we walk along the front to the station. Many of the streets
+are high and broad with splendid houses lining them. In them are men
+busily at work washing away the mud with long hose pipes mounted on
+little wheels, so that they look like giant lizards or funny snakes on
+legs running across the streets by themselves, and as much alive as the
+well-known advertisement of the carpet-sweeper and Mary Ann!
+
+Other streets are very narrow and filled with people buying and selling.
+There are swarms of children rolling about in the filth of the roadway;
+they are dressed in rags and their bodies show through the large holes.
+They are often playing with old bones or pebbles. Their faces are
+sometimes quite beautiful, rich golden-brown in colour, and their great
+velvety brown eyes look so sweetly innocent you would be easily taken in
+by them; but they are terrible little rogues and would beg from you or
+steal if they got the chance. Here and there are shops where macaroni is
+sold; it is ready boiling in great pans; this and cakes made of a kind
+of flour called polenta are the chief food of the Italians. The macaroni
+is made out of flour mixed with water to a stiff paste and squeezed
+through holes in a box till it comes out in long strings. It used to be
+made in all the dust and dirt of the villages, and is still often to be
+seen hanging over posts there to dry, but there are now large
+manufactories where it is made quite cleanly by machinery; we shall see
+some as we pass on our way to Pompeii, where we are going. There is one
+pleasant thing to notice, namely, wherever you look you see flowers
+growing; the larger and better-class houses have balconies filled with
+broad-leaved plants and creepers, and the very poorest people living
+high up towards the sky have window-boxes filled with flowers.
+
+At the station we find a little train, like a tram, with red velvet
+cushions, and while we sit and wait for it to take us to Pompeii, the
+city buried by Vesuvius, the rain falls softly and steadily. Presently
+the stationmaster and his assistant step out gingerly along the
+uncovered platform, holding umbrellas over their uniforms, and give the
+word of command, and very slowly we start, and jolt along, stopping
+frequently. We pass through market gardens first and then through
+endless vineyards, in many of which the clinging vines are not propped
+up on sticks, but merely looped from one poplar tree to another, for the
+trees are growing in straight rows and form a natural support. This
+ground is particularly good for vines, for the lava which has been dug
+into the soil is peculiarly fruitful.
+
+There are little white box-like houses amid the vines, and they are hung
+all over with bunches of brilliant scarlet fruit, which, when we get
+near enough to see, we find to be tiny tomatoes. Other houses have
+pumpkins also and melons and chillies, all hanging out to get dried, so
+that they look quite decorative with their strange adornments. Suddenly
+our attention is called to a broad strip of black earth, in shape like a
+river, flowing down the hillside, but made up of huge blocks as if it
+had been turned up by a giant ploughshare. This is a lava bed made by
+the last great explosion of Vesuvius in 1906, when the lava ran down in
+molten streams, tearing its way through the vineyards and sweeping
+across the railway lines; at that time two hundred people were killed.
+An enterprising firm has run a little railway to the very top of
+Vesuvius, and anyone who cares to do so can go by it and peep into the
+awful crater at the summit, and a cinematograph operator has recently
+been down one thousand feet into the crater to take films for
+exhibition. When Vesuvius is in a bad humour and has growled and
+grumbled for some days, people are not allowed to go up to the top lest
+he vomit forth his fury even while they are there and overwhelm them.
+
+While we are on the way to Pompeii I will tell you something of the
+fascinating story.
+
+Many years ago, long before the people on our islands were civilised,
+when Britons ran about dressed in skins and floated in wicker-boats
+covered by skins, there were intelligent and refined people living all
+round the base of Vesuvius; they knew, of course, that the mountain was
+a volcano, but there had never been any very terrible explosion that
+they could remember, and, anyway, the slopes of the mountain where the
+towns stood extended so far from the crater that no one thought it
+possible for any great disaster to happen. The two principal towns were
+called Herculaneum and Pompeii. The people there dressed in lovely silks
+and satins; they had beautifully built houses filled with statues and
+pictures: the women wore costly jewellery; they had plenty of
+amusements, for they danced and sang and visited each other, and had
+stalls at the amphitheatre, and supported candidates at political
+elections, and gossiped and drove in chariots, and lived and loved. They
+thought, as we all do in our turn, that they knew everything and that no
+one could reach so high a pinnacle of civilisation as they had reached.
+This was only about fifty years after Christ's death on the cross, and
+the Christians were still a comparatively small and despised band.
+
+Well, one day there was a certain amount of uneasiness felt, for a
+curious black cloud had formed over Vesuvius, and it was not quite like
+anything that had ever been seen before; people also spoke of strange
+rumblings in the bowels of the earth, and there was an oppressiveness in
+the air which alarmed the timid. Then came terrifying noises, cracklings
+and explosions, and a fine dust filled the air and began settling down
+everywhere; no sooner was it brushed off than there it was again; it
+penetrated even close shut houses, and filled the hinges so that the
+doors would not open easily. The rich people began to make arrangements
+to get away, but before they could carry them out awful confusion fell
+upon them; day was turned to night, the clouds of dust fell thickly and
+chokingly, stifling men as they ran; volumes of lava poured forth,
+sweeping like fiery serpents down the mountain-side; they rushed over
+Herculaneum, which was not far from Pompeii, so that while the one city
+was boiled the other was smothered. Curses and prayers alike were no
+avail. Men were caught and choked, houses were silted up, and the whole
+district was buried.
+
+Years passed and the tradition of the destroyed cities remained; it was
+known that they were thereabouts, but so completely had the mountain
+done its work that no one knew exactly where, and it was only
+comparatively recently that money was subscribed and the work of
+unearthing them began. By the railway we have passed through
+Herculaneum, and here we are at Pompeii. Now you shall see what this
+city of two thousand years ago was like.
+
+[Illustration: A HOUSE IN POMPEII.]
+
+The station is close to it, and as we step out of the train we go almost
+immediately into the gates of the once buried but now uncovered city,
+which is one of the wonders of the world, attracting people across
+leagues of sea and land.
+
+We find ourselves in a long narrow street lined by roofless houses. The
+stones which form the pavement are uneven and much worn, the foot-walks
+on each side are raised very high, because in wet weather these streets
+were mere torrents and the water rushed down them. Here and there are
+stepping-stones, to enable people to cross from one side to the other.
+It would have been impossible in most places for two chariots or carts
+to pass one another, and we wonder how they managed. As a fact, the
+Pompeians did not use wheeled vehicles much, but chairs or palanquins,
+and the men went on horseback. There are many open counters beside the
+street, showing that these buildings were used as shops, and in one or
+two are large marble basins hollowed out where the wine which was sold
+was kept cool. Along the side of one house is a gaudily painted serpent,
+signifying that an apothecary, or, as we should say, a chemist, lived
+here.
+
+We can go into one of the better-class dwelling-houses and we find that
+it was built around a courtyard or central hall, and we can peep into
+the sleeping-rooms, which, in spite of all the luxury of the
+inhabitants, were mere little dark cupboards with no light or air. Well,
+so they were in our castles until quite recently! There was a garden
+behind the hall in all the better-class houses, and this had almost
+always a tank for gold-fish; we can see it still; but all the little
+personal things that have been unearthed--the jewellery and household
+utensils and even the statues--have been taken to the museum at Naples
+for safe keeping, which is a pity, as the streets and living-rooms seem
+bare and cold and we need a good deal of imagination to picture them as
+they must have been.
+
+Here at last is something that makes us start and brings back the awful
+scene of death and dismay. In a deep recess by a doorway are six
+skeletons, lying in various attitudes, left exactly as they were found.
+These people had been caught; they were hurrying, evidently to get out
+of the outer door, and finding it had been silted up by dust and that
+they could not open it, had turned back, too late, and been smothered!
+There they lie now, nearly two thousand years after, just as then.
+
+There were about two thousand skeletons thus found and taken away--only
+these few were left to give visitors some idea of the tragedy that
+happened. The sticky dust and ashes which poured down upon the doomed
+city reached a depth of twenty-six feet, and they encased everything in
+a kind of crust. Dogs and cats were caught in this way, and even little
+lizards, such as those that live in the cracks of the walls in Italy to
+this day; and though their bodies had decayed away long before they
+could be dug out, yet the exact impression remained, and in many cases,
+by pouring soft plaster into the holes, men have reproduced to the life
+the poor little wriggling body that was caught in such a terrible
+prison! You can imagine what great value it has been to historians to
+find the things used by people so long ago. In most cases customs change
+gradually; the implements and utensils which one generation use are
+broken and lost and replaced by new fashions, but here, in one lump,
+stamped down hard for ever, are the things caught in a second of time
+and held in an iron grip while the years rolled by.
+
+Passing on we find a small temple to the Egyptian god Isis, and this was
+the very first object to be discovered. Some men quarrying for stone
+struck upon it and thus the long-lost site of the town was found. Then
+we see the public baths with all the arrangements for heating the water;
+the Pompeians, like the Romans, were very fond of bathing. But it is the
+little things of everyday life that impress us most, and we are brought
+up suddenly by seeing on a wall a poster of the day advocating the
+return of one particular candidate to what was the Pompeian Parliament.
+This carries us right back into the midst of them! So does also that
+drinking-fountain by the street side, where the marble has been worn
+hollow by the hands of those who leaned on it as they stretched forward
+to drink at the spout!
+
+We can walk through the market-place where the people bought and sold,
+and look down into the great amphitheatre where the shows which they all
+loved were held; but as our ship leaves at four o'clock we shall have to
+tear ourselves away and hurry back along the little line again, running
+round the base of the sullen brooding mountain which may at any time
+hurl down his thunder-bolts on the vineyards which still creep up his
+sides. Past Herculaneum, now partly unburied, and so to gay Naples,
+where the sun is breaking out.
+
+On the quay we see barrows covered with a curious flesh-coloured fruit
+about the size and shape of a large pear, and this is quite new to us.
+We discover these are called Indian figs; but why Indian? They are grown
+here and are a popular native fruit. They are covered by a thick skin,
+easily peeled off, and are full of juice and very large pips; they have
+a sweetish rather sickly taste, but one can imagine they must be a great
+boon to the poor Italians who can get a good refreshing drink for almost
+nothing.
+
+Once aboard we discover that something has gone wrong--a propeller has
+dropped a blade and the ship will not start for some hours. We might
+have stayed longer in Pompeii after all!
+
+There are compensations for everything and soon we find that this delay
+is going to be a good one for us, for it will enable us to see two other
+volcanoes which otherwise we should have missed in the darkness.
+
+We ask the night-steward to wake us in time for the first, and it seems
+as if our heads had hardly touched the pillows when we hear his voice at
+the door, "Stromboli in sight, sir!" It is cold and we are very sleepy;
+grumbling, we make our way to the front of the deck below the bridge,
+and suddenly, in the blackness ahead, there shoots up a short straight
+column of fire like that from the chimney of a blast furnace. It
+disappears as quickly and quietly as it came, and odd bits of flame,
+like red-hot cinders, roll this way and that, then all is black again.
+As the sky quickly lightens we see outlined against it a cone or
+pyramid, and from the summit there shoots out another column of flame,
+to disappear almost instantly.
+
+"Stromboli sky-rocketing," says the voice of one of the officers on the
+bridge above.
+
+All the time we are gliding nearer and nearer to the wonderful mountain,
+when, with an amazing swiftness, up flashes the sun, sweeping rays of
+colour over the sky, changing it from pale primrose to fiery orange, and
+there, black against it, is a little island so neatly made that it
+appears an exact triangle with a bite out of one side near the top.
+Stromboli is one of a group of little islands. What had appeared as
+flame in the darkness shows at the next eruption to be a puff of smoke
+from which burning lumps fall on the rocky sides and down the
+precipices. This happens about every quarter of an hour. The sea
+meantime changes to vivid blue. We are quite close now and can see tiny
+white houses nestling on the edge of the island amid clusters of green.
+What happens to the people if the boiling lava rolls down through their
+vineyards and into their houses? There is no one to answer that
+question. Perhaps it never gets so far, perhaps Stromboli has not yet
+shown himself to be a fierce volcano, but limits his eruptions to angry
+splutterings which beat on the scarred precipices of the steep sides
+above the dwellings of the people,--anyway, I don't think I should care
+to live there, just in case----
+
+We awake suddenly from our intent gazing to find ourselves the
+laughing-stock of a crowd of decently dressed men and women who have
+come up in the daylight, properly clad, and there are we in
+dressing-gowns, not over-long, and slippered feet! But no one minds
+these little mishaps on board ship, and with dignity we pass through to
+our cabin, smiling and feeling very superior to have seen so much more
+than the lie-abeds!
+
+As it happens, it is Sunday morning and a very different day from
+yesterday, with bright sun and a clear sky. As a rule there is service
+on board ship on Sundays, but to-day we are just going to pass through
+the Straits of Messina, and the captain must be on the bridge the whole
+time, and there is no clergyman to take the duty for him, so we can't
+have it. But we could hardly pass a Sunday better than in admiring the
+marvellous beauty which God has given to us in this world for our
+delight.
+
+It is about four hours after passing Stromboli that we enter the straits
+which separate Sicily, the three-cornered island, from Italy, which
+seems to be kicking it away with the toe of its foot. Land begins to
+close in on us, and in the dazzling sunshine it appears radiant, while
+the sea is a mirror of blue. On both sides we see houses and villages
+built on the sloping shores, but the interest heightens when we come
+close abreast the great town of Messina which, on the 20th of December
+1908, suddenly became world-famous owing to the awful misfortune which
+befell it. All educated people knew Messina by name previously, but it
+was not until the Italian wires flashed the story of the earthquake
+which had wrought destruction so swiftly and dramatically that it will
+always be ranked as among the most appalling that ever happened, that
+everyone with one consent turned their attention to Messina, and the
+eyes of the whole world were focused on it. The suddenness of the
+calamity was the most terrible feature of it. It was early in the
+morning when the earth shook and heaved and raised itself, and in about
+four minutes, what had been a happy prosperous town was reduced to a
+smoking ruin, a shambles of dead bodies, and a hell on earth for the
+miserable beings who lived in it! Almost all the houses fell together;
+whole streets of them collapsed like a pack of cards, and the shock was
+so tremendous that in many cases even the bricks and stone of which they
+were made were ground to powder. Tens of thousands of people were
+buried before they could get into the streets, and their own houses,
+where they had been happy and miserable, had been born or married or
+suffered, were turned into their tombs. Those who were killed outright
+were not the most unfortunate, for others were caught by a limb beneath
+falling stones, or crushed and held yet living, and their direful
+shrieks of agony added to the horrors, for there was none to help them,
+all were in the grip of the same misfortune. To add to the disaster
+flames broke out from the ruined houses, and the city was lit by the
+lurid light of fire rising to heaven. No one will ever know how many
+hapless creatures were burnt to death! There was no possibility of
+working the telegraph wires, and the people left alive simply had to
+wait for help till help came. And meantime volumes of water, disturbed
+by the change of sea-level, rolled in upon the land!
+
+Directly the news startled the whole civilised world, ships of all
+nations, which happened to be anywhere near, hastened to the rescue.
+Camps were hastily run up and the survivors taken to them, food was
+supplied to all who needed it, the wounded and maimed were attended to,
+and wherever possible those who were still living in the ruins were dug
+out and set free. But, as you may imagine, this was a work of great
+danger, because dragging out a beam or stone often sent a shattering
+avalanche down on the top of the rescuers.
+
+The number of those destroyed can never be known certainly, but it is
+estimated at somewhere about 200,000, for Messina is a large town.
+Charitable people sent subscriptions from all quarters; money flowed in;
+those children who had lost their parents, and even in some cases their
+names and identity, being too small to give any account of themselves,
+were placed in kind homes and provided for, and those who were
+completely crippled assured of support; others were given the means to
+start life once more. It is difficult to imagine that all this happened
+only a few short years ago now; even though we are quite close to
+Messina, and have the use of a very fine pair of field-glasses, it is
+difficult to make out any of the mischief. It appears as if the houses
+had been rebuilt, warehouses and chimneys stand as usual, and the great
+viaduct spans the valley; but those who know say that this is only a
+good face seen from the sea, and that ruins still lie in quantities
+behind. In the memories of those who passed through the earthquake there
+must be a shuddering horror never to be forgotten, a black mark passing
+athwart their lives and cutting them into two parts--that before and
+that after the catastrophe.
+
+Farther on more little villages appear, some looking just like a spilt
+box of child's bricks tumbled any way down a mountain spur. Then we
+catch sight of the great majesty of Etna, the third volcano we have seen
+in two days, and we stand lost in admiration of his pure beauty.
+
+The smoothness of the eternal snow glows like a silver shield on the
+breast of the giant peak. Far below are vineyards, olive groves,
+orchards, and orange and lemon groves, for Sicily is celebrated for
+these fruits. Above them are beech-woods, so deep and dark that they are
+seldom penetrated even by the peasants; beautiful as the beech is, it is
+a poisonous tree and nothing can live beneath its shade.
+
+It is all so smiling and peaceful on this serene Sunday morning that we
+can hardly believe that in Etna too there lies the raging demon of
+mighty force. Even as we watch a faint puff of pure white smoke, so thin
+that it might be mistaken for a wisp of cloud, floats away from the peak
+into the infinite blue, and we know by his breath that the demon is not
+dead but only sleeping.
+
+"Lucky indeed to get Etna clear of clouds," says one of the passengers
+near us. "I've been through the Straits a score of times and I've hardly
+ever seen it as you are seeing it for the first time to-day."
+
+Volcanoes and earthquakes are closely connected. There lies within this
+world of ours an imprisoned power of vital heat, which now and again
+bursts through at weak places in the crust. Geologists tell us that
+these weak places may be traced in long lines on the earth's surface,
+and along one of them lie the volcanoes we have seen. But the laws which
+govern the earthquake and the volcano are hardly yet understood, even
+to-day.
+
+After calling at another little Italian port for the mails, we do not
+stop anywhere for the next few days, but steam along steadily, making up
+for lost time. We have seen something of the southern part of our own
+continent of Europe. We have landed in Spain at Gibraltar, we set foot
+on French soil in Toulon, where the steamer called to take on passengers
+from across France, we have visited Italy at Naples, and these are the
+principal countries which line the huge land-locked sea. In old times
+the whole civilised world centred around the Mediterranean, and Rome,
+which is now the capital of Italy, dominated it all, making one mighty
+empire. The dominion of Rome reached far northward to our own islands,
+and she was so secure and supreme in her power that it never entered the
+heads of the Romans then living that some day the whole empire would be
+split up and distributed. Their dominion reached even to Egypt, where we
+are now going, and to the Holy Land, which we shall visit afterwards;
+their fleets covered the sea, their armies strode hot-footed across the
+land, making broad ways that passed over hill and valley without pause
+or rest, yet now the empire of Rome is but a name.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
+
+
+Looking down from the deck of the _Orontes_ it seems as if we were
+peering into the folds of a black gauze curtain, between which demons
+from the pit rush yelling to and fro. These men are black from head to
+foot, with the exception of the gleaming white teeth which show between
+their open lips. They are black to begin with by nature, and are further
+covered, scanty clothing and all, with a thick coating of coal-dust,
+which sticks to their oily skins and dirty rags. They are digging
+frantically into the heaped-up coal of a great barge lying alongside,
+gathering it into baskets and rushing up planks to deposit it in the
+coal bunkers of the steamer, and all the while they shout in a strange
+chant at the tops of their voices. When white men are doing severe work
+they are silent, as they need all their strength for the task in hand,
+but when their dark-skinned brothers work they find it necessary to
+shout as loudly as they can, and the harder the work the more noise they
+make. At a little distance their confused yelling is like the cheering
+of a great crowd at a popular football match.
+
+[Illustration: PORT SAID--STATUE OF DE LESSEPS.]
+
+All the port-holes have been closed to keep out the dust, the ship's
+carpets are rolled away, the place looks as if prepared for a spring
+cleaning. It is time for us to go, for we have arrived at Port Said, the
+principal landing-place for Egypt, and we have to say good-bye to the
+_Orontes_ here, though we shall not forget her as the first of the many
+ships which carry us on our great adventure.
+
+It is easy enough to get a boat, competition is keen, and the laughing
+bright-eyed boys who row us across seem in the best of humour; they make
+a brilliant picture, for they are dressed in scarlet and blue for
+choice, with bits of orange wherever they can stick them on.
+
+Port Said, where we have landed, is a large town with a big business,
+yet it is built on a site which a comparatively short time ago was
+nothing but a marshy salt lake. Men of all nations walk in its streets,
+and ships of all nations pass through its port. It is a strange
+mingling of East and West. Here the two meet, and those who come from
+the West for the first time cry with delight, "This is the East!" while
+those who have been exiled for many years from their western homes and
+are at last returning, exclaim, drawing a long breath, "Now I feel I
+really am in sight of home."
+
+We are actually in Africa, that mysterious land which still contains the
+greater part of the unexplored territory of the world, and which for
+long was described as "The Unknown Continent," though it can hardly be
+called that now. Of all the countries which make up Africa, Egypt is the
+strangest, indeed, she is the strangest country in all the world--a
+weird and mysterious land whose ways are not as the ways of any other
+country on earth.
+
+Imagine a land much longer than it is broad, in the shape of an ordinary
+hearth-rug, and then lay down lengthwise along this a mighty river which
+divides it into two parts. Have you seen the Eiffel Tower? If not, you
+have at all events seen pictures of it, well, imagine an Eiffel Tower
+lying prostrate along the hearth-rug and you will have a pretty fair
+idea of Egypt and its river. The legs of the Eiffel Tower are very near
+the bottom and stick out sharply; from the point where they meet the
+long body stretches upwards straight as an arrow.
+
+The Nile is like that. Not so far above where it runs into the
+Mediterranean Sea it is split up into many channels like the legs of the
+tower. It is at the foot of one of these legs we have just landed, and
+presently we are going to pass on up to the junction of the many
+channels at Cairo, which is the capital town of Egypt. Of course the
+Nile is not perfectly straight and rigid like the man-made tower; it
+winds and turns, as all rivers do, but, taking it as a whole, the
+comparison is a good one.
+
+We have to wait for our baggage to be brought across from the ship so
+that we can see it through the custom-house, and here it comes at last;
+it is carried by a boy about your age who is simply lost to sight
+beneath it. They begin young! He stands grinning, well pleased with
+himself. He certainly deserves a good tip, for he is no shirker. We have
+just got some Egyptian money from Cook's, so can give it him in his own
+coinage, though he would not in the least mind taking English money.
+
+Egyptian money is not very difficult to understand: the principal coin
+is a piastre, which is equal to twopence-halfpenny; and half a piastre,
+which looks like a silver sixpence, but isn't silver at all, serves the
+purposes of a penny, though it is really equal to a penny-farthing.
+There are no coppers here. The most useful coin--corresponding to our
+shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira--is rather like an
+overgrown shilling to look at and equal to five piastres or a halfpenny
+more than a shilling.
+
+Now we have only to buy some cigarettes for me and some Turkish Delight
+for--well, for us both! Then we can go on to our train. Cigarettes and
+Turkish Delight are the two things no one ever fails to buy at Port
+Said, for here you get them good and cheap.
+
+It will take us four hours to reach Cairo by rail, and we shan't see
+anything of the country, as it is dark. And what a country it is!
+
+You will never get used to it, for it is run on lines of its own. The
+part of it lying between the legs of the imaginary Eiffel Tower, in
+other words, between the mouths of the Nile, is called the Delta, from
+the Greek letter [Greek: Delta], which shape it is. Except in this delta
+rain never falls, that is to say, not to speak of. Up in Assouan, one of
+the larger towns, which we shall visit, they say, for instance, "Rain?
+Let me see--oh yes, we did have a shower, two years ago it was, on such
+and such a day at four in the afternoon. Pretty smart shower too; the
+roofs of the mud houses got squashy and slipped down on the inhabitants.
+Quite funny, wasn't it?"
+
+It seems funny to us that anyone could remember the hour of one
+particular shower two years ago! With us if there is no rain for a few
+weeks the farmers begin to cry out that their crops are ruined. What a
+glorious land Egypt must be to live in when there is no chance of any
+excursion being spoiled by the weather!
+
+"But how in the world does anything manage to grow?"
+
+I thought you would ask that. Egypt has a system of its own. Once every
+year this gigantic river, which cleaves the land into two parts, rises
+and overflows all its banks; it submerges the low-lying flat land near
+it and carries all over it a rich fertilising mud. The land is
+thoroughly soaked, and when the Nile slowly retires, sinking back into
+its channel, the crops are planted in the spongy earth.
+
+For many ages no one knew why this happened, and indeed no one troubled
+to ask; the ancient Egyptians thought the Nile was a god, and that this
+wonderful overflow was a miracle of beneficence performed for their
+benefit. Then Europeans began to penetrate into the heart of Africa and
+the mystery was solved. The Nile rises far up in the vast continent
+where there are mighty lakes lying in among the hills. The three largest
+of these lakes are called Victoria, Albert, and Edward, after our
+sovereigns, for the men who discovered them were British and naturally
+carried the names of their rulers to plant as banners wherever they
+penetrated. These lakes are not in Egypt, but far beyond, in a region
+where at one season of the year there is a terrific downfall of rain;
+this swells them up and makes them burst forth from every outlet in a
+tremendous flood. The Nile carries off most of this water, and some
+other rivers, which flow into it up there, bring down masses of water
+too, and all this rushes onward, spreading far over the thirsty land of
+Egypt and turns the desert into a garden, making it "blossom as the
+rose." Wherever the water reaches the land bears fruit, but beyond it is
+sandy and sterile desert.
+
+The length of this amazing river from Lake Victoria to the sea is now
+reckoned to be between three thousand and four thousand miles, or almost
+half the length of the earth's diameter, and for over a thousand miles
+it receives no tributaries at all. In almost all rivers we are
+accustomed to we see streams and other tributaries running in and
+swelling the volume of water as the main river passes down to the sea,
+but for all these miles the Nile flows unsupported and unreplenished
+beneath the blazing sun. No wonder the Egyptians worshipped anything so
+splendid!
+
+The total length of England and Scotland together, from John o' Groats
+to Land's End, is eight hundred miles, which gives us a measuring rod to
+estimate the length of this splendid highway, which is frequently half a
+mile broad.
+
+Though the yearly inundation made cultivation possible, men soon learned
+that it was not enough; besides this they must water the crops between
+times, and so means were devised for storing up the water; but these
+were mostly very simple and primitive until Great Britain went to Egypt
+to help the Khedive out of his difficulties and to teach him how to
+govern for the good of his people. Then immense works were started for
+holding up the water which would otherwise have run away to the sea at
+flood-time and been wasted.
+
+We arrive at Cairo very late at night, and when we get to our bedroom we
+find both beds looking rather like large meat-safes, for they are
+enclosed in white net curtains. These fall from a top or ceiling
+resembling that on old four-posters.
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MOSQUE AT CAIRO.]
+
+You stare at them in a puzzled way a minute or so, and then declare,
+"What a stuffy arrangement! I'm not going to sleep shut in like that!"
+
+"Please yourself, but you run the risk of having red lumps on your nose
+in the morning if a mosquito takes a fancy to you!"
+
+"Oh, they're mosquito-curtains! I've heard of them. What are you going
+to do?"
+
+"Run no risks!"
+
+At last, protesting, you agree to do likewise, and climb inside your
+meat-safe. You'll soon get used to it, and though it is too cold here
+for any mosquito to be very lively, it is safer. In some countries
+the curtains are useful for keeping off worse things than
+mosquitoes--tarantulas, for instance!
+
+We are only staying one day in Cairo so are out early the next morning,
+and find that the town looks on the whole very like a French town.
+Indeed, were it not for the red fez or tarboush which so many men wear,
+even when they dress otherwise in European costume, and for the turbans
+and flowing robes of the native dress, we might be in Paris or
+Marseilles.
+
+We go to the top of a very wide main street to await the tram which is
+to take us to the Pyramids.
+
+"Poste-carte, sir-r-r-r," says insinuatingly a ragged ruffian, thrusting
+vividly coloured picture postcards into our faces as we stand. We turn
+away, shaking our heads. He quickly runs round to face us again,
+"Poste-carte, sir-r-r," in a tone as if the conversation had only just
+begun and he had great hopes of a sale.
+
+[Illustration: "POSTE-CARTE AND BEADES," CAIRO.]
+
+"No, thank you; go away," I say as sternly and emphatically as I can,
+for he is not too clean.
+
+"Poste-carte, Cismus cards, nice," he continues with unabated zeal as if
+we had not spoken at all. Resolutely we turn our backs on him and are
+confronted by a very gorgeous individual in a long loose gown and
+turban, with innumerable strings of beads of the cheapest and commonest
+"Made-in-Germany" kind, hung in festoons round his neck. "Beades,
+sir-r-r," he begins persuasively, and the other chimes in a duet,
+"Poste-carte." "Beades," continues the new tormentor, swinging his wares
+in our faces. Evidently "no" is a word not understood by these gentry.
+They go on at it hard for about five minutes, our stony silence in no
+way diminishing their enthusiasm, and then from the corner of my eye I
+see a tall man, with an exceptionally handsome face, clothed in a
+beautiful long coat of blue cloth cut away to show a great orange sash
+underneath.
+
+"You want guide?" he says, hastening to the fray and sending the other
+men flying with "Imshi, imshi!" "Me good guide, beest guide in Cairo,
+show you Pyramids, all-a sights, verry cheap, sirr, me show you, only
+ten shillings, citadel and----"
+
+"I don't want a guide, thank you."
+
+The gentleman's knowledge of English is limited apparently, for he
+doesn't understand that. In exactly the same tone in which he has just
+spoken he begins again, "Me good guide, showing you all sights, cheap,
+verry cheap, Pyramids, telling you all things, bazaar, only eight
+shilling----"
+
+By the time he has worked himself through all the grades down to two
+shillings, his eye falls on two other newly arrived tourists, evidently
+Americans, and he rushes upon the fresh prey. Luckily our car comes in
+sight just then, for a second dragoman, as these guides are called, has
+just caught sight of us and is racing across the street as fast as his
+legs will carry him.
+
+As the tram starts we hear his desperate "Me verry good guide,
+best--bazaar----" He is quite willing to risk his life in jumping on to
+the moving tram at the smallest sign from us, so we simply hold our
+breath and resolve not to wink an eyelid until the danger is past.
+
+[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So those are the Pyramids!
+
+We have arrived after a very cold and rather monotonous run of about an
+hour.
+
+Was there ever a time when one had not heard of the Pyramids and
+pictured their vast triangles rising out of the desert? But for my part,
+I had always imagined them set far off in solitude so that one came upon
+them gradually, seeing them first as mere hillocks in the immensity of
+the sand. Instead of that they spring upon us suddenly, rearing up on a
+height as the tram speeds toward them along a tree-shaded road across a
+vast artificial lake.
+
+The lake is picturesque, studded with little islands and promontories
+covered with houses and palm trees, so also are the groups of donkeys
+and camels with their attendant men waiting at the terminus for
+tourists, but these things disperse the mystery to which we had looked
+forward. The large and comfortable hotel at the foot of the white
+winding road which leads up to the Pyramids is doubtless useful, but----
+
+As we approach on foot we experience surprise to see that the blocks of
+which the largest Pyramid is composed are so small they look almost like
+bricks. Pictures show them as gigantic blocks up which stout ladies are
+being "boosted"--sorry, but there is no other word--by heated dragomans.
+As we draw near we see that the blocks _are_ fairly big. Nearer
+still--what is that crawling about on the edge of the great cone? Hullo,
+it's a man, and there is another and another. They do look small. Why,
+there is one who has reached the top; he is not to be compared with a
+fly so much as a midge--who would have thought it? We are close under
+now and I find that the block by which I am standing is the height of my
+shoulder, and I am fairly tall. This must be an exceptional one, but--it
+isn't! They are all the same! Watching the men clambering up above,--men
+who we now see are English soldiers dressed in khaki,--we can understand
+why they seem to find the ascent so difficult--each block is shoulder
+high and requires much strenuous exertion to surmount. They cannot
+stride from one to the other as on a flight of stairs. One man is
+exhausted and gives up half-way, and a cheerful Cockney voice comes down
+from above telling him to "put his beck into it!" He'll need it.
+Standing thus and looking up we get some idea of the enormous size of
+the Pyramid, which makes its blocks look small by contrast. It is
+bigger, far bigger than one expected. This is the largest of all, built
+anything between 5000 and 6000 years ago, as the tomb of King Cheops. He
+built it for himself by cruel forced labour crushed out of starving men;
+he intended that his body should lie like the kernel of a nut in this
+mighty shell.
+
+As we pass beyond it we see another, farther off in the desert sand, and
+yet another. We are accustomed to speak of the Pyramids as if these few
+at Gizeh were all, but there are others scattered about Egypt, though
+they are less known and visited.
+
+Then, quite unexpectedly, we come upon the Sphinx. It is in a hollow in
+the sand like the nest children scoop out for shelter on the seashore,
+only vastly greater. As we struggle round the yielding rim, with the
+powdery sand silting over our boot-tops, we feel something of the wonder
+of it thrilling through us. Let us sit down here facing it by these
+broken stones, where we can be a little sheltered from the chilly wind
+and gritty sand. We are looking at the oldest thing in Egypt. You will
+see farther south many splendid examples of amazing age but nothing to
+equal the Sphinx. When Abraham came down into Egypt the Sphinx was old
+beyond the memory of man! When King Cheops built his Pyramid the Sphinx
+sat with his back turned to it wearing the same inscrutable smile that
+it has to-day. It has watched kings succeed and die, it has watched
+empires spread and collapse, it has watched civilisations ripen and
+wither away. All the known history of mankind has unrolled before it,
+not the short history of a few trifling centuries which we call ours,
+but the history of the world.
+
+The crouching figure is lion-like in attitude, but how human of face in
+spite of its broken nose. It was carven of the solid rock and fashioned
+with its face to the sunrise and its back to the desert. No one knows
+the thought in the mind of the puny artist who brought it into being and
+then shrivelled beside it like a blade of grass. Was it intended to be a
+god? It has been silted up by sand and unburied again; it has been
+worshipped and hated. It has been reverenced and shot at, so that its
+face is chipped and its nose broken away, and still it smiles with
+fierce serenity.
+
+Sit silently.
+
+"Poste-carte----"
+
+"Imshi, imshi."
+
+That Arabic word, picked up at hazard from the dragoman, has acted like
+a talisman--the pest has actually gone!
+
+There creeps up beside you, very slowly and determinedly, an old, old
+man. "Fortune told," he says almost in a whisper, groping for your hard
+boyish hand. So be it! He at least does not send the spirit of the place
+flying away. Nonsense it may be, but these fellows do know something----
+
+Give him that five piastre piece that looks like a large shilling and
+listen to his quaint expressive English.
+
+"Clever head, head very much good, gooder than many men, but an enemy
+inside there. You see a long, long road, and you go that road, then
+coming hills and that road grow tiresome and you stop and say, 'Not
+worth it, I don't care,' an enemy here--slay him!
+
+"Much work lies to your hands to do when they grow large. In many lands
+I see them plucking down cities and raising ships from the depths of the
+sea. Strange things be waiting for those hands in all the world. Many
+tongues you speaking, and many things you gain. But the hand not opening
+easily. What it gains it grips, hard and tight; it is a close hand, and
+that which comes thereout drops slowly between the fingers to friends
+also as to foes. Riches and work and honour hold the hands, and only
+death will tear them away. With them all is a bitterness and a glory
+greater than the shine of what men count joy. But in that day when you
+eat with kings the desire of life shall pass from you!"
+
+Hullo, old boy! He gave you a good shilling's worth, anyhow! Though it
+was rather a nasty hit that at your Scottish national character! You
+don't believe it surely? Look at the Sphinx and laugh. What does it
+matter if we two midges, among all the midges that have crawled about
+his paws, don't exactly enjoy ourselves the whole of our brief day?
+
+What is that? How you start! No, it's not a lion roaring, though it's a
+pretty good imitation; it's only a camel cursing and snarling with all
+his might while his owner piles a few bushels' weight on his back. He
+doesn't really mind it, but it is the immemorial custom of camels to
+protest with hideousness and confused noise, and if he didn't do it his
+trade union would be down upon him.
+
+"Poste-carte----"
+
+Come, let us go!
+
+[Illustration: STRANGE LOOKING BEASTS MINCING ALONG LIKE GIGANTIC
+PEACOCKS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HIGHWAY OF EGYPT
+
+
+Of course you have been in a cinematograph theatre, and there, seated
+comfortably, have watched the various scenes pass before you. The great
+charm of these scenes is that the people really did do the things which
+we here see them doing, even down to the smallest gestures. But often
+the pleasure is spoilt by knowing that the actors were only making these
+gestures for the purpose of being photographed; also the scenes are
+sometimes disconnected and scrappy, and seldom indeed is it that they
+are represented in colour, and then, though the colour is clever enough,
+it is not like that of nature.
+
+To-day we are watching a cinematograph which has none of these
+drawbacks. We are seated in a leather-lined railway carriage running
+from Cairo southward up the country to a place called Luxor, and passing
+before us every minute are vivid pictures of the life of Egypt. The
+railway runs along the middle of Egypt, just as the Nile does, but we do
+not often see the river from the line, for at this time of the year it
+flows low down between its banks. It is on the other side of the railway
+that the main interest lies. Here there is a canal as straight as the
+line and close beside it, and on the far side of it is a sort of raised
+tow-path--the great highway of Egypt. We see it against a fringe of
+bushy palm trees at one minute, and the next against a field of tall,
+green-growing stuff, which looks exactly like those rushes found on the
+banks of our own rivers. This, however, is maize, or, as you probably
+know it better, Indian corn, which forms the staple food of the people.
+The brown feathery heads wave in the wind, but the corn itself is tucked
+away in the thickness of the stalk. You must have seen a "cob" of Indian
+corn some time, with all the flat yellow grains nestling in a honeycomb
+of little cells. To-day in Egypt you will see everyone eating them; even
+the solemn baby seated astride its mother's shoulder picks out the
+grains and nibbles them like a little monkey. The straw part of the
+plant is used for many things: it feeds the numerous domestic animals of
+the Egyptians to begin with--the donkeys, camels, buffaloes, bullocks,
+goats--and it forms thatch for the huts and makes bedding.
+
+Notice that man over there in the field; his cotton gown is of the
+purest blue, which shows up richly against the vivid green of the maize
+stalks. There is another seated far back on the rump of a small donkey
+who is tripping along on its stiff little legs. It wears no harness of
+any kind beyond a cord round its neck, which enables anyone to catch
+hold of it. The man has no saddle and he holds his long legs straight
+forward to prevent his feet from touching the ground, and from time to
+time he guides or goads the donkey with a little sharp-pointed stick.
+Close behind him, walking fast to keep up, is a tall woman in black with
+a black shawl covering her mouth, her dress is a mass of grey dust as
+far as the waist, and drags up the dust in clouds as she moves. On her
+head is a large bundle and on her hip a large baby. She is the wife of
+the lordly individual riding so comfortably ahead, and she takes this
+state of affairs as a matter of course. The scene arouses anger in the
+breast of a nice American with a grey moustache and keen grey eyes, who
+shares our compartment.
+
+[Illustration: "MAN AND WIFE."]
+
+"So long as they treat their womenfolk like that they'll never rise to
+anything better," he says emphatically. "The higher the civilisation of
+a nation is the higher the position of its women. A nation of men who
+ride and let the women carry the burdens is bound to be rotten and
+flabby."
+
+Next there passes across our window-frame a flock of goats, but they are
+not much like those we know--they are dark brown and black, with thick
+rough coats and cheeky tufted tails; numbers of kids dance up and down
+the steep sides of the tow-path after the manner of kids all the world
+over. A small boy, dressed in what appears to be a striped flannel
+night-shirt, with a tiny skull-cap on his head, is driving them. He
+pulls his single garment up to his waist as he dances and pirouettes as
+if the joy of living were almost too much for him. He is enveloped in a
+cloud of dust raised by the goats, but he snatches handfuls of the dust
+from the ground and flings it in the air around as if he could never get
+enough of it!
+
+"The Lady of Shalott," in Tennyson's poem, who watched in her mirror all
+who went down to Camelot, cannot ever have seen anything half so
+interesting as this.
+
+Presently we meet a long string of fine-looking camels, one of them pure
+white; they are fastened by a connecting rope and so covered with loads
+of bristling twigs that each looks like a walking bush, out of which the
+great padded feet are planted with deliberate steps and the haughty
+heads swaying at the ends of the long necks stick out. It is the scrub
+of the cotton bush that they are carrying; you will see fields of it
+presently, some of it bursting into fluffy pods, for cotton growing is
+one of the most extensive and profitable of Egyptian industries. The
+twigs and branches are used as fuel by the people, who have a happy
+knack of letting nothing be wasted.
+
+"I never!" exclaims the American. "If that isn't like them!" We are
+overtaking a second string of camels, precisely similar to the first,
+and similarly laden, stepping gingerly and protestingly in the opposite
+direction from the first, having just passed them. "Why couldn't they
+arrange things better?" demands the American. "If one lot is going this
+way and the other that, an exchange would have saved time and labour."
+
+In America labour is costly and all sorts of inventions for saving time
+have been invented; in this eastern land time is of no value at all, and
+a man working all day in the fields is content to earn a shilling.
+Perhaps the contrast with their own country is the reason of the
+fascination Egypt has for Americans!
+
+What are those strange-looking beasts mincing along like gigantic
+peacocks? As we draw nearer we see that they are camels too, each
+bearing a load of sword-bladed leaves, which hang down over their
+hindquarters exactly like the folded fan-tail of a peacock. Upon my
+word I never noticed it before, but a camel walks just like a peacock,
+with the same hesitating "Don't-care-a-hang-for-you" stride. The bundles
+so arranged hide the animals' hind legs and bring out the resemblance.
+
+But what is it they are carrying? Not maize stalks this time, nor bushy
+cotton twigs, for these stalks are a dull crimson at the upper end. It
+is sugar-cane, which grows in quantities here, and forms a more
+profitable crop than maize. You will see it sold at the stations; the
+people buy it, and, breaking off a joint, eat it with pleasure.
+
+We cannot tear ourselves away from this fascinating window even for a
+moment; far in the distance across the green fields and waving palm
+trees we see glimpses of the desert, looking pinkish-yellow, and rising
+up in it, changing with every mile we travel, are many pyramids, not
+only those famous ones at Gizeh we visited yesterday, but others
+stretching farther and farther away. You will notice that the favourite
+colour for the dress of the peasants, or fellaheen, as they are called,
+is a glorious blue, but that all the women are in black--most unsuitable
+of hues, as they live and move and have their being amid drab-coloured
+dust; khaki would be much better.
+
+As our breakfast, though better than that in France, was nothing so very
+wonderful, we begin to feel hungry, and are ready to go along early to
+the luncheon-car; we had a good dinner in that one on the train coming
+up from Port Said to Cairo, and anticipate something of the same kind.
+As we get up the American remarks casually, "Best pull in your belts and
+have a smoke--there isn't any."
+
+No luncheon-car! No means of getting any kind of refreshment on the
+train! And we, having started at eight, are in for a journey of fourteen
+hours! Lively this! It is one of the little incidental discomforts of
+travel! The American is in the same plight himself. But he found out
+soon after we started that there was no restaurant-car; it only runs
+three times a week, for the season hasn't begun yet!
+
+We call the Egyptian attendant to find out if there is any prospect of
+buying anything on the way. He stands grinning very affably but doesn't
+understand a word of English. Presently, however, he seems to
+understand, and dashes off, to return triumphantly with a feather-brush
+in his hand with which he violently flops the seats of the carriages and
+all our personal belongings until we are choked and smothered with the
+dust.
+
+In English fashion we have kept the windows open, not realising that in
+this country it is impossible, and that slowly we have been silted up
+with a layer of fine soft dust; but we didn't feel the inconvenience of
+it much until this idiot stirred it up and made it unendurable.
+
+Having accomplished this great feat he stands still, grinning and
+holding out a broad palm. Officials on the trains are probably forbidden
+to utter the wicked word "Bakshish," meaning tips, but they can ask
+quite as well without it.
+
+Having got rid of him, we turn in despair to the station at which we
+have just pulled up. There is a fine mingled crowd on the platform.
+Lying in the sun, awaiting their master's pleasure, are two beautifully
+kept white donkeys, with their hides clipped in neat patterns, very
+superior creatures indeed to what we know as donkeys, more like mules in
+size. A group of children, fascinated by our strange faces, draw nearer
+and gaze their fill unwinkingly; one poor little mite of about four has
+a mass of flies crawling all over its face, especially about the eyes.
+It never attempts to brush them off, for long habit has made it callous.
+Formerly very many children were so afflicted, and the crawling flies,
+carrying disease, made them blind; but since the British took the matter
+in hand the evil is much less. Yet so indifferent are the mothers, that
+in many cases even when lotion is supplied free for the children's faces
+they will not trouble to use it!
+
+There is nothing eatable being sold in the station except fruit, but
+there seems plenty of that, and by the time the train starts again we
+find ourselves with a fine assortment in rich colours of purple and
+orange and scarlet. First there is a packet of dates which looks all
+right on the top, but turning them out we find the purple side of one
+had been placed carefully uppermost, and the rest are all hard, green,
+and unripe, not in the least like the sweet juicy dates we are
+accustomed to. The attendant, who is watching, scoops them up and
+devours them as if he hadn't been fed for a month. Then comes a bit of
+sugar-cane, stringy and sickly, which makes us feel as if we had bitten
+into a piece of sweet wood when we try it. That great purple pomegranate
+is, like all pomegranates, unsatisfactory and full of seeds, and though
+the little green limes are refreshing for the moment while we suck the
+juice, after a while our lips begin to smart as if they were raw, and we
+both keep on furtively wiping them. It is a tantalising feast, and the
+American smiles serenely as he smokes in his corner and refuses to have
+anything to do with it. The only thing we do get out of it are some
+really good green figs, which cannot, however, be eaten without
+shameless messiness, as they are so difficult to peel.
+
+When the afternoon sun grows scorchingly hot the grinning attendant
+proves himself for once useful, by showing us that we can pull up
+sun-shutters with wooden slats outside the glass ones. He has indeed
+been anxious to pull them up all round the compartment ever since we
+started, and nothing but physical force has restrained him, for he
+cannot conceive how anyone could want to look out. Even now we keep down
+those on the sunless side, which grieves him deeply.
+
+So all the afternoon we watch the glorious scenes changing in sunlight;
+we see the sailing boats, with their tapering white wings, laden with
+cargoes of straw, drifting up the canal, driven by the strong north
+wind; we pass innumerable villages, and some larger towns, where
+market-day has attracted vast crowds.
+
+The small villages are indeed wonderful, and the first one excited us
+all three so much that we had to hurry to the window. Imagine a colony
+of last year's swallows' nests under the eaves, or a collection of
+ruined pigsties and sheds, only they are not ruins at all, but living,
+thriving villages with healthy people in them. The houses are all made
+of mud; a few are fashioned out of mud bricks, but many are merely of
+mud stuck and moulded together as a child would form a mud house with
+his hands. The doors and the holes for windows are crooked and lop-sided
+as they would be in a childish attempt. The roof is covered over with an
+untidy thatch of straw, thrown on anyhow, with piles of cotton scrub on
+the top of it. This scrub is for firing, and it is kept up there in the
+Egyptian's only storehouse; it is backed up by cakes of dried buffalo
+dung used for the same purpose. As it never rains the fuel is quite safe
+from damp.
+
+Every man builds his own house as it pleases him, without regard to the
+style or position of his neighbour's, consequently the streets are
+narrow crooked passages of uneven levels; there is not a green thing in
+them, and the people live in dust and eat it and wallow in it. Here and
+there you can see a tray of flat cakes pushed out into the midst of the
+dust to bake in the sun and form a playground for the flies and the
+microbes, for the Egyptian has no respect for microbes, he is
+germ-proof; for generations he and his forefathers have drunk the Nile
+water, unfiltered and carried in goat-skins not too well cured. Yet the
+people are happy and the children apparently a gay set of youngsters.
+Little Gassim or Achmed, in the single unchanged and unwashed garment
+that covers their little brown bodies, dance and roll and sing and drive
+the loathly black buffaloes to the water and eat scraps of sugar-cane,
+and are as happy as the day is long. They work hard, it is true, from
+the time they can toddle, but so does everyone else, and all the animals
+do their share of toil, day in and day out. "I can't understand why they
+don't find a way of harnessing the turkeys," says the American
+sarcastically as we pass a lordly camel, stepping, with protest in every
+movement, alongside a sturdy bullock who helps to drag a primitive
+plough. The plough merely scratches the surface of the ground, but that
+is enough, for the Egyptian will never go deeper than he need.
+
+[Illustration: A WATER-CARRIER.]
+
+We are getting very hungry indeed! Six hours more! How are we going to
+stand it?
+
+Hurrah! A bit of luck! The American has been along the corridor and come
+across some friends who are getting out at the next station. They have
+presented him with the remains of a lunch-basket supplied by their
+hotel, and he is generously willing to share it with us. Never was
+prize-packet opened with greater eagerness; suppose it should only
+contain enough for one?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Amid the white wrappings of the open pannier we find slices of tongue,
+rolls of bread, chicken legs, hard-boiled eggs, and a bottle of
+soda-water!
+
+Never did food taste better! We sit gnawing the chicken bones and
+blessing the American!
+
+Meantime the sun falls and a splendour you never yet have imagined fills
+the air. Streaks of flaming colour shoot athwart the sky, bursting up
+behind the tufted palms; the eastern sky catches the reflection and
+shows softest blues and pinkest pinks in contrast. A veil of amber light
+hangs like a curtain overhead and changes to orange and again to apricot
+as the afterglow sweeps the sky before darkness falls like the curtain
+on a scene at the theatre.
+
+[Illustration: COLUMNS IN THE TEMPLE AT LUXOR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A MIGHTY MAN
+
+
+Our beds face the windows, which open like high glass doors, French
+fashion; before retiring we set them wide, and close outside the long
+shutters made of slats of wood. In the morning we are awakened suddenly,
+almost at the same instant, by a red flame glowing between the slats as
+fire glows between the bars of a grate. Springing from our curtains we
+fling open the shutters, expecting to see a great conflagration, and
+behold, it is the sunrise!
+
+The sun does not greet us in such boisterous fashion in England! Here it
+fills the sky with a blood-red radiance and lights up the palm groves
+in the garden below, where a mighty congregation of small birds are
+shrieking out their joy to greet the god of morning. There is an
+intensity in it all, in the flaming sky, and in the thrill of the birds'
+clarion that sends exhilaration into our veins and makes us feel it is
+good to be alive!
+
+It is not long before we are out and around the garden--and what a
+garden! Strange coffee-coloured men in blue garments like smock frocks,
+with baggy blue trousers caught tightly round their ankles, appear and
+disappear noiselessly, their bare brown feet making no sound on the
+sanded paths. There is something unreal about it all, something that
+makes one think of the _Arabian Nights_ and an enchanted garden. The
+hotel is called "The Winter Palace," and in England we should associate
+such a name with a vast artificially warmed glasshouse filled with
+broad-leaved plants of dark green; here, right overhead, is a tall bush
+covered with masses of sulphur-coloured flowers, shaped like tiny
+trumpets, hanging in festoons against a sky of glorious blue. Through
+plumed palms we catch glimpses of the spreading fingers of a deep red
+poinsettia; there is a pink frilled flower shooting toward the sky, so
+decorative that it looks exactly like those made of crinkled paper for
+decorations; this is the well-known oleander. The grass is so vividly
+green that it seems as if the greenness sprang away from the blades; as
+we draw near to it we see that it is not all matted together and
+interwoven, as is our grass, but is composed of separate blades, each
+one apart and upright, all together standing like a regiment of
+soldiers. It has to be sown every year freshly, for no roots can survive
+the long drought. Close by is a lawn of bare earth, and a boy of about
+your age, with a thin pathetic brown face, runs round and round it,
+shouting and waving a flapper to keep off the birds from the newly sown
+seed.
+
+We are just going to plunge into a grove of trees--some acacias with
+leaves like delicate ferns, and others eucalyptus with long narrow
+leaves looking like frosted silver--when we find they are growing in a
+swamp, with the earth banked up all round to keep the water in!
+
+Other flowers, familiar to us in England, such as roses, look rather
+pale and washed-out here in contrast with the flaming beauty of richest
+mauve and brightest orange worn by those which are at home in a hot
+country. As the sun gets strong we hear the drone of a swarm of great
+creatures like prodigious wasps with legs like stilts, which fly around
+the sweet-scented blooms. In ancient inscriptions this wasp, or hornet,
+was used as the sign of Northern or Lower Egypt. Across the flower-beds
+run miniature canals of stone, by means of which the water from the
+life-giving river is carried all over the ground, so that it can be
+easily watered; a very large part of the time of the blue-bloused
+gardeners is spent in watering. A garden which was watered from the sky
+would be a miracle to them.
+
+We come back again to the hotel and pass through to the other or front
+entrance, where we catch sight of the majestic Nile, which we could not
+see in the darkness of our arrival last night. Standing on a high
+terrace, bounded by a parapet covered with riotous masses of magenta
+bougainvillea, we see the turquoise-blue river, flecked with boats
+carrying high, white, three-cornered sails; on the other side rise calm
+hills of orange-yellow. We shall visit those hills, for in them are
+buried some of the mightiest kings of Egypt, and the wild fastnesses
+form a truly royal burial-place, grander than any ordinary mausoleum or
+cemetery could ever be. On both sides of the river at one time stood the
+royal city of Thebes, one of the best known of all the capitals of Egypt
+which sprang up from time to time in its agelong history.
+
+If ever you "do" the ix. book of the _Iliad_ in your schoolwork, you
+will find that Homer speaks of Thebes as having one hundred gates and
+possessing twenty thousand war-chariots! It extended for about nine
+miles along the river-bank.
+
+After breakfast our first plunge into sight-seeing is a visit to the
+temple of Luxor, which faces the river just five minutes' walk along the
+street from the hotel. This is the very first Egyptian temple we have
+examined and it is astonishing how much we can learn from it. That
+mighty row of columns, larger and higher than any cathedral pillars you
+have ever seen, makes us feel like midgets. Standing close together the
+columns spring right into the clear sky, as there is no roof left. Not
+so very long ago they were covered up to the capitals in sand and
+d�bris. The poorer Egyptians had built their mud huts in and around them
+for generations, and when one hut crumbled away another was put up on
+the top of it, and thus the level of the accumulated earth grew higher
+and higher. Then some learned Frenchmen saw the wonder of the buried
+temple and bought the people out, persuading them to go elsewhere, and
+they gradually cleared away the rubbish until the original beauty of the
+temple was visible again. Even now, high up on all sides, you can see
+the depth of the earth surrounding it like cliffs, and on the top are
+squalid huts with dirty children and fluffy impudent goats and
+shrill-voiced, black-clad women, living their daily lives and looking
+down into the temple.
+
+The ancient Egyptian writing was by signs--a bird meant one thing, a
+flower another, and a serpent another, and so on, but for a long time
+the meaning of it had been forgotten, and it was impossible for anyone
+to read these wonderful signs. But at the very end of the eighteenth
+century a great stone was found which had upon it an inscription written
+in Greek and in hieroglyphics, as the sign-writing was called, and also
+in another writing which used to be employed by the priests, and from
+this, before many years had passed, clever men were able to understand
+the language of signs and read the inscriptions on the temples, which
+told who had built them and much else. This stone was called the Rosetta
+Stone, after the place where it was found. It is now in the British
+Museum.
+
+This was long before Luxor was unearthed, and the inscriptions were
+deciphered as they came to light; by their help it was found that the
+temple had been built chiefly by two kings, Amenhetep III. and Rameses
+II. who came after him, though not immediately. Rameses added to the
+existing work and carried it on. So far as we know all this was between
+three and four thousand years ago. In a village in England people are
+proud if they can point to any part of their parish church and say,
+"This is Norman work," and yet the Normans only came over to England
+less than nine hundred years ago! Go back more than three times that,
+and try to realise the age of this temple. And even this, as we know, is
+not old compared with the Pyramids! Doesn't it make us feel that, as a
+nation, we are rather young after all?
+
+Long before we were a nation these mighty kings flourished in Egypt and
+lived in pomp and splendour. They each had a different name, of course,
+and more than one, but yet they were all Pharaohs, just as at one time
+in the Roman Empire each emperor was a C�sar.
+
+The Pharaohs had unlimited power in their own dominions, and forced
+their subjects to work for them as they pleased without giving them any
+payment. By some means we can't understand these mighty blocks of
+sandstone composing this temple and many others were brought from a
+place farther up the river. It is supposed that they were put on great
+rafts and floated down at flood-time, but the handling of them is still
+a mystery. The men who dealt with them had no steel tools, no driving
+force of steam or electricity at their backs, yet they reared buildings
+which we to-day, with all our appliances, think masterpieces.
+
+Rameses II. was called the Great; he reigned for over sixty years, and
+he has a peculiar interest for us because he is believed to have been
+the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites, while his son and successor,
+Menepthah, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
+
+Walk up the great aisle of giant columns into the courtyard at the end,
+there, between the pillars, stand massive images of granite, most of
+them headless, but one perfect except for the ends of the fingers and
+toes.
+
+[Illustration: STATUE OF RAMESES II. AT LUXOR.]
+
+Sit down on this fallen block and look at that marvellous image; it is
+the mighty Rameses himself! There is a repressed energy and indomitable
+purpose about him that tells in every line of a man who never let go and
+never allowed himself to be thwarted. His almond-shaped eyes and full
+lips, the proud tilt of his head, are not merely conventional, they are
+an actual likeness of the man taken from life. He is every inch a king.
+His successor, who was his thirteenth son, was probably of the same
+type, and one can well imagine his scornful indignation at being asked
+to yield up that nation of slaves, the Israelites, whom he treated as we
+would not treat animals nowadays. The miracle is that Moses was not
+instantly slain for his boldness in proposing it; he was, of course,
+screened by his relationship to Pharaoh's daughter, but that would have
+counted little had he not been protected by a power far above that of
+the king of Egypt.
+
+Close down under the knee of the standing Rameses is the figure of a
+plump woman, his favourite wife, Nefertari. The Egyptians had the rather
+childish idea that size meant importance, and to them now, as well as
+then, women seemed of much less importance than men, so the wife was
+represented as being about as high as her husband's knee. In spite of
+this, however, women of royal blood were treated with great deference,
+and royal ladies enjoyed a freedom like that of western women to-day.
+They gave their opinions and transacted business and were seen in
+public. Many a king only sat securely on his throne because his wife had
+a better title to it than he had. This did not, however, prevent them
+from making women very often quite diminutive in size in their statues,
+though in some cases the king and queen are the same size and are shown
+seated side by side.
+
+It is very quiet and beautiful here in the temple this Sunday morning;
+the natives themselves are not allowed to come in, and visitors only on
+production of a ticket costing twenty-four shillings, which admits to
+all the temples of Egypt; and, as it happens, there is no one but
+ourselves. The sparrows twitter overhead in the holes and crannies of
+the pillars, and the great grey and black crows wheel silently against
+the blue sky, throwing moving shadows on the honey-coloured columns.
+
+If we walk round the back of these solemn statues we shall see that
+there is a quantity of deeply cut hieroglyphic writing on a great plaque
+at the back of each. The name of the king himself is always written
+enclosed in an oblong space called a cartouche; sometimes this cartouche
+is supported by two cobras, who are supposed to defend it. The rest of
+the writing tells of the deeds of the king and all the mighty feats that
+he performed.
+
+Turning to the walls we find them covered with pictures, not coloured
+but done in outline by means of deep-cut clean lines. We see the king
+offering fruit to weird-looking beings with men's bodies and animals'
+heads--these were the Egyptian gods; there were numbers of them, far too
+many to remember, but here are a few: Anubis, the jackal-headed; Thoth,
+the stork-headed; Sekhet, a goddess with a lion's head (some say a
+cat's). Besides these there were others of great importance: Osiris, the
+god of the dead, and Isis, his wife--these were the father and mother of
+Horus, the hawk-headed god. But it was to the glory of Amen-ra, the king
+or chief of all the gods, who can be recognised in the pictures by two
+tall feathers like quills standing straight up on his head, that that
+particular temple was built.
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN KING.]
+
+On one of the walls we see a long row of men, all exactly similar, one
+behind the other--these are some of the numerous sons of Rameses making
+offerings. You soon notice that in spite of the vigorous and excellent
+outlines of these pictures there is something funny and stiff about
+them. That is because the Egyptians had an odd custom of drawing a
+person sideways, with his two feet in a straight line, one behind the
+other. No one stands like that in real life, and if you try it you will
+find how difficult it is not to fall over! Also, though the people they
+drew were invariably shown from the side, yet the artists used to make
+them look as if they were squared round in the upper part to show the
+chest and both shoulders, so that Egyptians in pictures always look
+oddly wedge-shaped, being very broad at the top and narrow below. The
+eye was also put into the profile face as if it were seen from the
+front! Look at any typical Egyptian picture and you will soon pick out
+these peculiarities. It seems rather a pity they kept so rigidly to
+these silly notions, as they really drew extremely well; but no artist
+was original enough to dare to break away from the established custom!
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN.]
+
+Inside the temple walls all these scenes have something to do with the
+gods and the offerings made to them by the king, but come outside and on
+one of the finest bits of wall still standing you will see a most
+spirited battle-scene. Look at the king in his chariot with the plunging
+horses! He is drawing his bow and pursuing his enemies, who are dead and
+dying under his wheels, and fleeing before him. To show how much more
+important he was than the enemies he had himself made very large and the
+enemies shown very small. That is not quite our idea of honour and glory
+nowadays; we should think it more glorious to overcome enemies larger
+and stronger than ourselves! This afternoon we are going to visit a
+still larger and more wonderful temple, a mile or two away, called
+Karnak, and there you will see pictures of the king of that time holding
+the hair of his enemies' heads in the powerful grasp of his left hand
+while he prepares to strike off all their heads at one sweep with his
+sword.
+
+The original entrance of Luxor temple does not face the river on the
+side we came in; to find it we have to scramble over heaps of rubbish to
+one end and there we see a great obelisk, a companion to the one which
+is now in the principal square of Paris, the Place de la Concorde, and
+we see also two huge buildings reared up on each side of the ancient
+entrance--these were called pylons and were always built in Egyptian
+temples. On festival days they were decorated with flags on tall staves
+and made very gay.
+
+Then we go out again into the main street amid all the life of the
+place, and see men cantering past on gaily caparisoned donkeys; we note
+dancing, capering, gleeful children, guides in gorgeous gowns, shopmen
+of some mixed nationality from the Mediterranean, who run out of their
+shops and entreat you to come in. "Only look round, no paying, not
+wanting you buy," they lie. "Look and be pleased; there is no charge
+just only to look."
+
+We stop at last and buy two fly-whisks with short bamboo handles and
+long silvery horsehair tails; of course they do look very smart, but we
+do not buy them just for that, but because they are useful.
+
+As we have found already, nothing less than physical force suffices to
+remove an Egyptian fly, who sticketh closer than his English brother. No
+shake or puff will induce him to stir an eyelid, and yet he is quick on
+the wing and you rarely get him, sleepy as he appears! He doesn't buzz,
+and there generally appears to be only one of him, but if, by the aid of
+a fly-whisk, you get rid of him, another takes his place immediately!
+
+[Illustration: THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CITY OF KINGS
+
+
+I think this is the gayest scene I have ever looked upon in my life. See
+those mahogany-coloured boatmen in their brilliant scarlet and white
+striped jerseys and blue petticoats, grinning so as to show all their
+milk-white teeth. The boats are apple-green and scarlet, and they are
+reflected in the clear still water, and the dragoman, who marshals all
+the party into them, is a very splendid person indeed, in a long
+overcoat of turquoise blue cloth as soft and fine as a glove, with a
+striped gown of yellow Egyptian silk underneath.
+
+We are off with a party of Cook's tourists to explore the Tombs of the
+Kings on the other side of the river It is a pretty stiff day's work, so
+we are up early, and it is only half-past eight now. As we near the
+other side of the river we see an excited group of donkey-boys who have
+brought their animals over earlier, and now stand expectant, looking
+like a fringe of blue beads.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAT LADY ON HER DONKEY.]
+
+"Lily best donkey--Lily name for Americans, Merry Widow for
+Engleesh----"
+
+"Come, lady, with me, Sammy best donkey in Egypt, verry good, Sammy my
+donkey, best donkey----"
+
+"Kitchener, lady, best donkey in Egypt, me speak verry good Engleesh,
+alla way gallop."
+
+And so on in a continuous yell. The dragoman shouts out the numbers of
+the donkeys, and helps the ladies of the party to mount. Some ride on
+side-saddles, others, unused to any form of riding, prefer to get up
+astride, which they find difficult in the tight modern skirts. One
+German girl, after a frantic attempt, has to give it up, and sits
+wobbling on her saddle with her arms round the donkey-boy's neck,
+agonisingly appealing to him not to move! A very stout lady in black is
+lifted on to her mount by the united efforts of the dragoman and two
+donkey-boys, and, held in position by the boys, moves off, threatening a
+convulsive landslide to one side or the other at every step.
+
+We are lucky in securing two fine greyish-white animals, almost as large
+as mules and very well fed and kept; yours is named "Sirdar" and has a
+single blue bead slung on a string round his neck as a charm, while
+mine, "Tommy Raffles," has a rattling chain of yellow and blue beads and
+much scarlet wool in his harness. You won't have much difficulty, I
+know, as you have been used to a pony since you could walk.
+
+At first the soft powdery sand makes the going stiff, and we have much
+difficulty in restraining our boys, who run behind, from smacking or
+prodding the donkeys as they plough through. These boys are very proud
+and fond of their donkeys and treat them well, but it is the ambition of
+every donkey-boy to see his donkey head the cavalcade, and he is ready
+to die of envy and mortification if any other boy's donkey gets in front
+of him. We pass through clouds of dusty earth and then turn on to uneven
+narrow ways between tall green stalks of growing dhurra, stuff which
+looks like maize, except that it has a heavy head of grain which is
+ground up for making rough bread for the poorest people.
+
+Along by a canal, over a bridge and a railway line we gallop, our
+animals going well. Their trot is impossible, as we soon find, but the
+easy loping canter delightful. We pass many black-clad women working in
+the fields, with crowds of bright-eyed friendly children who murmur
+"'Shish" in the vain hope that we may throw them some money. Then we see
+herds of black goats in among the cut stalks, and a tethered baby camel,
+who looks at us with innocent wondering eyes.
+
+Far off rise up from the plain two mighty seated statues, the Colossi,
+set up by Amenhetep III. as part of a temple now vanished. Presently we
+all stop to see another temple, interesting enough, but not so
+interesting as those already visited at Luxor and Karnak.
+
+The dragoman, whose work is not easy, brings up the rear of the
+cavalcade, having managed to keep even behind the fat lady, who has
+stuck to the slippery surface of her saddle with many a desperate plunge
+firmly resisted by her escort.
+
+[Illustration: BOATMAN.]
+
+The dragoman describes the temple fluently and intelligently, first in
+English, then in French, and adds a little explanation in German for the
+benefit of two men of that race who have talked loudly in their own
+guttural tongue all the time he has endeavoured to make the rest of the
+party hear. The dragoman does not reel his words off as if he were
+repeating a lesson, as, alas, so many of the guides at our own
+cathedrals do. He is a clever man, well educated and capable. It has
+taken him years to learn all he knows, and it is only the clever boys
+who can become good dragomans. One of our donkey-boys, a bright little
+fellow who speaks far better English than most of his companions, tells
+us, "I am going to be a dragoman." He says it deliberately, with a pause
+between each word to get them correctly. "Thus I speak always with the
+English and the Americans. To the English I speak English, which is
+what I have learned, but when I am with Americans I can talk to them in
+their own tongue too."
+
+Laughing, we mount and are off again.
+
+We are now penetrating into the great hills of sandstone we saw afar off
+from the hotel. The road winds into a gorge, and at each turn displays
+more vivid beauty. We feel a strange joy rising within us, so that we
+would like to sing or shout at the tops of our voices. The brilliance of
+the air shows up every line in the great precipices of orange-yellow,
+streaked with red and purple, which rise against a sky of thrilling
+blue. There is not a blade of grass or a leaf to be seen in these vast
+solitudes, only the massive stones, broken and split and scattered, lie
+in the fierce sun or black shadow. We can imagine these defiles looking
+much the same when three or four thousand years ago the funeral
+procession of one of the mighty Pharaohs wound its way into the heart of
+the mountains, carrying the man who had never known opposition or denied
+himself his slightest wish. They were very magnificent these
+processions, composed of hundreds of people who carried all sorts of
+things--furniture, chariots, boats, animals, fruit and flowers--with
+tremendous ceremony.
+
+It is a longish ride before we alight again, and leaving the donkeys
+under a slight straw shelter penetrate into the fastnesses of the hills.
+
+How many of these rock-tombs were made here will probably never be
+known, but year by year more are uncovered. The first we step into is
+like a large well-lighted cave cut out of a cliff-side, from it opens
+another cave-like room, and from that another, each sloping downward and
+the whole series giving the impression of a series of puzzle-boxes
+fitting into one another and then drawn out. The walls are covered with
+pictures, paintings on plaster, not outline pictures like those we saw
+in the temples, but filled in with blue and green, orange and
+terra-cotta, laid on thickly, and as fresh as the day they were done.
+Ever descending we pass on until we reach the last chamber, where the
+great sarcophagus or coffin of the king was placed right up against the
+face of the rock. The sarcophagus might be a mighty block of granite,
+enclosing a wooden case, and that again another case, probably carved
+and gilt, and finally, as a kernel, there was the body of the king,
+preserved and dried by spices, lying awaiting the final resurrection.
+The Egyptians believed in a future world, but they could not imagine a
+future world without there being human bodies in it such as we have now,
+so they took infinite trouble in preserving the dead body that it might
+be ready for its time of call. Most of the sarcophagi from these tombs
+have been removed and taken to the museum at Cairo, but in one to which
+we penetrate, hewn out at a slope so steep that we have difficulty in
+keeping our feet as we slither down, the mummy has been replaced and is
+left uncovered.
+
+Lit up by electric light we see King Amenhetep II., with his skin
+blackened to a parchment, drawn tightly over his chiselled aristocratic
+features. In the dome-shaped forehead, the Roman nose, and the tightly
+compressed lips there is an expression of infinite disdain, as if he, in
+his time the mightiest ruler in the world and the leader of
+civilisation, knew that now he was exposed to the gaze of a party of
+outer barbarians whose national histories were but of mushroom growth.
+This king struck terror into the hearts of his enemies; he raided the
+land of Syria, slew seven chiefs with his own hand and brought them back
+to Thebes, hanging head downward from the bows of his boat!
+
+The very day after a king ascended the throne he used to begin hewing
+out the sepulchre where he should lie. The scenes drawn on the walls
+show what he expected to find in the other world. We see a pair of
+scales with the heart of the dead man in one balance and a feather in
+the other; a monkey sits on the top and adjusts the weight. The heart
+must weigh the feather exactly, for to be over-righteous was as bad as
+being wicked! The dead man also had to pass before forty-two judges, who
+each examined him searchingly as to whether he had committed one
+particular sin. As one of the party remarked in an awe-struck voice,
+"And if he did pass them all safely and another started up and asked him
+if he ever told a lie he'd be done, for no man could deny that he had
+committed any of the forty-two principal sins and remain truthful!"
+
+To accompany the soul to the other world many things used to be buried
+in the tombs, clothes and food and utensils and weapons, and, thanks to
+this custom, numberless things have been saved to show us how the
+ancient Egyptians lived. These, however, have mostly been taken to Cairo
+for safe keeping. But here in Amenhetep's tomb one thing has been left.
+In a small side chamber, with the light falling full upon them, are
+three mummies, each with a hole in the skull and a gash on the breast,
+showing that they were the king's slaves, killed in order that their
+souls might accompany him and serve him beyond the tomb!
+
+They lie there with their hair still on their heads, and even the false
+hair, they used to increase it, showing; on their faces is a ghastly
+grin. We wonder if they submitted quietly, proud of having been chosen,
+or if each fought fiercely for the life which belonged to him and was
+not any man's to take away.
+
+It is very hot and close down in the rock-hewn chamber, and we are glad
+enough to stumble up and out again, though we are blinded by the
+sunshine as we emerge.
+
+The next part of the day is the hardest of all, for we scramble up a
+mountain-side to gain a splendid view of gorges and valleys on one side
+and the flat plain spreading to the Nile on the other. The view is
+indescribable; from lemon-yellow to orange and saffron are the hills,
+with blue-grey shadows in their folds. Right opposite is one absolutely
+perpendicular, with immense rounded columns looking like giant organ
+pipes rising on its face. A fresh wind is blowing, and when we mount our
+donkeys, which have come round to meet us another way, and ride along a
+path a few feet wide, with no fence of any kind and a drop of some
+hundreds of feet on one side, we are devoutly thankful that the German
+girl and the stout lady went round the other and longer way by the
+valley!
+
+Over the summit the donkeys are set free to get down the steep descent
+as best they may, and they are as sure-footed as goats, but we who
+follow find considerable difficulty as the loose stone and sand fall
+away in miniature avalanches from beneath our slipping feet and we get
+very hot. We are sheltered here from that fresh wind which is such a joy
+in Egypt, the sun is at its height, and we have done a good morning's
+work already after an early start. There, far below, looking like a
+doll's house, is the rest-house where we lunch, and beside it two of the
+men of the Mounted Police Camel Corps in khaki on their long-legged
+beasts.
+
+Whew! That last bit was tough! I am glad to get a long drink and equally
+glad to go on after it to an excellent cold lunch which has been brought
+to meet us. Hard-boiled eggs, salad, cold meat and fruit! We try them
+all and then rest on the verandah looking at the towering orange cliffs
+which hem us in. They seem to hang right over that little temple near,
+to which we shall presently pay a visit. That is the temple of Der El
+Bahari and was built by Hatshepset, the greatest of Egyptian queens.
+Hatshepset was the daughter of one king and the wife of another, and
+after her husband's death she ruled for about sixteen years. She made
+expeditions to the Red Sea and acted in every way like a man. In the
+drawings of her on the temple wall she is represented as a man and is
+dressed in man's clothes. When her son-in-law, Thothmes III., who had
+married her daughter, succeeded her, he scratched out her name wherever
+he found it and chiselled out the pictures of her. He had evidently had
+a bad time while she lived, but he must have been a small-minded and
+spiteful man to take that petty revenge after her death!
+
+[Illustration: A SOLEMN GIRL-CHILD.]
+
+On the way home across the dhurra fields I see you stop riding suddenly
+and stare intently down at something on the ground. I think at first it
+is a scorpion you have found on the patch of light-coloured sand, but it
+is only an immense black beetle, with a strong horny skin and a horn or
+trumpet-shaped excrescence on the front part of its head. He belongs to
+the scarab�us, or dung-beetles, and big fellows they are; this one would
+just about cover the palm of your hand. The Egyptians called one of
+their gods Khepera, or the beetle, and believed him to be the creator of
+all things, so they used to make images of these beetles and put them in
+their temples; you saw a huge one, you remember, on a pedestal at
+Karnak, and any time you are in London you can see them at the British
+Museum. There were also tiny images of them made in stone and amethyst
+and porcelain, and almost anything else, and these were frequently
+buried in the tombs with the mummies. Sometimes they had the name of the
+person with whom they were buried inscribed on the back in hieroglyphic
+writing, or the name of a god. These scarabs, as they are called, are
+bought and worn in rings and ornaments by visitors. The natives quickly
+found out that there was a demand for them, and as they could not always
+find old genuine ones they set to work to make them! Hundreds of new
+ones are palmed off as old in this way on unsuspecting tourists.
+
+"Scarab!"
+
+A solemn girl-child clad in a rust-coloured garment has come up on
+seeing our donkeys halt and holds out a brilliant blue scarab for sale
+in a hot little hand. She nods violently, repeating, "Scarab! Verry
+old." "Found in tombs," says our donkey-boy gravely, willing to help her
+to take us in. He picks it up and pretends to examine it carefully,
+"Genuine anteekar," he pronounces. Laughing, we hand the "genuine
+antique" back to its owner, knowing that it is probably "genuine
+Birmingham," and then we canter after the rest of the party.
+
+[Illustration: A NILE STEAMER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ON THE NILE
+
+
+In my ears is the sound as of the tuning up of a thousand fiddles! I
+hear the agonising scrape of strings, the squeal of the bows! I have
+heard it all before at many a concert, but this time it is intensified a
+thousandfold and penetrates even into my dreams. I imagine I am in a
+concert hall and spring up wildly with the intention of getting outside
+until the music begins, but the movement wakes me, and behold I am not
+at a concert in London on a dim Sunday afternoon, but in a brilliantly
+white two-berth cabin with the sun flooding in through the square
+window! Peering out I see we are running smoothly along up-stream close
+in to a high mud bank, and that is where the noise comes from. It is
+caused by the squeaking of one wooden rod against another as hundreds of
+Egyptian fellaheen raise the water from the Nile to moisten their crops.
+
+It is not long before we are both dressed and out to examine the
+curious sight. The banks are about the height of a high room, and at the
+distance of, it may be, fifty yards, all the way along them there are
+deep cuts like miniature denes, or chines, running down to the water. At
+the foot of each of these a brown-skinned man stands with his bare feet
+at the edge of the water, gripping with his toes to save himself from
+slipping in the mud. At this time in the morning he is clothed in a
+quantity of garments, mostly mud-colour, but as the sun grows strong he
+throws them aside and stands forth a fine bronze statue with his skin
+gleaming in the clear light. Just above his head there is a pole
+bridging the cut, or chine, and fastened to the middle of it at right
+angles is another, which swings up and down upon it like a see-saw.
+
+A huge lump of mud like a swollen football is plastered on to the far
+end of this, and at the other end a basket or basin made of skin is
+attached to a string. The mud ball is heavy, and when it is allowed to
+go free it hangs down to the ground; but the brown man constantly
+reaches up and raises it by pulling down the basin, which he dips in the
+Nile water, then lets the heavy end swing it up as high as his head,
+when he tips it up, and the water from it flows into a pool at that
+height. Another man stands on the edge of this pool and he has a similar
+arrangement, by means of which he raises the water out of the pool with
+a basin like the first, and there may be another above him, and another
+again. This primitive arrangement is called a _shaduf_, and by its means
+the water from the Nile is lifted up to the surface of the fields, where
+it runs away in miniature channels to water the roots of the maize. This
+is one of the most extraordinary sights in the world. Think of all the
+mills in which machinery does delicate work like that of the human hand;
+think of the patterns made by the machines, of the newspapers printed
+and folded with very little human guidance, and then leap back to this
+clumsy device used now by the Egyptian as it was used by his ancestors
+thousands of years ago! A few pints of muddy water raised by a weight,
+half of it falling out of the badly constructed basin as it goes, and
+the same drop of water handled again and again by four men till the tiny
+trickle reaches the fields! We watch with amazement. The shrieking and
+squeaking of the _shadufs_ goes on, the brown figures stoop down, rise
+again, and swing with regularity, minute after minute. We steam on round
+the next corner and see more of them and yet more again; how many have
+we not seen already in the short time we have been on deck? Multiply
+that times without number for all the miles we came up by train and
+double it to include both banks! Imagination gives way!
+
+[Illustration: A "SHADUF."]
+
+"I can't bear it," says the nice American who was in the train with us
+and has now joined us in the trip up to Assouan in one of Cook's
+steamers. "It's maddening! Why can't a whole village form a company and
+get some sort of machine to work? It would water all their crops in a
+tenth of the time."
+
+As he speaks there comes into view something just a little better. At
+the top of one of the deep cuts on the bank two bullocks plod slowly
+round and round in a circle as if they were threshing corn; they work a
+wheel, which revolves horizontally and is fitted into another which
+turns vertically, deep down into the hole it reaches, low enough to
+touch the water at the bottom. Earthenware jars are strung all round it
+like beads on a necklet, and as each pot dips into the water it brings
+up its share, and when it reaches the highest point it tips it into a
+little channel, where it runs away. This is called a _saddiyeh_. The
+wheels groan and creak, the patient beasts turn in their dizzy circle,
+and the youngster seated on the wheel prods them with a sharp-pointed
+stick when they slacken. At least the water runs away in a continuous
+stream at the top, however tiny.
+
+Then the steamer takes a sharp turn, leaves the bank, and careers across
+into midstream! We go up on to the top deck and see three dark-skinned
+men, warmly wrapped up in brown coats, sitting in a little glasshouse in
+the bows and watching earnestly the channel ahead.
+
+This is the _reis_, or captain, with his two assistants. They know every
+turn and dip in the river; but the river changes ever, no two days is it
+alike as it falls and washes away a bank or deposits sand so as to make
+an island where none was before. So the three men watch intently and
+steer the boat to this side and that wherever they can find the deepest
+channel. The Nile is low for this time of year and caution is necessary;
+when there is any doubt as to there being enough water, one of the crew
+below handles a long pole, dipping it in to find the bottom and calling
+out the depth as he goes.
+
+There are twenty passengers or so on the boat and they sit about the
+sunny decks watching the panorama of the banks and the wonderful
+changing scenes ahead, hour by hour. Hardly anywhere would you find a
+greater variety of nationalities than on one of these Nile boats, for
+Egypt draws people from all parts of the world with her mystery and
+beauty. The odd people one meets add to the interest, and the strange
+manners, which are not ours, are like flavouring in the dish of travel,
+which, if it were composed only of scenes of perpetual beauty, might be
+a little insipid.
+
+To begin with, I am English and you are Scottish, we have our friend the
+American and four of his compatriots, not by any means so delightful as
+he is. He takes care to steer clear of them, we notice! One of them is a
+little man who might be any age from twenty to fifty; if we examine him
+with field-glasses we shouldn't be able to discover how old he is. His
+yellow skin, drawn tightly over a bony face, gives no sign of age or
+youth. He eats sweets all day out of a box as large as a child's coffin,
+and he is attended by three stout ladies, doubtless "his mother and his
+aunts." They are veiled and swathed in wraps, and seem to spend their
+time gossiping or asleep in the innermost recesses of the cabin. We
+never once catch them admiring the scenery or taking any interest in the
+wonders we pass. Then there is a Swiss, a gentle-mannered bronzed man
+with a brown beard; he speaks only French, and in an unobtrusive way
+seems to have seen a great deal of the world; we discover, for one
+thing, that he has lived out in the desert near Tunis for many years.
+There are three Russians, mother, father, and daughter, who speak
+practically nothing but Russian, with a few words of French; they are
+brave to have started out on such a journey so ill-equipped. Coming
+across a Russian dragoman in Cairo they trusted him joyfully; he bought
+three temple tickets for them at their expense and promised to meet them
+somewhere up the Nile. They seem to expect to find him sitting on every
+sandbank, and their faith is pathetic; they'll never see those tickets
+again, for the man will sell them to the next party of victims. Then
+there is a Belgian, also a couple of lively pleasant French people, and
+two Germans, a sister and brother, who dress in clothes intended to be
+very sporting.
+
+It is an interesting crowd, and it is well kept in hand by the manager,
+who looks like a fair-haired, brown-faced boy of two-and-twenty, but has
+been everywhere and speaks half a dozen languages fluently. In addition
+to this he sketches in water colours, plays the fiddle, and breaks in
+horses! You have to travel to come across people like that! Here he is
+nothing so out of the way--every dragoman is able to talk in three
+languages at least. Doesn't it spur you on to feel how much we have to
+learn and how ignorant we are in our stay-at-home villages?
+
+All the morning we sit about and watch the graceful white-sailed boats
+coming down with cargoes of every kind. Sometimes we see them stranded
+on a hidden sandbank with the crew making frantic efforts to get them
+off again. We see the reaches lying ahead glittering like jewels in the
+sun, and then we land and ride a short way to a temple, under the care
+of the dragoman of the boat. The most moving thing in all that temple is
+a set of scenes of a hippopotamus hunt shown with great spirit; the poor
+little hippo looks more like a pig when he is at the bottom of the water
+with a spear or harpoon sticking in him, but when they haul him up by
+means of a noose round one leg the ancient artist represents him
+becoming bigger and bigger as he comes to the surface!
+
+The walls are, besides, covered with all the usual scenes of the king
+making offerings to the gods, and overriding his enemies, and doing all
+those noble things which kings wanted their posterity to know about
+them.
+
+A high-pitched voice, speaking in a hyper-refined affected tone, breaks
+in on our enjoyment; it belongs to one of the English people from the
+boat, a lady who evidently considers it her mission in life to instruct
+people; information flows from her ten finger-tips, she cannot help it,
+she was born to be a schoolmistress certainly.
+
+"That is the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt," she says, "that the king
+is wearing; sometimes you see him with one and sometimes with the other,
+here he has both together."
+
+As this is about the first thing a dragoman tells anyone in the first
+temple he sees, and as it is repeated at least once at every temple
+afterwards, only an idiot could fail to know it. We murmur something
+politely and turn away. Round a corner we stop to admire the rich colour
+still left in the ceiling, where a heavenly blue, covered with golden
+stars, represents the sky.
+
+"When we were here three years ago," says the lady at our elbows, "they
+had not uncovered those pillars, but we are told--that----"
+
+The peace and beauty are spoilt! Again we murmur something and make a
+dive to get away, but are confronted by a clean-shaven man in glasses.
+"When we were here three years ago," he begins, "perhaps my wife has
+told you----"
+
+It is rude, but there is nothing for it but to bolt; people like that
+would take the effervescence off newly opened champagne! We leave them
+confronting each other, and wonder what they do when they are alone
+together! Do they force their mixture of guidebook and water on each
+other?
+
+[Illustration: THE DAM AT ASSOUAN.]
+
+When we look back upon Egypt these river days will stand out most
+clearly, for the glory of them and the interest of them are unfailing.
+We have to leave this boat at Assouan, but we shall come back and go
+right down the Nile to Cairo on our return journey, so that is something
+to look forward to.
+
+At Assouan we are not going to stop but to change on to another steamer,
+one belonging to the Government this time, and we shall penetrate
+farther into the heart of the land to see something, which, after the
+Sphinx, is the most wonderful thing in Egypt.
+
+But we can't step off one steamer on to another, for at Assouan is the
+first of the many cataracts that for ages has hindered the navigation of
+the Nile. The river, hemmed in between two rocky sides, tears down,
+dashing over stones and whirling round corners in a dangerous way. So
+the steamer for the upper part of the river waits above the cataract and
+we have to make a short train journey of half an hour or so to join it.
+
+Picture the scene at an English railway station of any size, with its
+solidly-built platform and its gloomy roof and its row of uniformed
+porters drawn up waiting the arrival of the incoming train. I don't
+suppose anywhere you could find anything less like this than the station
+at Assouan where we await our train this afternoon. There are great palm
+trees springing out of the platform itself, not fenced in in any way.
+There are masses of scarlet poinsettias growing. And the porters! yes,
+they _are_ porters, not criminals waiting to be hanged! There they
+stand, a ragged regiment indeed, dressed in any sort of garment that
+takes their fancy. Most of them look as if they had collected all the
+dish-clouts and dusters which had seen service and piled them on anyhow.
+To add to their adornment each man has a double coil of shabby-looking
+rope hung round his neck, this is to fasten together the luggage he
+hopes to carry. The men are of all sizes and all colours. That
+good-looking fellow at the end is not darker than a sun-browned
+Englishman, while that stout, round-faced, thick-lipped one next to him
+is as black as the polished boot seen in an advertisement. He is a
+Nubian, for here we are on the borders of Nubia, now counted part of
+Egypt. The porters are making a tremendous hullabaloo, chattering and
+quarrelling at the tops of their voices, so a native policeman in khaki
+comes along and smacks one of them hard on the side of his face, and
+then catches him a crack on the other side to make him keep his balance;
+the man does not resent it at all--he rubs his cheek and takes the hint.
+Fancy a policeman in our country smacking a porter on the face; what a
+row there would be!
+
+Here is the train! The engine-driver and his mate are dressed in shabby
+European clothes crowned by turbans which have gaudy orange and red
+handkerchiefs twisted round them. They get down on the platform, and
+suddenly the fireman sees a rather unpleasant-looking man, with a beard,
+standing away from the others; he rushes at him, bows low before him,
+and finally kisses both his hands. The man is probably a sheikh of the
+Mohammedan church.
+
+The train is a corridor one, and we mount the platform at the end of a
+carriage and find ourselves in a compartment thick with dust, where the
+seats vary from straight leather-covered benches to comfortable-looking
+basket-chairs. The place is crammed with "kit"; dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases, sword-cases and leather bags fill every corner.
+
+"Allow me," says a pleasant-voiced sunburnt man as he stoops to remove
+some of his things to make room for us. "We've come right up from Cairo
+and things get a bit scattered," he adds apologetically.
+
+When we get clear of the town we find that in addition to glass windows
+and wooden shutters there are also windows of blue glass to keep off the
+glare, a splendid idea, as they do not hinder the view. One of these is
+up, and peeping through it we get our first real glimpse of the desert,
+transformed as if it lay beneath bright moonlight. From the other side
+we can see it as it is in its yellow colouring. How fascinating! Its
+runs away in sweeping low waves to a line of hills and is crossed by
+caravan tracks; even as we watch we see a man riding a small donkey
+ahead of a string of camels laden with huge bales. The railway is still
+but a small thing in Egypt; it runs right ahead, with few side-lines,
+and from it the desert tracks lead off in many directions. The camel,
+who has been the bearer of Egyptian traffic for generations, still does
+a large share of the transport. A good camel is expensive, but a man who
+owns one is sure of a livelihood, for he works backwards and forwards
+across the great solitudes, eating his handful of dates or grain, and
+drinking the water he carries with him, if he is not lucky enough to
+camp near a well. Oddly enough camels are not represented on the
+wall-drawings of the ancient Egyptians, and though it is true they were
+probably not to be found in the country in the very earliest times, yet
+they were certainly introduced as early as the horse, who is often shown
+in battle-scenes.
+
+[Illustration: MEN OF THE BISHARIN TRIBE.]
+
+What rivets our attention directly it comes into sight is an encampment
+of low mat huts like beehives right out in the midst of the sand.
+
+"Those belong to the Bisharin," says the same fair-haired, keen-faced
+man who had first spoken; "tribe of fuzzy-wuzzies! They extend right
+away from here to the Red Sea. Live on raw grain mostly. Quaint lot!"
+
+Some of the men from the camp are standing near the railway line, so we
+can see them well; they are very tall and extremely handsome, with
+well-cut features and well-proportioned figures. Their hair is cut
+exactly after the fashion of the palm trees, with a tuft standing up in
+the middle and two tufts dropping away from it on each side. These men
+are quiet enough now that they have learnt the British power, but not so
+long ago they were inflamed with fanatical hatred.
+
+You have heard of the dervishes who were killed in thousands at
+Omdurman, outside Khartoum, in the great battle at which Lord Kitchener
+won his title when he freed the Soudan from the power of the Mahdi? Now,
+having seen the Bisharin, you can imagine what dervishes looked like.
+For they dressed their hair in the same way, they wore the same
+dirty-white garments, and as they came yelling onward at a run,
+brandishing their weapons, it must have taken some courage for the
+Egyptian soldiers to meet them steadily.
+
+All the men in the carriage with us are going on up to Khartoum and
+beyond. They are soldiers, administrators, and Government officials, men
+whose lives are passed on the outposts of civilisation, and who carry
+the British ideals of cleanliness, honesty, and straight-dealing far
+into the desert; but they do not talk about it, as Kipling says they
+speak:--"After the use of the English in straight-flung words and few--"
+
+    "Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways,
+    Baulking the end half won for an instant dole of praise.
+    Stand to your work and be wise--certain of sword and pen,
+    Who are neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men."
+
+Khartoum is the capital of the Soudan, but we have not arrived in the
+Soudan yet. This great province was won from barbarism and brutality by
+the English, who had trained and commanded the Egyptian army for the
+purpose through years of heart-breaking work, and it is held jointly by
+England and Egypt.
+
+Then we arrive at Shellal, the station where the steamer waits, and in
+a moment we are plunged into a turmoil of confusion and shouting.
+
+The red sun is setting in a flame of glory over the great lake-like
+expanse studded with black rocks; this is the huge dam or reserve of
+water held up for the use of the crops when the Nile goes down. The
+scene beggars description; bags, bundles, bales, boxes are pitched out
+pell-mell. Gleaming black faces are lit up by the flames of leaping
+fires lit on the sand. Petticoated porters thrust metal numbers at us so
+that we may be able to recognise them again and reclaim our luggage
+safely. We make our way to the steamer and mount to the first-class deck
+and look down on the whirl of turbans and red fezes (also called
+tarbooshes) below. The perpetual chatter, the long low cries, the
+beating shout of men staggering under heavy loads make up a resounding
+din. Clamped boxes, camp-chairs, enamel basins, dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases are carried swinging up the gangway. Here is a man wildly
+waving a gun-case which a non-commissioned officer wrenches from him;
+another is struggling under a folded tent, the end of which catches on a
+post and nearly precipitates him into the water. Black Nubian sailors in
+white and blue jumpers are wrestling with an endless series of
+mail-bags; third-class passengers, lost under piles of bedding, straggle
+into a great barge alongside. In the midst of it all one sailor detaches
+himself a little from the rest and drops down on his knees on the quay,
+prostrating himself and bowing with his forehead to the ground; he rises
+again, stands straight, with head erect, then down he goes again. He is
+praying at sunset, as a good Mohammedan is told to do. No one notices
+him or ridicules him. What would happen to an English sailor who knelt
+to say his prayers on an English dock? We feel that we have something to
+learn from this people, who are at all events not ashamed of their
+religion.
+
+A man is selling oranges on the quay, another has large round flat
+loaves of bread tucked well under his arms and hugged against his body.
+A black hand, extended from the lowest deck beneath us, grasps one of
+these loaves and begins to finger it with a view to purchase; we cannot
+see the owner of the hand, but we can see his fingers feeling cautiously
+all around that loaf; he nips it between finger and thumb, he prods it,
+kneads it, rubs it, and finally, when no inch of it has been untouched,
+he hands over reluctantly a small coin and withdraws with the bread.
+
+"Hope that isn't for us," says the cheerful voice of a young officer
+leaning over the rail beside us in the dark. "Think I'll cut off my
+crust at dinner to-night on the off-chance, anyway!"
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN SOLDIER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A MILLION SUNRISES
+
+
+It is very cold and quite dark when I wake. The steamer is anchored
+close up to the bank and not a sound comes from the still water. My
+blankets are very comfortable; it can't be time to turn out yet. It is
+an effort even to stretch out a hand and strike a light to see my
+watch--5.15! Yes, we ought to go!
+
+You take some waking, and only my threat of, "You'll never get another
+chance in your life," brings you out of your bunk at last.
+
+If you've ever done anything nastier than trying to dress against time,
+two together in a small cabin on a cold morning in the pitch dark, I'd
+like to know it. The electric light is off, because the engines are not
+running, and there are no candles. By the time we've got into some sort
+of clothing we're both at snarling-point. Twice I've violently tried to
+put on your boots, thinking they were mine, and I know you've got my
+shirt on, because I couldn't find it and had to drag out a clean one!
+
+A walk along the cold dark deck and across a slippery plank to the mud
+bank does not improve matters. Apparently we have this exhilarating
+entertainment all to ourselves, for the rest of the fifteen passengers
+have not appeared.
+
+The sand is like the softest silk, and it seems sometimes as if we must
+be walking backwards so little headway do we make. If it wasn't for this
+icy wind I should think I was still dreaming. All the time that red bar
+in the east glows steadily brighter, and warns us that if we want to see
+one of the grandest sights in the world--Abu Simbel by sunrise--we must
+hurry up.
+
+When at last we get clear of the sand we find ourselves on a piece of
+ground cut up by cracks wide enough to put a foot in. There is just
+sufficient light to keep us from twisting our ankles if we walk along
+with our eyes glued to the ground, and so we get along somehow, till
+suddenly we stop--sunrise is here!
+
+A considerable distance in front of us and above our level we see three
+mighty seated figures and the remains of a fourth in a flat recess
+chiselled out of the side of a great rounded cliff. That first touch of
+dawn has tinged them with rosy pink, and they sit with their faces to
+the sunrise, which they must have seen somewhere about one million times
+already. Night succeeding day, day succeeding night, light following
+darkness, darkness following light, thus has time flickered before them
+throughout their stupendous age. As we creep nearer and climb higher
+they seem to rise and rise in size. Silently we seat ourselves on a
+stone, forgetting the shivering wind, and we stare and gaze spellbound
+at the triumphant eager expression on those mighty features, which, as
+the dawn spreads, softens to a deep complacence. Then the pink changes
+to a splendour of living gold, which sweeps over like a curtain, and the
+full majesty of them strikes us almost like a blow.
+
+Their expression has in it something akin to that of all mighty
+time-resisting images set up by man; it is found in the face of the
+Sphinx and on that of the Buddhas of the East. It is an expression of
+soul-crushing superiority, so without doubt of its own unassailable
+dignity that it can afford to be benign. We must make up a word and call
+it "supremity"--it is the only one that fits it.
+
+Under the knee of each mighty figure is the plump outline of a little
+wife, small it looks from here, but draw nearer still, stand right under
+that colossus on the right and you will find that she is twice the
+height of a man.
+
+As they tower above us, seeming to grow greater every instant as the
+light filters into the crevices, we get some idea of the monster size of
+these noble statues, and discover that each foot is nearly as long as a
+man! From the broken face of the sloping cliff they have been hewn, not
+built and pieced together and brought here from elsewhere, but born full
+size, springing to life from out the living rock. They all represent the
+king with whom we are already familiar, Rameses II., who caused this
+great temple to be made to celebrate his victory over the Kheta, a tribe
+of Syrians, living far away by the river Orontes in the north of the
+Holy Land.
+
+Two on each side of the temple doorway the statues sit, and between
+them, in low relief, is the small figure of the god Harmakhis. Running
+above, across them all, is an inscription, part of which signifies--
+
+    "I give to thee all life and strength."
+
+Look up at it beyond those towering immovable heads, and from it again
+to the rough cliff untouched by tool, and from that to the sky, now of
+the purest, softest blue, hanging like a canopy above.
+
+The high black doorway of the temple lies like a gash on the face of the
+cliff, and on one day of the year the ray of light from the rising sun
+falls through it clean as a shot arrow. The black-robed guardian has
+been expecting us, he stands waiting, holding his staff of office, and
+admits us to the interior. It is very dark, and even with the light of
+the flickering candle he holds up it is difficult to make out those
+great columns, each seventeen feet high, carved with an image of the god
+Osiris. As for the deep-cut pictures everywhere on the walls we can only
+get the merest glimpses of them. We pass on through several halls,
+noting how the angles and lines are absolutely plumb and true, and come
+to the innermost sanctuary, where we find the king again as one of four
+seated statues, not very large, the other three being gods! That was the
+idea Rameses had of his own importance!
+
+Then it grows on us with increasing wonder that all this temple--the
+walls, the columns, the statues--are cut out of the actual rock, and
+that all the stone dislodged in the cutting must have been carried out
+through that doorway. How was it achieved? The depth of the temple to
+its farthest wall is one hundred and eighty-five feet, or almost three
+times a cricket-pitch! Imagine this depth driven in to the rock and
+cleared out to a great height without any machine power or modern tools!
+And this was accomplished in the reign of one king. Rameses reigned some
+sixty years, and his great victory over the Kheta was five years after
+his coronation, so perhaps sixty years is the longest we can give for
+the construction of the temple, and it was probably much less. The story
+goes that in this great battle the king, cut off from his men and alone
+in the midst of a hostile army, performed prodigies of valour; he slew
+and hewed right and left until he sent the greater part of the Syrian
+army flying before him; all this is recorded on the walls. Of course in
+the case of kings these doings are apt to be magnified, still, there is
+no doubt that this was one of the most memorable occasions of his life,
+and he has certainly caused it to be remembered by building this
+enduring monument.
+
+[Illustration: A CHILD HOLDS OUT A STRANGE LITTLE BEAST.]
+
+We hear voices, and are joined by half a dozen of our fellow-travellers
+from the steamer. As we all walk back together a child sidles up and
+holds out a strange little beast with a head like a skull and a long
+tail like a rat. It is about as big as your hand. One of the army men
+takes it and puts it in the sleeve of his green tweed coat, and as he
+walks along carrying it the quaint little beast turns a greenish colour.
+It is a chameleon and has the faculty of changing to the colour of its
+background whatever that may be; this forms a protection against its
+enemies, who cannot easily see it.
+
+"I'll keep it," says the soldier, laughing and giving the child a coin.
+"He is a useful little beggar. You should see that tongue of his flick
+out and catch an unwary fly half a foot away."
+
+The steamer hoots a warning note and we all scramble on board hastily.
+Yes, I _told_ you it was my shirt!
+
+An hour or so later we pass the boundary into the Soudan.
+
+"Now we are out of Egypt," says another of our friends, a Government
+official with years of experience behind him. "The Soudan is a greatly
+superior place; no one is allowed to bother you here--we don't let them.
+The children don't even know the meaning of the word _bakshish_; they
+are not allowed to learn it."
+
+This sounds comforting and gives a good prospect for the day we shall
+have to spend at our stopping-place, Wady Haifa, before going back on
+the steamer to Assouan.
+
+There is no railway between Assouan and Wady Haifa, and so Government
+steamers run all the year round to bridge the gap between the two ends
+of the railway. In the season Cook runs steamers too, and they give much
+more time for passengers to see Abu Simbel and other temples on the way;
+unfortunately, as we are too early in the year, we could not take
+advantage of them and had to go on a Government boat.
+
+The men we have been with are all passing on by rail from Wady Haifa,
+and when we land there we go in the afternoon to see them off at the
+station. They are a keen, hard-bitten crew, and make us feel proud of
+our countrymen; they are reticent mostly, bearing the unmistakable stamp
+of responsibility. Men who "build the Empire" are little apt to "slop
+over" or demand sympathy. The boyish vigour remains with them later than
+with most men, but it is tempered by a certain hardness outside. The
+train is particularly comfortable and well managed, with sleeping-cars
+that bear comparison with the best in Europe, and a good dining-car; and
+it is necessary, for these men have a journey of a day and a night
+before reaching Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan, and the way lies
+right across barren desert, where the sand insidiously creeps in at
+every chink in spite of the closely shut windows. To some of them indeed
+Khartoum is only a jumping-off place. There is one army man who received
+orders to leave Cairo at ten days' notice and plunge into Central
+Africa, there to hold an outpost as the only white man for hundreds of
+miles around. He knows little of what is expected of him beyond the fact
+that he is to purchase a year's stores in Khartoum, and that when he has
+gone as far as boat and waterway can take him, he will have to march at
+least a hundred miles through country where his equipment must be
+carried by natives, as it is the haunt of the dreaded tsetse fly whose
+bite is fatal to animals. He has a map made up mostly of rivers
+"unexplored" and country "unknown." It looks quite full of information
+and names when you merely glance at it, but when you begin to handle it
+you find a great deal of the print tells you only what is not there. The
+owner of it hardly knows what language he will have to speak, but he is
+as pleased about it all as a girl going to her first ball. In his own
+words, he "has got his chance." When we ask him what he is going to
+take with him, he answers with a merry twinkle, "I started with two
+dozen tooth-brushes; I should think in their line they would be enough."
+So long as England produces men of this metal she need not fear the
+decadence of the race.
+
+When we have parted from them all we stroll down the bazaar at Wady
+Haifa and are immediately followed by a horde of children of all ages,
+sizes, and descriptions, who, whenever we stop and look around at them,
+say with growing confidence, "Bakshish, bakshish!" even the tiny fat
+babe who can scarcely toddle murmurs "'Shish!"
+
+Still pursued by the horde we make our way to a tea-house, where
+numerous natives of Haifa sit out in a little compound surrounded by a
+wooden fence and refresh themselves. We order tea, and get it after some
+difficulty; but it is more because the attendant guesses what we would
+be likely to ask for than because he understands us that we eventually
+are provided with a small pot of quite decent tea.
+
+While we drink the children gather from afar; every one in Haifa under
+the age of fourteen is there I should say. They glue themselves to the
+fence and force their little faces between the posts, or spike their
+chins on the top and then watch in solemn deadly earnest the ways of
+these strange beings whom fate has so kindly sent to amuse them. The
+rest-house attendant does not approve of these manners, so he slips out
+of a side-door with a basin of water in his hand and pitches it straight
+over the little crew as if they were a flock of intrusive chickens; they
+fly, shrieking with delight, and return in thicker swarms than ever
+inside of two minutes.
+
+An affable gentleman in a gown seats himself beside us.
+
+"I wish you good-day," he says in English, and we return his greeting.
+
+"I am dragoman here," he continues.
+
+We point to one small girl with a face quite different from that of the
+other children, and her hair done in innumerable little tight pigtails,
+and ask him who she is. "Nubian," he says. "Eat castor oil, plenty oil,
+like it much." We tell him to bring the child to us, but directly he
+translates, she flies screaming, is captured by the other children, and
+a noise begins like that inside the parrot-house at the Zoo. I explain
+that we don't want her to be frightened, but that if she will come and
+speak to us she shall have bakshish. The magic word produces instant
+calm, the child comes forward at once with coquettish assurance and
+when, through the interpreter, we inquire her name, and she tells us it
+is "Nafeesa," we give her half a piastre and let her go.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE NUBIAN GIRL.]
+
+When we start off again for the steamer the whole crowd follows hard on
+our heels, for it is we who provide the free circus to-day. One mite
+trotting forward with his eyes glued on us goes smack into a tree and so
+hurts his little face that he covers it with a crooked arm and sets off
+homewards wailing softly.
+
+This is really a deserving case, even in England it is allowable to
+soothe the feelings of a hurt child, so we mutter "Bakshish," and all
+the eager crew rush after the little suffering child, yelling,
+"Bakshish," and they bring him back triumphantly with the tears already
+dried on his hurt face.
+
+So much for the Government official!
+
+Now we are off really! Back down the Nile and good-bye to this glorious
+land. Rapidly we fly down-stream, past Abu Simbel, past the sweeps of
+deep rich yellow sand seen nowhere south of Assouan in such glorious
+colouring; sand that is swept smooth by the wind into great banks and
+drifts with sharp edges like snow-drifts; past masses of plum-coloured
+rock sticking up out of it; past defiles of stony mountains falling
+sheer to the water; hiding here and there in their folds tiny villages
+indistinguishable from the rocks without glasses. There is hardly a
+_shaduf_ to be seen and very little cultivation, it is either desert or
+stony hills on each side. Grand beyond thought is it when seen in the
+flaming light of the afterglow!
+
+[Illustration: THE PEOPLE GOING HOME IN THE EVENINGS--WATER-CARRIERS.]
+
+At Assouan we have time for a glimpse at the great dam, extending for
+over a mile in length and built of masonry eighty-two feet thick at the
+bottom. This banks up the water, we have already seen, among the hills
+into a prodigious lake when the great swirl of the river comes down at
+flood-time, and thus much of it, which would have rushed away and been
+lost, is stored and let out gradually through the sluice-gates as
+required.
+
+Then we change on to one of Cook's steamers, and for days we fly
+down-stream to Cairo. We see the green fields of maize, and we watch the
+people going home in the evenings with the tired oxen and the little
+donkeys carrying their provender on their backs. And one day we arrive
+at Cairo and take the train for Port Said.
+
+Good-bye to Egypt! Mysterious, beautiful land! Never in all our
+wanderings round the globe shall we come upon a country more
+interesting.
+
+[Illustration: JERUSALEM.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM
+
+
+We have passed along the south coast of Europe and have been into a
+corner of Africa, and now we are going to set foot on a new
+continent--Asia. From Port Said, before we go on eastward, I want you to
+see just a little of the Holy Land--the scene of the Bible. The Holy
+Land stands by itself, apart, and though it is in Asia it doesn't seem
+to belong to it. Someone once said that it is to the world what a church
+is to a town--the centre of religion. Anyway, it is curious and
+interesting to notice that it forms the middle point where three
+continents meet, so that they all share it. I expect you know the
+position quite well. At the east end the Mediterranean does not run into
+a point as it does at Gibraltar, but comes up against a straight wall of
+land which cuts it off squarely, and this straight line is the coast of
+Palestine, better known as the Holy Land. If the schoolboys of Palestine
+were set to draw a map of their own country, they would find it much
+easier than a British boy would if told to make a map of his country.
+For all that the Jewish boy would have to do would be to make a fairly
+straight line, sloping a little out at the bottom end. There would be
+hardly any indentations on it and only one small bay.
+
+Palestine, of course, is the country of the Jews, though people of many
+other races and nations live there, and thousands of the Jews are
+scattered in all parts of the world. Some people dream of restoring all
+the Jews to their own land, but it is difficult to see what good it
+would do them. Palestine is held at present by the Turks, but everyone
+can visit it when they please. It is not a very large country, only
+about the size of Wales, and yet there isn't a country in the world to
+equal it in importance. Thousands of people visit it every year in spite
+of the fact that it is very difficult to get there. There are no good
+harbours, and the landing at Jaffa, which is the principal port for
+Jerusalem, has to be done in small boats. As we have to make our visit
+in the winter we may find the sea rough and dangerous, and may even be
+carried on north of Jaffa and have to come back on another boat as some
+friends of mine did. The Holy Land is not great or powerful or even
+beautiful nowadays, though in the spring the wild flowers are lovely.
+Seen in the winter it is just a rather barren, stony land, with many
+hills, and it is inhabited by very poor people. Yet this little country
+has been more fought over than any other. For centuries there were
+crusaders, or soldiers of the cross, who went out to try to conquer it,
+to hold it in Christian keeping, but they did not succeed.
+
+We must leave our heavy luggage at Port Said, to be picked up again on
+our return, and only take what we can carry in handbags. The rather
+small steamer which is to take us starts in the evening, and it is best
+to go straight to bed on board, as we shall have much to go through when
+we arrive to-morrow morning. After a rather disturbed night we are glad
+to get up and dress and come on deck. The ship is at anchor off Jaffa,
+tossing up and down on the grey water, so that we have to clutch at
+handrails and hold on to keep our footing on the slippery deck, which is
+cumbered up with bags and bundles and people and crates in a most
+confusing way.
+
+[Illustration: JAFFA.]
+
+All around the ship are big clumsy-looking boats filled with swarthy
+shouting men wearing turbans and immense baggy blue trousers with enough
+stuff in them to clothe a whole family! Except that they are not armed
+we might imagine we were held up by pirates! In front of us, a little
+distance off, are cruel jagged rocks over which the waves pour and dash,
+spouting up in cascades as they come slap on the hard surfaces.
+
+One of the boats is close to the ship and the men in her are hanging on
+by a rope which they gather up or let out as they rise and fall at the
+bottom of the long slippery gangway, much worse than that we climbed at
+Toulon. The men in our ship are pitching in bags and bundles very
+cleverly as the boat comes up, and among the things we see our own brown
+bags. Very soon we shall be pitched in too! How will you like that?
+
+Near us is a very fat Turkish lady, who is so rolled up in clothes, head
+and all, that it is quite possible she might be mistaken for a
+feather-bed. Two sailors get hold of her and carry her down the
+gangway, depositing her neatly in the boat as it swings near.
+
+Before you have quite realised what has happened a muscular man has
+caught you up like a sack of potatoes. You are run down the gangway with
+his hand on your arm like a vice, the boat comes up, and just at exactly
+the right second, when it balances on the crest of the wave, your captor
+lets you go and you land on the seat gently and sink away again with the
+boat. I follow, but am not so lucky, for the next wave catches the boat
+awry and sluices me from neck to heel! However, I have a stout coat on
+and do not mind. Then, in the heavily laden boat, with the Turkish lady
+and the bags and the bundles, we start for the distant shore.
+
+This is the principal landing-place for Palestine! Babies and bishops,
+pilgrims and pigs, pianos and potatoes have all to be pitched into
+boats!
+
+Our excitement is not over yet, for as we near the rocks it looks as if
+we must be smashed by the heavy waves. The roar of the surf is so great
+that we cannot hear each other speak, and the rain and foam bespatter
+our faces. We blink and hang on to each other, see-sawing up and down,
+and wondering every second if we shall be feeling colder yet when we are
+actually in the water, and then the boat swings up on a wave and runs
+through into calmer water beyond.
+
+We thread our way in and out of narrow channels, still between rocks,
+and see ahead of us a desolate land with a queer flat-roofed town.
+
+When at last we are on firm ground our guide leads us quickly through
+some narrow dirty streets, and before we have time to notice anything we
+are in a noisy, fussy little train, bound for Jerusalem.
+
+We are actually in the land of Israel, the land where all the Bible
+stories happened, not only those of the New Testament but also of the
+Old! Here Noah lived when the Flood came, here Abraham and Isaac and
+Jacob pitched their tents and pastured their flocks. From here the sons
+of Jacob, who was also called Israel, went down to the land of Egypt to
+buy corn when there was a terrible famine lasting many years. We know
+that they settled there, having found their brother Joseph in great
+power; and long, long after they had all been dead their descendants
+multiplied into a great people and were treated as slaves by the
+Egyptians, so God brought them back again to the land of their
+ancestors.
+
+When they arrived here, after wandering many years in the wilderness,
+they found the country occupied by stranger races whom they fought and
+conquered; among them were the Hivites and Jebusites and Amorites and
+Hittites. Then the Israelites became a great nation and had kings of
+their own. The second king, David, was of the tribe of Judah, one of the
+best of old Israel's sons, and he drove out the people who occupied
+Jerusalem and made it his capital. His son, Solomon, built here the most
+wonderful temple ever known. But later on trouble came upon the
+Israelites, and mightier nations from the east swept down upon them, and
+carried them away as slaves. After long years of captivity some came
+back to Jerusalem, and they were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin,
+but the other tribes returned no more, and no one knows what became of
+them; they are spoken of to this day as the Lost Ten Tribes, but the
+descendants of Judah were called Jews. These Jews, who returned and
+lived again in Jerusalem and other parts of the country, were again
+conquered by the Romans, and when the Saviour Jesus Christ was born the
+Romans held the supreme power in the Holy Land.
+
+As the train goes on we see a bare and bleak country, which looks as if
+giants had had a desperate fight and hurled stones at each other, after
+which the stones had lain there ever since. This was the part of the
+land inhabited by the Philistines, against whom the Israelites had so
+many and such bitter fights. It is quite likely that Goliath of Gath,
+whom David fought, once strode among the fields; and we know that the
+great Israelitish hero, Samson, the strong man, lived about here and
+wandered in among the valleys. Most people are disappointed with the
+country unless they come in the spring, but when you get used to it you
+find it has a wonderful charm.
+
+It takes nearly four hours in the train to reach Jerusalem station. It
+seems quite odd to think of Jerusalem having a station. We have heard
+the Bible stories so long that we forget that they are real, and that
+they actually happened just as truly as the stories in our own history.
+Jerusalem is a real town, just as real as York, though it is not like
+it, except for the fact that it has city walls. The station is a good
+way from the town, and a mob of eager men are waiting there to catch any
+tourists and drive them up. They are quite ready to fight each other or
+to clutch us to gain this privilege, and if it were not for our guide we
+might be torn in pieces.
+
+Our dragoman is a clever man; he chooses his driver at once and helps us
+into the ramshackle old conveyance and off we go over the hillside. Soon
+we see ahead of us the encircling wall of the city on a height above,
+and we wind up to it by gradually inclined roads till we come to the
+great gate. We cannot have the satisfaction of saying to ourselves,
+"Jesus actually looked at these walls with His human eyes," because the
+walls were built long after His death. The town was utterly destroyed
+about sixty years after the crucifixion, and nothing was left but piles
+of stones, and when the rebuilding began no one remembered where the
+streets had run or where the holy places had been. All we can say with
+certainty is that the present city must be very much the same kind of
+city as that Jesus knew.
+
+The hotel is just inside the gateway, and here we can rest and get
+something to eat, and then we can go out; but we must have the guide
+with us, for any well-dressed European walking alone in the city would
+be pestered to death by beggars and touts trying to get money out of
+him.
+
+It is not long before we sally forth and are led into a curious long
+dark alley or passage where the houses almost meet overhead; it slopes
+down steeply and there are shallow steps at intervals. The sun has come
+out, luckily, and looking up we can see a very narrow strip of blue sky,
+but down below it is very dark. You slip and nearly come full length on
+the pavement because of the old cabbage leaves, bits of orange peel, and
+other messy remnants of food left about, and then I, in my turn, go
+almost headlong over a bundle of rags lying on a door-step. Immediately
+a shrivelled hand shoots out and a long melancholy cry which curdles our
+blood comes from the heap. It is a woman, so wrapped up in rags that she
+looks like nothing human. A small coin dropped in her hand brings down
+what we must suppose are blessings on us in her own tongue.
+
+The wee strip of blue sky is cut across here and there by iron bars,
+high over our heads; these are "camel-bars" put to prevent camels
+passing through this way, though the donkeys and people can get along
+underneath. Then we turn a corner and pass into a slightly wider
+thoroughfare, though it is still merely a passage in comparison with any
+streets in our western towns. Swaying high above us is the head of a
+camel whose squashy feet come down almost upon us as we hastily tumble
+back into our entry, while the great bales on his back brush the walls
+as he goes on his lordly way. Women selling vegetables crowd the more
+open spaces at the crossing of the narrow streets. Men in red fezes and
+flowing garments like dressing-gowns stride along; brown-faced boys run
+in and out, and the din, the confusion, and the smell are very trying.
+We begin to wonder when we shall get out into the real streets and we
+ask the dragoman. He tells us at once that we _are_ in a street, one of
+the principal ones, that, in fact, they are all like this, and no
+wheeled vehicle can pass in any part of Jerusalem! This is so
+bewildering that we feel as if we were in a labyrinth, and huddle close
+up to the guide anxious not to lose sight of him for a moment.
+
+[Illustration: A BEGGAR, JERUSALEM.]
+
+Overhead there are arches sometimes spanning the narrow space, and at
+others we cross over curious little open bridges joining one house to
+another, then we plunge into a cellar and walk right through it and out
+on the other side. Everyone seems to be doing the same; it is a regular
+passage-way, and yet people live in that cellar, for we see them
+crouching over a red fire in the cavernous dark, and we wonder how they
+like strangers to make a highway of their home.
+
+[Illustration: A JEW.]
+
+All the way we see people of so many kinds we have never seen before
+that it is difficult not to stand still and gape. There are men in
+cloaks and wrappings, weather-beaten and worn, and men in European
+clothes and brown or yellow boots, there are thick-lipped negroes with
+rolling yellow eyeballs, and warlike Turkish soldiers, who clank down
+the street thrusting everyone aside. The Jews themselves are the least
+attractive of all, with very greasy head-gear, from each side of which
+hangs down a corkscrew curl, as often red as black; they wear usually a
+kind of soiled dressing-gown garment and seem afraid of being struck. Of
+the many types of men the Arabs are the manliest, and come nearest to
+our idea of the old patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They wear a
+kind of cloth on their heads falling down behind, you could easily make
+something like it with a towel any day. This is bound round the forehead
+by a fillet sometimes made of camel's hair, which holds it in its place
+tightly, like a cap. They have across their shoulders a striped narrow
+blanket of brilliant orange or scarlet, and they walk with a free stride
+and their heads held up; they are men of the desert, accustomed to
+freedom and to taking care of themselves against all comers.
+
+[Illustration: JEWS' WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM.]
+
+At one corner a man who has been angrily expostulating with another
+bangs him with a bag he carries, the bag bursts and the air is filled
+with a cloud of flour which envelops the two until they cannot be seen.
+Furious voices come out of the cloud, and as everyone hastens to the
+sight we take the chance to go the other way.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB IN JERUSALEM.]
+
+In every Eastern city there is a "bazaar" corresponding with what in
+England we should call the market-place. The guide leads us to the
+"bazaar," and at the first glance we can hardly believe he is right, for
+we plunge into a long narrow passage arched overhead so that it is
+simply neither more nor less than a tunnel. There are three of these,
+and the light only comes in from the ends or from some holes far
+overhead. In this dimness we see caverns or recesses on each side, quite
+open, with no glass, and these are the shops. There is a curious glare
+from some of them where the owners have a fire for cooking food or for
+heating their forges. Butchers and shoemakers abound, and the smell of
+raw leather is revolting. In the next passage many things are sold, and
+there are quite a number of chemists' shops. In most of these the owner
+sits serenely smoking as if he had nothing on earth to do. In one we see
+a chair tilted up against the merchandise, this is to signify that the
+owner is away and that no one must touch anything till he returns. In
+the third tunnel, which is the noisiest and darkest of all, there are
+many silversmiths showing some wonderful work. It is no use our buying
+any of it, for we cannot carry it round the world with us. Even if we
+could, we should be rash to get it here, for every man asks about four
+times as much as he expects to get. That is one of the things which is
+so different in the East and West. Fancy going into one of the big
+west-end shops in London where an article was marked at a fixed price
+and trying to beat the shop assistant down. He would only smile, hardly
+answer, and turn away. Such a thing is absurd, but in the East any
+article is worth just as much as it will fetch, and the merchant says at
+first an enormous price in the hope that his customer is ignorant and
+will give it him, but if the customer bargains he will slowly come down.
+It takes much time to shop in this way, and is not altogether
+satisfactory, for you really have to know what the things are worth
+first.
+
+After this we must go back to the hotel, for we have wandered about all
+the afternoon and are weary and bewildered, and we have many sights to
+see to-morrow.
+
+Thoroughly rested after a good night we start out next morning to see
+something of the sacred places. Of course we know very well that when
+the long lane is pointed out down which Jesus bore His cross, the very
+spots where He stumbled and where Simon was made to carry it for Him,
+that these things cannot be true. Speaking of Jerusalem Jesus said once,
+"There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
+down," and it came literally true, so the present streets are not those
+He trod. Yet even so the scene is wonderfully interesting, for the old
+Jerusalem must have been like the present town, and the sights Christ
+saw must have resembled those we see, as for the first time we walk down
+these narrow steep alleys. We are going to the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre built over the place where the sepulchre of Christ is supposed
+to have been. As we go toward it we come across more beggars than we yet
+have encountered. A perfect army of halt and maimed and lame and blind
+crouch by the sides of the lane and live on the charity of the
+passers-by. This sort of thing would never be allowed in any Western
+country, and, as we are not accustomed to it, it strikes us as very
+distressing. Then we come out into an open space where there is a great
+building so irregular and piled up that it is difficult to recognise it
+as a church. Here are seated on the pavement numerous gaily clothed men
+with crucifixes and mementoes of the Holy Land for sale. They spread
+their wares out on the paving-stones.
+
+Passing them all we go inside the church and find a darkened atmosphere
+where red lamps burn always.
+
+We are led up steps and down steps and this way and that, and have many
+things pointed out to us. We are shown, for instance, the slab on which
+Christ's body lay and the sepulchre hewn in the rock where He was
+buried, and though we know that neither of these things can be true,
+still we feel we are in a more sacred place than any we have ever yet
+visited. For centuries men of all races and all nations have come here
+to worship and pray, as the shepherds and Wise Men came to worship and
+pray at the manger in Bethlehem. The slab of the marble is worn away by
+the soft lips of adoring pilgrims, who fall prostrate before it and kiss
+it while tears roll down their cheeks. Of all that come from far the
+Russian pilgrims are the most devout. These poor people, worse off than
+any English labourers, save their pence from year to year, and then
+tramp hundreds of miles from their country homes to the seaport of
+Odessa in Russia in order to come across to see the Holy Land. They live
+on the charity of other poor villagers as they go, or they carry sacks
+of bread-crusts, getting more and more mouldy every week. Thousands
+arrive at the Holy Land every year just before Easter, old and frail men
+and women who have undergone incredible hardships. They say, "What does
+it matter what happens to our bodies?" and many of them die
+uncomplainingly. They are so good and simple that they believe
+everything that is told them, and almost faint with joy to think they
+have at last arrived at the holy places. The air seems to glow with
+their wonderful faith and love and kindliness to one another. If,
+indeed, this is not the real sepulchre, at least it is a very holy
+place.
+
+After this the guide leads us through so many churches of all sorts that
+we are quite bewildered, until at last we come out on a high open place
+where all is quiet, and in the midst there stands a huge church quite
+different from anything we have yet seen--it has a round dome rising
+from walls of exquisite blue and green slabs of polished stone. This is
+the church of the Mohammedans, called a mosque, and why it is so
+especially interesting to us is because it stands on the very spot where
+stood the Ark of the Jews, and where, from the days of King Solomon,
+they worshipped God in the Temple. When Solomon built the Temple it was
+the most wonderful and beautiful church in the world. It was put
+together of massive stones, made ready and hewn and carved before they
+came to this place, so that there was no sound of axe or hammer in the
+sacred precincts. And the fittings were made of carved cedar wood,
+brought down by sea from Lebanon, while the furnishings were of pure
+gold. Never was any building before so carefully finished or so
+artistically designed. Solomon's Temple was utterly destroyed, but there
+were temples built and rebuilt on the same site, and that site is
+considered to be peculiarly sacred, because it is a peak of a mountain
+called Mount Moriah. You remember that it was to Mount Moriah Abraham
+was told to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him? The Jews hold that the
+very peak on which the mosque now stands is that place. It is, indeed,
+quite certain that there is an outcrop of rock belonging to part of the
+summit of Mount Moriah in the mosque which stands just where the Temple
+stood. You shall see it. Meantime we must put on huge loose slippers,
+made of sacking and straw, over our boots before we go in, for the
+Mohammedans always take off their own shoes on entering holy places, and
+as our modern boots are not constructed to be easily slipped off like
+Eastern shoes, we must cover them up. The man at the entrance ties on
+these enormous things and we shuffle along in them as best we can.
+Inside, the mosque is light and high and very rich in polished stone and
+gilding; it is very different from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We
+are led through it, wondering and gazing, until we come suddenly to a
+bare rock cropping up out of the pavement to just about your height, and
+this, for all the ages past, has been a sacred rock. Indeed, no one can
+say that it was not on this mountain-top, then in the midst of wild
+natural country, that Abraham laid his only son bound. From this cause
+the mosque is often known as the "Dome of the Rock."
+
+[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF OMAR ON MOUNT MORIAH, JERUSALEM.]
+
+One more sight we must see before going out on to the quiet hillside
+called the Mount of Olives. This is that most curious place called the
+Jews' Wailing-Place.
+
+To reach this we pass down long staircase-like streets in a poor
+quarter. We see many tall and fierce-looking men, with hooked noses and
+keen eyes, who wear a white cloak thrown round their heads and hanging
+down on their shoulders; but there are also many other Jews from all
+parts,--the Polish Jews are most conspicuous in their brilliant crimson
+or purple plush gowns, with round velvet hats of the same colour edged
+with fur; and then we come out into an open space with a huge wall as
+high as a very high house made of enormous blocks of stone. This is said
+to be part of the actual wall surrounding the Temple built by Solomon.
+It is Friday afternoon and there is a great concourse of men and women
+in flowing garments, bending and bowing and kneeling before the wall and
+wailing out their prayers. Some crouch low, others cling to the giant
+blocks and kiss the rough surface, others beat their breasts as if in
+agony. Standing not far from us is a tall man who calls out some words
+in a long wailing cry, immediately the crowd respond as in a Litany.
+What they are crying out is something like this--
+
+    "For the sake of the Temple that is destroyed
+        We sit solitary and weep;
+    For the walls that are thrown down
+        We sit solitary and weep."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are alone at last. All the morning it has been raining heavily, and
+in our wanderings about the city we got drenched by water-spouts from
+roofs that stuck out across the street, and deluged by drippings from
+window-sills. In many of the narrow streets we simply had to wade, for
+the water rushed down them like mountain-torrents, and then we went back
+to the hotel to get warm and dry before sallying out again. Now we are
+sitting on a great grey stone on the Mount of Olives, and the sun is
+coming out and drying up all the dampness. We look down upon Jerusalem
+as Christ looked down on it that day when He entered in a triumphal
+procession and paused to weep over it. We can see the domes and the flat
+roofs with the sun glinting on them and making them shine out white, and
+the great wall with its turreted top running round all. It is not the
+same city He saw, but it must be very like it. These buildings,
+churches, and mosques were not there, of course, and there were a good
+many more trees than there are now. An olive tree never looks young;
+from the earliest time it always has a twisted cross appearance like an
+old man who knows what rheumatism is. The blue-green leaves are small
+and narrow, and they turn edgewise to the sun as if they were reluctant
+to give anyone beneath them any more shade than they could help. There
+is one line of a hymn that always comes into my mind when I look at an
+olive tree, it runs--
+
+    "Beneath the olive's moon-pierced shade."
+
+That is very good, because the brilliant clear white light of an Eastern
+moon would certainly pierce through any "shade" an olive tree could
+make.
+
+Many, many times must Jesus have crossed this hill, and the most
+memorable time was when the people came running beside Him, singing
+Hosannas and cutting down palm branches, and even spreading their
+clothes for Him to pass over, on that first Palm Sunday so long ago. The
+association, which is the most sacred and heart-stirring, is of that
+night before the crucifixion, when He came out here with His disciples
+and, kneeling, prayed earnestly while they slept. That was in what is
+called the Garden of Gethsemane. There is more than one place on the
+Mount which claims to be that garden. The monks have fenced one in and
+planted it with gay flowers, and there is a good deal of reason to
+believe this may be actually right. In the country, places cannot be
+utterly swept away as they are in towns under an avalanche of brick and
+stone. We can look down from the hill into this garden, even though it
+is surrounded by high walls. In the middle is a very ancient olive tree,
+said to have been growing in Christ's time. Rosaries are made from the
+stones of the olives which it bears. There are little round flower-beds
+carefully tended in the garden, and between them you can see a monk
+walking in his long coarse gown.
+
+The hill is not very high, and the country is barren and stony and would
+be rather dull were it not for the thought of all the wonderful scenes
+that have happened here. Let us climb on to the very top. From there,
+away to the east, we see a long line of high blue hills, the mountains
+of Moab, and nearer, in a deep hole in the ground, we catch just a
+glimpse of the water of the Dead Sea. It is a strange name and a strange
+place! It lies deep, deep down, far below the level of the ocean, and
+though many rivers and streams run into it none run out. You would think
+it must always be getting larger, but no. The water evaporates very
+quickly. You know if there is a drop of water or a wet mark on your hand
+and you wave it about in the air, presently the water disappears, that
+is because of evaporation. The dampness has not really gone but turned
+into another form and made the surrounding air a little more damp. If
+that drop had been salt, the salt would not have entered into the air,
+but stayed on your hand, so when the air drinks up the water from the
+surface of the Dead Sea, the salt remains behind and the sea gets more
+and more salty; it is many times more salt than the water of an ordinary
+sea.
+
+The sandy shores all round are full of this salt and nothing can grow
+there, so all is desolate and dreary, and thus it is that the name Dead
+Sea is so appropriate. If you tried to swim in that sea you would find
+it impossible to sink, for just as sea-water holds you up more than
+fresh, so the Dead Sea water holds you up more than that of the ordinary
+sea. All the same, though you could not sink to the bottom you might
+drown, because the head and chest being heavier than the legs go down
+naturally, and a man might not be able to recover himself but be drowned
+legs upward, as many have been through not knowing how to manage a
+lifebelt.
+
+The sacred river Jordan runs into the Dead Sea. We have met one of the
+sacred rivers of history already--the Nile,--and the Jordan, though very
+small, is another. It is almost absurdly small in contrast with the
+Nile, being only one hundred miles long! From all over the world people
+send to get water from the Jordan with which to baptize their babies;
+they have a feeling that it is different from ordinary water because
+Christ Himself was baptized in it. As you have heard, the Russian
+pilgrims go down in crowds to bathe in the Jordan in their shrouds, for
+they too look on the river as sacred.
+
+About six miles to the south of where we are sitting is Bethlehem, where
+Jesus was born, and where the shepherds and Wise Men found Him. Much
+nearer is Bethany, where He often stayed.
+
+To-day something of the wonder of the Holy Land has come upon us. We
+have got out of the narrow crowded lanes and away from the jostling
+people into the country; so the Bible story has become more real than it
+ever was before. Here is the hillside over which He passed. There are
+the olive trees, exactly like those He saw.
+
+[Illustration: ABOUT SIX MILES TO THE SOUTH IS BETHLEHEM.]
+
+We have visited Him in His daily life. It is now only left for us to go
+to Nazareth, where He spent all His life up to the time when He
+announced Himself as the Christ, the Messiah, and began His Mission. But
+Nazareth is a long way off. It will take us about three days to get
+there. We can ride or drive, whichever you like. You prefer to ride? All
+right, but don't expect a sleek, home-fed pony, or a fine horse champing
+the bit, or even a well-grown, well-fed Egyptian donkey; wait and you
+will see what riding means here!
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN AT A WELL IN NAZARETH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE COUNTRY OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD
+
+
+If you only knew how funny you look! Perched up on a dirty, thin, white
+horse which scrambles along somehow, while the great iron stirrups,
+shaped like shovels, dangle far below your feet. Aha! I thought so, one
+has fallen off. I try to pull up quickly to dismount and help you, and
+my bridle, which is made of worsted, like the toy reins children play
+with, breaks suddenly and my noble steed comes a cropper!
+
+By the time I recover and get to you I find our guide, who looks more
+like a bundle of rags than anything else, tying up your stirrups with a
+crazy bit of string full of knots and quite rotten. This is the way we
+journey in the Holy Land in the present year! This is the third day of
+it, and these little accidents don't affect us; the harness must have
+been broken in at least two dozen different places since we started,
+and, as an Irishman might say, most of it is made of gaps.
+
+To-day we ought to reach Nazareth while it is still light, though, as it
+is dull and grey, the evening will close in sooner than if the sky were
+clear. What a pity we could not manage to come here in the spring when
+the fields of blue lupins look like a strip of summer sky fallen to
+earth and fill the air with their scent for miles around. There are
+anemones too, purple and red and white, and lilies, but I think nothing
+would strike us so much as the homely little daisies which grow here
+just as they do at home. There is something strange and yet familiar in
+this country, where so many different sorts of trees and plants grow,
+that a man coming from almost anywhere in the world will find something
+that carries his heart back home. Besides the daisies we have the
+sparrows, just as pert and neat as our own sparrows, yet other things
+are odd. Yesterday we saw a man carrying a sheep on his shoulders; he
+wore a striped garment hanging down on each side of his neck, and even
+the sheep did not seem quite the same as ours. It was some time before
+we discovered why, and then we found out that the long flapping ears
+hung down, while the ears of our sheep are small and upright. It is a
+most difficult thing to remember how an animal's ears grow. Nine people
+out of ten, on being told to draw a pig, will give him small, pointed,
+upright ears, instead of making the flaps fall over!
+
+The rest of the flock of sheep quietly followed the shepherd who carried
+the hurt one, for in the East sheep are used to being led, instead of
+being driven by a dog, as in Britain, and that is why so often we hear
+in the Bible of the sheep being led. Jesus took almost all His parables
+from natural things around Him--the cornfields, the lilies growing, the
+sparrows, and the vineyards.
+
+[Illustration: A MAN CARRYING A SHEEP ON HIS SHOULDERS.]
+
+We have been steadily rising for long past, now we mount a steeper bit
+of rising ground and suddenly there comes into view a tiny valley from
+which the hills rise again, and on the opposite slope, spread out before
+us, is Nazareth. We pull up and look at it in silence. The little,
+flat-roofed, white houses are dotted about among gardens and trees, and
+resemble the square white dice one throws out of a box. Very much as it
+appears to us now must this little hill-village have looked to Jesus
+when He lived here, except that the slopes of the hills were more
+cultivated, and there were more houses. Jesus came here as a small child
+and lived here until He was thirty. _You_ know, of course, every tree
+and hole and stream and almost every stone and bird's nest about your
+own home in the country; you will never get to know any other place so
+well again in your life, for when one is grown up one can't climb trees
+and dabble in streams and build huts and root about in the earth. Jesus
+was just a natural boy; He grew to know all the byways between the
+little gardens, all the trees which bore figs or pomegranates or olives
+or oranges, and He climbed the hills around with other lads when He had
+a holiday--no other place would ever be to Him what Nazareth was.
+
+[Illustration: NAZARETH.]
+
+One or two tall buildings stand out prominently, these are the churches,
+and they, of course, were not there in His time. None of the houses can
+be the same after nineteen hundred years, but many of them are probably
+exactly like those that existed then.
+
+As we go down toward the village at a foot's pace we see grave,
+brown-faced, bright-eyed boys, who stand and stare but do not bother us
+for coppers, as the Jerusalem children did. We pass in among the houses
+and come to the well where both men and women are standing, for it is
+just the time that they come to draw water in the evening. This well is
+one of the most interesting things in Nazareth, for it is the only one,
+and has been known for generations. It is almost certain that it must
+have been here when Jesus lived in the village. Now it has a stone arch
+over it, and as the water gushes out the women fill hand-made
+earthenware jars with narrow necks and curving sides, and having filled
+them they put them on their heads and walk gracefully away. Just so must
+Mary, the mother of Jesus, have filled her jar in the ages long ago, and
+the child Jesus may have clung to her skirts as that tiny brown boy is
+doing, shyly hiding at the sight of us. The women are very good looking,
+and dress in a great variety of colours, many wearing striped clothes.
+One or two have chains or bands of silver coins across their foreheads,
+very many have bright red head coverings falling down over blue dresses.
+There are some swarthy-looking men too, in sheepskins, and one is
+waiting to water his camel. On one side is a very handsome lad of
+sixteen with a flock of black goats. They all look at us with interest,
+but they are quite accustomed to strangers and are not at all
+embarrassed.
+
+We go on between the houses by the widest road, which is now slippery
+with mud, and after our guide has asked permission of a man standing in
+a doorway, we dismount and get a chance of seeing inside one of these
+little dark houses. The only light comes from the doorway, for there is
+no window; it shines into one room with a mud floor, beaten hard by
+many feet. There are a few mats laid about, a few stools, and on one
+side a kind of shelf with more mats and some cushions--this is where the
+family sleep at night. In a corner are some of the earthenware jars and
+some pots and pans. That is all. There is no reason to think that the
+house Jesus lived in was at all more luxurious than this.
+
+As we turn to go out we hear a flutter of wings, and a flock of white
+doves rise from the ground and alight on the roof, cooing softly.
+
+In this village are a good many shops, but they are not the sort we are
+accustomed to. Picture the village shop at home with its small glass
+panes and the post-office on one side. The window crammed with marbles
+and liquorice and peppermint, and slates and balls and copybooks and
+hoops and everything that the owner thinks anyone would be in the least
+likely to buy. In Nazareth the shops sell only one sort of thing, and
+those that sell the same sort of thing have a general inclination to
+come together. In one little street, for instance, are the saddlers'
+shops.
+
+The front of the house is open, but there is no glass to fill it in, and
+we can see the men working at their trade inside. The harness is
+extremely gay, painted in all colours, red and blue and yellow, and made
+up with bits of tinsel and glitter. The more decorated he can afford to
+have his harness the prouder is the rider. As we stand watching, a
+number of women steal gently up behind us and offer some embroidery they
+have made; they do not push or scramble, and when we shake our heads
+they melt away again.
+
+As we turn a corner, there, right in front of us, is a carpenter's shop
+with the front quite open to the street, as in the harness-makers'
+shops. The bearded man who leans over a cart-wheel and handles it with
+long brown hands might have been Joseph himself. In just such a
+workshop as this Jesus learnt His trade.
+
+[Illustration: IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN JOSEPH HIMSELF.]
+
+The life of a little Jewish boy of those days was carefully ordered, and
+in his life there was much more saying of prayers and going to
+church--that is, the synagogue--than you have in yours. At school there
+was a great deal to be learnt by heart, and what with that and the
+churchgoing and the workshop there cannot have been much spare time.
+
+We go slowly on to the inn, where we are to pass the night. To-morrow we
+will go down to the Sea of Galilee and watch the fishermen drawing in
+their nets as they did in Christ's time when He called them to be
+fishers of men.
+
+After that we will come back, pass Nazareth once more, and make our way
+to a port called Haifa, where we can get a steamer to take us down to
+Jaffa instead of returning to Jerusalem again by three days' journey on
+horseback.
+
+[Illustration: THERE IT WILL STAY TILL IT ROTS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN ADVENTURE
+
+
+We are late, very late, the moon is rising and I must confess I am just
+a wee bit uneasy. When we reached Haifa safely last night, coming from
+Nazareth, and found we couldn't get a steamer till to-morrow it seemed
+the best thing to drive across the bay and get a look at Acre, that
+celebrated town which has spent its existence in the turmoil of sieges
+and assaults. It is a great fort built out into the sea, and nearly
+everyone who wanted to get possession of the Holy Land has tried first
+to take Acre as the key to it. One of the most memorable sieges was that
+of two years in the reign of our own King Richard I., who ended it by
+arriving with fresh troops and helping his allies the French; but it is
+reckoned the two countries, between them, lost 100,000 men, one way and
+another, before they took the stubborn town. After that it remained in
+English hands for a century.
+
+The Turks held it in much later times against Buonaparte; they were
+helped by an Englishman, Sir Sydney Smith, and if Acre is celebrated for
+nothing else it should be celebrated for the fact that it held out for
+sixty-one days against Buonaparte, who was in the end obliged to give
+up and go away!
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN WITH BUNDLES, WHICH THEY ALWAYS THINK NECESSARY TO
+DRAG ABOUT WITH THEM.]
+
+We drove this morning, with three horses abreast, across the twelve
+miles of sandy bay between Haifa and Acre, in one of the ramshackle
+waggonettes that take the place of omnibuses and carry any passengers
+who want to go. We came with numbers of natives, chiefly women, and
+innumerable bundles and bags, which they always think it necessary to
+drag about with them. We did not get here till midday, and after
+spending a few hours we had seen all we cared to of the place, and were
+ready to go back. But in the East things are not done like that. So we
+waited and waited long after the hour the omnibus was said to return,
+and when at last the driver did saunter up, the scarecrow horses had to
+be sought for, and then the harness, of course, had to be mended with
+string, and that wasn't nearly the end, because, after waiting again a
+long time for nothing at all that anyone could see, a Turkish woman who
+was evidently of some consequence, attended by a maid and quantities of
+baggage, came up, and everyone had to turn out until all her things were
+stowed away. So it was nearly nightfall before we got off.
+
+The sands are in most places firm and make good going, but a couple of
+rivers run down across them to the sea; one of these is that "ancient
+river, the river Kishon," mentioned in Deborah's song of triumph when
+the Israelites had overcome their enemies. These rivers have to be
+crossed with care, and, not so long ago, some people got bogged and were
+set upon by robbers and stripped, and one was drowned by the incoming
+tide; but I ought not to tell you these things. We are half across now,
+and the moon is getting high, so we shall have more light presently.
+
+Bump! The horse on the off-side runs out of his traces suddenly and
+stands facing the other one in a sort of mild amazement. The harness has
+given way once more. Grumbling and growling the driver climbs down and
+pulls him back and goes on muttering to himself. Far off the lapping of
+the water is heard out at sea; it wouldn't do to be caught by the tide
+in this situation, but they tell us the tide has not turned yet. The
+moon sheds a curious unearthly light that fills the air with mystery.
+The long low sandhills on the shore show up plainly, and nearer there
+are countless wrecks which have been piled up on this desolate coast.
+That large one, nearest of all, looks just like the huge up-curving ribs
+of some mammoth that has had the flesh picked clean from his bones.
+Look! There is something moving close to it, in the shadow; what is it?
+It comes out a little way into the light, it is a furtive-looking
+little four-footed creature whose fur shines with a reddish tinge; there
+is another, peeping out from the sandhills, and another and another!
+They are all over, but so silent and light-footed are they that it is
+difficult to believe them to be anything but shadows. A wave of the hand
+and they have disappeared! They are jackals, inquisitively watching us
+with their bright eyes. Nothing to be afraid of. They dare not attack a
+man if he is alive, though they would gleefully devour him dead. They
+are much more frightened of you than you are of them. Weird, shy,
+furtive little beasts. One can imagine them on a night like this playing
+games and chasing one another in and out of the ribs of the drowned ship
+in a sort of witches' dance.
+
+Heigho! Well, we're on again at last.
+
+We journey at a foot's pace for another mile or so and the lights of
+Haifa begin to shine out clearly ahead, when all of a sudden the
+carriage seems to be going down on one side. The two Turkish women, who
+are on the high side, roll violently down on to us, screaming and
+sobbing hysterically. I don't know what you feel like, but I am nearly
+smothered by the flowing shawls and the strong smell of scent; when I
+manage to get free I find that you have disappeared altogether till I
+get hold of a leg and jerk you forth.
+
+The carriage has gone further and further over; the horses are splashing
+and struggling; and as we stand up the middle one goes down and
+disappears altogether. The water must be deep and we are evidently in
+the river.
+
+There is nothing for it but to go to the driver's help, so I leave you
+to reassure the ladies and get up to my waist almost at once as we pull
+the horse's head above water, while the sand slips away beneath our
+feet. The poor beast, after desperate kickings, gets on to his legs
+again, but no effort of ours can move the carriage, which seems to be
+sinking deeper and deeper. With the struggles of the horses the harness
+has all come to bits again, and the poor, mild, dismayed creatures turn
+round, quite free from their trappings, and look at the vehicle as much
+as to say, "What a shabby trick you have served us!"
+
+The driver brings the horses alongside, and the bundle of scented
+wrappings, which is the more important lady, is lifted on the back of
+one. The man himself gets up behind her to hold her on, and when she
+feels his wet embrace she raises a perfect storm of shrieks as if she
+were being carried away by a robber. He takes not the slightest notice,
+but solemnly sets his horse's head to the shore, and they splash away.
+By yourself you have managed to land on to the back of the next horse,
+and before you have time to turn round or do anything to help with the
+other lady, the horse kicks up its heels, sending you shooting on to its
+neck, and whinnying wildly scrambles off after its comrade. The Turkish
+lady's companion makes no fuss at all about coming with me. She slips on
+to the remaining horse as if she were used to riding all her life, and,
+sitting astride like a man, holds him in until I mount behind. It is
+lucky indeed this animal has no spirit left, or she and I would have
+been stranded!
+
+At this rate we shall soon reach Haifa.
+
+When we do get there what a chattering and what excitement!
+Unfortunately, as we can't speak the native tongue, we miss most of it,
+but the excited gestures and loud voices show that we are heroes indeed.
+
+Next morning I find myself none the worse for my wetting, and before we
+leave we have the satisfaction of seeing all the bundles and packages
+belonging to the ladies safely recovered. But we gather that the
+waggonette remains immovable. We can see it, far off, partly surrounded
+by the swirling water like a little black island. The united strength
+of a dozen men and six horses have been unable to pull it on to firm
+ground. There it will stay till it rots, in the midst of the stranded
+ships, and the little soft-footed shadowy jackals will dance around it
+and tell one another strange tales of that wonderful night when the air
+was shaken by piercing screams, and strange heavy animals galloped
+across the sands, making them shake and quiver, and yet, after it all,
+there was nothing left for them to eat!
+
+[Illustration: THE SHIPS SEEM TO BE GLIDING ALONG THE TOP OF A
+SANDBANK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST
+
+
+The anchor is up and we are in a stately ship moving on slowly into the
+Suez Canal. When we arrived at Port Said--how many weeks ago was it? It
+seems to me like a year--we were on the _Orontes_, of the Orient Line,
+and we steamed into the harbour past a long breakwater like a thin arm;
+standing upon it is a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who made
+the Suez Canal. That meant nothing to you then, for the canal was merely
+a name and not of any special interest, but now that we are actually
+passing into it it is different.
+
+Just here, you remember, we are at the place where three continents
+meet, Europe being represented by the Mediterranean Sea. The other two,
+Asia and Africa, are joined by a strip of land called the Isthmus of
+Suez, about a hundred miles across. For ages men had it in their minds
+to cut through this strip so that their ships could sail straight from
+the Mediterranean into the Red Sea on the other side of the Isthmus.
+But it wasn't quite so easy to do as it sounds, for the land was mostly
+desert sand, and if you have ever tried to dig out a trench on the
+seashore and then let water into it, you will know very well what
+happens. The sides slip down, and in a few minutes your trench is level
+up to the top and is a trench no more!
+
+The ancient Egyptians frequently marched across the Isthmus with their
+armies and advanced into Palestine and made war on the wild tribes
+there. They built also a strong wall across the Isthmus to prevent the
+inhabitants of Palestine from retaliating, just as the Romans built a
+wall across Northumbria to hold back the Picts and Scots.
+
+It was not until comparatively recent days, that is to say, in the time
+of your grandfather, that the attempt to cut a canal across the Isthmus
+was successful, and the man who did it was Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose
+statue stands on the breakwater. He was a Frenchman, but he wished to
+get other nations to help in the great work, as France could not raise
+all the money alone; unfortunately Great Britain would have nothing to
+do with the idea, though luckily afterwards, when the canal had been
+built, the Government managed to buy a large number of the shares in it
+from the Egyptian Government. It took ten years to make the canal, but
+it was done at last after the expenditure of quantities of money and the
+loss of many lives, and even up to the opening day there were many who
+scoffed and said it could never be made useful; yet now that bronze
+statue stands solemnly watching, day by day, the great ships of many
+nations crawling slowly into the narrow opening at the northern end.
+
+Not only had the canal to be made but it has to be kept in working
+order, for the sand silts back into the channel, and so numbers of
+dredgers are constantly at work scraping out the bottom so as to keep
+it deep enough for ships of large size.
+
+At first the depth of the main channel was twenty-six feet, but now it
+has been deepened to twenty-nine feet; but even that seems less than we
+should expect.
+
+At one time the storms of January and February used to drive quantities
+of sand from the Mediterranean into the mouth of the canal, and even
+now, though the breakwater has been lengthened to prevent it, there is
+always difficulty. Steamers are only allowed to go through slowly,
+otherwise the suction or pull of the water they disturb would tear down
+the banks and soon make the canal useless. You have no idea what a wave
+a big ship can raise in going through that narrow trough; even at a
+moderate pace it would be sufficient to tear another ship from her
+moorings by the bank, and then there might be a collision and disastrous
+results. Ships have to pay a heavy toll for the privilege of using the
+short cut, but the toll is needed to meet the working expenses and to
+pay the interest on the money spent in the construction.
+
+The ship we are in is considerably larger than the _Orontes_; she is the
+_Medina_, belonging to the P. & O. Company, and was chosen to take the
+King and Queen to India in 1911. She is not very cheerful looking
+outside, being painted buff, with black funnels, but she is a
+comfortable boat, and we are lucky in having a large cabin on the upper
+deck, so that we can have our port-hole open whatever the weather may
+be.
+
+The sun is setting in a flame of salmon and scarlet as we pass the canal
+offices and turn into the narrow channel. There are sidings dug out
+about every five or six miles, for as only one big ship can go through
+at a time, if she meets another, one of them must stop and tie up. There
+are telegraph stations at every siding, and every ship entering the
+canal is controlled all the way by an elaborate system of signals which
+tells the pilot exactly what he is to do, whether he must "shunt into a
+siding," to use railway language, or if he may go right ahead.
+
+Directly we are in the canal we see over the banks on both sides; on the
+west is a wide sheet of water lit up to smoky-red by the reflection of
+the sinking sun. Flocks of storks and pelicans and other birds cover it
+at certain times of the year to fish in the shallow salt waters, for
+this is a salt lake, a sort of overflow from the sea. One day it will be
+drained and then crops can grow upon it. The canal is cut through it and
+hemmed in by an embankment; farther on it runs through the desert and
+then goes through another lake. For the greater part of the way a
+railway line runs beside it, passing through Ismailia, the junction for
+Cairo, and going on to Suez, and from some parts of this line you can
+see a strange spectacle, for, as no water is visible, the ships appear
+to be gliding along the top of a sandbank; there is apparently just a
+huge modern steamer lost among the sandhills and making the best of her
+way back to the sea!
+
+The pilot who is on board now takes us to Ismailia, half-way down, and
+then another replaces him as far as Suez, where the canal ends. Every
+ship over one hundred tons is compelled to carry a pilot, who is
+responsible for her while she is in the difficult channel. And, indeed,
+a pilot is necessary, for the canal is not by any means a straight, deep
+trench; there are curves where it is a delicate job to manoeuvre a
+ship of any length, and in places in the deeper lakes the course is only
+marked by buoys. It needs a man who spends his whole time at the work
+and gives all his attention to it. The danger at the curves is lest the
+propeller at the stern should come in contact with the banks, so the
+ship has to be manoeuvred most slowly and carefully round them. Only
+at one place in the whole length of the canal was no digging out
+necessary. This is in the great Bitter Lake, where for eight miles the
+water is deep enough for the ships to pass safely.
+
+There is not much to see at first; the banks are lined by scrubby
+bushes, and on them, in a sandy open patch, we see a man falling and
+bowing at his evening devotions; a few camels pass along the raised
+bank, looking like gigantic spiders against the illuminated sky, and
+there comes faintly to us the distant bark of a jackal.
+
+When we come on deck again after dinner we find the air quite mild; we
+are only going at the rate of six miles an hour, which is the
+speed-limit.
+
+Somewhere across the desert where we are passing to-night have passed
+also the feet of many mighty ones of history. Abraham crossed it with
+Sarah, his beautiful wife, Joseph was carried down a captive over the
+caravan track of that day. Later on his brothers twice journeyed, driven
+by famine, and lastly came old Jacob also. Many times, as we know, did
+the armies of the Pharaohs start out in all the panoply of war and
+return victorious bringing captives in chains. Across the wilderness
+somewhere Moses led forth the children of Israel, and, most wonderful
+remembrance of all, Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, brought down to
+Egypt his wife and her infant son to escape the wrath and jealousy of
+Herod. Hardly any strip of land we could name has so many associations
+interesting to all the world.
+
+Why do you start and catch hold of my arm to draw my attention? That is
+only a Lascar, one of the sailors, a picturesque fellow, isn't he?
+Didn't you notice them when we came on board? The P. & O. ships carry a
+crew of Lascars to work under the white quartermasters; they are dark
+brown men with shining eyes and gleaming teeth, who dress in bright blue
+with red belts and caps; they love a bit of finery and stick it on
+wherever they can. They come from the coasts of India and usually sign
+on for three years under one of their own headmen called a _serang_; you
+can always pick him out by the silver chain of office which he wears
+round his neck, Lord-Mayor fashion. I saw him just now, a little man
+rather like a monkey. He is a very important personage, for all the
+orders are given through him, and he receives the pay for his men and is
+responsible for their good behaviour. Woe be to the man who is
+insubordinate! Not only will he be punished now, but his whole village
+will hear about it, and he will be disgraced and find it difficult to
+get work thereafter.
+
+[Illustration: A LASCAR.]
+
+The moon is covered with clouds to-night, which is a pity, but the
+brilliant reflectors the ship carries in her bows throw the light well
+ahead on to both banks.
+
+Hullo! We're coming to something; there is another ship tied up waiting
+for us to pass. No, it is true I can't make her out, but I can see her
+searchlights, so I guess she is behind them. Very slowly we crawl on,
+making hardly a ripple; we are going dead slow now, scarcely moving, in
+fact. That light from the other ship is blinding; just where it strikes
+the water there are any number of little fish wriggling and squirming in
+an ecstasy of painful delight. The water is alive with them, churning
+and threshing over one another like a pot full of eels. Bright lights
+attract fish and it is a very old dodge, known all over the world, to
+hold a flare over the water and then spear or net the fish who are
+attracted by it. Fish must have something akin to moths in their nature,
+as many of them simply cannot resist a light.
+
+Now we are alongside; the other ship's light is out of our eyes and our
+own falls full upon her. What a spectacle! She looks like a phantom ship
+carrying a cargo of ghosts! She is transformed by our lights into blue
+fire! Every plank and rope stands out brilliantly in the ghastly light.
+Her decks are crowded by a mass of turbaned and fez-covered men, mostly
+in light garments, and they, their faces and their clothing, are all
+blue-white. They stand silently, packed side by side like sardines; it
+doesn't look as if they would have room to lie, or even to sit down. As
+we glide slowly past a strange odour floats over from them enveloping
+us--an odour made up of spices and camels and tired unwashed humanity;
+there is a hint of coffee in it and a touch of wood-smoke--it suggests
+Eastern bazaars and the desert.
+
+Then our light slips off them and we see the ship as she really is under
+the faintly diffused light of the clouded moon. She is a dirty
+commonplace hulk, packed with men in soiled clothes, no longer the
+radiant white ship of our vision.
+
+"Taking pilgrims back from Mecca," says one of the passengers who is
+leaning over the rail near us smoking. "They pack them like cattle
+usually. On some of these vessels their fare doesn't include any
+accommodation or food; they have to bargain with the captain for a bit
+of deck to lie down on, and the highest bidder secures the best place!"
+
+Mecca, which lies many miles inland from the port of Jiddah, half-way
+down the Red Sea, is the birthplace of Mohammed, and the sacred city of
+the Mohammedans; when they kneel at their devotions it is with their
+faces turned towards Mecca. Those who have managed to pilgrimage there
+even once in their lives are looked upon as superior beings.
+
+The siding we have just passed is one of the largest in the canal, and
+three ships can lie up there together if necessary. It is here that the
+Syrian caravans cross over into Africa.
+
+Next morning we are up on deck in good time, as we want to see all we
+can of the canal. We are by this time out in the wide water of the
+Bitter Lake, where we can go at a good speed, then the canal itself
+begins again and we pass one of the little station-houses where the
+signalmen live; it looks as if it was built out of a child's bricks, and
+stands on the arid banks with only a few scanty palms near. It must be a
+dreary sort of life for ever signalling to ships which are going onward
+to all countries of the world, while you yourself remain pinned down in
+the same few square yards of land.
+
+This narrow waterway that passes down between Asia on the one side and
+Africa on the other is stimulating to the imagination.
+
+We catch a glimpse of Suez afar off and run by a tree-shadowed road that
+leads to a peninsula, where are the P. & O. offices and a row of houses
+inhabited by the men whose work in life it is to look after the canal.
+Notice that buoy on the port side of the ship, it is about as far from
+the bank as a man could throw a cricket-ball, yet through that strip of
+water, which marks the deepest channel, every ship has to pass either on
+entering or leaving the canal. Think of it! Between five thousand and
+six thousand ships steam through in a year, they are of all sizes, of
+many nations, carrying many kinds of cargo. There are the mail ships and
+passenger ships of the European countries, there are pilgrim ships from
+Russia and Turkey, there are transports carrying our own khaki-clad
+soldiers; you can always recognise one of these transports, for she is
+painted white and carries a large white number on a black square at the
+stem and stern. Then there are merchant ships innumerable; it is true
+that the heavily laden Australian ships go home round the Cape, as the
+distance (from Sydney) is much the same, but those stored with teak wood
+from Burma, with tea, cotton, spices, and silk from China, Ceylon, and
+India come through here. If a boy were to sit on the verandah of one of
+those houses and hear the names, destinations, and freight of all the
+vessels he saw, he could learn the geography and commerce of half the
+world with hardly an effort!
+
+[Illustration: IN THE SUEZ CANAL, THE NARROW WATERWAY BETWEEN ASIA AND
+AFRICA.]
+
+That range of mountains across there, which look strangely like ruined
+forts and castles, forms part of the great peninsula of Sinai where the
+Law was given to Moses, and though it is in Asia it now belongs to
+Egypt. It looks as if you could hit it with a stone, so wonderfully do
+distant objects stand out in this clear atmosphere, but it is seven or
+eight miles away. That dark clump midway between it and the sea marks
+the place called Moses' Well.
+
+We are in the Gulf of Suez now, and it must have been somewhere about
+here that the Israelites crossed over with the host of Pharaoh pursuing
+them.
+
+We are getting up better speed, and it is not long before we have
+reached the end of the gulf and pass out into the wide waters of the Red
+Sea.
+
+There were two delusions I cherished for many a year about this sea. I
+always imagined it a long, narrow strip, like a river, in which you
+could see from bank to bank as you sailed along; and secondly, I thought
+there must be some red colouring on the banks or in the water to account
+for the strange name. As a matter of fact, the sea is over one thousand
+miles long and varies from twenty to one hundred and eighty miles in
+breadth. Being on it in a ship is like being out in the open ocean, for
+one can see no shore. The name "Red" Sea has never been satisfactorily
+explained, but some people suggest that it may have arisen from the
+spawn or eggs of fish which float on the surface in quantities at
+certain times of the year and are of a reddish tinge, others say it is
+from the coral which grows so well here, and others think it may have
+something to do with the rocks of red porphyry on the Egyptian side of
+the Arabian Gulf.
+
+For the first time since we left England we begin now, as we go
+southward, to feel uncomfortably hot. It was never too hot in Egypt, for
+there was always a fresh wind. Here at first we have a following wind
+which makes it seem dead calm; there is a kind of clammy dampness in the
+air which makes it impossible to do anything requiring energy. The deck
+games of "bull" and quoits and even cricket, which have been carried on
+in such a lively way lately, fall off; no one cares to do anything.
+
+Even the children cease from troubling. There are quite a number of them
+on board, for this is an Australian ship; if she were going to India
+there would be no small children. Here I counted fifteen at the table
+downstairs where they have their meals. You, of course, are treated as a
+grown-up person, and quite right too, as you are on the eve of a public
+school. I wonder how you will settle down at Harrow next winter after
+all this change! There is only one other boy of about the same age. I
+saw you talking to him this morning; what do you make of him?
+
+A "rotter"? Yes, I thought so too. He seems to consider that the
+greatest fun on board is to rumple up the stewards' hair or to knock off
+their caps, and as they can't retaliate it is poor sport. He never plays
+games either, which is odd considering he is an Australian.
+
+Oh, I hoped that child had sunk into a sweet slumber! He is a nuisance;
+he can't be more than four, but he never seems to rest day or night, and
+he spends the laziest hour of the afternoon dragging a squeaking cart up
+and down the wooden deck, to the annoyance of everyone except the fond
+mother, who encourages it as a sign of genius! Odd one never can travel
+without at least one child of that sort on board. There's a nice alcove
+aft behind the smoking-room where we may find refuge.
+
+Yes, I grant the little girls are just as bad as the boys; there is that
+pert spoilt little miss who rushes after the steward when he carries
+round the _hors d'oeuvre_ before dinner and clamours for them.
+
+"They're not for children," he told her.
+
+"But mother doesn't forbid me to have them," she retorted, standing on
+one leg with her finger in her mouth.
+
+If she refrained from doing only what her mother _did_ forbid her she
+would have a fairly easy time I think.
+
+It is too stifling to sleep in the cabin, so we will try the deck
+to-night. It is rather pleasant stepping out on to the warm dry boards
+when the lights are out. The awning shuts us in overhead, but at the
+side we can see the smooth water lying white in the moonlight. Here is
+our place, with our mattresses laid out neatly side by side and the
+number of our cabin scrawled in white chalk on the wooden boards beside
+them. There is a story of a certain ape who got loose on board ship and
+paid a visit to the deck when all the men were asleep! A funny sight it
+must have been as he landed on the top of one after the other!
+
+In spite of the calmness of the night it is always more or less noisy on
+a ship: there is the flap of an awning, the crack of a rope, the
+creaking of the plates, and the frilling away of the water past the
+ship's side. I lie awake a long time, turning uneasily and feeling the
+taste of the salt on my lips. At last, low down between the rails, away
+on the horizon, I see the well-known constellation, the Southern Cross.
+You have often heard of it I expect. It is one of the most famous groups
+of stars in the southern hemisphere and as much beloved by southerners
+as the Great Bear is by us. As the Great Bear sinks night by night lower
+in the north so the Southern Cross rises into sight. It is not a very
+brilliant or even cross, but rather straggly, and the stars are not very
+large, but it means much--hot skies, blue-black and brilliantly
+star-spangled, lines of white surf breaking on silvery sand beneath palm
+trees, fire-flies and scented air--I am growing drowsy at last--sleep is
+coming.... I must show you the cross another night.
+
+Hullo! it's morning! A Lascar is standing by grinning, with a bucket of
+water and a deck-swab; they want to begin holystoning down the decks.
+How sleepy I am! And as for you, the night steward, who is still on
+duty, lifts you in his arms and carries you into your bunk, where you'll
+find yourself when you do wake. It's only five--time for some more hours
+yet. Sleeping on deck is rather an overrated amusement I think!
+
+Before getting out of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean we have to pass
+through the Straits of Babel-Mandeb, which means the Gate of Affliction
+or Tears, because of the numerous wrecks there have been here. Then we
+stop at Aden, where the passengers going on to India change to another
+P. & O. steamer, the _Salsette_, which is waiting for them. The _Medina_
+goes across to Ceylon and then south to Australia, but the ship
+following her next week goes straight to India.
+
+It is lucky for Britain that she owns Aden, for it is the doorway at the
+south end of the Red Sea, as the canal is the doorway at the north end.
+Of course it is more important to us that the route to the East should
+be kept clear than it is to any nation, because in case of difficulties
+in India we should have to send troops there at once. It is more by good
+luck than good management that just these little corners of the world,
+that mean so much, should happen to fall into our possession--Gibraltar,
+for instance, the gateway of the Mediterranean. And though the British
+Government refused to have any hand in the making of the Suez Canal, yet
+afterwards, because the Khedive of Egypt was hard up and willing to sell
+his shares, we bought at a reasonable rate and have much influence in
+the management of the canal.
+
+Standing beside us, watching the passengers for India climb down the
+gangway, is a fresh-looking, pink-faced young man of about
+one-and-twenty. He has a simple look, and you would think he was too
+young and innocent to go round the world by himself.
+
+"I'm right down glad I'm not going to 'do' India," he remarks. "I'm sick
+of travelling; I'm just longing to get back."
+
+"To Australia?"
+
+"Yes; I'm a sheep-farmer there. I've worked four years without a break,
+so I took a holiday in Europe."
+
+Anything less like one's idea of a sheep-farmer it would be hard to
+find! I always pictured them stern bearded men, with brick-red faces and
+sinewy limbs. This lad doesn't look as if he had ever been in a strong
+sun, and his slender loose-jointed legs and arms do not give the
+impression of an open-air life spent mostly in the saddle.
+
+"You have a sheep-farm? Hard life, isn't it?"
+
+"Best life in the world," he answers with enthusiasm. "Always on
+horseback, miles of open country, not shut in by beastly houses."
+
+"But there's a lack of water, isn't there?"
+
+"You can always sink a well, that's what they do now. It costs a good
+deal, but you can get water almost anywhere within reason."
+
+"Are you far out?"
+
+"No, only about three hundred and forty miles from the town where my
+mother lives. I go down to see her at week-ends; we're lucky in being
+close to a station, only a fifteen-mile ride."
+
+Three hundred and forty miles! About the distance from London to
+Berwick! Good place for week-ends, especially with a fifteen-mile ride
+at one end! I suppose our ideas get small from living in a little
+country. Pity we can't visit Australia, but we can't manage it this
+time. That great island-continent and its sister, New Zealand, are well
+worth seeing. Except for the Canadians there are no people nearer akin
+to us than the Australasians. The world-famous harbour of Sydney, the
+great hills clothed in eucalyptus, hiding in their depths vast caverns
+of stalactites, the wide open ranges stretching for leagues inland, all
+these things are attractive. In New Zealand, too, we should find
+tree-ferns of gigantic size, lovely scenery, and spouting geysers; it is
+an England set in a very different climate from ours! Then we might pass
+on to those strange South Seas, gemmed by coral islands, and to the
+latitudes where the mighty albatross swings overhead like an aeroplane,
+only, unlike an aeroplane, he glides in a never-ending plane without
+apparent effort or even one flap of his huge twelve-foot wings.
+
+Alas, we can't see everything this trip!
+
+[Illustration: A FLYING FISH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN
+
+
+Now we are right out in the Indian Ocean, and it is a bright day with a
+certain freshness in the air, instead of that horrible muggy heat that
+made us feel so languid when we were in the Red Sea. Look over the
+ship's side and watch the rainbow in the spray; that is one of the
+prettiest things to see on board. As the vessel cuts through the water
+she raises a frill of foam on either side--what the sailors call "a bone
+in her mouth." The frill, rising to a continuous wave along the side,
+catches the sunlight and a perpetual rainbow dances in it, changing
+always but remaining ever. Whew! What a rush! Flying fish. Look at them!
+These are the first we have seen so near; when they spring out of the
+water like that and skim along in the air they are not doing it for fun,
+but to escape a bitter enemy in the water, the bonito, a ferocious large
+fish who preys upon them; he is their chief foe, but there are many
+others also. They curve up all together like a glittering bow and
+slither down again. In dropping back into the sea they make a kind of
+pattering noise, though, of course, we are too far to hear it, and the
+fishermen in the small islands near India make use of this in trying to
+catch the bonito. They go out in boats specially built for the purpose,
+with a kind of platform overhanging the stern; here they sit and make a
+splashing with their paddles, at the same time using some little fish,
+which they catch and breed in tanks, for bait. The noise attracts the
+large fish, who think there is a shoal of the small fry about, and they
+jump at the bait and are caught. The catch is often very good, and the
+boats come back to the huts laden with the ogre fish, destined to be
+eaten in their turn!
+
+Have you ever thought what it must be like right down there in the deeps
+below the green water? We can't see because of the light striking the
+surface, but if we had a water-glass we could. This is a wooden funnel
+like that made of paper by village shopkeepers to roll up soft sugar in.
+At the broad end is a piece of strong glass, which is thrust under the
+water, and by peering through the small end it is possible to make out
+what is happening below if it is not too deep; anyway, we are too high
+up out of the water to use one here even if we had it, but in a boat
+near the coral reefs and islands there are wonderful things to be seen
+by the help of one of these glasses.
+
+If you dropped a stone overboard here it would sink and sink gradually
+for about two miles, until it found a resting-place on a slimy bottom of
+ooze in a strange dark place. You have a pretty good idea of what a mile
+is from running in the school races; in imagination set it up on end,
+and add another to it, and then think of that stone sinking that
+distance into the grey water! Down there it must be quite dark, for the
+mass of water above cuts off the sunlight like a black curtain. There
+are many beasts living there, nevertheless; lobsters and other
+shell-fish as well as fish, and in a great many cases those that have
+been examined are found to have no eyes; it is probable that they have
+lost their eyesight in the course of many generations, because it would
+be no help to them in getting a living in those black depths. The
+subject is not fully understood yet, because _some_ deep-sea fishes have
+exceptionally good sight, but these may possibly live higher up in the
+water, where there is a certain amount of glare, and then their eyes
+would become sharpened by necessity.
+
+[Illustration: DEEP-SEA FISH.]
+
+The bed of the ocean is not a level plain; if you could see it emptied
+of all water, you would discover that the land slopes down, sometimes
+gradually and sometimes with terrific precipices from the shores, and
+that at the mouths of great rivers there are great banks of mud brought
+down by the current and piled up, making a fat living for innumerable
+sea-creatures. But at the very bottom, in this carpet of slime, there
+are no weeds, or as we might call them sea-vegetables, for they cannot
+live altogether without light, so the creatures which have their home in
+what to us would seem this cheerless, miserable retreat, must live on
+one another. They are differently built from surface fish, because they
+have always resting upon them the weight of an enormous pile of water.
+Picture a pyramid of water two miles high resting on anybody. It would
+crush him to atoms; but the fish and crustacea down there are used to
+it, and fitted by nature to support it, and so, if they are brought up
+to the surface by any means, they burst! In deep-sea trawling it is
+quite a common occurrence to see fishes literally burst open, with their
+eyes protruding from the sockets, and this annoys the fishermen, because
+they are of no use for the market in that condition. It is difficult to
+imagine creatures unable to live without a great weight resting on them,
+but as a matter of fact it is the same thing with us in a less degree.
+There is a column of air some miles high resting on every one of us, and
+if we could imagine ourselves lifted out of it into space, our heads
+would throb, and our eyes would burst out, and we should be as helpless
+as a deep-sea fish brought up to the surface.
+
+As for light, they have strange methods down there in the black depths.
+A great many of the deep-sea inhabitants carry their own lights, for
+they are more or less luminous, shining by internal light as glow-worms
+and fire-flies do. One extraordinary fish has a row of shiny spots
+stretching from his head to his tail, and when he is swimming about he
+must look like a liner with a lighted row of ship's ports stretching
+along his side. Even lobsters and crabs shine luminously, and what use
+it is to them when they are frequently blind it is hard to conjecture;
+it must have something to do with catching prey, who are perhaps not
+blind and may be attracted by the lights. There is at least one fish who
+hangs out what is like a red lantern, only it is the tip of his fin, and
+by this means he draws to himself small creatures who swim right into
+his capacious mouth; thus his dinner comes to him without his having to
+search for it!
+
+I want to go to the bows, for it never seems to me I am in a ship until
+I can get to a place where there is nothing to shut one in. These modern
+liners are horribly shut in, one might as well be in a drawing-room most
+of the time. Here we are at last, and it is good to draw a deep breath,
+feeling the huge dome of the sky above and the wide rim of the horizon
+around with nothing to cut them off. Look down where the ship cleaves
+the sea with her bows cleanly and beautifully like a living thing.
+Hullo! there is a dolphin! We are in luck! Can you see him dancing round
+us and plunging in under water and coming up again, much as a dog does
+on land when he goes out for a walk with his master? There is another,
+and another! What they call a shoal. They go fast enough; I expect we
+are making about fifteen or sixteen knots, or miles, an hour, which is
+good going, and yet these little chaps swim round and round, cutting
+across ahead of us, diving under us and coming up again all the time; to
+them it is mere child's play, and they really are playing; they are full
+of fun, and there is no earthly reason why they should behave like that
+except for amusement!
+
+[Illustration: A DOLPHIN.]
+
+There goes the bugle for lunch.
+
+Seems early, you say? As if we had only just finished breakfast? Yes.
+Look at your watch. It is hopelessly wrong, of course; so is mine and
+everyone else's. We are going just about due east now, so we are meeting
+the sun half-way, so to speak. That is what makes the time different.
+You know that when the sun is at the highest point overhead at any place
+then it is midday, and as the earth spins round from west to east a
+constant succession of places come beneath him in turn, each getting
+their midday a little later than the one before. In the British Isles
+there is really very little difference between the hours when the
+eastern and western coasts meet the sun. Take Yarmouth, say, and Land's
+End; there is perhaps something like half an hour between them, but as
+it would be awkward for railway work and business if every place had a
+little different time, so, for convenience' sake, one "standard" time is
+adopted in England, Scotland, and now even in some of the nearest
+continental countries; this is the hour when the sun is highest above
+Greenwich, where is our greatest observatory. And this is called midday,
+even though as a matter of fact the real midday at different places may
+be earlier or later.
+
+As we journey east across the world, however, we are constantly going
+forward to meet the sun. We are not only on the earth, which is turning
+round all the time, but we are going ahead ourselves as well, and
+out-running the earth, and so we arrive at noon sooner and sooner each
+day. Our watches of course take no heed of _real_ time as judged by the
+sun, they are just mechanical and tick away their sixty minutes to each
+hour whether the sun is overhead or not. At this moment we are about
+four hours ahead of our friends in England. It is one o'clock here, but
+they will only be having breakfast! When we live always in one place it
+is easy to forget that we are on a ball spinning round in space, but
+this brings it home to us and makes us realise our absurd position in
+the universe. Well, let us get our lunch. There is one thing on board,
+everybody is always ready to eat an amazing amount after they have got
+over sea-sickness, and the number of meals we manage to consume here
+would surprise us at home!
+
+As the evening closes in, the day undergoes a change; there is a thick
+bank of black-looking cloud in the west, and just as the sun goes down
+this breaks up into wild streamers and shows deep ragged gulfs of livid
+light between; there are glimpses of green and tawny-red and angry
+orange flashing through, and then the veil of cloud blots out the light.
+Yet it is still, there doesn't seem to be a ripple of wind, and the sea
+has a curious oily calm upon it. Would you like to come along to the
+bows after dinner? Don't, if you don't want to. It is more difficult to
+get there than we expected, for though it looks so calm there is a big
+swell, and we are rising and falling considerably on the smooth-backed
+hillocks of water. Creep under these ropes and over this barricade. Then
+we are free from all the entanglements. There are no dolphins now, but
+there is a strange light dancing away like fire from the cutting bow; it
+comes in streaks and flashes, one moment it seems as if it must be only
+a reflection in the cut water, and the next one could swear there was a
+real flash.
+
+That is phosphorescence, which is very common in tropical seas,
+sometimes the whole sea is alight with it. Look at that! It is a vivid
+light like a wave of green fire, most beautiful! It is only, however,
+where the ship strikes the water that we see it to-night. But sometimes,
+though not often at this season of the year, the whole ocean seems to be
+alight with it; it is the effect of innumerable millions of tiny
+sea-creatures floating on the surface, though exactly why they do it at
+one time more than another is yet unknown. The curious thing is that
+there are so many different kinds of phosphorescence; there is the
+bright fiery kind like this we are seeing now in flashes, and there is a
+dull luminous kind which sailors call a "white sea." Then the whole sea
+appears as white as milk, or, as someone who has seen it describes it,
+as if it were changed to ice covered with a coating of snow. This was on
+a dark night before the moon had risen, but when she did get up it all
+disappeared and the sea looked much as usual, glittering only where the
+beams struck it, except for odd patches of shiny light here and there,
+and oddly enough exactly the same thing happened the following night.
+I'm afraid we shan't be lucky enough to see that.
+
+Is the motion making you uncomfortable? No? I'm glad of that; you're a
+first-rate sailor. Let us go back to that jolly alcove at the end of the
+smoking-room looking aft, where we can see the great green-black waves
+rising suddenly behind us.
+
+Yes, this is distinctly comfortable and quite interesting. It seems as
+if every wave rose in a great hill suddenly just after we had passed the
+spot! We must have come over it, but sitting like this we didn't feel
+it, we are riding so smoothly.
+
+If we look out ahead we shall see the same sort of thing happening; we
+approach a black hillock of water, and just as we get to it it rolls
+down and disappears under us. The ship is so large that though she
+climbs those hills, we get the impression that the hills straighten
+underneath her. You must have noticed something of the same kind in
+riding a bicycle; if you are running down one hill and see another
+rising in front, the other one looks terrifically steep, but as you get
+on to it, it flattens out in an inexplicable way; it is the change in
+our own position that accounts for the phenomenon.
+
+It is very close to-night and there is an uneasy feeling in the air; the
+captain did not appear at dinner. It is a good thing that they put off
+that fancy-dress ball which was to have been held this evening, for
+there could not have been much dancing. Your costume will come in useful
+another time. I want to see you sometime as a little Egyptian with a
+skull-cap and a garment like a flannel night-shirt! But we shall have
+another chance.
+
+"Hope we're not in for a cyclone," says one of the men, appearing out of
+the smoking-room with a pipe in his mouth.
+
+"Very unusual at this time of year in the North-East monsoon," replies
+another as they disappear.
+
+At that moment forked lightning plays across the sky in a great ragged
+streak, and immediately there is another display as if answering it,
+but we can hear no thunder.
+
+What is the North-East monsoon? It sounds rather like some kind of
+animal, but it is only the name given to a certain wind that blows
+always at one season of the year.
+
+Across broad spaces of the ocean there are always steady winds to be
+counted on, such as the trade-winds, which are caused by the air at the
+Equator getting hot and rising, and being replaced by the cold air from
+the Poles which rushes in; besides this there are other winds which blow
+half the year, called monsoons, these are due to very much the same
+causes. The North-East monsoon comes in the northern winter; the air
+from the North Pole coming down slowly is met by the earth as she turns,
+and as she rushes into it she makes it a north-eastern wind; this,
+coming over the land from the north, is a dry wind, while the other one,
+the South-Western monsoon, coming from the south over the ocean in the
+other half of the year, is a wet wind and brings the rain which is such
+a boon to India.
+
+The lightning is continually playing, and I shouldn't be surprised if we
+are on the edge of a cyclone, but with a big ship like this, and a
+captain who knows his business, there is nothing to be afraid of. These
+cyclones, which are called typhoons in the China seas, are curious
+storms which twist round and round in a circle, all the time progressing
+onward too, and the danger is in getting into the middle of one, for
+there, as you may imagine, the wind comes from all quarters at once, and
+the waves are piled up on all sides like huge overhanging pyramids. I've
+never been in the middle of one, I'm thankful to say, but those who
+have, and have escaped with their lives, say that the ship is buffeted
+as if by mighty billows which smack down upon her from all directions.
+Sometimes there is seen a space of blue sky, and there is a great calm,
+but this to the commander is the most ominous sign of all, for he knows
+he must be in the centre funnel of the storm, so to speak, and that it
+will be worse for him directly!
+
+We had better go to bed, there's nothing else to do.
+
+Are you awake? Yes, I thought even you could hardly sleep through that!
+What a smack! It sounds as if the heavens had opened and a water-spout
+had descended on deck! What a roar! Can you hear me? All right, come in
+here beside me if you like, but there is precious little room. It seems
+as if every noise on the ocean had been let loose. The rain must be
+simply one great volume of water, and the thunder----Even through our
+port-hole the cabin is as light as day with the lightning; it is just
+two o'clock in the morning. The thunder seems to come absolutely
+instantaneously with the lightning; we must be right in it! I never
+heard such crashes. One minute our heads are down below our feet and the
+next we are almost standing on end. Hang on! We shall probably get
+through all right, this noise doesn't mean anything very bad. But I
+thank my stars I'm not an officer on the bridge. How they ever manage to
+keep on their feet I don't know, much less how they give directions. One
+man told me that he was once in such a sea that when he was pitched off
+his feet into one end of the bridge he hadn't time to recover himself
+before the same pitch came again and sent him down just as he was trying
+to get up! At any time the life at sea is hard, but doubly so in a storm
+like this! Hour after hour it goes on. I don't suppose anyone has slept
+through this, and many must be feeling very ill. We are lucky to be
+spared that!
+
+Next morning, though the lightning had ceased, the wind is terrific, it
+goes screeching past, and the rain comes down in buckets; with great
+difficulty we get into our clothes and scramble up to the smoking-room.
+It is a miserable day and very few of the passengers appear, but by the
+afternoon the worst is over, and we can get out into our alcove. We are
+still labouring heavily in a blue-black sea, and can see a very little
+way as we are surrounded by mountains of water. Hurrah! There is a cleft
+over in the east, which means the storm is breaking. Our captain knows
+the law of cyclones and has judged rightly which way to turn to get out
+of the track of the storm. We have passed through a corner of it, and
+though we have got out of our course, that won't mean much delay.
+Anyway, you've had an experience very few people have had, for there are
+few indeed of all the thousands who go to India who have ever been in
+the tail of a cyclone! It is most unusual, but in these seas one never
+knows what will happen.
+
+[Illustration: A NATIVE VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A TROPICAL THUNDERSTORM
+
+
+We have really arrived in the East! We are in Colombo, the capital town
+of Ceylon, the great island which lies swung like a pendant from the
+southernmost point of India. We are sitting in the shady verandah of one
+of the largest hotels, the Grand Oriental, called G.O.H. for short, and
+as we sip lemon-squash we look out over a scene so full of interest that
+it is difficult to take it all in. This is quite different from Port
+Said. There it was bright and clear, but there was not the wonderful
+smell and sense of being the East that we have here. The air is full of
+scent, a kind of spicy smell mingled with a touch of wood-smoke, and
+there is a balminess in it that we have never felt till now. The water
+in the harbour is a glorious emerald green, and small boys, almost
+naked, play about on roughly shaped log canoes called catamarans. They
+used to dive for pennies, but the sharks lopped off a leg here and an
+arm there and swallowed one up whole now and again, and so the
+Government forbade it. The dark wooden wharf forms a frame for gay
+figures in pure pinks and greens and yellows, and on the roads there run
+past continually the funniest sturdy little men with their loin-cloths
+tucked up, pulling light-looking chairs on high wheels with people in
+them. These chairs are called rickshaws and are the chief way of getting
+about. Very comfortable they are too, and quite cheap; we will go in
+them presently. The men who pull them have funny chignons of frizzy
+black hair sticking out under their little red caps, and it would be
+easy to mistake them for women. That attendant from the hotel at your
+elbow is asking you if you'll take another lemon-squash; he is quite a
+different sort of man from the runners, isn't he? Much taller and with a
+mild expression; his straight hair is adorned by a curved tortoise-shell
+comb of considerable size; he wears it round the back of his head, and
+how he makes it stay on among his very scanty locks is a miracle. His
+flowing white garments are immaculately clean, and he doesn't look as if
+he could kill a mosquito! He is a Cingalee, and the little men who run
+in the rickshaws are Tamils; these races live side by side in Ceylon,
+though there are many more Cingalese than Tamils. They are quite
+distinct, though they both originally came over from India, and in the
+old days when the Cingalese gave a line of kings to the island they were
+always fighting the Tamils; to-day both live together peacefully under
+British rule.
+
+This place is a positive bazaar! There is a deep, crafty old merchant
+sitting like a spider over his pile of sheeny silks in the corner--he
+hopes to get good prices from the unwary tourist; there is another with
+a stall of beautiful brass and copper hand-worked things, and others
+with jewellery and carved ivory. But more interesting than any is the
+snake-charmer, who has just squatted down in front of us, prepared to
+give us an entertainment.
+
+That is a cobra he takes out; you know it by its large, flat head. It
+seems sleepy and stupid, but its bite is deadly. It is possible, of
+course, that he has abstracted the poison-fangs which make its bite
+fatal, but even without them I shouldn't care to handle it. It is a huge
+beast, seven or eight feet long I should guess. See how he teases it; he
+is making it rise up on its coils and swing this way and that, darting
+its forked tongue out at him, and yet all the time it fears him. He has
+a marvellous power over it; its narrow, wicked light eyes are fixed on
+his face; it never looks away. Now he begins to play to it on a little
+flute; it is dancing, swaying its lean unlovely body to and fro and up
+and down in time with the tune. He puts down his pipe and makes a motion
+to it as if he were mesmerising it, passing his hands this way and that,
+until it comes to him and puts its flat head on his shoulder, nozzling
+into his neck. It makes one shudder to see it! It coils round his body
+again and again; he is enveloped in the coils. I should not care for
+that profession! It is not every man that can do it, only some of the
+natives have a gift for it, and they really have a power over snakes,
+even those in a wild state, for they make them come forth out of holes
+when called and remain passive at their feet. This man deserves a good
+tip. Bakshish they call it here too; that word accompanies you round the
+world!
+
+[Illustration: A CINGALEE WAITER.]
+
+I think we'll go for a jaunt, if you're ready, as the light falls
+quickly here. There is no difficulty in getting two rickshaws, and how
+they spin along. They say the men who drag them don't live many years,
+as the constant running wears them out, but they look healthy enough and
+show no more exhaustion after running than a horse does after trotting.
+Each one has twisted up his dhoti, as the white skirts they wear are
+called, showing his bare brown legs; the upper garment is simply a
+European cotton vest. We spin along the bright red road by the sea,
+seeing the long lines of foam breaking gently on the beach, and then
+turn into shady roads where trees with brilliant yellow leaves light the
+wayside. Then we pass through a native village with huts of thatch,
+while plantains, which at home we call bananas, grow on broad-leaved
+plants by each door. There is dust enough here, and mangy-looking pariah
+dogs, and cocks and hens, and multitudes of bright beady-eyed children
+with hardly any clothing on. There is plenty of foliage and greenery and
+a freshness and richness of colouring that is much better than the grey
+leafless harshness of an Egyptian village, for this land gets plenty of
+rain. Everyone seems good-humoured and happy, and the children look fat
+enough; some of them are very black, with woolly heads, of a different
+type from the others. These are the children of a race called Moormen.
+
+When we get down near the hotel I want you to come into this jeweller's
+shop in the arcade; you'll see a strange sight. A crowd of tourists are
+sitting round a table which is covered with little heaps of shining
+stones, unset and piled on squares of white paper; some are brilliant
+blue, others flashing crimson, others sombre in hue, but showing a
+glitter of living light whichever way you turn them. The odd thing is
+that the visitors are handling them and turning them over, and examining
+them quite freely, while the owner, a wizened old man in horn
+spectacles, hardly watches!
+
+"They're not real?"
+
+Indeed they are! Rubies, star-sapphires, opals, and many another
+precious stone. That native owner has a queer faith in the honesty of
+his customers! Long may it last!
+
+We are only in Colombo for one night, and to-morrow we are going
+up-country to stay with a friend of mine, a tea-planter.
+
+As we are undressing you give a sudden start, "What's that?" Only a
+lizard scuttling over the dark-washed bedroom wall, first cousin to the
+chameleon you saw at Abu Simbel. He is quite harmless and lives on
+flies. He runs like a little shadow across the wall and sometimes he
+loses his balance and comes down thump on the floor, or breaks his fall
+on the mosquito curtains. He is one of the signs that we really are in
+the East; here is another. Listen for a moment at the window. There is a
+distant barking of dogs, a far-away crow from a defiant cock, a strange
+murmurous chant of men, weird cries intermingled, and now and then the
+deep beat of a parchment drum. The people of the land are all awake and
+stirring though it is late--the East never really sleeps as profoundly
+as does the West; there is a restlessness in the blood that stirs too
+much, and a pulsating warmth in the air that does not allow of deep
+slumber; it is the restlessness of the jungle translated into town life.
+
+Next day at the station we find that the porters, though dressed in neat
+blue suits, have pronounced chignons of the same type as their brothers
+who draw the rickshaws, and in spite of their European-cut coats and
+trousers they run about with bare feet! We might make a museum of the
+strange porters we see on our wanderings, collecting a specimen from
+each country!
+
+The train is comfortable enough and there is a luncheon-car, so we
+shan't starve this time; besides, the journey to Kandy is only a few
+hours. There I hope we shall be met, as I haven't the least idea
+whereabouts my friend, Mr. Hunter's, tea-plantation is; however, I sent
+him a wire yesterday directly we arrived to say we would come by this
+train, so he is sure to be there.
+
+The line for the greater part of the way is laid on a terrace or shelf
+cut out of a hillside, and it winds along climbing ever up with a
+towering wall on one side and a precipice on the other. The little
+stations have hardly room to wedge in, but they are very gay with
+flowers--indeed the whole line is, for great yellow daisies and the
+terra-cotta blossoms of a pretty creeper called lantana climb
+everywhere. As we get higher and higher we can look down and see the
+country spread out before us like a map; it is cut up into neat little
+fields and would be like a draught-board except that the fields are
+often on different levels one above the other, made on land cut out from
+the hillsides. These people grow rice, which is to them what maize is to
+the Egyptian. In the fields, before it has been threshed, it is known as
+paddy. They live on rice and very little else, and seem to thrive on it.
+Rice pudding if repeated every day for a month at both breakfast and
+dinner would grow monotonous, but the man of the East does not find it
+so. His rice is not cooked with milk but with water, and is eaten with a
+little curry made of fish or vegetables to give it flavour.
+
+Higher yet, and soon we see the hills laid out with rows of a tiny
+dark-green bush, planted as neatly as rows of turnips; this is the tea
+for which Ceylon is famous, and we shall get a nearer look at it
+presently. That and rubber are the staple crops that Englishmen come out
+here to raise, but they also grow coffee and other things too.
+
+[Illustration: DOWN IN THE PADDYFIELDS.]
+
+When we arrive at Kandy there is no sign of anything to meet us and no
+white man on the platform, so I make inquiries of the stationmaster, who
+is a Eurasian, which means that he has some white blood in his veins. He
+knows Mr. and Mrs. Hunter perfectly well, he says, though he has not
+seen them for a day or two. If, as I say, I wired, they are certain to
+send in a trap to meet us; but it may have been delayed or still be in
+the town. If we care to go up and look round, and come back again, he
+will meantime make inquiries. With many thanks we take his advice. The
+town is quite near and we find the main part of it built around a pretty
+little lake near which is the famous Temple of the Tooth. This is a
+massive building visited by thousands of pilgrims, because it enshrines
+a relic of great sanctity, nothing less than the tooth of Buddha! What
+Mohammed is to the Mohammedans so Buddha is to the Buddhists, among
+whom the greater part of the people of Ceylon may be counted. But Buddha
+is more than a prophet; his followers say that he has appeared on earth
+many times, and that the last time he came in the form of an Indian
+prince who, instead of living in careless luxury, left his home and
+wandered forth among the people to discover the meaning of life. When he
+found it, after deep meditation, he left certain precepts and rules to
+his followers. Some of them are very good, resembling our own
+Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not lie," "Thou shalt
+not steal," "Thou shalt not drink intoxicating liquor." But, unlike the
+Mohammedans, the Buddhists do not believe in God. Their idea of blissful
+happiness at the last is to melt away into a kind of nothingness of
+perfect peace, with no desires, no worries, and no cares.
+
+All over the East you find temples which are supposed to contain some
+part of Buddha's person, hairs, teeth, even a collar-bone! Of course it
+is impossible that these things should be genuine, and in any case, if
+they were, there is nothing sacred about them. The worshippers always
+say they do not look upon Buddha as a god, but only a great spiritual
+teacher, yet the poor and ignorant come and worship and bow down in
+these temples, and there is no doubt that to them the image itself
+stands for a god. The tooth which is here is kept in many caskets, one
+within the other, and it is never shown except on very great occasions.
+Mr. Hunter saw it once, and says it is not a human tooth at all, but a
+great thing like a boar's tusk or possibly an elephant's tooth. He
+couldn't get a good look at it, anyway he saw enough to be quite sure
+that it is not human at all, and the same may be said without doubt of
+all similar relics.
+
+What a lovely scene! The graceful dark-skinned crowd in their softly
+flowing garments of the purest pinks you ever saw, with sulphur yellow
+and rich red draperies thrown over them, are idling by the hoary grey
+steps of the temple and dropping bits of bread into the ponds in front.
+They are feeding the tortoises, fat lazy beasts who will hardly move to
+snap at the fragments unless they fall before their very noses. These
+beasts are supposed to be sacred too, and so they have an uncommonly
+good time of it. This massive building, temple and palace in one, was
+inhabited by the old line of native kings who made Kandy their capital.
+
+We must get back to the station or we may miss Mr. Hunter. When we
+arrive there we find there is no sign of him, whereat the attentive
+stationmaster is greatly distressed. He advises us to hire a trap and
+drive to some place with an unpronounceable name, where Mr. Hunter is
+sure to meet us; visitors often do that, he says. I try to discover why
+we can't drive all the way, but his answers are not enlightening; "big
+hill," he replies, and I don't see why the trap can't go up a hill!
+However, we shall see. He engages a trap for us, anyway; with a
+scarecrow horse and a friendly looking driver whose hairy legs protrude
+from wrappings of cinnamon-coloured cloth--once white, I suppose--and we
+are off. The roads at first are very good; and there is none of the dust
+we suffered from so much in Egypt, for Ceylon is a moist land. In fact,
+it looks rather like rain now, with heavy clouds gathering up.
+
+After going at a slow trot for a considerable distance the driver pulls
+up, and pointing with his whip to a tree-covered mountain says something
+unintelligible, which turns out to be "'Unter Tuan," after he has
+repeated it about six times. This means Mr. Hunter, "Tuan" being the
+same term of respect here that "Sahib" is in India.
+
+There is no sign of a house or any living being; the place is
+absolutely deserted. In vain I sign to the man to go ahead; he shakes
+his head and remains seated on his box like an image of despair. I get
+out and see that the road runs away to nothing in the bushes and scrub
+in front, it just ends suddenly for no apparent reason, and while I am
+looking I hear a slight crackling in the bushes, and a tall, thin, very
+dirty-looking youth appears and salaams respectfully. The driver
+immediately begins to converse with him, whereupon the youth takes our
+bag unceremoniously out of the carriage and putting it on his head
+beckons to us to follow him. There is nothing else for it, so, after
+paying the driver, we do so, feeling like two infants in charge of this
+fellow.
+
+I try the lean lad in English, asking him if he knows Hunter Tuan's
+place, but he swings round, looks at me gravely, and continues his
+graceful, elastic walk.
+
+It is pretty warm, and the path is narrow and lined by thorn bushes, so
+the going is not easy; but the youth seems to float on ahead with
+mysterious ease, and we pant after him feeling as if our lives depended
+on not losing sight of him. At last the bushes get so thick that we have
+to push our way through, and we suddenly see him a good distance ahead,
+half-way across a broad and shallow river which bubbles round his knees.
+
+"Hi!" we shout after him. "Stop!" And he turns, but only to beckon
+imperturbably and continue evenly on his way. It is evidently the custom
+of this country to walk through rivers when you meet them! Easy enough
+for the inhabitants, who are not encumbered with shoes and stockings,
+but for us....
+
+Down we go and are soon hard after him with our boots slung round our
+necks and our stockings stuffed into them; the cool water splashing
+round our legs is rather pleasant. Lucky it is not deep. We have to stop
+and re-clothe on the other side. Here our coolie has condescended to
+wait for us, and just as you are about to sit down on a convenient
+hillock of bare brown earth he waves you away, and you see that big red
+ants with a most fierce and warlike appearance are running about it; it
+is their home and fortress! Once more booted we struggle on, uphill now,
+on a stony path, and very stiff work it is. When we tell our guide to
+stop for a moment he looks at us condescendingly and stands with his
+burden poised on his head, not even caring to put it down as he waits
+until these poor creatures, who are not carrying anything at all, regain
+their breath, and that makes us feel so inferior we don't like to stop
+often! The clouds gather and blacken, the perspiration is running down
+my back, and I am as wet as if I had waded through the river up to my
+neck. I should be glad to see the house, for we have been scrambling
+upwards for quite an hour now. What a place to live in! Fancy having to
+come down here every time you wanted to do a little shopping!
+
+Another hour at least! A few drops, muttering thunder, and then, quicker
+than one can say it, a blinding, crashing downpour. Never in my life
+have I seen rain like this until that night at sea when we passed
+through the edge of the cyclone, and now twice have I met it in a week!
+It is simply a water-spout. A brilliant flash of lightning shows us the
+youth crouching under a bank some yards ahead, and we dive into the
+nearest place, following his example. Luckily the bank is high here and
+there is a kind of cave beneath a mass of broad-leaved plants; there is
+just room for the two of us huddled close together, and the wall of
+water sweeps past the entrance like a curtain. The rain makes a
+deafening noise, it literally crashes down; the path is a mountain
+torrent; if we had stayed there we should have been swept off our feet;
+it seems as if the whole mountain-side must go. We hang on to each
+other, avoiding the trickles as best we can. Hullo! this plant is a
+cardamom, carrying little seeds rather like spicy pepper; nibble one, it
+may keep off the effects of the wetting we have been unable to avoid
+altogether. How cold it seems to have grown all of a sudden! Is it the
+rain, or because we are so much higher up? I suppose really it is the
+latter, because I remember now that the planters always live on the tops
+of hills to get the fresh air, which is more healthy there than in the
+stifling valleys.
+
+It is a long time before the storm passes, and when at last it dies down
+to a few drops and we emerge and shake ourselves, all trace of the
+coolie boy has vanished! Yes, it is true! He has gone, and the bag too!
+Well, he must have gone upward or we should have seen him pass, so let
+us hope he is honest and has taken the bag to the house. There is only
+one path, so we can do nothing but follow.
+
+On we climb again, and presently the scene changes; we have got into the
+tea-scrub, and wander among rows of bushes about the size of gooseberry
+bushes, receiving deluges of cold water against our legs. The path
+zigzags this way and that, rising each time so that we can look back and
+see it lying below us in fold after fold. At last! There is an opening!
+I see a glimpse of green lawn and some poinsettias! This must be the
+place! Yes, I can see the bungalow, and here is a mackintosh-clad figure
+hastening down the path to greet us.
+
+"My dear fellow! However did you get here? Why on earth didn't you let
+us know? We'd have sent to meet you!"
+
+As we grasp hands I explain about the telegram. "Oh, then I shall get it
+with the letters to-morrow morning!" he says lightly. "No matter, so
+long as you are here and safe. I was afraid you had got lost upon the
+mountain-top, and was setting forth to seek you."
+
+"But how did you know?"
+
+"Your coolie arrived with the bag a quarter of an hour ago, and your
+name is written on the label very large and clear. Delighted to see you!
+The missus is romping round getting your beds aired and pinning up
+curtains in your honour!"
+
+[Illustration: RUANVELI DAGOBA AT THE "BURIED CITY."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A SACRED TREE
+
+
+Do you remember that just about this time last week we were crouching in
+a hole in a muddy bank waiting for the thunderstorm to pass on? How
+different now, though we are still in Ceylon and, as crow flies, not so
+many miles from the Hunters' mountain-side. It is a gorgeous tropical
+afternoon, the bits of sky we can see through the feathery-leaved trees
+are of the deepest blue, and we are resting, because it seems too hot to
+move a limb. In front of us there stretches a sheet of limpid water
+which might be a lake except that it is surrounded by a raised bund, or
+bank, artificially made, with hewn granite slabs as steps going down at
+one end. We are glad of the shade of the trees falling across the short
+turfy grass, and we are seated on some broken blocks of granite,
+keeping a sharp look out for snakes. They will hardly be likely to
+trouble us here, but in that jungly bit behind it wouldn't be at all
+safe to rest like this. Even to sit on the short grass might be
+unpleasant, as there are all sorts of unknown insects here which bite
+and sting and stab, but we are safely raised on stones and are wearing
+thick boots. Examine that slab of granite there beside you; do you see
+that it has a most wonderfully carved snake upon it--a cobra with seven
+heads? It is so clear-cut it might have been done yesterday, yet it is
+part of the ruins of a mighty city, a city as large as London, which
+once stretched its busy streets over this quiet glade. The cobra was a
+sacred beast to the Hindus, and a seven-headed one was peculiarly so,
+seven being a mystic number.
+
+What a glorious butterfly! Its body is as big as a small bird, and its
+great velvety wings are the sharpest black and white. No, I don't for a
+moment suppose you'll catch it, so it is no use getting hot! I'm glad
+you can't, for we have no proper apparatus here, and it would only be a
+crushed mass to take home. Don't go headlong into the tank, though, in
+your frantic efforts; it might be awkward. No, I don't think there are
+any crocodiles, only a few sacred tortoises perhaps. Look! there is a
+tiny one--that small yellow thing that is walking away with the
+melancholy dignity of a retired general. Pick it up if you like
+certainly, see it wag its head and legs helplessly. I wish we could take
+it home. As you replace it, it continues its grave walk in the same
+direction as if it had never been rudely interrupted. At that instant a
+hare darts across an open glade and disappears in the thick undergrowth.
+What a country! �sop's Fables in real life, where hares and tortoises
+live together!
+
+"Was this city here at the same time as Rameses II. was living?"
+
+No. Egypt was past its best days before this city, which was called
+Anuradhapura (Anarajapura), was built, and you must remember Rameses II.
+was by no means one of the earliest kings of Egypt, he came quite late
+on in his country's history. His date was about thirteen hundred years
+before Christ, and it must have been about eight hundred years after
+that, though still you notice, 500 B.C., that this city was founded by
+some Cingalese who are supposed to have come over from India. That makes
+it between two thousand and three thousand years old, which we should
+think ancient enough if we hadn't visited Egypt first. Anuradhapura
+flourished for centuries as the capital of the Cingalese kings, who
+often carried on savage battles with the Tamils when they came over from
+India also.
+
+Turn round now and examine that hill you wanted to climb a little while
+ago and tell me if you can see anything peculiar about it. No, I don't
+mean that large grey monkey who has just peeped at us in an impudent way
+and then swung himself into hiding, though I admit he is very
+interesting. I mean something odd about the hill itself. It is covered
+with trees and jungle scrub certainly, as any ordinary hill might be,
+but it is oddly steep and the sides rise very sharply from the ground.
+It is an even shape too, more like an inverted bowl than a hill; or,
+better still, just try to imagine some giant cutting off the dome of St.
+Paul's and setting it down here in the jungle, wouldn't it look
+something like that?
+
+You don't quite agree, for you say that this has trees and bushes
+growing on it and St. Paul's dome would be bare. That is so, but if St.
+Paul's dome had been left for many hundreds of years in a country where
+vegetation grows as fast as it does here, wouldn't it probably be grown
+over too?
+
+Yes, I _do_ mean it. That isn't a hill at all, but a huge brick
+building called a dagoba, made by the same race of men who dug out this
+tank, and whose descendants to-day, with tortoise-shell combs in their
+hair, wait on us in the Colombo hotels.
+
+[Illustration: LARGE GREY MONKEY.]
+
+We will go back now to the place where we left that native cart and
+driver and we'll find a dagoba which has been stripped of its trees, so
+that we can see what it really looks like.
+
+Hush! Do you hear that curious singing like a chant? Wait; there is a
+procession of pilgrims. They come swinging round the corner of the road
+in their picturesque flowing garments, and just at the turn they stop
+and kneel with their hands held palms together before their faces, and
+they bow repeatedly before marching on again. Let us go and find out
+what it was that stopped them. We soon come to it and find that it is
+the seated figure of a man with one hand falling over his knee and the
+other on his lap, while his legs are crossed tailor-wise. It is painted
+white and it is not very much larger than life. This is Buddha, of whom
+you heard in Kandy, and all over here, and in Burma, and in a less
+degree in India, you will find images of him set up to remind his
+followers of the precepts he left for them to follow.
+
+Our driver is dead asleep under a tree, but we manage to wake him and
+soon we are rattling along a tree-shaded road in the queer little cart
+to Ruanveli, the best known of all the dagobas. When we arrive in full
+view of it we dismiss the driver and climb on to a slab of stone that is
+raised from the ground and tilted slightly like a table with two legs
+higher than the others. Here we can gaze upon this extraordinary
+monument which rises about one hundred and fifty feet into the air, and
+is about two and a half times as much across, just the shape of a
+pudding basin, you see. It is not a temple, not even a tomb, as the
+Pyramids are, but a solid block built of millions and millions of bricks
+with a tiny chamber inside containing an infinitely precious relic,
+nothing less than a few of Buddha's hairs. So they say! Only the priests
+were allowed to go into this sacred chamber, with the exception of one
+king, who had this priceless privilege granted to him. It is not very
+many years since mighty monuments were rediscovered, because the jungle
+had grown up all around them and no one knew even where Anuradhapura had
+stood; but now there are men who spend their whole time uncovering and
+preserving them, just as many men are working at the excavations in
+Egypt; and the trees and overgrowth have been stripped from Ruanveli,
+which stands forth sharp and clear-cut against this beautiful sky.
+
+Men are very much alike all the world over! This great dagoba was put up
+by one of the Cingalese kings, Dutugemunu, to celebrate his great
+victory over the Tamils, just as Rameses II. put up the inimitable
+temple of Abu Simbel to celebrate his victory over the Syrians. Before
+Dutugemunu came to the throne the Tamils had usurped all power and made
+one of their own men, called Elala, king, and the young prince, exiled
+from his capital city, met them in battle outside the walls. He fought
+with great bravery, and in the end the issue of the day was decided by a
+single combat between him and Elala, both mounted on huge elephants.
+That must have been a fight indeed! Dutugemunu killed Elala and regained
+the throne of his fathers, but he must have been a singularly
+enlightened prince for his age, for he not only buried his fallen foe
+with great honour but he gave orders that henceforth all music should
+cease when bands were marching past his tomb, and that royalties were to
+alight from their horses or palanquins and walk past on foot to do
+honour to the mighty dead. Even in the nineteenth century one of the
+princes from Kandy, who was flying from capture, obeyed the order and
+would not allow himself to be carried past the spot! So the memory of
+Elala and the great fight he made were kept alive as Dutugemunu had
+intended they should be.
+
+On this very slab where we are now sitting it is said that Dutugemunu
+died. If not the actual stone, it is probably the spot. It was about 140
+B.C., and when he knew he was dying he gave orders that he should be
+carried out here, that his fast failing eyes might look their last on
+the greatest monument of his reign. In the midst of his great city, with
+its fine buildings and the great tanks he had caused to be made to give
+the people water, he thought most of all of Ruanveli, partly because of
+the sacred relic enclosed, but partly also because he had done a
+wonderful thing in paying for all the labour that was used in its
+building, instead of forcing his subjects to work for nothing, as was
+the custom in his time.
+
+There is much to examine in Ruanveli; we can see the casing of granite
+running up the sides, we can examine a statue of the king himself and
+many wonderful carvings; around the dagoba runs a magnificent granite
+platform wide enough for six elephants to walk abreast, as no doubt they
+did many times in the gay processions on festival days.
+
+Behind the dagoba, not far off, is an immense lake, or tank, much larger
+than that we saw this morning. It was considered a peculiar work of
+merit for kings to make these tanks so that water could be stored up for
+the use of the people, and they are found all over Ceylon; there is one
+twenty miles in length!
+
+The sun has fallen low by the time we pass on to the Brazen Palace. At
+first, when we near it, we see merely a forest of columns with nothing
+brazen about them; they are not very high, about twice the height of a
+man perhaps, and they are set in rows very near together. Altogether
+there are one thousand six hundred of them! There is no roof now, but in
+the days of its glory this great house, which was built for the priest,
+had nine, and was finished by a sheet of burnished copper which caught
+the sun's rays and flashed far and wide beneath the clear blue sky. The
+walls were decorated with glittering stones and the fittings were of the
+most costly and beautiful kind. The wonder is how the priests found room
+to walk about between those multitudinous columns which so filled the
+space in their halls.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRAZEN PALACE, CEYLON.]
+
+One more sight in this city of ancient glory. Do you see across that
+park-like space of short grass some fires glimmering weirdly in the dusk
+which has now fallen round the most sacred object in Anuradhapura; I
+won't say what it is. Come nearer. A heavy scent, like that of
+tuberoses, greets us as we approach; it comes from the white waxy
+blossoms of the frangipani lying in that cardboard saucer with all the
+heads put outwards like the spokes of a wheel. In the centre is a pink
+blossom. Those flowers are sold as offerings in this sacred place. Don't
+stumble over that dark bundle, it is a sleeping child. Step cautiously
+between the bright-eyed people who watch, furtively alert, like shy
+woodland creatures, as they crouch low over their fires, for the evening
+has suddenly become chilly with the loss of the sun. These are pilgrims
+come from afar, and they will lie down to sleep just as they are in the
+open. There are very few at this time of the year; but in June and
+July, which are the principal months, thousands and thousands arrive
+here, having crossed weary leagues to come. It is strange how the world
+is linked up by its pilgrimages. We saw the pilgrims in the Holy Land
+coming from afar to the Christian shrines, humble and devout, believing
+all that was told them and carrying out in their poor lives much of
+Christ's teaching; we saw them in crowded and uncomfortable ships
+journeying from Mecca, the shrine of Mohammedanism; and now we see them
+here reverently drawn to the only sacred place they know, there to pray
+to something unseen and unknown, that they may be helped by a power
+stronger than themselves. In all ages and all races man yearns for a
+god, and if he knows not God he still worships dimly any strange god he
+hears of.
+
+We cross some brick pavement, and climb up a few worn steps on to a
+platform surrounded by a railing. Out of the middle of it there grows a
+gnarled and ancient tree with crooked boughs splitting asunder with
+hardly any leaves on them.
+
+_Now_ do you see?
+
+You only see monkeys looking like little black demons against the
+afterglow still lingering in the sky as they leap from the tall palm
+trees near, but this tree is not a palm.
+
+Suddenly a leaf, shaped like that of a poplar, but much larger, floats
+down, and in an instant a slight dark figure, tied up in a bundle of
+loose clothes, falls upon it, and holding it between the palms of the
+hands bows again and again. That leaf is a precious relic, for this is
+the sacred Bo tree, said to be at least two thousand years old!
+
+[Illustration: SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH
+THE TUNE.]
+
+After the Cingalese had come over from India and settled here, a monk
+came and converted them to Buddhism; he was followed by his sister, a
+princess, as he was a prince, and she brought with her, so it is said, a
+branch of the actual tree under which Buddha sat when he considered all
+the problems of life and found an answer to them, which he left to his
+people. This branch, being planted, became a tree itself. So the story
+goes; and that there has been a tree here worshipped for untold ages is
+true, and if that is so, whatever its origin, this also to us is a
+sacred spot, hallowed by the thousands of poor souls who, knowing not
+the light, yet have come here with yearnings towards the light and to
+the "unknown god."
+
+After dinner we wander out again into the tree-shaded road near, and a
+sight of extraordinary splendour startles us. Every tree is brilliantly
+illuminated as if by a million points of electric light. You have seen
+an arc-light which seems to scintillate rays? These lights might be very
+tiny arc-lights, for each one vibrates in the intensity of its
+luminousness. We can see the outlines of the trees clearly. It is a
+wonderful evening for fire-flies. No one knows why on some nights they
+appear like this in countless thousands, and on other nights, apparently
+the same, there is not one to be seen. It looks almost as if they had
+parties and agreed to do their best on certain occasions. They have
+evidently done their best for us to-night, for the other people
+following us out of the hotel, who have been here longer than us, are
+entranced.
+
+"Never saw anything like it, not even in the West Indies," says one man.
+
+"Puts a Christmas tree in the shade," remarks another.
+
+Catch one, he doesn't burn; don't grab him so as to hurt him, just take
+him gently; that is right; bring him into the light and open your hand a
+little. You see he is a flat, greenish beetle, with head set on a funny
+hinge so that he could nod it violently if he liked. Half shut your hand
+and turn away from the light; now you see two round green eyes glowing
+like emeralds. He doesn't seem embarrassed by all this attention, but
+you might let him go back to his party!
+
+When we have let him go we will walk down the avenue of living light,
+where is one thing more to see to-night. It is only ten minutes' walk
+and as we near it it gleams in the dim light of the brilliant stars, a
+ghostly white object. As our eyes grow accustomed to the light we see a
+building like a snow-white bell. It is small compared with the gigantic
+dagobas we have examined already to-day, for the very tip of the
+pinnacle, rising above the bell-shaped part, is only sixty-three feet,
+but it is very graceful and is considered the most sacred of all the
+dagobas, for it was built to enshrine Buddha's collar-bone!
+
+We haven't seen the half of Anuradhapura yet, and there are numbers of
+other ancient cities in Ceylon to explore, to say nothing of
+rock-temples with strange paintings and carvings; but we mustn't be here
+too long or we shan't get through India and Burma before the hot weather
+comes, which no European can endure.
+
+The white coating of this dagoba is a stuff called chunam, a kind of
+lime. It is startlingly white and looks beautiful at night, but
+otherwise it is just a sort of whitewash, clean enough but not
+particularly attractive. There are numbers of the same square-cut
+granite columns that we saw at the Brazen Temple falling about near the
+dagoba, some this way and some that. A good place for snakes, that is
+why we came round by the road and walked so carefully.
+
+Hullo! There is one! Keep still! Did you see him wriggle across among
+the interlacing shadows of the trees? A large one too! Thank goodness he
+has gone harmlessly! I wonder what sort he was? We ought not to have
+come out, let us get back as quickly as we can.
+
+[Illustration: A BULLOCK CART.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+UNWELCOME INTRUDERS
+
+
+India at last!
+
+We have come up the west coast from Ceylon and are now approaching
+Bombay. It is night-time, and far ahead we see a great yellow light
+which appears and disappears, and is visible for twenty miles out at
+sea. It seems to blink at us in greeting, peeping every few seconds to
+see if we are still there. Then at last we ride into the harbour, and
+such a harbour! We cannot see it now at all, and even if it were
+daylight we couldn't see more than a very small part of it, for it is
+fifteen miles one way by four or five the other, and a harbour that size
+cannot be taken in at one glance.
+
+We have to sleep on board, for there are some formalities to be
+observed before we go ashore. There is our heavy baggage to get out of
+the hold, for instance, and to pass through the Customs. That can wait
+until to-morrow.
+
+Our first impression of Bombay is therefore a city of lights. There are
+lights sprinkled about anyhow and anywhere; some in chains, some
+separate, some low, and some apparently slung high up in mid-air. These
+are on the hill above the town, which itself stands on an island.
+
+The very first incident we notice is a ludicrous one, and I am sure we
+shan't forget it. A rather stout Englishman who is landing to-night
+steps on to the launch, and in an instant is garlanded with marigolds
+hung in wreaths round his neck. A crowd of native friends surrounds him.
+Some are in European dress, and talk a queer sort of English very fast
+and fluently, as if it were being pumped out of their mouths by the
+yard; others wear the flowing drapery of the East. Many of them carry
+bunches of flowers, which look more like balls, because the native habit
+is to strip off every atom of leaf and then pack the blossoms with all
+their heads together as tight as they will go. Many such balls are being
+pressed upon the embarrassed Englishman, and the scent of crushed
+marigolds fills the air. This is all by way of welcome, and it is
+evident that the newcomer is a prime favourite with the people. He looks
+sheepish, but his round rosy face rises good-humouredly above the absurd
+garlands.
+
+Next morning we are up in good time, and as soon as ever we get our
+baggage clear of the Customs we go sight-seeing. In our nostrils is the
+subtle scent of India; it has something of dust in it, but is not
+chiefly dust, as in Egypt; there is a waft of wood-smoke, and a strong
+flavour of mixed spices, and some hint of sweet flowers, and many other
+things not so agreeable. It is a blend that any Anglo-Indian knows, and
+if he smelt it suddenly when he was thousands of miles away, with the
+daisied grass beneath his feet, and the swallows wheeling overhead, it
+would carry him back with a jump to a land of dark faces and burning sun
+and red dust, and all the vivid sights of the East.
+
+We are not starting on our great journey across India until the evening,
+so we can wander at will through the broad clean streets, looking into
+the magnificent shops that might be in any European town, and then we
+can plunge into the native part, where we find narrow, busy bazaars that
+might belong to the _Arabian Nights_.
+
+Bombay was one of the first bits of India to belong to the English. The
+Portuguese held it before then, and gave it to our nation as part of the
+dower of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married
+Charles II. You know the old saying, "trade follows the flag," and it
+certainly did in Bombay, for the East India Company rented the city from
+the king at �10 a year. The Company pushed forward all over the rest of
+India year by year, and it was through their steady and persistent
+advance in the country that the British finally occupied India--so later
+on the saying was reversed, and "the flag followed trade," as it more
+often does. But you know that story, every British boy does, the story
+of Clive and Hastings, and later on of the Mutiny; it is a part of
+English history and one of the most thrilling parts too.
+
+Bombay is a city of trade; her immense docks receive ships of all sizes,
+her wharves are laden with the produce of the world, her wide streets
+are open to traffic of all descriptions, her public buildings are
+splendid, her clubs and hotels palatial. Her merchants prosper and grow
+rich, and build for themselves houses on Malabar Hill, the long ridge
+above the town, which catches the sea-breezes. At one time that ridge
+was looked upon as sacred to Europeans, but now the wealthy natives
+settle there, and there is not room for all the poorer Europeans, who
+have to be content with lower levels.
+
+Stand still for a moment in this street, and look around. Here comes a
+motor-car, and in it lolls a hugely fat man with a yellow skin, and that
+crafty insolent look which marks the successful native trader; his thick
+neck rolls in creases above his purple brocade coat. But they are not
+all like this; some are thoughtful men who have given lakhs of rupees
+for the public good.
+
+What a contrast! Here is one of the poorest of the poor. A bullock-cart
+comes along, drawn by two lean animals with their ribs sticking out. A
+heavy yoke passes across their necks, but otherwise they have not a
+scrap of harness on them. That lean man huddled up on the pole between
+them, clad in a few yards of rag, prods them with a pointed stick when
+he wants them to go this way and that. He dares not now twist their
+tails till he breaks them, or keep open running sores so that he may
+prick them in a sensitive part, as he would have done at one time, for
+if he did the police would be down on him.
+
+On the side-walk there is a lady, yes, it _is_ a lady--in very baggy
+green and gold trousers, with gold anklets tinkling as she walks. Her
+head and face are swathed in a "sari" or shawl of shot gold and purple,
+which only allows her heavy black eyes to appear above its folds. The
+street is alive with men in white; some wear long white coats buttoned
+down over the kind of white petticoat called a _dhoti_, others have the
+curious habit of wearing their shirts outside their trousers like a
+kilt, but you soon get used to this, and cease to notice it. That fellow
+in a tall extinguisher cap made of lamb's wool is a Persian.
+
+In the midst of all this queer crowd, which looks like a fancy-dress
+ball let loose in broad daylight, run the curving steel tram-lines.
+There are shades of every complexion to be seen. That very fresh,
+pink-faced lady, who has just gone dashing by in her smart "tum-tum" or
+pony-cart, is at one end of the scale--she is probably newly out from
+home,--and that ebony-black native woman of so low a caste that she goes
+uncovered in the public street is at the other, but even she, poor
+thing, cares enough about her personal appearance to wear a gold ring
+through one of her nostrils!
+
+[Illustration: A PERSIAN.]
+
+Now we can see the long outline of Malabar Hill quite clearly, and below
+all its trees and gardens and the great houses rising among them, but at
+one part, the highest, the hill is kept for other uses. Look up into the
+clear blue sky overhead, do you see a black speck? Not got it yet? Wait
+a moment and try again. There! That is right, and there is another and
+another; you can't help seeing them now. Their flight is the slow heavy
+flight of clumsy birds. What do you suppose they are? Vultures. They
+live, as you know, on carrion, which is dead flesh, and the vultures of
+Bombay are peculiarly favoured, for they banquet on human bodies.
+
+In this district there are a large number of Parsees or
+fire-worshippers, and these people have their peculiar ceremonies. Under
+the British Crown every man is free to carry out his own religion in his
+own way; persecution is unknown. The Parsees have their cemetery on the
+top of that high hill; it is a beautiful place, laid out in gardens,
+and reached by flights of steps. Only at one end are five grim towers
+shut in by a wall and called the Towers of Silence. Their parapets are
+high, and none may climb to the top except certain men set apart and
+dedicated for this terrible work. When a Parsee dies, his body is borne
+reverently and with care to the gardens on the hill, but instead of
+burying it in the earth, these men take it up the winding stairs of one
+of the towers and lay it on the roof, and then retire. The vultures do
+the rest! No human being has ever seen that dread spectacle, for when
+the men come back again about a fortnight later there are only the clean
+bleached bones of the skeleton to take away and lay in quicklime to be
+absorbed.
+
+So the vultures hover over Bombay and sit like great images around the
+parapets on the Towers of Silence, knowing that they will never lack a
+meal!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have seen many and bewildering things in this great city, and when at
+last we arrive at the station between five and six in the evening, for
+our first journey across this vast land, we are glad to rest. We engaged
+our places directly we arrived, for here, where a journey takes often
+nights and days, it is no use wandering in casually a few minutes before
+the train starts. We also engaged the whole of a compartment to
+ourselves, as we want a good night's sleep. It has been cleaned and
+prepared, and looks very comfortable when we come to claim it. There are
+two seats running lengthwise, the opposite way to that which they do in
+an English train. Above them are two more which can be let down as bunks
+if required, so that the carriage can accommodate four, but as we have
+paid extra to get it to ourselves we ought not to be disturbed.
+
+By the way, you haven't seen any Indian money yet. This is a rupee, a
+large and substantial coin you see, about as big as a two-shilling
+piece, but it is only worth one and fourpence; fifteen of them go to the
+pound. An anna is a penny, and that little coin like a threepenny bit is
+a two-anna bit.
+
+[Illustration: SIT LIKE IMAGES ROUND THE PARAPET.]
+
+We have had to hire a native boy to travel with us and look after the
+luggage, as it is difficult to do without one in India. All servants are
+called "boys" here, even if they are grey-headed; our man is probably
+about five-and-twenty. He is called Ramaswamy, and has a
+chocolate-coloured moon-face with big round eyes; I think he is
+intelligent though he looks stupid. He is dressed in spotless white, his
+garments consisting of a short jacket and a dhoti, and he wears a large
+round turban on his head, and a pair of neat little gold ear-rings in
+his ears. It is a very difficult thing to get a really trustworthy boy,
+but the Madrassees are the best, and Ramaswamy comes from the Madras
+country far south; he has been in service with a man I know for two
+years, and as he is only lent to us for this trip he will probably
+behave himself. He is piling up our bedding in a corner of the carriage,
+and later on when the train stops at a station for a few minutes he will
+come to spread it out. It seems funny to have to carry bedding with us
+on a journey, but it is very necessary here. We have pillows and rugs
+and a couple of _rezai_ each. These are rather like eider-down quilts,
+but are stuffed with cotton instead of down, so they are heavier, and
+very comfortable they are to lie upon when doubled up.
+
+You remarked on the amount of luggage we seem to be taking in the
+carriage, it is a simple nothing to what is the custom here; look at all
+that being piled into the next compartment! Besides masses of bedding
+there is a deck-chair, a typewriter, a case for a topee, or helmet, a
+gun-case, two portmanteaus, and a box of books, as well as a
+lunch-basket. The owner, a pleasant-looking, sun-browned Englishman,
+stands by giving orders to his native servants in Hindustanee, which is
+a language spoken by the English people to the natives and understood
+pretty nearly everywhere. That man is almost certainly what is here
+known as a "civilian," that is to say, one of the men in the Indian
+Civil Service who govern India. They have to pass stiff examinations at
+home, and then come out here for a number of years to do all the work of
+government, being magistrates, judges, rulers, and general protectors of
+the native, giving up their lives to the country, and dealing out
+justice to all men. Some men have not the habit of command, but if it is
+in them at all it comes out here, where one white man alone in a
+district running to hundreds of miles often has everything in his own
+hands; he has to make decisions in an instant of emergency, and stand
+by them, compel evildoers to behave, save the miserable low-caste
+natives, ground down by those above them, and often to hold his life in
+his hand for fear of the knife or bullet of a fanatic.
+
+A little farther up the platform there is a gorgeous group, of which the
+central figure is a fine tall man, slenderly built, with a clear proud
+face. He is dressed in marvellous silks which shimmer and flash in the
+late afternoon sunlight. His upper garment is deep rich rose, and the
+lower one a medley of greens and gold. Watch the flashing of that great
+jewel which fastens the aigrette in his turban; it is probably worth
+anywhere about three thousand pounds. That man is a native prince, and
+those very splendid gentlemen in purple and yellow silk are seeing him
+off. There are many of these native rulers or maharajahs in India, and
+they keep up the state of royalty and are treated with respect. So long
+as they rule their people wisely the British Government does not
+interfere with them.
+
+[Illustration: A RAJAH.]
+
+Sometimes one thinks of India as one whole country, as England is or
+France, but that is not true. It is not, and never was. The state held
+by a native prince may be only the size of a gentleman's country
+estate, but it may be as large as the United Kingdom. In the old days
+the rulers of these kingdoms were for ever fighting against each other,
+and though one of them sometimes got the better of his neighbours for a
+while, India was never ruled from end to end by one sovereign until it
+passed into the possession of Great Britain. The nations and races who
+make up this vast land are as different from each other as the races of
+Europe; to think of them as being one people would be as foolish as to
+imagine that you, say, and an Italian, were one people.
+
+The size of India is a thing almost impossible to conceive. In
+old-fashioned atlases the whole of this mighty land was often given one
+page to itself, and little England was put on another just the same
+size, that is to say, they were drawn on quite different scales, a mile
+in England being given about as much space as forty miles in India! The
+best way to judge is this--picture India set down on the map of Europe,
+and you will find it would cover about half of it!
+
+At the other end of the train, the third-class end, what a contrast to
+His Highness! Here a crowd of natives of all kinds have been crammed
+into what look like covered-in trucks, and they are squatting on the
+floor. There is no hardship in that, they prefer it; to sit on chairs is
+an art only acquired by the Europeanised. There are women here as well
+as men; look at that handsome creature whose crimson scarf has slipped
+off her sheeny black hair, showing the gold ring in her nose and the
+huge decorative ear-rings! She is hugging a tiny boy with one blue bead
+slung round his neck as a charm, just as it was round the donkey's neck
+in Egypt,--people are very much alike all the world over! This little
+chap has silver bangles on his podgy ankles but not a rag of any sort of
+clothing.
+
+[Illustration: NATIVES AT THE RAILWAY STATION.]
+
+These people are packed so tightly you could hardly get a foot in
+between them, but they are very happy, because they love travelling.
+Natives have no idea of time, and when they are going to start on a
+journey as likely as not they arrive at the station the evening before,
+sleep rolled round in their garments where they may happen to be, and
+next day eat a handful of something or other they carry with them,
+waiting patiently till that marvellous object, the train, condescends to
+start. Most of these here are munching sweetmeats; they love them as
+children do, and the sweetmeat-seller never lacks trade. There he is,
+with a tray on his shoulder! A man with a water-pot stops by the third
+classes and pours some of the precious fluid into the cups held out to
+him, and even into one man's hands. You notice that he is careful not to
+touch either hand or cup. In India there is an extraordinary custom
+called caste, deep-rooted in the natives. They are all divided into
+higher and lower castes, according to their birth, and those of a higher
+caste will not allow those of a lower caste to touch them or prepare
+their food and drink, for they fancy they would be defiled! Only the
+lowest castes of all will do dirty work, such as scavenging and carrying
+away refuse, and you can imagine what difficulties all this leads to.
+The Brahman, who is the highest caste, will not touch food which has
+been defiled even by having the shadow of another fall on it, he would
+throw it away and remain hungry sooner.
+
+As we stroll back to our places we pass various men with marks on their
+foreheads; these are caste-marks and to those who understand they tell a
+great deal. Standing beside the second classes we see a short-sighted
+gentleman in glasses, wearing an alpaca suit; he has with him a lady,
+who, like himself, is coffee-coloured. She is wearing a full petticoat
+of brocaded silk, and has a very lovely shawl edged with sequins thrown
+round her head in place of a hat, but, alas, all this magnificence is
+spoilt by the pair of tight and obviously most uncomfortable yellow
+leather European shoes, which she has put on to show how fashionable she
+is. When she climbs into the carriage she immediately takes them off,
+putting them on the seat beside her, and shows a pair of bare brown feet
+without shame. The shoes were only meant for show, and she has endured
+them to the utmost!
+
+Well, we are off! And as it is dark we can't, unfortunately, see much of
+the country, which at first is quite pretty. Presently we cross the sea
+by a long bridge and notice the lights reflected sparkling in the water,
+and then we begin to climb up into the hills and it quickly grows
+colder.
+
+While we go along to the restaurant-car for dinner Ramaswamy takes
+advantage of the stoppage of the train to hasten along, settling his
+turban as he comes. He must never appear before us without it; we are
+supposed to think it a fixture on his round cropped head, and also he
+must not come into a room where we are with his shoes on! Odd how
+fashion differs! With us men remove the head-covering on entering a
+room, but would not dream of being so rude as to take off their shoes!
+
+When we come back after dinner we find our bedding neatly spread out and
+looking very inviting. As there is nothing else to do it is not long
+before we turn in and fall asleep, lulled by the rumbling of the train.
+
+I am deep in dreamland when I am woke unpleasantly by a draught of icy
+air as the door at the end of the compartment is pushed open, and I
+realise the train has stopped at a station. The native guard stands in
+the doorway apologetically fumbling with the key which he has just used
+in undoing the door. "Mem-sahib coming in," says he hopelessly, and a
+very disagreeable high-pitched voice makes itself heard behind him.
+Pushing rudely past come a man and woman so much alike they must be
+brother and sister; they have both coarse features and clumsy squat
+figures; they speak English but with a strong Colonial accent of some
+kind.
+
+"They can't have it _all_ their own way," says Madam viciously. "I'm
+coming in here, and that's flat."
+
+An overloaded coolie follows, and dumps down masses of rolled-up bedding
+and trunks into the small space between our bunks and departs.
+
+"This compartment is engaged," I say as politely as I can, conscious
+that I don't look dignified in shirt-sleeves, but thankful I have only
+taken off my coat and boots.
+
+"Can't help that," snaps the lady.
+
+"Isn't there any other----" I begin patiently.
+
+"I telling the Mem-sahib," begins the guard plaintively, "that there is
+one with only----"
+
+"Don't care if there is! Horace, undo that bundle. I'm going to bed at
+once," and the newcomer proceeds to remove her coat and hat.
+
+The guard hastily lets down the two upper bunks and disappears as the
+train gets under way again.
+
+Appalled at the idea of how much she may think it necessary to remove,
+and thankful that you are sleeping peacefully through all the turmoil, I
+get up and grope for my shoes.
+
+"If you prefer the lower bunk it is at your service," I say, making the
+best of a bad job and gathering up my coverlets. She deigns to snap out
+"Thanks!"
+
+"I will go outside until you're ready," I say, retreating to the small
+platform between the carriages; there is nothing else for it, as there
+isn't room to turn inside. Just as I leave I add to the man, "Don't wake
+the boy if you can help it, he has had a hard day."
+
+It is intensely cold outside, and after having smoked two cigarettes I
+think I may venture in again as I hear no sounds, so I knock, and
+getting no answer enter. By the dim light I make out the form of the
+lady in my bunk; but that is surely not the brother in the one opposite?
+It _is_! The impudence of it! They have turned you out and made you go
+into the upper one. As I climb to my own perch, internally wrathful and
+debating whether I shall not poke the man up and make him restore you to
+your place, I hear your sleepy voice in a stage whisper--
+
+"He made me come up here." Then deliberately, leaning over and with
+mischief in your voice, you add: "I suppose when you are fat like that
+it would be very difficult to climb."
+
+I think you got your own back! I saw the fellow squirm!
+
+Bad as they were at night our fellow-travellers are worse in the
+daytime. They won't get up until ten o'clock, and we have to stay
+outside until they do, as there is nowhere to sit down. Ramaswamy brings
+us _chota hazri_, consisting of tea and toast and plantains, and we eat
+it outside. The Englishman in the next compartment looks out presently
+and invites us in. He laughs when he hears of our adventure. "Brutes!"
+he says tersely; "people like that should be hanged at sight. The worst
+is you meet them travelling more often than elsewhere; they have come
+into some money probably, and are so proud of it they think themselves
+little gods."
+
+I think he was right, for when we pull up at the station, where we are
+at last to get rid of our tormentors, I happen to remark to you that I
+thought some restaurant we had been to in Bombay was rather expensive.
+
+"Did you indeed!" says the lady, taking the remark as if addressed to
+herself. "'Grace and I dined there and paid double that, and we did not
+think anything of it."
+
+She then immediately turns, and seeing Ramaswamy standing outside
+mistakes him for a station-attendant, and orders him to tie up their
+bedding. He looks to me for orders. I nod to him to do it, and, hat in
+hand, make a sweeping bow--
+
+"Only too glad if my boy can be of any service to you, Madam."
+
+I think I also got my own back!
+
+[Illustration: A BRASS WORKER, DELHI.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAPITAL OF INDIA
+
+
+Delhi!
+
+If you draw a line across the map of India from the north to the south
+at the greatest length, and another from east to west at the greatest
+breadth, the two will form a cross of the usual shape, with the
+cross-bar high up. Just at the point where they intersect stands Delhi,
+the chief city in India since the King-Emperor's proclamation in 1911.
+Before that Calcutta was the capital, but Calcutta, like Bombay, is a
+city of trade, and has practically no historic memories. Delhi is full
+of the romance of history. In the Mutiny the question as to who should
+hold it was of the greatest importance, and if the British then had let
+it slip from their grip, without an effort to retake it, their power in
+India would have been gone for ever.
+
+Now, on the first morning that we are here, let us drive round and see
+what we can of this splendid city. First we will go down the Chandni
+Chauk, the main street which cuts Delhi into two parts. It is immensely
+wide and lined with trees of a good size. These stand on each side of a
+broad walk for foot-passengers, which runs down the middle of the
+street, foreign fashion, and makes a popular promenade. The gay colours
+of the natives' clothes flash in and out of the shadows of the trees as
+the people pass along, each on his own errand. On one side are the
+tram-lines and on the other you can see a fast bullock-cart with pretty
+little white trotting bullocks as dainty in their own way as antelopes,
+and as different from the slow yellow ones as carriage-horses are from
+cart-horses. There are on both sides shops for jewels, for sweetmeats,
+for the richest and most beautiful silks and ivory, and mingled with
+them grocers' shops filled with tinned stuffs from England, and others
+with every kind of modern utensil for a house. Such a mixture! They are
+all heavily protected against the sun by awnings, for even at this early
+hour of the morning it is strong. At the end of the street is a tall red
+sandstone tower with a clock in it. In the distance we see the spire of
+an English church, and down that opening we catch sight of a Mohammedan
+mosque. The shop here beside us is a blaze of colour with Eastern
+carpets hung out like banners; the native owner squats on a thing like a
+wooden bedstead by his door and chews betel-nut, which makes his tongue
+and lips a deep red. Next door is a vigorous agency for the sale of
+sewing-machines! A Hindu religious fanatic, smeared with ashes and with
+hardly any clothes to cover his lean body, walks ahead with eyes
+unseeing, and at the same moment a smart motor-car stops beside us and
+the voice of a high-bred English-woman says, "I will meet you at the
+Effinghams in an hour," as she waves a greeting to her companions and
+steps out.
+
+[Illustration: A SHOP IN DELHI.]
+
+Hullo! There is a band. Round the corner swings a company of Ghurkas,
+the sturdy little men who helped England to overcome the mutineers. They
+look very soldier-like in their neat holly-green uniforms, with small
+round caps set at a jaunty angle on their cropped heads. They are hill
+tribes from the north, and in appearance not unlike the Japanese. They
+are all so much of one size you could run a ruler along their heads.
+Their swinging stride would delight a soldier's heart, for it is like
+clockwork in its precision. They are born soldiers, brave and easily
+disciplined, devoted to their officers and without the knowledge of
+fear. They have faults, of course. The Ghurka is apt to be rather a gay
+dog; he gets drunk, and the girls he loves are many, but he is of the
+right stuff, and his officers are proud of him.
+
+I was talking to one of them as we came up the coast on the ship.
+
+"Nothing like them anywhere else in the world," he said. "They take to
+drill like their mother's milk, they thrive on it and discipline--the
+slightest fault that might be overlooked elsewhere we punish severely.
+They like it and live up to it. You could lead a Ghurka regiment
+anywhere; fighting is their pastime. They have nothing in common with
+the slothful races of Lower India; they are alert and vigorous and
+active as cats. The funniest thing is their love for the Highlanders; if
+a Highland regiment comes up the two meet and mingle as if they were
+brothers. You'll see a great Highlander in his kilt and feather bonnet
+arm in arm with one of these little chaps, hobnobbing as if they had
+known each other all their lives. And the Ghurkas won't have anything to
+say to the other Indian regiments; they despise them all except the
+Sikhs--they get on with them all right."
+
+We are lucky, for the Ghurkas are followed by a company of Sikhs, and
+anything less like the Ghurkas you could hardly imagine. The Sikhs are
+big men with stern bearded faces, they look like veterans and are a
+pleasant sight in their scarlet tunics with neat gaitered feet. There
+were many Sikh regiments belonging to our army in the black days of the
+Mutiny, and some wavered, but some held firm. Had it not been for the
+Sikhs things would have gone badly with us.
+
+Now we are nearing the Lahore Gate and you can see that Delhi is a
+walled city. The walls run all round for six miles, and are backed up
+by a twenty-five feet ditch, so that it is a tough city for any army to
+take. The gate itself is a fine building. When the British troops, who
+varied at times from 5000 to 10,000 men, set to work to attack this
+strong city, held by 40,000 to 100,000 natives, many of them trained and
+disciplined soldiers, taught by the very men against whom they were
+fighting, it seemed an impossible task. The audacity of it! This gate
+was one of the hardest of all to break through. Four attacking parties
+had been sent against the walls, the other three got in, but the one
+that came here failed. Then the others tried to work their way through,
+inside the city, to capture this gate. They crept along the narrow lane
+running inside the wall, but it was commanded everywhere from the
+heights of the houses by the enemy, who poured down a murderous fire
+into it. Again and again the reckless men, who determined to take the
+gate, started off on the deadly errand, again and again they were wiped
+off, and alas! one of those mortally wounded was General John Nicholson,
+whose utter disregard of danger and marvellous understanding of the
+native character had made many of the natives look on him as a god!
+
+Now we are outside and driving up to the ridge. Every British boy and
+girl has heard of the ridge. It played a great part in the Mutiny. It is
+a long backbone of hill which runs close up to the city at one end. We
+will leave our carriage to go slowly along to the far end, where the
+road winds up, and we ourselves will scramble up at this side till we
+gain the Mutiny Memorial, a Gothic tower rising in many stages like a
+church spire. We can mount the steps inside to see the view. It is worth
+it, for miles and miles of country lie spread before us from this
+height.
+
+I don't want to go into details of history, but if ever there is a place
+where history was made it is here. On this ridge for months was camped
+the British army, including some loyal native regiments, and all the
+time they never wavered in their determination to retake Delhi, then in
+the hands of the natives. Our men could not be said to besiege the city,
+because to besiege means to sit down all round a place and prevent the
+inhabitants from getting supplies from outside until they are compelled
+to give in or are too weak to resist the entrance of the besiegers; we
+never invested Delhi in this way. There were not enough men even to
+attempt it; the natives could always get supplies into the city, if they
+wanted, from the river Jumna, which runs past the other side. But the
+British sat steadily on their heights in grim determination, and never
+lost the chance of a move. They died in hundreds; remember it was during
+an Indian summer, and even under the best conditions, with ice and
+punkahs and shade, the European finds it hard to get through the hot
+weather. Here there were no conveniences and very few even of what might
+be considered necessaries. The men suffered from dysentery, fever,
+wounds, and sunstroke, and yet they carried through their forlorn hope
+triumphantly, and it was hardly a year later that the Queen of England
+was proclaimed Sovereign of India.
+
+In that great plain, which stretches far as eye can see on the other
+side of the ridge, some twenty years later another proclamation was
+made, and the Queen was further proclaimed under the title of Empress of
+India; while in 1911 her grandson, King George, himself proclaimed Delhi
+as the capital of India in place of Calcutta.
+
+Over the screen of trees you can see beautiful Delhi lying within its
+hoary walls. You can see the towers and steeples and minarets and domes
+of the city. Now look the other way, along the ridge. That great pillar
+close to us is very old; it was made by one of the Hindu kings, but it
+was only put up here ten years after the Mutiny, and is not
+interesting. That white house farther on is now a hospital; it was once
+a private house, and in it General Nicholson died. Look on again, much
+farther, past trees and other houses, and you will see a rounded
+building with turrets--that is the Flagstaff Tower so fiercely held.
+
+Come down now to rejoin the carriage and we will go back to the city by
+the Kashmir Gate. Of all the gates this is the one with the most daring
+story of adventure attached to it.
+
+When the British had resolved to make an assault on the city they
+detailed four parties, as I said, to attack in four places. One of them
+was this gate. The other three places had been partially broken in by
+the guns, and there was a chance for those heroic madmen to get through,
+but this was entire. The assaulting party had first to break a way in
+and then get through.
+
+And they did it!
+
+The five told off to make the breach were Lieutenants Home and Salkeld,
+and Sergeants Carmichael, Burgess, and Smith. Some carried bags of
+gunpowder, and others, the fire to set them off. It was daylight when
+they ran towards the gate across a single plank spanning the ditch, so
+that they had to go one by one in full range of the enemy's fire from
+the walls. The marvel is that any lived to reach the gate alive. When
+one fell another leaped forward to carry on his task. The bags were
+flung down, and those who placed them tumbled back into the ditch, while
+their comrades set the powder alight and rolled down too. Out of the
+whole party only Home and Smith survived. The wicket of the gate was
+burst open by the explosion, and the storming party, also crossing that
+single plank, made for it, got inside, and beat back the foe, meeting
+their comrades, who had burst in at other points, inside.
+
+The tale of "how Horatius kept the bridge" pales before this amazing
+pluck.
+
+[Illustration: A CARPET SHOP, DELHI.]
+
+We must get out and look at the gate where this actually happened not
+sixty years ago.
+
+There are two wide arches in the shattered wall, and the coping above is
+half gone; it remains unrestored just as it was that day. On a slab is
+an inscription telling of this noble deed when men died for their
+country without hesitation.
+
+Close by is the cemetery where General Nicholson is buried. You can see
+his statue in the city raised high on a pedestal. He stands with bared
+head and drawn sword. But Nicholson's is not the only name immortalised
+by the Mutiny--there are the two brothers, John and Henry Lawrence,
+Outram and Havelock, Hodson, Sir Colin Campbell, and many another name
+which is a household word in England. These men, in those days of fierce
+fighting and desperate stress, made history and wrote themselves in its
+pages by deeds that still cause every British boy's heart to ring within
+him. We have passed through the Kashmir Gate, and here, on one side of
+the street, is a battered bit of arcade, another Mutiny memorial. In the
+early days, just at the first outbreak, when no one realised what was
+going to happen, the mutineers marched on Delhi. This bit of wall was
+part of the powder magazine, then in charge of nine men. They defended
+it against a swarming army of Sepoys, as the native soldiers were
+called, and when they found that they could not hold it in spite of
+their desperate defence, they calmly blew up the powder magazine, and
+themselves with it, to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+mutineers and being used against their kinsmen. The most incredible part
+of the whole story is that three of those who blew up the magazine
+actually escaped with their lives!
+
+We are now approaching the fort and palace, the kernel of the city,
+which it is best to see after the ridge.
+
+It is a fine building that faces us, with an ornamental arcade running
+along the upper part. We pass in on foot under the gateway and see
+another, a Hall of Public Audience, with red sandstone pillars. Inside
+is a great throne of white marble, inlaid with mosaic work, where the
+old kings of Delhi used to sit and listen to their ministers. The last
+of this line was still living in the palace when the Mutiny broke out.
+He was a poor specimen, given up to indulgence and sloth; but the
+British had left him the state of royalty and all his wealth until the
+rising made it impossible any more. His sons and grandson, who, when the
+Mutiny broke out, themselves actually murdered and tortured helpless
+English women and children, and watched their agonies as "sport," were
+rightly shot out of hand, and the old king became a prisoner.
+
+Coming out of this hall our eyes are caught by a gleam of something
+lustrously white against a sky which is now burning blue. This is
+another Hall of Audience, the Diwan-i-Khas, more beautiful than the
+first. It is of white marble, which, in this clear atmosphere, remains
+white, and it is richly ornamented with gilt. It is in the form of a
+square cloister or arcade, with a little dome at each corner, and if we
+stand inside and look out between the white pillars to see the lawns and
+the trees in the old palace gardens, we shall find it difficult to
+realise that this place of beauty and peace was ever a scene of fierce
+revolt. The rest of the palace is now used partly as a barracks.
+
+When the British, having beaten their way through the narrow streets,
+and swept them clear of the foe, arrived here on that fateful day, the
+14th September 1857, they found the palace deserted, except for a stray
+sentry, holding his position with sublime courage. The rest had
+fled,--thousands flying from hundreds,--and well they might, for the
+British troops were wrought up by the cruelties of the Sepoys to a
+sublime and just fury that made them seem like avenging angels. It is
+said in one place that the sternness of the expression of the Sikhs'
+faces made the wretched Sepoys fly without a shot being fired. The
+palace area is full of beautiful buildings, and we shall see many more
+specimens of this kind of Oriental architecture when we visit the
+mosques in the town this afternoon.
+
+[Illustration: THE KUTAB MINAR.]
+
+So much is there to see, indeed, that it is not until the next day we
+can ride out for a sight beyond the walls.
+
+Pull up your horse and look ahead. Do you see that huge column rising
+skyward from the plain? It is called the Kutab Minar and is two hundred
+and forty feet high. As we get under it and gaze up at it it seems to
+tower into the very sky. It is forty-seven feet across the base and
+narrows to the top, it is fluted all the way down, and has frills in
+stone around it here and there--truly a curious sight! There are three
+hundred and seventy-nine steps to climb to the top; do you want to try
+them? If so, I will wait here and hold your horse. You shake your head.
+Wise boy!
+
+There are other buildings around, parts of a mosque, and inside is an
+iron pillar said to be one of the oldest things in India. The Kutab
+Minar is supposed to have been built about the reign of our King John,
+though there are some who put it further back; the pillar is
+considerably older than that, but it cannot compare in antiquity with
+many things we have seen in Egypt. After the Hindu kings came a line of
+Moghul or Mohammedan kings who swept the others away; of these the old
+king of Delhi, living at the time of the Mutiny, was the last, and it is
+supposed that it was at the beginning of the rule of the Moghul kings
+that the Kutab Minar was erected.
+
+Notice that brown-faced, scantily clad boy, who keeps beckoning and
+shouting "Sahib." We follow him as he leads us to a well, and almost
+before we realise what he is doing he goes down head first, a drop of at
+least eighty feet, into the black water below. There is a tradition that
+the water of this well cannot drown anyone. At anyrate it hasn't rid the
+world of this rascal, for here he comes shaking the water off his oily
+body and grinning. He has earned his bakshish!
+
+As we are in Delhi for several days more we can go at our leisure
+through the bazaars, which really are well worth seeing. We choose a
+late afternoon, when there is no hurry and we can watch the people in
+their daily life and get a glimpse into the real India.
+
+The streets are narrow, mere passages mostly, and lined by the open-air
+stalls or wooden sheds which are what the native understands by shops. A
+marvellous array of slippers greets us first, for all of one trade tend
+to congregate together, a curious custom and one which you would think
+was not very good for trade, though convenient to the customer. There
+are slippers of all colours from scarlet to brown; you would never have
+thought they could be so decorative. They hang in bunches, festoons, and
+chains. Every man here wears slippers when he puts anything at all on
+his feet. Boots would be of no use to him, for he has so often to
+shuffle off his foot-gear in a hurry. Modern streets, with their stones
+and liability to nails and broken glass and other sharp things, has led
+to the native taking to strong soled slippers when he walks about his
+business.
+
+[Illustration: HE GOES HEAD FOREMOST INTO THE BLACK WATER.]
+
+There is a sizzling and a delicious smell from the next shop, and
+peeping in we see a huddled form crouched over a pot placed on a few red
+embers; it might be a witch stirring potions and muttering incantations.
+But it is only a native looking after a pan full of Indian corn popping
+out in the most fluffy and tempting way. I have often popped it on a
+shovel over the school fire. A native soldier, who is passing, stops and
+bargains for a handful, and carries it off, eating it as he goes; when
+he has had enough he will stow the rest in his turban, which serves as
+his pocket, his private trunk, and play-box all in one. This is the food
+he best thrives on, so his wants are easily supplied. A tailor sitting
+cross-legged on his board attracts us next; he is a good-looking old man
+with a grey beard and kindly eyes blinking behind horn spectacles. His
+garments are of the dark red colour seen sometimes in certain parts of
+the country when the earth is ploughed. His turban is a mighty erection
+of green arranged with much dignity. You would think it hot and heavy to
+carry all those yards of stuff on your head, but the habit has probably
+arisen to protect the head from sunstroke.
+
+"He is a _dhurzi_, Sahib," says Ramaswamy, who has followed us to
+interpret if we want. "He making all clothes for mem-sahibs. Very clever
+man and not asking too much money."
+
+Yes, a _dhurzi_ will come and sit outside on a verandah and work by the
+day and copy any garment you give him; sewing is a man's job here, and
+not a woman's.
+
+Then we see a sweetmeat shop with a crowd outside and a cloud of flies
+bearing them company. While we look, many of the flies crawl slowly over
+the sticky, syrupy stuff which has just come from the pan, and get their
+legs entangled in it, but it doesn't seem to hinder the sale, which goes
+on cheerfully. There are sweets in rings and coils and fantastic shapes.
+A child gets a large pink slab for two pice, and ten pice go to the
+penny, that is to say, the anna, so it is not dear. The buyer tucks the
+sticky stuff up in the corner of her garment and ties it carefully into
+a knot before starting homeward.
+
+Standing a little aloof from the crowd and looking at them disdainfully
+is a small boy with a twisted cord slung across his left shoulder. "He
+be Brahman, Sahib," says Ramaswamy timidly. "Very proud and not eating
+anything dirty peoples touch, just having had cord." Standing where he
+is, so as not to approach nearer to the lad, he asks a few questions,
+which are answered curtly and proudly, with a glance thrown across at us
+as much as if to say they wouldn't have been answered at all except for
+our presence.
+
+"Just two, three days he been made Brahman," explains Ramaswamy.
+
+But he was born a Brahman, of course, and what Ramaswamy means is that
+up till then he was counted a child and could play and run about with
+other children without responsibilities; now that he has been invested
+with the cord he has taken up his birthright and is of the highest
+caste, the caste from which the priests come; he may not eat anything
+prepared by a lower caste, or even let others touch him, for he is set
+apart, and very proud of his new dignity in spite of the many
+difficulties it carries with it.
+
+The child who stands staring at us with her shawl over her head is a
+little girl about the same age as the boy. She has been grinding corn
+between two stones and is a very thin and miserable little wretch. Her
+clothes are rags and there are no bangles on her little brown ankles.
+Ramaswamy tells us she is a widow! That child? She has probably never
+even seen the boy-husband who was so unlucky as to die; but because he
+did she is scorned by everyone. The worst life in all India is that of a
+widow. She has no ornaments, no amusements, and is treated worse than a
+slavey in a boarding-house, and for her there is no escape.
+
+[Illustration: A POTTER.]
+
+Right out in the street sits a man weaving a web of wonderful colours;
+he throws the shuttles, carrying different coloured threads, across and
+across, without seeming to look at them, and all the time the web is
+growing into an intricate pattern under his fingers. So his father wove,
+and his grandfather and great-grandfather. All these crafts run in
+families. A little farther on is a potter spinning a wheel with his
+feet, while the soft lump of dull-coloured clay takes shape beneath his
+clever thumb as it races round. It seems to grow and swell and curve
+exquisitely as if it were a living thing. There are few sights more
+fascinating than a potter at work. You have often heard of the "potter's
+thumb," I expect? The thumb grows broad and flat and capable, because it
+is the chief instrument with which the potter works. On the floor beside
+him lie many of the clay jars of different sizes and shapes ready for
+the baking, others are being baked. There is always a good sale for
+them, and a potter in India flourishes exceedingly. Even now there is a
+woman passing us with a pot balanced on her head and a child on her
+hip. She swings along in the dust with a graceful gliding step, for she
+has been used to carrying things on her head almost from babyhood. These
+pots are brittle enough and frequently get broken, and even the poorest
+households must have a supply of them. But what helps the potter to make
+a living more than anything else is the custom that when a death occurs
+in a family, or a new life arrives in it, all the pots must be broken
+and new ones bought! It is a symbol of the life that has gone out and
+the new life beginning.
+
+In church you must have heard those grandly poetic lines--
+
+"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the
+pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
+
+"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
+return unto God who gave it."
+
+Pass on to the silversmiths' quarter. Any of these men can do fine and
+beautiful work with very few tools. If you want anything made you pay
+them in a queer way. For the finished article is put in the scales and
+weighed against rupees thrown into the other balance, and when the
+rupees equal it then you give them to the workman, together with so many
+annas in each rupee for his work.
+
+How can we ever take in all this varied life, so different from the life
+we are used to? The women sitting on the balconies above, the pariah
+dogs prowling for scraps below, the druggists and spice-sellers, the
+fruit and vegetable stalls? Over it all is that peculiar, scented, musty
+bazaar smell, made up of saffron and wood and dirt, with which we are
+already so familiar.
+
+Wonderful Delhi! A city teeming with myriads of men of many races and
+customs, living side by side. Successor of seven cities which have
+stood here or hereabout in successive ages. From the earliest days a
+place of consequence, a place to be reckoned with, and now, by the
+proclamation of the King-Emperor, the first city in the land, as it is
+already the centre!
+
+[Illustration: CLUMSY BOATS WITH THATCHED ROOFS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TO THE DEATH!
+
+
+A curious building, isn't it? I mean that one right in front of us. It
+is something like a very large and many-sided crown, built of stone and
+set upon the ground. The sides are pierced with windows of the same sort
+as those seen in churches, and on each of the angles there is a little
+pinnacle. It rises up serenely against the soft blue sky of this early
+morning. We are far from Delhi now, having arrived at Cawnpore late last
+night, and we have come out here first thing this morning. It is only
+seven now.
+
+Cawnpore! The Mutiny! Those two things rush simultaneously into the
+mind, for Cawnpore is associated with the most awful scenes of the
+Mutiny, and no Briton can ever think of it without those scenes flashing
+before him.
+
+Come nearer and pass inside the crown and you will see in the centre a
+great angel of the usual sort, with high sweeping wings, holding palm
+branches folded across its breast. It marks the Well of Cawnpore.
+
+You know that story, of course, and yet, as we sit here, on the very
+spot where it all happened, with the Indian sky above us, we cannot help
+recalling it once more. In telling it I shall not dwell on the agonies
+and bloodshed which have hallowed this place for ever; they are done
+with, and those who suffered have been at rest for nearly sixty years.
+The deep peace around us overlies their torments and forbids us to think
+too much of the darker side of the picture. But the heroism, the
+courage, the indomitable spirit that animated these men and women, these
+things live for ever, rising up from the earth in a flood of inspiration
+for all who pass over the place.
+
+[Illustration: THE WELL OF CAWNPORE.]
+
+There are certain little animals called Tasmanian devils, who do not
+know what it is to give in; they die fighting and attack their
+persecutors as long as one limb hangs on to another; of such stuff were
+the people besieged at Cawnpore. They were encamped here on a wretched
+piece of flat ground, quite open except for a low mud wall, which anyone
+could have jumped over easily. There were about nine hundred and fifty
+of them altogether, some soldiers, some civilians, some women and
+children and a few native soldiers who remained loyal. Outside were
+unending hordes of natives well armed and well trained, because the
+greater part were the men of the native regiments who had mutinied,
+known by the name of Sepoys. A few huts built of thin brick were all the
+shelter the beleaguered people had; they were constantly under a
+shrieking storm of bullets and shells, and were ringed around by steel.
+You would have said two days at the outside would see the end of it, and
+that then the black hordes would sweep clean over that field, having
+wiped out the garrison completely; but so amazing is the power of pluck
+that those within held the hordes at bay for twenty-three days! They not
+only prevented any single Sepoy from getting inside alive, but they
+constantly sallied out and acted on the defensive, burning their
+enemies' defences and killing scores of them, while thousands fled in
+confusion before them! The sublime impudence of it! And all the time
+they were short of food; women and children were laid in holes in the
+earth covered with planks to protect them from the bullets. And
+water--ah, that was the worst--water had to be fetched from a well which
+was quite exposed in the midst of the encampment, and the Sepoys kept up
+an incessant fire on it. We are now beside it, this well where water was
+drawn at the price of blood, and yet volunteers were never lacking. The
+very ground our feet now rest upon was ringed around with the bodies of
+those who laid down their lives for the women and children. There was
+another well, a little distance off, now marked by an Iona cross, and to
+this, under cover of night, the British conveyed their dead for burial.
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN OFFICER OF THE CAMEL CORPS.]
+
+Read the inscription that circles round the wall of the well now in
+front of us:--
+
+     "Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian
+     people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were
+     cruelly murdered by the followers of the rebel, Nana Dhundu
+     Pant of Bithur, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the
+     well below, on the fifteenth day of July 1857."
+
+Yes, we have not come to the end yet!
+
+When the bloodthirsty tyrant, better known as Nana Sahib, found he could
+not crack this nut, when he realised that his whole army was held at bay
+by a few hundreds of determined spirits--there were only three hundred
+fighting men to begin with, and they were daily killed--he made terms
+with them, promising to send the survivors safely in boats down the
+river if they would give in. Desperate as they were, without food or
+water, without shade from the killing glare of the Indian summer sun,
+the brave men held their heads high and only accepted on condition they
+marched out under arms with so many rounds of ammunition to each man.
+
+This was granted.
+
+Now leave the well and follow that heroic band who went down to the
+river on that blazing day some sixty years ago. It is about a mile away.
+The little garrison now numbered some four hundred and fifty all told,
+the half of what they had been three weeks before. Blackened with the
+sun and smoke and gunpowder, so as to rival the Sepoys in complexion,
+tattered and worn and wounded, but yet with courage undaunted, they went
+down to the river.
+
+[Illustration: NANA SAHIB.]
+
+There is another building here, an arcade on the banks facing the placid
+stream; it has a tower behind and a broad flight of stairs, a ghaut, as
+it is called, flanked by walls running down to the margin. But on that
+day long ago there was nothing of this, nothing but a number of clumsy
+boats with thatched roofs to keep the sun off, native fashion. As the
+English took their places in them, suddenly a bugle rang out, and at
+that signal the native boatmen sprang from their places and splashed
+ashore; up rose an army of Sepoys from the scrub on the banks, and death
+was rained on the victims of the blackest deed of treachery ever written
+in the annals of the world. Standing here on these smooth steps which
+mark the place it is difficult even to picture that scene of horror.
+Many were killed outright, many mortally wounded and torn, one hundred
+and twenty-five were dragged ashore and brutally killed afterwards; it
+was they who were thrown into the well; but three boats got away down
+the stream. Two went ashore and all the occupants were killed by the
+merciless brutes who lined the banks. The other had men in it, men who
+were filled with a madness of wrath that knew no bounds. In spite of
+their own condition, in spite of the odds against them, they leaped like
+tigers on the foe whenever they got the chance. They were followed by
+the natives, who fired on them repeatedly from a safe distance, and
+again and again the dead had to be east into the stream. Yet when a
+Sepoy boat ran against a sandbank, twenty or so of the powder-blackened
+Englishmen sprang out into the water and raced with fury to kill them,
+though the boat contained three times their own number. It is good to
+read how they wiped out all but those who escaped in terror by swimming!
+At last only fourteen of the English were left alive and they got
+hopelessly penned in a backwater. These men charged the army of Sepoys
+on the banks and made them keep their distance. They secured themselves
+in a tiny temple on the margin of the river and killed all who
+approached. At length, seeing preparations made for blowing them up with
+gunpowder, they charged out; seven who could swim made for the river,
+the other six (one was dead) rushed straight at the mass of Sepoys and
+dealt death on every side before they fell.
+
+Four of the seven eventually outdistanced their persecutors and reached
+safety, and then, alas! one died.
+
+It is good to hear that an avenging army descended on Cawnpore, though
+too late to save the remnant of the captives. The Sepoys were smitten
+hip and thigh, and thousands paid with their lives for those other lives
+they had spared not. Nana Sahib fled and was never heard of again.
+Stripped of all his wealth and luxury he must have skulked from place to
+place like a plague-tainted rat, till death took him and he went to meet
+the souls of the hundreds he had treacherously and brutally massacred.
+
+It is finished! The price has been paid; the native has learnt that it
+is not well to meddle with white men. And we must not forget that
+hundreds of natives remained faithful, and gave their lives to save
+those of our fellow-countrymen.
+
+As we wander back through the park in the sunshine, now growing fierce
+and strong, toward the Memorial Church showing above the trees, the
+chief feeling is not of bitterness but of pride. That little band,
+whose courage was unquenchable and untamable, were not picked men and
+women, but just an ordinary crowd made up of soldiers and civilians and
+their wives and children, yet not one act of selfishness or cowardice
+remains to stain their record. When the last extremity came, sloth and
+indifference and selfishness dropped off like sloughs and only devotion
+and bravery shone out. It is grand to belong to a race which holds these
+qualities as the highest good.
+
+One incident more. When the tyrant had brought his handful of captives
+up from the river he found there were a few men among them. So before he
+started to massacre the women and babies he sent for the men to come
+forth to instant death; he dared not leave even half a dozen men of the
+untamable breed, who are "little used to lie down at the bidding of any
+man," among them, even unarmed.
+
+The men came forth, and among them was a lad of fourteen; he was only a
+year older than you, but he preferred to be reckoned among the men
+rather than to hide behind the women's petticoats. He chose a soldier's
+death and he had it, for he fell pierced by bullets with the rest.
+
+[Illustration: BATHING IN THE GANGES.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A CITY OF PRIESTS
+
+
+Surely you have never before seen anything like this, there is nothing
+to be seen like it anywhere else!
+
+We are at Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, which stands on their
+sacred river, the Ganges. We have taken a boat and have floated out into
+the current, and are looking up with amazement at the spectacle before
+us. The city rises high on the banks, and towers and minarets and domes
+of a curious long-drawn-out shape, glittering in the sun like gold,
+arise out of the flat roofs. Down to the river at every opening between
+the houses stretch stairways, as you know called _ghauts_, some broad
+and some narrow. We judge that they are there, though we cannot see the
+steps, for every inch is covered by a moving mass of people, clothed in
+the colours of the rainbow. You have often turned a kaleidoscope over
+and over, and watched the bits of coloured glass falling into strange
+patterns. Half shut your eyes and make a tube of your hands and see if
+this doesn't remind you of a kaleidoscope.
+
+Thousands and thousands of people are passing and repassing up and down,
+or sitting on every scrap of available building. They flow out over the
+steps and down into the water itself. They are standing there knee-deep,
+waist-deep, shoulder-deep, with hardly any clothes on their glistening
+brown and yellow bodies, diligently throwing the water over themselves,
+washing their long, straight, black hair in it, or even drinking it!
+
+Ah, what is that gruesome object? Take care, don't touch it as it floats
+by; it looks like a bit of charred stick, but indeed it is half-burnt
+human bones!
+
+We have already seen a few sacred rivers in our wanderings--the gigantic
+Nile, the tiny Jordan, and now we see the Ganges, which in size comes
+between the two, being one thousand four hundred and fifty-five miles in
+length. Quite a respectable-sized river that! The Hindus regard it with
+such reverence that they count bathing in it a religious act, and when
+they die their one desire is to be burned beside it so that their bones
+may be cast into its waters. If we row a little way up we shall see this
+ceremony at the Burning Ghauts. There are funeral pyres of wood where
+the relatives are carrying out the last offices for the dead. Some
+prowling pariah dogs, of the lean yellow breed, and a few impertinent
+crows are hovering about, hoping that some scraps may fall to their
+share. The dead bodies are rolled up in white and red cloth and lie with
+their feet in the blessed water awaiting their burning.
+
+Men are bringing logs of wood to pile upon the pyres, others are poking
+about in the ashes of the last burned to see if maybe an anklet or
+ear-ring has fallen off and may be scavenged.
+
+The red flames rise and lick up the sides, while the enveloping smoke
+wreathes around the corpse. Remember that at one time the miserable
+widow of the dead man would have mounted that gruesome throne and be
+sitting there to be burnt alive. This is forbidden by law now, as indeed
+it was forbidden by some of the wisest of the Indian kings too, only
+until the British came there never was any power strong enough to
+enforce it.
+
+Benares is the religious capital of India; it takes the place that
+Canterbury does with us, and it has been the place of pilgrimage for
+generations.
+
+We have met with Buddhists in Ceylon and Mohammedans in Egypt. There are
+Buddhists among the natives of India too, though not many, considering
+the population; there are many more Mohammedans, but by far the largest
+number of the people, outnumbering the Mohammedans by three to one, are
+the Hindus, and it is as a Hindu capital that Benares mainly exists.
+British rule throws protection alike over all races and all religions;
+never was there a broader based dominion; be a man a Hindu, Sikh,
+Mohammedan, Parsee, Buddhist, or Christian, the law protects him in the
+exercise of his faith so long as it does not lead to cruelty such as in
+the burning of widows, or so long as it does not encroach upon the
+rights of others.
+
+The Hindu religion is an extraordinary one. At first sight, seeing the
+jumble up of strange gods,--the cow-goddess, the monkey-god,
+elephant-god, and others,--it seems rather to resemble the religion of
+the ancient Egyptians, but it is not a real resemblance. The highest
+idea of the Hindu, as of the Buddhist, is to pass out into a sort of
+painless existence of nothingness. And to overcome the flesh and to
+arrive at a placid state, where nothing matters, is attempted here on
+earth by some. Some of the old men, fakirs as they are called, like the
+one we met in Delhi, do astonishing things merely by force of an iron
+determination. They will sit so long holding an arm in one position that
+it shrivels. Others will lie for years on a bed of spikes. They eat very
+little, live on charity, and are often lost in a state of trance.
+
+[Illustration: A FAKIR.]
+
+As we row slowly back along the river we see countless flat umbrellas,
+like those known as Japanese umbrellas, studding the gay crowd; under
+each one of these there is a "holy man," and there are thousands of them
+altogether in this city, living on the offerings of the pilgrims.
+
+Look at that fellow seated cross-legged on a plank running out into the
+river. He pours water over his feet every now and again out of a little
+copper bowl, and mutters something. He is so much absorbed in what he
+is doing that he never looks up or turns his head. Another, close by,
+has hung his gaily-coloured turban on a post and proceeds to unwind his
+garment and cast it from him before he steps into the water with hardly
+a rag upon him. This lady in an orange scarf, dripping wet, seats
+herself on the end of the board, and winds a dry scarf round herself so
+adroitly that it is like a conjuring trick; she stands up and the wet
+one falls from her. She would get well paid as a quick-change artiste at
+a music hall, and such a gift would be invaluable for bathing on the
+Cornish coast!
+
+The men along the edge are very jolly, they chatter all the time and
+splash and wash and enjoy themselves. No English seaside place on a
+trip-day can beat this crowd. The fact that dead bones and skulls are
+constantly thrown into the water, and that the ashes of dead people, and
+much else that is indescribably filthy, mingles with it, doesn't seem to
+disturb them at all.
+
+When you have wearied of watching them we will go and visit one of the
+innumerable temples in the city, but we shall need a guide for that, as
+it is not safe to wander in these streets alone.
+
+No sooner have we landed and fought our way into one of the narrow
+alleys, than the road is blocked by an enormous bull who stands placidly
+before a greengrocer's stall sampling his wares. The man makes no
+attempt to drive him away, but tries to tempt him by holding a choice
+bunch of his best stuff. The beast has slavered over much that will be
+sold for human food afterwards. What? A good smack on the flank! For
+goodness' sake take care! The animal is supposed to be sacred; to touch
+him would be to bring out all the inhabitants of these houses on to us
+like a swarm of hornets. Luckily the beast is so well fed that he soon
+moves on and we can get past.
+
+Now we have reached the most important temple of all, known as the
+Golden Temple, and as we pass into the cloisters we see a couple more
+animals standing inside, as much at home as if they were in a byre,
+which, indeed, the place smells like, with a strange scent of sweet
+flowers on the top of it. It is a wonderful place, but oh, so dirty! It
+is dedicated, of all things, to the poison-god, Shiva! It stands in a
+quadrangle, roofed in, and above rise some of those curious elongated
+domes we saw from the boat. If we climb up through that flower-stall
+where blossoms are being sold for offerings, we can see these domes,
+which really have cost a lot of money, as two of them are gilt all over;
+the gilding keeps its glitter here and rises dazzlingly against the hot
+sky.
+
+There are other temples by the dozen and mosques too for the
+Mohammedans. If we wander round we shall see many strange sights; in one
+shrine is the image of the god Saturn, a silver disc, in another that of
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, surely the most hideous of all! Look at him! A
+squatting dwarf with an elephant's trunk! At another place is the image
+of Shiva himself; it has a silver face, though made of stone, and
+possesses four hands; it is guarded by a dog, and you can buy little
+imitation dogs made of sugar anywhere near. There is even an image of
+the goddess of smallpox, and if you ask why the Hindu chooses such
+repulsive and revolting things to worship, the answer is, because he is
+afraid. He says, "If the gods are good they will not injure me, but if
+they are evil I must propitiate them!"
+
+Everywhere we go we have copper bowls or even the half of coco-nut
+shells thrust at us for offerings; the priests tolerate the strangers
+entering their temples only because they hope to get something out of
+them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are now far from Benares; we have left behind the narrow crowded
+alleys, the violent smells, and the gay colours, and are in the train
+speeding toward Calcutta, whence we will take a steamer to Burma. The
+train has just stopped at a wayside station and there is a chance to
+stretch our legs. Ramaswamy appears and tells us they are going to stop
+here for a time. He doesn't seem to know why,--something about a sahib
+is all we can gather,--so we get out and wander along the village
+street. We have only gone a short way when we see a kind of litter
+coming along slung on bearers' shoulders. It is screened by curtains,
+and beside it rides a white man in a helmet, followed by natives. Why,
+that is the very man who came up in the train from Delhi with us! I
+wonder what he is doing here. That must be a sick woman in the litter.
+This is evidently what the train was waiting for, so we might as well go
+back.
+
+We get to the station just in time to see the curtains pushed aside by
+the sahib, who very tenderly and skilfully raises in his arms the sick
+person inside, and supports him into the station. It is a gaunt
+scarecrow of a man, a skeleton of a creature, whose big pathetic eyes
+look dark in his hollow face. He is evidently very ill. He is
+half-carried across to a carriage next to ours that has been prepared
+for him, and is laid down on a couch on the seat, and it is not long
+before we get under way again. Going out a little later on to the
+platform between the two compartments we find our friend, the tall
+Englishman, standing there smoking. He recognises us at once and asks us
+about our experiences; it is not difficult to find out about the
+invalid.
+
+"One of the best chaps going," he says shortly. "Simply broken up by the
+work he's been doing in the plague-camp up there. He is a doctor, so am
+I, and I've just got back from leave. I went up-country to relieve
+Jordan, but the work is nearly over, and I found him played out. He has
+hardly had his clothes off for weeks. The difficulty is to persuade
+these people to get out of their infected houses into a camp until the
+place is made sanitary and the plague stayed. He was single-handed at
+first, now there are two other men up there, so I can be spared to take
+him down to the coast. He'll get over it; oh yes, he's got the turn now,
+though he was nearly gone once or twice, but he'll never be the same man
+again. He is invalided home for a bit, and the voyage will pull him up,
+but even as he is he's sore at leaving it. He wants to finish his job."
+
+"Then when you've left him at Calcutta you'll go back to the infected
+district?"
+
+"Yes, of course, why not? It's all in the day's work, and you know we've
+actually had only thirty deaths in a month since the beggars were got
+out into camp, and they were dying at the rate of hundreds a week
+before. Grand, isn't it?" His face lights up with enthusiasm.
+
+India is full of such men; they don't play for safety, they take their
+lives in their hands at a moment's notice, and go blithely to grapple
+with death.
+
+[Illustration: BURMESE VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE GOLDEN PAGODA
+
+
+It is hot and still, we have passed across a place of broken tangled
+undergrowth and come out into a rather untidy courtyard, where some
+sneaking yellow pariah dogs barked at us until I cut at them with my
+stick, when they ran away and barked again from a safe distance. There
+seems to be no one else here but ourselves. A great tree covered with
+glorious magenta flowers stands on one side. It is our old friend the
+bougainvillea, but here it grows into a great tree instead of a creeper.
+It is backed up by the dark foliage of many mango trees. In front of us
+is a large house which seems to rise in many storeys, and the roof of
+each storey is carved and decorated, so that it shows up like lacework
+against the sky. The house stands on legs, so that the under part is
+quite open, and a broad flight of wooden steps leads up to a verandah on
+the first floor. Stop to examine the carving on the balustrade. It is
+wonderful! Figures of tigers, dragons, peacocks, monkeys, and elephants
+are all set among foliage and cut out very deeply.
+
+When we arrived in Burma yesterday we came up the river Irrawaddy, which
+at its mouth is called the Rangoon River. What seemed like low green
+banks are really swamps filled with rushes growing high and strong; as
+we passed between them suddenly we saw afar off a gleam of gold, and by
+staring hard we made out a great tower against the sky. We are going to
+visit it presently, but just now I want you to see something else quite
+funny. Step softly on the broad wooden verandah and peep round that
+corner.
+
+There squats an old man with a perfectly bald head, smooth as a billiard
+ball; he wears a loose garment of dull yellow stuff which forms a sort
+of skirt and is draped across one shoulder as well, falling over his
+honey-coloured chest. He is all yellow, except for his round, shining
+black eyes, very like glistening balls of jet. On the ground in front of
+him, lying full length on their little stomachs, are about a dozen small
+boys. You thought they were girls? I don't wonder! Each one has a
+feathery tuft of hair in the middle of his head standing up like carrot
+tops, except for this the little skull is closely shaven all round. They
+all have skimpy white jackets and skirts from which their skinny little
+yellow legs stick out kicking in the effort to master their tasks. In a
+loud sing-song jabber they are repeating something which they read off
+the slates they hold in front of them. It would be funny to learn
+lessons lying flat on the floor, wouldn't it? But these boys have never
+sat on chairs in their lives; they will have to learn that as an
+accomplishment if they go into business offices when they are older.
+
+The old _poongyi_, or monk, is the teacher. This beautiful carved wooden
+building is the house where the monks live, and it is called a _choung_.
+In the morning, very early, the monks wander forth, dressed in yellow
+robes and carrying begging-bowls and fans. They do not beg, however,
+they are much too proud; they merely stop and stand about where there
+are houses, and the people rush to pour food into their bowls. It is a
+privilege for them to be allowed to do this, as they are supposed to
+"gain merit" by so doing. Nearly all the Burmese are Buddhists, and
+these men are Buddhist monks.
+
+[Illustration: A POONGYI, OR MONK.]
+
+You would never guess what the fans are for; they are to put up as
+screens to shield the faces of the monks when they pass a woman, for
+they are not supposed ever to look at a woman, it is too frivolous! When
+the begging-bowls are full they generally contain a strange mixture, for
+everyone pours in anything he or she happens to have; there will
+certainly be rice, both cooked and raw, peas, perhaps fish, and this may
+be wrapped up in a leaf to keep it separate, which is necessary when it
+is curried; then there will be some cakes or cucumbers; possibly, in the
+season, mangoes and plantains. One of the greatest delicacies of the
+Burmese is a horribly smelly stuff called _ngap�_, made of rotten fish
+laid in salt; no feast is complete without it.
+
+The monks are supposed to live on what they get in their begging-bowls,
+but, as a matter of fact, in wealthy monasteries they don't; they empty
+it out for the pariah dogs, which explains why so many dogs always hang
+around the monasteries.
+
+The Burmese have some funny notions; one is that they do not like anyone
+else's feet to be above their heads, so they build their houses on posts
+and do not use the ground floor. It looks as if there were many more
+storeys rising above the first floor where they live, but that is a
+sham; the roof is only built to look like that, and is hollow inside. In
+most of the monasteries there are schools, and the little boys are
+taught in them, as you see here. Besides this, every boy, when he gets
+to a certain age, must spend a time, longer or shorter, in the
+monastery. It may be only a few days or weeks and it may be years,
+according to the ideas of his parents, but while he is there he has to
+wear the yellow robe and carry the begging-bowl, and what to a growing
+boy must be most trying of all, he is not allowed to eat anything after
+midday!
+
+That old fellow has caught sight of us; he is getting up and seems quite
+pleased to welcome us. It is a good thing we brought Ramaswamy with us,
+for he can speak Burmese and interpret for us; the monk knows no
+English. The little boys spring to their feet and stand gazing at us
+with wide eyes, delighted, as any boys would be, at getting an
+interruption to their lessons. They gradually come round us and begin to
+laugh and even to touch our clothes, but the old monk sends them all
+away and leads us into the wooden rooms of the monastery that open off
+the verandah. Several monks here are lying lazily about on mats
+half-asleep, but in a moment they all surround us, and for the first few
+minutes we experience rather an eerie sensation. Coming in from the
+bright sunshine outside everything seems very dim, and these curious men
+with their shaven heads and beetle eyes come close up to us and press
+upon us, pawing us and pointing to a great image of Buddha shining out
+in a ghostly way from a shrine at the end of the hall.
+
+There are many little candles burning before it, most of them sticking
+to the ground by their own grease. One of the monks takes one up and
+holds it so that we can see the image, about twice life-size, seated in
+that calm attitude of the sitting Buddha, with crossed legs and one hand
+on the lap, while the other hangs loosely down. There is a serene
+self-satisfied smirk on the marble face, which looks more like that of a
+woman than a man. Ramaswamy explains to us that this is a very specially
+holy Buddha, and that the little dabs of gold splashed here and there
+about him are the offerings of the faithful; they are simply bits of
+gold-leaf stuck on. Gold-leaf is expensive, for it is real gold beaten
+very thin, and these little bits represent much self-denial on the part
+of many poor people. A Burman's great object in life is to "gain merit"
+for a future existence, for he thinks that he will live again and again
+many times in different forms, and that as he behaves in this life so he
+will be born again into a better or worse state in the next; if he is
+very bad he runs the risk of becoming a snake or some other repulsive
+reptile. He is not afraid of overdoing the merit, as the ancient
+Egyptian was; the more he can pile up for himself the better, and the
+way in which he does this is to feed the poongyis, build choungs and
+pagodas, and set up or adorn figures of Buddha.
+
+The priests at this choung own a priceless relic; it is no less than a
+hair of Buddha! After some persuasion they are induced to show it to us.
+They bring a great casket, which is solemnly unlocked, showing another
+inside, and again another, and at last we get down to a little glass
+box with an artificial white flower in it, round which is wound a long
+and very wiry white hair. I should say many of the same sort could be
+got from any long-tailed white horse!
+
+[Illustration: BUDDHA.]
+
+On a table near are various offerings, and among them we see a rather
+greasy pack of ordinary playing-cards and a soda-water bottle, besides
+several saucers of waxy white blossoms of the frangipani flower, such as
+we saw in Ceylon, emitting a very strong scent. The soda-water bottle
+and playing-cards look rather dissipated, but they are quite serious
+offerings, given by somebody who thinks them rare and interesting. Our
+ears for some time past have told us that an extraordinary amount of
+ticking is going on, and now that our eyes have become accustomed to
+the light, we can see numerous clocks on brackets and tables; these are
+of all sorts and sizes, including a 2s. 11d. "Bee" clock, cuckoo clocks,
+and even one large "grandfather." In between and about them, on the
+floor and on the shelves, are lamps large and lamps small, some brass,
+some china, and some glass!
+
+The clocks are all going hard, ticking away as if they were running a
+race to see which could get ahead of the other. It is a funny medley!
+The monks are lazy enough and pass half their days asleep, but if they
+keep all these clocks wound up someone must have something to do. These
+are all offerings, and the more the better; no monk can ever get enough
+lamps or clocks to satisfy him!
+
+We pass down and out into the courtyard, and all the monks follow us in
+a body and gently edge us toward some ponds or tanks where fat tortoises
+lie on the banks or float lazily in the stagnant water.
+
+There is a man sitting on the side selling balls of rice and bits of
+bread. Just as we come up a graceful Burmese woman buys a ball and
+throws it into the water. In an instant what looks like a voracious army
+of huge spiders floats up from below and attacks it, and as the ball of
+rice dissolves and falls apart every grain disappears. Looking more
+closely we see that they are not spiders at all, but a curious kind of
+fish with long feelers growing out all round his mouth and nose. As he
+thrusts up his mouth to the surface, with all the feelers wriggling, the
+rest of his body is unseen, and the appearance is exactly that of a
+round spider with wriggling legs. Buy a bit of crust and see the fish
+dart at it and simply tear it to pieces; they scramble at it from all
+sides, pushing and nibbling, and in less time than you could imagine
+every crumb is gone!
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLDEN PAGODA.]
+
+The woman is laughing, and we laugh back at her. She is short and very
+neat, with her shining black hair coiled round her head and secured by
+two big pins, while a dainty spray of flower falls down on one side. Her
+face looks quite light coloured, for it is thickly covered with a kind
+of soft yellow powder, and she has a brilliant gauzy scarf across her
+little white jacket and falling down over her tight rose-pink silk
+skirt. As she walks away with a curious shuffle we see that she has on
+the quaintest shoes, with red velvet caps and no heels; but the caps are
+so much too small for her feet that she has had to leave the little toe
+outside! This is a fine dodge, and Mah Shwe can say she takes twos or
+threes in shoes with truth, even if her feet are much larger!
+
+The monks are standing in a solemn group near their staircase when we go
+back, and when I suggest to Ramaswamy we should give them something he
+disagrees vigorously. "Not touching money, Master, only food and rice,
+no money." All right, we won't tempt them, and I put back the rupee I
+had taken out. You must have noticed already that the money here is the
+same as in India. Then we climb into the miserable little box on wheels
+which is waiting for us; it is the only cab we can get here, and calls
+itself a ticca-gharry. The little rat of a pony seems a very long way
+off; it is a tight squeeze for us inside, and there is certainly no room
+on the box beside the hairy-legged native for Ramaswamy, but he hops up
+on a board there is behind for the purpose, and hangs on as we jolt away
+to the Golden Pagoda.
+
+The first thing we see when we arrive at it are two enormous monsters,
+not like any animal in existence, made of white plaster with glaring red
+eyes. They have dragons' heads and tigers' bodies and are most terribly
+ferocious. These guard the entrance to the pagoda and are called
+leogryphs. Between them there is a long ascent rising to the pagoda
+platform. The place is like a bazaar with people in their gay clothes
+coming and going, and the sun glinting through between the pillars at
+the open spaces. It is difficult to tell the difference between men and
+women, for all alike wear skirts and jackets, and you never see a man
+with a beard, hardly ever with a moustache. But the true distinction is
+that the men have a gay handkerchief called a _goungbaung_ wound round
+their heads, and the women wear no head covering, and, as you have seen,
+they never think of veiling their faces, like the Mohammedan women. The
+men's head-gear is very different from that we saw in India; it is not a
+huge and heavy erection, but just a silk or cotton scarf twisted up and
+tucked in, and very often there is a "bird's nest" of dark hair sticking
+out in the middle of it, for the men's hair is long as well as the
+women's, but they roll it up so that it is not seen.
+
+[Illustration: THE LEOGRYPH.]
+
+Everyone is very bright and friendly, and the girls who are selling all
+sorts of little tawdry things on the stalls by the stairs call out to us
+persuasively to buy from them. On the whole the place is clean, and
+there is no bazaar smell, only a certain sharp wood-smoke flavour and
+the scent of many flowers. But at the foot of every white column are
+horrible deep-red stains that look as if some little animal had been
+slaughtered there. It is not so bad as that. You remember we saw a man
+whose mouth was stained red with chewing betel-nut, which he did in the
+same way that some of the roughest men in England chew tobacco? These
+are the stains of that betel-nut, for nearly everyone here has the
+nasty habit.
+
+Up the steps we pass, higher and higher, and come out on to a great
+platform which looks like a street, for it is lined with buildings on
+all four sides and in the middle too; but rising above those in the
+middle is the great pagoda, the Shwe Dagon,--_shwe_ means golden,--and
+this is the most wonderful thing in Burma.
+
+It is so wide at the base that it takes quite a long time to walk round
+it, and then it goes up in a bell-like curve, tapering to a steeple
+little less than the height of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the very top of
+all, so high that we can only see it by cricking our necks, is an iron
+cage called a _htee_, meaning "umbrella," decorated with swinging bells.
+Listen for a moment and perhaps you can hear them as the wind sways them
+about. No, the air is too still to-day. Deep in the innermost chamber of
+the pagoda are no less than eight hairs of Buddha, besides other relics
+of other Buddhas who lived before the last.
+
+The marvel of it is that this great monument is pure gold from top to
+bottom. Much of it is covered with thin plates of real gold, and the
+rest, yards and yards of it, is plastered with gold-leaf.
+
+Did you see that red glint from the top as the sun caught the htee at an
+angle? That was probably a real ruby, for it flashed out like a sword
+blade. There are many real stones set up there, and the htee alone cost
+�50,000!
+
+Coming back to earth, look at the glitter on all these shrines that line
+the platform on both sides. Though it looks like a street it isn't
+really, for there are no houses, only shrines and temples. That one
+close to us is dazzling to look at. No, those blue and red flashes are
+not from real jewels; examine them and see. The shrine is encased with
+little pieces of looking-glass, some red and some blue and some plain,
+all fitted in together like mosaic.
+
+The next is made of the wonderful carved woodwork the Burmans do so
+well, and it is gilded all over; for my own part I prefer the dark teak
+ungilded, but still this looks very handsome among the rest. That tall
+post like a flagstaff, with streamers flying from it, is a praying-post;
+can you make out the figure like a weather-cock at the top? It is a
+goose instead of a cock, and doesn't tell the direction of the wind. It
+is the sacred goose. The brilliance of all this detail takes one's
+breath away. On every side we see the people worshipping, and yet it is
+not a festival day, for then we should hardly be able to move for the
+crowds on the platform--where there are tens now there would then be
+thousands. The worshippers drop down quite simply on the pavement before
+a favourite shrine and hold up their hands toward it, sometimes with an
+offering of flowers in them, or even a big taper. There is a woman
+passing smoking a monstrous "green" cigar. It is a huge thick roll of
+light-coloured stuff like shavings, about as long as your arm from elbow
+to wrist, and as thick as a man's finger. She has to open her little
+round mouth wide to get the end in. It is not filled with pure tobacco,
+but a chopped mixture of all sorts; even you could smoke it without any
+harm. Why yes, women smoke here almost all day, and children too. They
+do say the mothers give the babies-in-arms a whiff, but I haven't seen
+that myself!
+
+Set up everywhere are coloured umbrellas with fringes of coloured beads,
+as large as those used for tents on lawns sometimes. We peer into
+numberless shrines as we pass and see Buddhas of every sort peeping at
+us out of the dim interiors; there are Buddhas of brass, Buddhas of
+marble, Buddhas of alabaster, Buddhas coated with white paint, and
+Buddhas covered with gold. Most of them are seated, always exactly in
+the same position as the one we saw far away in Ceylon. This is
+supposed to signify Buddha as he sat under the Bo tree meditating.
+Others show him standing with one hand upraised, and this is to show
+Buddha as he was when teaching, and others are lying down, but these are
+the least common. They are supposed to show Buddha when he passed into
+eternal calm.
+
+Pink is by far the favourite colour for the people's clothes, and it is
+very vivid, like the colour seen in striped coco-nut cream, but white is
+also much worn, and there is some yellow in orange shades. Many of the
+Burmese wear a shirt of maroon check, just like a check duster; these
+are their workaday clothes, on festivals they generally manage to come
+out in silks.
+
+Come round now to the back of the shrines that line the platform on the
+outer side, here there is another open space, and on it are bells as
+large as church bells; they hang between two posts. Take up one of those
+deer's horns lying beside that one and stroke it hard. It gives out a
+clear musical note. Try now the piece of wood, that sounds different.
+Everyone who passes stops to strike one or the other of the bells, they
+want to call the attention of the "good nats," or spirits, to the fact
+that they are at the pagoda! In this shed is an enormous bell large
+enough to hold half a dozen men. I don't think you'll be able to make
+much effect with a deer's horn on that. It is the third largest in the
+world, and once was in the bottom of the Rangoon River, for the English
+were carrying it away when it toppled over and sank. Engineers tried to
+raise it, but failed, because of its enormous weight; but the Burmans,
+after some time, were allowed to try, and somehow managed to succeed,
+and not only so, but they hauled it right up here! It does look as
+though there were something weird about its positive refusal to be
+carried away!
+
+Along the edge of this part of the pagoda are a number of wooden
+platforms raised a foot or two from the ground, for the use of those who
+come from long distances, and on them many families are lying or
+sitting. On one sits a tiny boy with a quizzical intelligent little
+face. His top-knot sticks up like an out-of-curl feather. Beside him is
+a still smaller mite who cannot be more than two; he has little silver
+bangles on his fat wrists and ankles, and a strip of cotton rolled round
+his dumpy body, while papa and mamma and numerous aunts are seated on
+the platform behind gravely smoking.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE PLATFORM OF A PAGODA.]
+
+I stop to light a cigarette close to this family, and in an instant the
+elder lad holds out his hand timidly. Just to see what he will do I give
+him a cigarette; he takes it with a self-possessed courtesy and looks at
+me, politely waiting for a light. I hand him the box and he strikes a
+match and bows a little as he returns it; even the children have
+excellent manners. Drawing in a great whiff of smoke he sends it out
+through his little round nose in keen enjoyment. But the fat baby has
+suddenly become alive to what is going on, and crawling on the top of
+his brother clamorously demands a smoke more loudly than if he were
+asking for sweets. The bigger boy hands him the cigarette. He knows
+quite enough not to put the lighted end in his mouth, and in a second is
+puffing so vigorously that the cigarette burns away like a furnace; when
+his brother sees this he makes a desperate effort to recover it, but the
+fat baby pushes him off with one hand, while he clings to the cigarette
+with the other, and, turning away his head, smokes harder than ever.
+
+We are both reduced to fits of laughter by this time, and the family on
+the platform are enjoying the joke too. Seeing that there are likely to
+be difficulties, I solve them by producing another cigarette for the
+elder boy, and the fat baby is left in full possession of the first one.
+The last sight we have of him is as he violently resists a grown-up
+sister who is trying to take away the stub!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE
+
+
+[Illustration: THE GOVERNMENT SERVANT.]
+
+We are lucky! No sooner have we returned to the hotel than a gorgeous
+man, over six feet high, dressed in white, with a red sash, in which is
+stuck a tasselled dagger, greets us. He is a _chuprassie_, or messenger,
+and has come from Government House with a note inviting us to a
+garden-party there this afternoon. What a day of it! This is the result
+of my having been up there yesterday to write our names in the book kept
+for the purpose, while I left you to rest. That is the way people do
+here instead of leaving cards, so that His Excellency the
+Lieutenant-Governor may know who has come to the country. I thought
+perhaps he would take some notice of us, because his younger brother was
+my great friend at the 'Varsity, but this is very prompt. I am glad you
+will have a chance of seeing something of Government House, as most
+people in England have not an idea how things are run here. Burma is
+counted as one of the provinces of India, and is under the Viceroy of
+all India, but within his own borders the Lieutenant-Governor is the
+ruler and representative of the King.
+
+It is about four o'clock, when, having had a rest and made ourselves as
+smart as we can, we crawl up the long drive leading to Government House
+in one of the ridiculous small ticca-gharries which are the only
+conveyances one can get.
+
+We are one of a long procession of vehicles going at a foot's pace,
+stopping and starting again. Some are private carriages, there are a few
+motors, a few dog-carts, and ours is not the only little box on wheels.
+Lean out a little and you will see a flash of jewels and satiny silk in
+that one in front of us; evidently some wealthy natives are among the
+guests. The long line of vehicles comes up to the door, and when the
+occupants have alighted the drivers curve on round the lawn and go away.
+At last our turn comes. A pleasant-looking man, all in white, with a red
+sash and sword, and a wonderful bunch of tassels and plaits in gold,
+called an aiguillette, on his breast, greets us as cordially as if we
+were old friends. Notice the plume of rose-pink feathers on his helmet!
+He seems to know all about us without our saying a word, and as he leads
+the way across the short grass lawn to where our host and hostess stand
+ready to greet their guests, he tells me that His Excellency's brother,
+my old friend, is actually staying here now.
+
+His Excellency is in English costume, with a star on his breast; he
+shakes hands kindly and calls out to summon his brother, who is not far
+off, and we pass on to make way for the stream of newcomers.
+
+We could not be in better hands. Claude and I have not met for years,
+but that makes no difference; we greet each other as if we had parted
+only yesterday. He takes us over to the tables for tea and fruit. And
+when he hears this is your first visit he insists on your eating a
+mango, which is the most famous fruit in the country and just ripe.
+These are a specially good sort, not very large, with pink "cheeks";
+when you have stripped off the tough skin you find you get down to the
+big stone very soon, and there isn't much room for the fruity part
+between, still, what there is of it is excellent, and I see you
+furtively using your handkerchief to get rid of the stickiness
+afterwards!
+
+Then we sit in basket-chairs, not too near the band, and Claude tells us
+"all about it." It is a much more brilliant scene than an ordinary
+garden-party at home, because in addition to the Europeans there are a
+number of high-class Burmese. Those little ladies near us standing in a
+group are most gorgeously attired in much-embroidered fussy little
+jackets with short wings, or lappets, sticking out behind, and their
+skirts, or tameins, are woven of the richest silk. As that one turns you
+see that beside the flowers in her hair she has two big pins with heads
+the size of small walnuts; those are real diamonds, not perhaps of the
+first water, but still of great value. The ladies' faces are smooth with
+yellow powder, and there is something very neat about their movements. A
+little way off is a Burman with a pink goungbaum and very rich silk
+skirt. The grass, kept green by plentiful early morning watering, is
+quite vivid in colour, and the clear cloudless sky is of a thrilling
+blue. Government House itself is a great palace, not beautiful, as it is
+built of yellow brick and pink terra-cotta, but imposing and dignified.
+Burman attendants wearing turbans and skirts, called _lyungis_, of
+purest mauve, and dainty white jackets, glide about with the
+refreshments. Burmans will seldom take service with anyone, generally
+they leave that to the natives of India, but they make a distinction in
+the case of anyone so important as the Lieutenant-Governor.
+
+"It's all rather overwhelming to me," says my friend. "You know I am a
+quiet man; a well-seasoned pipe and a den full of books are about my
+mark. I had no idea till I came out here that my brother was such a
+boss; it makes me want to run away."
+
+"Tell us about some of the guests," I suggest. "Why does that man in the
+saffron-coloured robe have yards too much of it?"
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE BURMESE LADY.]
+
+"That's his best garment, called a _putso_, I understand. The more stuff
+the better, all bunched up; to show he can afford it, I suppose. Doesn't
+leave much room for the tailor to display his cut. He's a prominent
+Government man. I don't know him personally. Those two ladies in the
+fussy little jackets are royalties; they wear that sort of thing because
+they're of the old royal blood, though otherwise you only see it in the
+_pw�s_, or plays. They are of the house of Theebaw, the king we
+dethroned in 1885 when we took over Upper Burma. He's living still in
+India, where he was sent into exile. I don't know what relation these
+two are to him, but when every king had at least thirty sons, there was
+no scarcity of relations! It was the custom for the son who mounted the
+throne in the old days to kill off all his brothers if he could lay
+hands on them, as a precaution in case of accidents. I take it some of
+the ladies were spared, which would make for the inequality of the
+sexes."
+
+"I suppose your brother is like a king out here?"
+
+"He is the representative of the King. You should see him driving in
+state with outriders in scarlet liveries. People in England don't
+realise it. I always say how he will suffer when he retires and goes to
+England, where no one will shiko to him!"
+
+At that moment he springs to his feet to shake hands with a dignified
+short Burman in beautiful native dress, to whom he introduces us. This
+is the Sawbwa, or chief, of Hsipaw, one of the native states. The Sawbwa
+has been educated in England and speaks perfectly correct English. He
+has a passion for travel and wants to go round the world, he says, but
+he has to get permission from the Viceroy before leaving the country, as
+the English Government doesn't like the native princes leaving their
+territory. So long as he stays at home and governs his people well he is
+not interfered with, but when he wants to go away he feels the hand of
+Britain over him!
+
+After talking a little while he asks us if we have seen the football--he
+calls it football, but, as he explains, it is a native game called
+_chin-lon_, which is not quite the same.
+
+We saunter across the lawn and find that a sort of exhibition game for
+the amusement of the guests is going on. The ball is made of wicker-work
+and is kept in the air by the knees or feet of the players very
+cleverly, in fact, so cleverly that it looks quite easy to do. The young
+men who are playing turn and twist and always catch it just right,
+sending it spinning upwards very neatly. This is a game played by every
+village lad, but if you tried it you'd find it uncommonly difficult.
+
+[Illustration: "BOXING."]
+
+A little farther on two men are boxing with their feet, raising their
+legs in the high kick and sometimes smacking each other's faces with the
+soles; the way they balance is extraordinary, there are roars of
+laughter when one nearly goes over but just recovers himself. He is a
+bit of a clown, that fellow, and does it on purpose now and again,
+though really he is perfectly balanced. Then we walk on with Claude
+toward the house, where the marble steps are lined by chuprassies, like
+the one who brought us our invitation this morning; we pass into the
+hall, with its high white columns and airy spaciousness, and then we see
+masses of wood-carving like that at the choung, deeply undercut, and a
+huge pair of elephant tusks. Everywhere are tall vases with great
+orange and red flags, something of the same kind as those that grow by
+riversides, only much larger.
+
+The passages are in the form of great arcades, and the ballroom behind
+is vast. It is indeed a palace fit for a king!
+
+His Excellency is very gracious, and when he is free for a few minutes
+he talks to us and asks us to stay with him and his wife on our way back
+from up-country, an invitation we gladly accept. He also promises to
+make everything easy for us on our tour. As we go away, after having
+taken our leave, I hear you say thoughtfully--
+
+"I think I'd like to be a Lieutenant-Governor when I grow up!"
+
+It is a good ambition, but you will have to be clever and very hard
+working to achieve it, and even then you will want a bit of luck. You
+must go into the Indian Civil Service first, and after all, of course,
+you may never get there, but with a bit of luck----
+
+[Illustration: THE PALACE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE
+
+
+"This butter is uneatable, Ramaswamy."
+
+"I wash him, Master."
+
+He takes away the dish of nasty, yellow, tinned butter and presently
+returns with it fresh and white, with much of the disagreeable taste and
+smell gone. Good! Now we know.
+
+We are sitting on a broad verandah of dark wood with a roof overhead. It
+is so wide that it is just like a room, only the outer sides are open.
+We look out over a moat filled with water and covered with leaves and
+pink flowers. These are the celebrated lotus flowers, or lilies. Behind
+rise red walls, with here and there quaint little maroon-coloured
+towers, all pinnacles and angles, showing up like fretwork against the
+sky. The moat is crossed by bridges of dazzling white. It is nearly
+midday, the hottest and stillest time of all the day, and we are
+lunching in the Circuit House at Mandalay, the old capital of the kings
+of Burma.
+
+Everyone knows Mandalay by name from Kipling's poem, even if they know
+nothing of the rest of Burma. We came up here from Rangoon by train,--it
+took a night,--and by special permission of His Excellency were allowed
+to stay in this house, which is usually reserved for Government
+officials, instead of going to the rest-house intended for visitors, and
+not nearly so nice.
+
+From where we sit we can look through into the wooden unpapered bedrooms
+behind, with the little string beds on which our own bedding lies in
+heaps. Ramaswamy has not had time to put it out yet, for he has been
+busy cooking our tiffin. In these houses the keeper, or _derwan_, will
+do everything for you if you like, and you pay him so much for his
+trouble, but if you prefer your own servant to do it you can make that
+arrangement and borrow the pots and pans. Ramaswamy has given us already
+buttered eggs, some cutlets which tasted goaty, with some excellent
+little vegetables called bringals, as well as a dish of mixed curry, and
+he has now put some fruit on the table, and is bringing in coffee. He
+cooks out there behind in the compound. I saw him just now bending over
+a handful of sticks. However he manages to get the things hot I don't
+know. These natives have marvellous ways.
+
+We must rest a while this afternoon and have an early tea before
+starting out to see the palace which lies inside that brick wall.
+
+The tea is decent, the toast smoky, and the milk very poor. Ramaswamy
+says that it is almost impossible to get milk; the Burmans don't drink
+it themselves, and he thinks we shall have to fall back upon that
+condensed stuff. However, there is excellent jam, and that is a good
+thing. Look round this bare wooden room and notice how little furniture
+one needs for perfect comfort. A couple of deck-chairs, a couple of
+small chairs, a table, a lamp, and a waste-paper basket! What a lot of
+superfluous furniture one does accumulate in England!
+
+What are you smiling at? The recollection of the bath? It's a very good
+way of bathing, I think. A wooden tub in the middle of a tiny room
+without anything else in it. You can splash as much as ever you like,
+and even if you spilt the whole bath it wouldn't matter much, because
+the water would simply run down through the cracks in the plank floor,
+and any one who knows anything here knows enough not to stand underneath
+a bathroom which is built out on wooden legs.
+
+We'll start now if you're ready! Hullo! Did you ever see anything so
+impudent? A great crow on the tea-table! Frighten him away, he's after
+those chocolates wrapped in silver paper that you brought up from
+Rangoon. The cheek of it!
+
+When we have passed over the white bridge and got inside the wall of the
+palace we see a wide space of green with a few houses scattered here and
+there, and in the middle a group of buildings, one of which has a very
+tall spire. Inside this wall at one time, the Burman time, was crammed
+the whole of Mandalay--six thousand houses, more or less. It _was_ the
+town. The British cleared out all the houses, and the town is now
+outside in wide streets,--we saw it this morning as we drove up from the
+station,--and the palace is left here alone in its glory.
+
+That tall, many-roofed spire is the King's house. Only the King was
+allowed to rival the poongyis in the number of his roofs, no other
+Burman might do such a thing. It is an empty distinction in two senses,
+for, as you know, the roofs don't mean floors, they are hollow. There
+is only one floor, for, of course, the King could never risk the
+frightful indignity of having anyone's feet above his head. At the top
+is a htee, or umbrella, as there is on the pagodas.
+
+The palace is not all one big building, but a number of buildings, or
+halls, each only one storey, grouped about with courtyards between. We
+wander in and out of them, treading on polished floors and seeing
+brilliant bits of colour framed in dark doorways. Some of the pillars
+glow a dull red, others are a wonderful gold; some of the doorways are
+set in frames of carved wood gilded all over. We see columns encrusted
+with little bits of many-coloured looking-glass, like those we saw in
+Rangoon. The halls are very dim in contrast with the brilliant light
+outside, and there is a kind of tawdriness in the decoration which makes
+one feel how different in nature these people must be from the ancient
+Egyptians who built so solidly. Here all is gay, but you feel it is
+gimcrack--it won't last. Look at that balustrade, gleaming deep green;
+examine it--do you see what it is? Nothing in the world but a row of
+green glass bottles turned upside down and embedded in cement! This
+place isn't old at all. It has not been built sixty years; before that
+the capital was elsewhere.
+
+All at once Ramaswamy, who has been following noiselessly, pushes you
+aside with a cry of "Scorpion, Master." There, on the ground, difficult
+to see in this dim light, is a round black thing about as big as the
+palm of your hand, with a tail sticking out from it. It is the shape of
+a tadpole. In another minute you would have trodden on him, and if he
+had got in above your shoe, well--it would have been unpleasant in any
+case, and might have meant death!
+
+He lies quite still, not attempting to run away until Ramaswamy's shout
+brings one of the guardians, a tall man in a dark blue uniform and red
+sash. He rushes to find a big stone. We won't stop to see it. Poor
+beggar! Doubtless they'll "larn him to be a scorpion!"
+
+When King Theebaw reigned here he thought himself invincible; the
+many-roofed spire was "the centre of the universe." He imagined he could
+treat as he liked not only his own subjects but that white-faced race
+who had had the audacity to settle down in southern Burma. He soon
+learnt his mistake.
+
+Leaving the palace we go on to see a very curious thing not far off
+outside the walls, this is the Kutho-daw, the Royal Merit-House. We
+enter by an elaborate white gateway and find ourselves in a perfect
+forest of pagodas. They are planted in rows and are all exactly alike
+and not very large. They are glittering white, and each one has a slate
+slab inside. The Kutho-daw was built by Theebaw's uncle, who acquired
+much merit thereby, and he deserved it, for there are no less than seven
+hundred and twenty-nine pagodas. On the slate inside each is inscribed
+some part of the Buddhist Scriptures. It was a grand idea thus to
+preserve indelibly on stone the whole Burmese Bible. Here it is for all
+time. Peep inside one and you will see the funny-looking Burmese
+writing, which all runs on without being divided up into words, and
+looks consequently so incomprehensible to us.
+
+What? How you jump! What is it? Another beast? Yes, I see him, that is a
+tarantula crouching in the darkest corner and looking at us out of
+wicked little eyes that shine like diamond points. He is a monster
+spider, isn't he? All hairy too, and his body striped with yellow bands
+like a wasp's. He sits still, but he is very much alive and ready to
+jump at a minute's notice. They are venomous brutes. Not quite so bad as
+a scorpion, but still the bite from one of these fellows is a very
+unpleasant thing. We will leave him, he can't do much harm here.
+
+Now we will drive round the town and see how the people live.
+
+Here is a happy family seated on a wooden platform stretching out in
+front of their house. The dust around and over them and in the roadway
+is almost as bad as Egypt, but here there is nearly always a tree or
+shrub of some sort to bring in a flash of green. The huts too are built
+of wood and mats and are raised several feet from the ground; they do
+not look so hopelessly crooked as the Egyptian mud houses. In the space
+underneath huge black pigs, like great boars, wander, and there are
+black goats too, and skinny hens and pariah dogs. Do you see that
+mother-dog lying in the roadway, too lazy to move, with six yellow
+puppies sprawling over her? Poor brute, she is a mass of mange and so
+skinny that her ribs stick out! The people here are taught by their
+religion not to take life of any kind; some of the priests strain their
+water through a sieve lest they should inadvertently swallow an insect!
+So no one kills, even in mercy. All these miserable puppies are allowed
+to grow up to a starved wretched existence, a misery to themselves and
+everyone else.
+
+Look at those two elephants stalking down the road; they move
+majestically, and when they reach the pariah dog the driver, or _oozie_,
+seated on the first one's neck, pricks him with a point to make him look
+where he is going, so that he avoids the dog. You will see plenty of
+elephants here, for elephants are to Burma what camels are to Egypt, the
+regular beasts of burden. They carry the kit and camp paraphernalia for
+the men who go into the jungle sometimes for months. They move the logs
+and trunks of the timber which is cut in the forests in large
+quantities. You remember the dark wood of the Circuit House and the
+poongyi choung? That is all teak, the best known wood in the country,
+corresponding to our oak. There are forests of it, and large companies
+exist simply for getting it out. There are still herds of wild elephants
+in the little disturbed parts of Burma, and every now and again
+Government catches them in _keddahs_ in great quantities. I wish we had
+the luck to go with a hunting-party.
+
+[Illustration: ELEPHANTS, BURMA.]
+
+The family which owns that hut is seated on the edge of the platform and
+are watching us with as much interest as we watch them. Two bright-eyed
+little girls in jackets play beside a smiling woman. You will notice
+here the girls and women have quite as good a time as the boys and men;
+no veiling of faces or hiding away for them. The Burman knows better,
+and he would get on badly without the active help and advice of his
+comrade and wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ON A CARGO BOAT
+
+
+[Illustration: DANCING GIRL, BURMA.]
+
+Did you ever see anything like it in your life? I never did.
+
+We are on a steamer coming down the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay, and
+it is our first evening on board. We are not the only passengers, there
+are also a widow lady and her daughter, a girl a few years older than
+you, but still in pigtails, whose name is Joyce. We were all four
+sitting very comfortably after dinner on the deck, which is roofed in,
+making a fine open room like a verandah, when a few large,
+light-coloured moths appeared; then, as if by magic, the whole deck was
+suddenly alive with them. They banged against the glass of the lights,
+thumped into our faces, and whirled around exactly like a thick
+snowstorm with very large flakes.
+
+"It's one of the plagues of Egypt," you yell.
+
+Joyce screams, pulls her long plaits round her face to prevent the moths
+catching in them, and dives for her cabin. Everyone follows suit, and
+soon anxious voices can be heard asking, "How many got in with you?"
+
+It is impossible to shut the port-hole, and in less time than I can tear
+off my clothes my tiny room is as bad as the deck.
+
+Luckily there are mosquito-curtains, and glad of them we are, as we can
+hear the loathsome soft-bodied creatures blundering about outside them.
+
+Lo! in the morning they are all gone, and when I get on deck, and ask
+the captain, a stern soul from Aberdeen, where they have disappeared to,
+he points to the river. "Where would they be? Overboard, of course.
+Dead, every one of them. They live but a day."
+
+Leaning over the vessel's side I see some of the gummy bodies, mere
+hollow shells now, transparent and fragile, sticking on to the black
+paint about the bows. The creatures are white ants who come out of holes
+in the ground at this time of year. Our lights attracted a new-born
+swarm. At least that must have been it, because we weren't plagued with
+them again in the same way, though the captain says that in the wet
+season it is impossible to sit on the deck at all in the evenings
+because of the multitude of winged things.
+
+"But then you haven't got any hair," I hear Joyce's cheerful voice
+saying on the deck. You evidently reply something, for she rejoins at
+once, "Oh yes, it's in plaits, but they might stick in them! I've always
+had a creepy horror of crawly things sticking in my hair."
+
+"Cut it off," you suggest brutally.
+
+This is a cargo boat. We had much to see at Mandalay; we visited the
+Aracan Pagoda and Golden Temple, we went up to the hill-station, Maymyo,
+and on to the Gokteik Gorge, spanned by one of the highest trestle
+bridges in the world, and when we arrived back at Mandalay we found that
+the passenger boat had just left, so we came on by this one, the
+_China_, which is really just as comfortable and not so crowded. She is
+fitted with bathrooms and comfortable cabins with little beds in them,
+and on the spacious upper deck are two immense mirrors so placed that
+all the sights on the shore are reflected in them. You can sit in a
+lounge-chair and watch them flash past like a continuous cinematograph.
+
+The Irrawaddy flows right through Burma, cutting it in half, as the Nile
+does Egypt; and it is rather like the Nile, but, of course, not nearly
+so long, not so long even as the Ganges, though steamers can go up it
+for nine hundred miles, equal to the length of England and Scotland put
+together! The river is wide and shallow in places, sometimes as much as
+two miles across, and at these places great care has to be taken not to
+run on sandbanks; there is much poling and shouting out of soundings,
+and when we do stick, a boat rows out with an anchor and drops it, and
+after a while we ride up to the anchor and there we are!
+
+There is far more vegetation to be seen on the banks than in Egypt, and
+the life in the villages is much more attractive. The houses are
+perfectly beautiful--at a distance. They are built of dark wood, and
+stand on posts, with wide verandahs and thatched roofs, are nearly
+always embowered in great trees, and have a luxuriant growth of
+plantains and trees around. The spires of the pagodas and the pinnacles
+and roofs of the choungs generally rise up somewhere in the picture, and
+in the evening, when the whole village comes down to the water, the
+scene is charming. The cattle stand knee-deep and the people bathe and
+wash their clothes and drink heartily of the muddy stream, and then slip
+on dry garments, after which the women and girls stream up the steep
+banks, carrying red chatties of water on their heads. All are lively,
+full of play and chaff. Their life is a happy one, because perfectly
+simple and natural; no one need starve and no one wants to be rich.
+
+All day the steamer floats along, generally winding slowly across and
+across the river wherever a little red flag stuck up on the banks tells
+that there are a few cases or barrels or packets to be taken down to the
+market. At one place it is _let-pet_, or pickled tea, though the plant
+from which the stuff is made is not really a tea-plant. Burmans love it,
+and no feast is complete without it, indeed a packet of let-pet is an
+invitation to something festive.
+
+It is early afternoon and quite hot and still as we circle toward the
+shore where the red flag hangs drooping; people in gay clothes are
+dabbed about like little splashes of colour on the whity-yellow sand.
+Suddenly there is a splash, and from our bows, which are high up in the
+air, one of the Lascars, dressed in blue dungaree trousers, drops feet
+first into the water like a stone; while he is in the air another
+follows and another, until there are half a dozen of them in the water,
+and they go across to the shore, paddling with each hand alternately as
+a dog does with his paws. They are carrying a line ashore. They always
+jump off like this at every landing-place. They shake themselves like
+dogs as they land, and the sun soon dries their one and only garment.
+But it takes a good while before the line is fixed up to the captain's
+liking!
+
+Then the people swarm across the plank into the great barge, or flat,
+tied alongside of us, and a shouting sing-song begins as men and girls
+alike hurry up and down carrying on board sacks of monkey-nuts. They
+work hard and untiringly and always good-humouredly; the popular notion
+that the Burman is a lazy fellow is based on the fact that he won't work
+if he can help it, but when he has to he does it with goodwill. A funny
+little incident occurs. The captain, walking down his own gangway, is
+run into by a coolie who is heading up the plank with a sack on his
+shoulders; wrathfully the captain sends him and his sack flying, and
+they both land in deep water. That is nothing, however, for every Burman
+can swim, and no one bears any ill-feeling about it.
+
+Crowds of little boys and girls are dancing and splashing about on the
+edge of the water with infinite glee. A mother comes down with her baby
+and goes into deep water with the tiny thing clinging to her; suddenly
+she lets it go, and swimming with one hand holds it up with the other
+while it kicks spasmodically like a little frog. The babies learn to
+swim before they can walk.
+
+Joyce is seized with a brilliant idea. "Mother," she cries, "those toys
+we bought in the bazaar! Mayn't I give them to the children?"
+
+Taking leave for granted she flies into her cabin and returns with two
+gaily painted wooden animals whose legs move on strings; there is a
+yellow tiger with a red mouth, and a purple monkey. Joyce stands as high
+as she can on the rail and makes the tiger jump its legs up and down. A
+yell of delight from the children on the shore shows that she is
+understood. They plunge into the water like porpoises, and after a
+minute Joyce drops the tiger straight down. It is a good distance to
+swim, some fifty yards, perhaps, and the little black heads bob up and
+down frantically as the youngsters make desperate attempts to get
+through the water.
+
+Good! Go it! Two little boys about equal size are well ahead of the
+others and rapidly nearing the prize. It is just a toss-up which gets
+it; they grab simultaneously, but their fingers close on empty water.
+The tiger has disappeared, sucked down by something into the depths! Has
+it been eaten by a fish?
+
+No, there it is, having risen to the surface again some yards distant,
+grasped by a thin little arm. The owner of the arm emerges the next
+instant, shaking back her long black hair. It is a small girl, who
+actually dived under the boys and snatched the prize away! She deserves
+it, and holding it on high lies on her back and kicks her way back to
+land with her legs. She is a magnificent swimmer. They all follow her
+and crowd around her on the shore while she dangles the treasure in the
+sun, but no one attempts to take it from her.
+
+[Illustration: BURMESE BOYS.]
+
+At the moment everyone has forgotten that there may be more forthcoming,
+and when Joyce holds up the purple monkey only one tiny podgy fellow
+sees it, and slipping silently into the water exerts himself
+tremendously to get well out before the others discover him. He swims
+slowly, for he is very small, and when he is half-way across the others
+are after him like a pack of hounds; but he gets the monkey, and turns
+his bright eager face up to us radiant with delight. One of the elder
+boys carries his treasure back for him, and by the way the little fellow
+yields it up readily it is quite evident that he is not in the least
+afraid of its being taken from him. His faith is justified, for he gets
+it back directly he lands, and then the children dance round the two
+lucky ones, singing and making such a noise that a troop of anxious
+parents hurry down to find out what is the matter. Those toys will be
+treasures for many a long day.
+
+The steamer screeches and we are off once more. Soon we see a great
+sugar-loaf hill in the distance, also a perfect forest of pagodas of all
+shapes and sizes along the river bank. This is Pagahn, a celebrated
+place, now deserted and melancholy. Imagine a strip of ground eight
+miles long and two broad, covered by hundreds of pagodas; it is said
+there are nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, but no one could
+count them, for half of them are mere heaps of stones, so possibly there
+may be one more to make a round number! Pagahn was once a capital city,
+and the then Burman king pulled down some of the pagodas to build up the
+defences of his walls when he heard that a Chinese king was coming to
+attack him; but of course he got the worst of it after such an impious
+act, as anyone would guess, and since then the place has been deserted.
+Some of the largest pagodas have been restored, which is rather a wonder
+in Burma as restoration does not make for "merit." You can see the
+snow-white outlines rising gracefully in the middle of the rough line of
+uneven buildings. Unluckily, instead of stopping here we go across the
+river and anchor at Yenangyaung, where there is a very strong smell of
+something. "I know," Joyce declares, wrinkling up her smooth little
+nose. "It's lamp oil."
+
+She is right, it is petroleum; there are here wells of it, from which it
+bursts up with great force sometimes, like a geyser.
+
+If we had been on a tourist steamer we should have visited Pagahn, but
+then we should have missed seeing much human life.
+
+An evening later the captain comes up to say that there is a pw�, or
+play, going on in the village near which we have anchored for the night,
+and wouldn't we like to go to see it? This is a grand chance, because
+Burmese pw�s are very funny things indeed. The people have them at every
+chance,--births, weddings, deaths, and festivals, none are ever complete
+without a play!
+
+We dine early, and, accompanied by the captain, set out afterwards, all
+four of us, for the village. The moon is getting up but is not bright
+yet, and we can see the trees standing up against a deep blue night sky,
+with the big bright stars winking at us through the palm fronds. The
+village street is deserted, and long before we reach the end of it where
+the pw� is going on we hear an exciting clash of cymbals and bang of
+drums which sets you and Joyce dancing.
+
+At last, right in the roadway, between the thatched houses, we see a big
+crowd, and coming up to it find every man, woman, child, and baby
+belonging to the village seated on the ground or lying in front of a
+small platform. The platform is simply a few loose boards standing on
+some boxes, and when anyone walks across it the boards jump up and down.
+In front are the footlights, a row of earthenware bowls filled with oil,
+with a lighted wick floating in each one.
+
+The Burman who is giving the pw� and has sent us the message about it
+comes forward and leads us to the front courteously. He is a portly man
+with a dress of rich silk so stiff it would stand by itself, and a large
+fur cape, like those worn by coachmen in England, over his shoulders,
+for the evenings are sharp. In following him through the crowd we find
+great difficulty in avoiding stepping on arms and legs which seem to be
+strewn haphazard on the bare earth, the owners being partly covered up
+with mats or rugs. Most of the men are squatting gravely with
+bath-towels over their shoulders--they make convenient wraps. Men and
+women alike are smoking either huge green cheroots or small brown ones.
+Our seats are right in front of the stage and consist of a row of
+soap-boxes. Joyce's mother clutches me in horror. "I can't sit down
+there," she says with a gasp; "I shall fall over." The captain
+misunderstands her and gallantly tries one himself, saying, "It holds
+me, Madam." As he is at least sixteen stone in weight this sends Joyce
+off into fits of irrepressible giggles, luckily drowned by the band,
+which is making an ear-splitting noise--"La-la-la, la-la-la!" One man
+bangs an instrument like those called harmonicons, with slats of metal
+set across it all the way up. Another is seated inside a tub, the rim of
+which is entirely composed of small drums; another cracks bamboo
+clappers together in an agonising way, while clarionets do their best,
+and a pipe fills in all the intervals it can find.
+
+A girl with a very coquettish gold-embroidered jacket, which stands out
+behind like two pert wings in the same way as those worn by the
+princesses at the garden-party, is rouging her face close to us; she
+gets it to her liking by leaning over the footlights and gazing in a
+little hand-mirror, then she takes up an enormous cigar which lies
+smoking beside her and puffs away contentedly till her turn comes.
+
+Two clowns are taking their part; we can't understand a word they say,
+but their humorous faces and comic gestures are irresistibly funny.
+Suddenly Golden-Jacket puts down her cigar, springs to her feet, and
+gets across the shaking boards with marvellous serpentine movements in a
+skirt tighter even than a modern one, literally a tube wound around her
+legs. Then, waving her long thin hands and arms so that ripples seem to
+run up and down them, she sings in a thin shrill voice a long song,
+while one of the clowns breaks in with "Yes, yes" and "Come on," meant
+for us and greatly appreciated by the audience. As the song wends toward
+its end, Golden-Jacket looks behind her more than once, and at last
+stops and says something out loud.
+
+"She's telling the villain to hurry up or she won't wait for him,"
+explains the captain, who understands Burmese. "She is in a forest. You
+see the branch of a tree stuck between the boards there? That's the
+forest. She went to meet her lover, the prince, for she is a princess,
+of course, but the villain has done his job, and now he's going to catch
+her."
+
+[Illustration: IN THE PLAYHOUSE.]
+
+The princess trills out some more lines, and the villain, who has
+apparently been having great difficulties with his costume at the back
+of the stage, in full view of the audience, steps heavily forward,
+making the boards bounce right up. When she sees him she shrieks and
+faints in his arms. He makes a long speech holding her. The clowns
+appear again. The heroine shakes herself free, and with great
+self-possession squats down once more on the edge of the stage and
+resumes her cigar until her turn comes again. The branch of the tree is
+pulled up, and in its place is put a box with a piece of pink muslin
+over it, while three men in long robes come in and sit down, one on the
+box and the other two on the boards beside him, and they all talk
+interminably. The band, which has only stopped impatiently while the
+actual speaking was going on, clashes in wildly at every possible
+interval and now drowns the voices altogether for a few minutes, just to
+remind us it is there. The men on the stage continue repeating their
+parts, whether it plays or not, and apparently they are so long winded
+that the plot does not suffer at all from the sentences which are lost
+in the noise.
+
+"That's her father, the king," explains the captain. "He is taking
+counsel from his ministers how to recover his daughter and punish the
+villain. She's a boy, of course--they all are."
+
+We can hardly believe it! The slender form, the graceful movements, the
+long thin fingers, the wonderful management of that terrible skirt, the
+coquettish movements! You can hardly imagine any British boy doing it,
+can you?
+
+We are beginning to have about enough of it after a couple of hours,
+though the Burmans themselves comfortably settle down all night, and
+there are pw�s that go on for days. What with the clashing music, the
+thick smoke in the air, the strange language, and a kind of dreaminess
+over everything, it is too much for Joyce, and she suddenly flops her
+head down on my shoulder in a profound slumber, hugely to your delight.
+
+Her mother's cry of "Joyce!" brings her to herself with a crimson face,
+and I see you get a surreptitious kick for giggling, which you richly
+deserve!
+
+We make a move, thank the Burmese entertainer, explain we have to be off
+early in the morning, and try to get out without setting our feet on
+anyone's head!
+
+[Illustration: A BURMESE PLAY.]
+
+"Why, it has been snowing!" you cry in amazement as we get clear. It
+does look like it. The moon is full and white, high in the heavens, and
+shows up the dust which lies thickly over the village in a mantle of
+white.
+
+I think Joyce is asleep most of the way back. "I feel as if I were
+drugged," she says as we haul her up the gangway.
+
+Next day at sunrise we are off.
+
+After golden hours of placid slipping down the shining waterway we pull
+up at about five for the night, and having finished tea we four sally
+forth for a walk, little dreaming what is going to happen.
+
+Joyce's mother is a most attractive woman. She is well read, very keenly
+alive, and has travelled a great deal. She and I have much in common,
+and, I must say, as I help her across the paddy fields I forget all
+about you two.
+
+It is not until we turn to go home that I miss you.
+
+"They can't be far," I say reassuringly, and give a loud cooee, but
+there is no response.
+
+"They can't possibly come to harm here," I say. "There is nothing to
+hurt them," and I shout again.
+
+"Perhaps they have circled round and gone back to the ship another way,"
+Joyce's mother suggests, and we turn. Darkness falls very quickly here,
+and it is dark before we get on board, but in answer to our anxious
+questions we find no one has seen anything of you.
+
+Joyce's mother is very brave and sensible, but I can see that her heart
+is torn with anxiety. I try to comfort her by telling her that you are
+as good as a man, and have been brought up to look after yourself, but
+it makes little difference. She agrees, however, to remain on the
+steamer while the captain and I and a couple of Lascars with lanterns go
+forth again.
+
+What a night we have of it! We wander far and wide, calling and waving
+the lights with no result, and when we come back in the grey dawn, with
+troubled hearts, there is still no news.
+
+"Someone has taken them in," says the captain. "They're queer fellows,
+these Burmans; they daren't go out at nights for fear of spooks. You'll
+see they'll bring them safely back in the morning."
+
+And he is right, for, as the sky flashes rosy red, we see you afar off
+coming across the fields. A sight you are, indeed, as you come nearer,
+with your torn clothes and scratched faces! But Joyce's mother gives a
+cry of joy and precipitates herself across the flat and along the
+gangway, hatless, and clasps her daughter in her arms as if she would
+never let her go again. You and I are not so emotional, but I'm jolly
+glad to see you again!
+
+You shall tell your story in your own words. I wrote it down exactly as
+you told it to me, so that your people might have it.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST THING WE SAW WERE TWO HUGE ELEPHANTS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+JIM'S STORY
+
+
+Joyce's a brick. She can do most things boys can, and we soon began
+racing each other along those little raised bits of earth between the
+beds in the paddy fields. I splashed right in once or twice and we
+shrieked with laughter. By and by we found ourselves through that and
+out on a flat place covered with thorns. They weren't very high mostly,
+and we didn't feel them through our shoes, but now and again one caught
+us on the ankles and then didn't we hop! By the time we had reached the
+road I suppose we had lost sight of you altogether. I didn't think about
+it. I just had a feeling we must scramble on in that fizzing red sunset
+light, and then when we got tired turn plump round and go straight back
+to the ship the same way. I didn't really think about it, though.
+
+The road? Yes, it was a sort of a road, at least it was a clear space
+marked all over with deep ruts and lined by little trees, and it ran
+ever so far both ways, as Euclid says a line does. The first thing we
+saw were two huge elephants, striding along with a wooden thing on the
+neck of one, banging and rattling as his head went up and down. A man
+was sitting on his neck and he took no notice of us at all, but
+they--the elephants, I mean--just loped along in that swinging way they
+do; I think it must make anyone sea-sick to be on their backs. We stared
+at them till they got far away. Then I discovered that the little trees
+were mimosa, which shrivel up when you touch them. They had dropped
+seeds on the ground, I suppose, for under them were tiny little mimosas,
+not trees but scrub stuff. Joyce had never seen any, and when I rubbed
+my hand across them and she saw them wither up, she cried out, "What a
+shame! Dear little things, don't be afraid of me!" and plumped herself
+down beside them to cuddle them, but they withered more than ever. How
+we laughed! The ones I had withered first were just beginning to come
+right again, and I was going to make them shut up once more, and she had
+caught my hand to stop me, when we heard a noise and looked up, and
+there was a great buffalo coming right at us with his nose stuck up
+straight in the air as if he smelt something nasty. You never saw
+anything so comic! Joyce cried out, "Oh, what a darling!" But into my
+head, quick as lightning, came what you told me about buffaloes, who
+hate Europeans savagely, though a Burmese child of four can drive them
+with a twig. I grabbed Joyce's hand and pulled her up, and then I saw he
+was coming for us and no mistake, with his nose up in that absurd
+fashion, and his great horns sticking out. We made a bolt for the
+nearest tree just as the buffalo plunged across the place we had been,
+like a runaway motor-car. Then he stopped and looked funny. All at once
+he caught sight of my topee, which had fallen off and rolled away a bit,
+and up went his nose again, and when he reached it down went his head
+and into it like a battering-ram; and didn't he make the clods fly as he
+spiked his horns into it. The trees were not very high, and had smooth
+stems so far up, and then a lot of branches. If we could get up there
+we'd be all right.
+
+[Illustration: ALL AT ONCE HE CAUGHT SIGHT OF MY TOPEE.]
+
+"Get up the tree, Joyce," I whispered. "I'll boost you."
+
+So I did, shoving her up for all I was worth, and she hung on as high as
+she could reach, and there she stuck; even the best girls aren't quite
+like boys.
+
+"Swarm up it," I urged.
+
+"I can't," she said in an agonised voice, and I saw it was true, her
+petticoats were to blame, of course; any boy would have been up before
+you could say "knife."
+
+Down she came again with a thud, and old Mr. Buffalo heard it and made
+for us like a fiend. We ran for the next tree and dodged him round it;
+it was a bit too exciting! He made rushes at us dead straight, and we
+tried always to keep the trunk of the tree between us and him as if it
+were the leader in Fox and Geese. When he came past like a bolt we ran
+the other side, but once or twice he nearly spiked us, and if he had
+knocked one of us down, or we had stumbled, it would have been all up
+with us. It was exhausting too. I was fearfully out of breath myself;
+being on a steamer a fellow can't keep in training, and as for Joyce,
+she was panting so that she couldn't speak.
+
+Then I noticed that across the road was a jungly thicket; it was not
+open ground, as it was on the side we had come from, and I thought if we
+could reach that we might perhaps lose the gentleman, or he would lose
+us.
+
+So I explained to Joyce in gasps that the next time he charged we must
+run behind his back and bolt across the road; she nodded and clutched my
+hand tighter than ever.
+
+So we did it and were half-way over the road--it was very wide--before
+he found it out.
+
+All the time, I must tell you, he had been making a funny little noise,
+a bit between a grunt and squeak, quite ridiculous for a huge black
+hairy beast like him; if I had had any breath to waste it would have
+made me laugh.
+
+Now we heard that funny little noise--Uweekuweekuweek--just like that,
+coming over the road; we hadn't time to look. Never did any road I ever
+crossed seem so long; it was like a bad dream. We slipped and stumbled
+and didn't seem to make any headway, and every moment I expected to
+feel that great head in the flat of my back sending me sprawling ready
+to be spiked. At last we reached the line of bushes, and I gave Joyce a
+great pull with all my strength to pitch her to one side, for he was
+close on us then, and she went headlong and fell full length into the
+bushes, and I dropped on the top of her just as his majesty thundered
+past.
+
+We lay there quiet as mice, though it was awfully uncomfortable; I was
+squashing Joyce to bits, and great thorns seemed running into me all
+over. Then a dreadful thought occurred to me--there were probably snakes
+there! Which was worst, snakes or the buffalo? And I asked cautiously--
+
+"Have you been stung, Joyce?" and she answered so gravely, "Not yet,"
+that I exploded, and, would you believe it, that old animal that had
+been rootling about in the bushes to find us, heard it and came at us
+again. We scrambled up and ran, tripping and tearing and crashing on
+into that wood, and I think he found some difficulty in following us,
+for after a while we couldn't hear him any more.
+
+We stopped and listened with all our ears, but it seemed as if we were
+safe, for he wasn't a crafty animal and didn't know enough to come along
+quietly and surprise us. It was very dark there in that jungle, and for
+the first time I thought of you and how anxious you and Joyce's mother
+would be. So I said, "Come along home now," and pulled hold of Joyce.
+But she resisted and said, "It's not that way, silly; it's just the
+opposite."
+
+I was positive and so was she.
+
+I tried to think of all the things one tells by: the stars, but there
+weren't any, and I couldn't have done much with them if there had been;
+the moss on the north side of the trees, but there didn't seem to be
+any. I guess it's different in Burma. However, there was just a
+yellowish glow still, and I knew that must be in the west, and as the
+river runs north and south, and we were on the left bank, I guessed the
+way I wanted to go was about right. When I had proved it to Joyce she
+gave in and said she had said it all the time, just as women always do!
+
+So we walked and walked, but we never came to that old road again. Once
+I thought I'd found it, but it was only some open, flat, thorny ground.
+It was very dark then, the dark comes on so fast here. Suddenly we both
+began to run as hard as we could, hand in hand; I don't know why,
+something set us off and I felt just as if I must, and I suppose Joyce
+did too, and then--crash!--before we knew where we were--smash!--we were
+flying, slipping, tobogganing down through some bushes, with our feet
+shooting out under us, and at last we reached the bottom. It was a steep
+gully, a kind of nullah. When we did get down we arrived separately, for
+we had had to let go to save ourselves. I was awfully sore, I know, and
+I wondered what had happened to her, being a girl and so much softer.
+But she didn't seem to mind much, for when I sang out, she answered
+quite cheerfully, "I'm sitting in the middle of a bramble bush like a
+bumble-bee. Do they sit in bushes, though? I think I'm getting a little
+mixed!"
+
+A girl like that is a jolly good pal, I can tell you!
+
+It was a snaky place and that is what I was afraid of. We trod carefully
+along the bottom and made noises to scare them off. Then I had a happy
+thought; I had a box of matches with me, and I kept on striking them
+till we found a handful of dry twigs which burnt up finely. It was so
+still there that they blazed straight and steady, and I used them as a
+torch and flourished them about low down as we walked.
+
+I don't know if we really did see any snakes. Joyce is quite positive
+she counted fourteen, sliding away in front of the light at different
+times; but then she sees things much quicker than I do.
+
+[Illustration: WE HAD TO PLUNGE THROUGH MARSHY GROUND.]
+
+It took us a long time to get out of that nullah, and we tried all sorts
+of different ways, but the sides were too steep. Often we had to stop to
+get more twigs, and once, just as I had got a handful, Joyce said, "Why,
+there are little plums growing on them." We ate quite a lot, and they
+were refreshing and bitter, but it didn't mean much, for they were all
+skin and stone.
+
+The nullah sloped up at the end, and after a good deal of hard work I
+hauled her up. It was jolly cold, I can tell you, and when we saw a
+light moving about ahead we made a bee-line for it. Joyce thought it
+was a will-o'-the-wisp; she had never seen one, but she had read of
+them, and she said they moved up and down just like that. We had to
+plunge through a lot of very marshy ground before we got to it, and
+sometimes we lost sight of it altogether; but it came again, and then it
+went out for good. We arrived at a high thorny hedge and I shouted, and
+then there was such a noise you would have thought the world was coming
+to an end,--dogs barking, cocks crowing, people chattering, and at last
+a man with a lantern crept out from the hedge--it must have been his
+light we had seen--and he was followed by heaps of others, all Burmans,
+and they waved the light about; and when they saw who we were, and that
+we were alone, they were very kind and took us in through an opening in
+the hedge, and kicked the dogs away. We couldn't see much inside, for
+the moon wasn't up then, but they led us to a house, and made us go up a
+ladder on to a verandah and into a nice wooden room, where there was a
+civilised oil lamp on a bracket, and several women and children sitting
+and lying about on mats on the floor.
+
+Joyce looked at me and I at her and we both knew what sights we were,
+all scratched and torn and muddy. Her dress had been white when we
+started, but you could hardly tell that now. I don't know how she felt,
+but I was glad to drop down on to a mat they gave us. We tried to
+explain who we were, but no one understood any English. Then they
+brought us some water from a great jar in the corner; they handed it to
+us in half a coco-nut, but it smelt so that we couldn't touch it, though
+we were awfully thirsty. So one of the men who had followed us in took
+up a round green thing with a smooth shell outside (I never knew
+coco-nuts looked like that before), and with his great knife made four
+cuts across the top in a neat square, and took out the piece as if it
+were a lid, and offered us the nut, making signs we were to drink it.
+Joyce tried first and nodded with pleasure. "It's good," she said, and
+it was! A sort of sickly sweet stuff came out like sugary water, and
+when you drank a lot of it it made you feel very full inside suddenly.
+When I read about coco-nut milk in _Swiss Family Robinson_ I always
+thought it was really like milk.
+
+Then they opened a great tubful of cooked rice and put some on two
+plates and gave it to us, and they put beside us two little bowls filled
+with smashed-up sardines, at least I thought it was that, but oh----You
+would have known it was there a mile off! I would have stood it, because
+I didn't want to hurt their feelings, as they meant to be polite, but
+Joyce stuffed her skirt into her mouth and held her nose, and they all
+laughed and took it away quite easily. There were no forks or spoons,
+but we were very hungry, so we just fell to with our fingers on the rice
+and it wasn't at all bad, I can tell you. When we had done they gave us
+some very good bananas--I could have done with more of them--and then
+they tried us with a lump of stuff that was simply a bit of wood; it
+came from the Jack-fruit tree. I saw one growing right out of the trunk
+on a little stalk by itself next day, but how anyone ever eats it I
+can't imagine.
+
+When we had finished they poured water over our fingers to clean them, a
+very unsatisfactory sort of wash it was, and the water ran away between
+the boards, quite convenient that!
+
+When we were satisfied we began to take more notice of what the house
+was like. The walls were made of very coarse mats, and there were no
+tables or chairs. There were a number of people; the father of the
+house, who had brought us in, had a kind shrewd face, so that you
+couldn't help liking him, and the mother was a very thin, plain, little
+old woman, with twinkling eyes. Joyce thought first she was the cook,
+for she had no jewellery on at all and no fine clothes, while the two
+girls, the daughters, were quite smart. They were all ready to laugh and
+smile, but the two girls were the most friendly; they sat down by Joyce
+and fingered her skirt and examined her very dilapidated shoes. "I wish
+they wouldn't, Jim," she said, trying to pull them up under her very
+short skirt, which was no use at all. At last she took them off because
+they were so wet, and one of the girls put her little brown toes into
+them, and then they all shrieked with laughter again. You couldn't help
+laughing too, they were so jolly nice.
+
+I put my finger on Joyce and said "Joyce," then on me and said "Jim,"
+and then pointed at the two girls; they understood at once and said Mah
+Kway Yoh (Miss Dog's Bone) and Mee Meht (Miss Affection). Then they
+pointed to a young man at the back and said Moung Poh Sin (Mr.
+Grandfather Elephant).
+
+I tried to make them understand we wanted to get back to the ship, but
+nothing would do it. "Draw it," suggested Joyce. She had a wee gold
+pencil on her gold bangle, but we had no paper and there was none
+there--there wasn't anything, in fact, except a box. "On your cuff,"
+Joyce suggested, but I hadn't any cuffs, only a soft shirt.
+
+"On the floor," she said then.
+
+I tried, but of course the lead broke. They all gathered round, much
+interested, pushing their shiny black heads close together. It's funny
+that they all have just the same sort of hair, isn't it? They followed
+everything I did with the deepest interest, and then went into fits of
+laughter, and so did we.
+
+Just then a boy came in, not much older than me. He had on very few
+clothes, and his legs looked as if they were stained dark blue. When he
+came near to me and saw me looking at them with very much interest he
+showed them to us. They were tattooed all over like a pair of breeches,
+and the pictures on them were very well done; there were tigers and a
+kind of dragon, like those we saw at the pagoda steps, and many other
+animals, and each one was in a kind of scrollwork which made a little
+frame. He spoke a few words of English and pointed at the two men and
+said, "Them too," then, "All Burmans." It is odd they should go through
+all that pain; what's the use of it?
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE TATTOOED ALL OVER LIKE A PAIR OF BREECHES.]
+
+I tried to explain to him about the ship. I called it "ship," "steamer,"
+"vessel," "craft," and everything else I could think of, but he shook
+his head. At last Joyce suggested "big boat," and then he understood,
+and got quite excited and told the others. Partly by gestures he made us
+understand that we were a very long way off, and that no one could take
+us back that night, but that we could go early in the morning. I wanted
+to know why not now, but he waved his arms and said, "Nats, beloos," and
+looked quickly over his shoulder.
+
+"Nats are spirits," said Joyce. "I know all about it. The Burmese are
+frightened of them, and put little bits of rag at the top of the posts
+in the houses for them to live in, so that they won't come inside.
+Mother read that to me out of a book."
+
+We looked for the little rags, but couldn't see them, though I expect
+they were there. Joyce knows a lot for a girl.
+
+Well, we couldn't go home by ourselves, so presently we lay down on our
+mats and went fast asleep, and I suppose everyone else did too. Anyway,
+it was morning when I woke. Perfectly glorious it was! I shall never
+forget that morning. Joyce was out on the verandah already, and I went
+and stood beside her. The moon was there still, but every moment growing
+paler and paler. The air was full of that burnt-wood smell which is
+clean and rather nice. The sun seemed simply to rush up, and in five
+minutes from a world of black shadows and no colours it turned to a
+world of green and blue and yellow. The houses were all like ours, built
+on legs with thatched roofs, and there were great shady mango trees and
+plantains growing beside them. The dogs were everywhere, and the people
+were squatting in the sun to warm their backs. We ate more rice and
+drank more coco-nut milk, and then we shook hands all round and thanked
+the people, and went away with the boy to guide us. His name was Moung
+Ohn (Mr. Coco-Nut) he told us. We made him write down his own and his
+sisters' names on a piece of paper in Burmese on the ship afterwards, so
+that we could always keep them.
+
+It was quite a long way, as he had said, but it was so beautiful we
+wanted to dance and jump all the time. Moung Ohn scolded off the beastly
+pariah dogs and led us out of the hole in the great stockade and through
+a grove of palms. He pointed to two different sorts, one was the usual
+kind, feathery, and coco-nuts grew on that. He pointed to himself and
+grinned, but we didn't understand till afterwards that his name was
+"Coco-Nut." The other sort of palm had leaves like the great fans people
+sometimes have in drawing-rooms, at least Joyce said they were. A man
+was walking down the long, straight stem of one, and I could see, as
+Moung Ohn had said, that his legs were tattooed too. He just walked
+down. He had a band round his waist and round the tree, so he leaned
+against it and pressed the soles of his feet against the tree. I longed
+to try, but Joyce was wanting to get back to her mother. When the man
+came down he had a little iron pot filled with juice, and he offered it
+to me to drink, but when I looked in and saw dead flies and insects by
+the dozen I declined politely. He had hung up other little pots on the
+tree near the stalks of the great leaves in which he had cut gashes, so
+the juice dripped out into them. I found out this makes a strong drink
+called toddy.
+
+We passed over rice fields, where many of the people were at work
+already, and then, after going a good distance, we got on to the road,
+but it was not the same part where we were the day before. I'm beginning
+now not to be quite so sure that my direction was right after all, but
+don't say so before Joyce.
+
+Just then we heard a most awful noise like a hundred demons groaning and
+shrieking together.
+
+"Nats!" exclaimed Joyce, standing stockstill. Moung Ohn laughed and
+shook his head. Then there came into sight a slow lumbering bullock-cart
+with the wheels screaming enough to give you toothache. Why on earth
+don't they grease them?
+
+"Perhaps they prefer them like that," said Joyce, and I expect she is
+right.
+
+It wasn't long before we reached the steamer, and then what a scene!
+When I saw how Joyce was smothered I was glad men don't kiss. You just
+shook hands with me and told me I was an object to scare crows with!
+
+When we offered Moung Ohn some money for his trouble he refused to take
+it, and went away saying good-bye so gracefully, bowing and touching his
+forehead with his hand.
+
+[Illustration: SAMPANS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS
+
+
+In every long journey there comes a time when one feels a little dreary.
+So many new things have been seen that the mind and eye are tired. Then
+maybe there is just a touch of home-sickness mingled with it, and when
+one gets to a part less beautiful than what has gone before all at once
+there is a longing to turn and fly back to all that we are accustomed
+to. It seems to me that you and I are suffering from that now. We have
+left Burma behind, and for two days have ploughed down the Gulf of
+Martaban toward Penang in the Straits Settlements. We did not want to
+make friends with anyone on board, and were just a trifle grumpy even
+toward each other. We felt the parting from Joyce and her mother, who
+had made Burma so enjoyable, and we weren't ready to begin making new
+friends all at once.
+
+Burma forms the western part of a great peninsula, and stretching out
+southward from it is a long arm, the shape of an Indian club, narrower
+in the neck and broadening out, to run up finally to a point. Alongside
+of the broadest part is the great island of Sumatra, belonging to the
+Dutch, who are our principal rivals in this region of the world.
+
+"The captain's compliments, and we're going to set off some rockets to
+scare the sea-birds," says one of the officers, suddenly appearing
+beside us. "We're passing close by that little island there--Pulo Pera."
+
+Now there is something to see we wake up at once. Sure enough there it
+is ahead, a little island rising like a cliff out of the water. It is
+evidently deep close in, for we go quite near to it. Just as we are
+abreast off goes rocket after rocket, and in a moment the scene is
+transformed as if by magic. A dense mass of shrieking, screaming birds
+springs to life. The moment before the sun was shining in a clear sky,
+now in an instant it is obscured as by a thick cloud. You never saw
+anything like it! The birds on the Bass Rock are fairly thick, but
+here--day is turned to night and the commotion and uproar are wildly
+exciting, like the clash of legions in the sky.
+
+Long after we are past we can see them thinning down gradually as some
+keep dropping back on to their island home, while the more restless,
+nervous spirits still circle and swoop in loops and curves.
+
+A marvellous sight!
+
+Penang itself is an island, and as we swing round to the capital town,
+Georgetown, on the inner or land side, we see an astonishing mass of
+green, with a great hill clothed almost to the summit rising behind the
+town. We can go up there to-morrow if you like, as we have a day to
+spend here owing to a change of steamers.
+
+As we come to anchor in the bay a perfect swarm of small boats, called
+sampans, dance round the ship, and the owners offer their wares with
+astonishing noise. Looking down you can see the yellow faces of the men
+who have narrow eyes and pigtails coiled round their heads under
+enormous hats. It looks as if we had tumbled into China by mistake, for
+these are nearly all Chinamen, and yet the inhabitants of this country
+are Malays. The Malay, however, is like the Burman in that he does not
+care to exert himself if he can help it, so he lets the Chink, as the
+Chinamen are familiarly called, do all the business. The rich earth
+yields a hundredfold, and the Malay has only to scratch a very little of
+it very gently, and plant or sow a small quantity of something, and he
+is provided for for a year! The Chinaman is an industrious soul and an
+uncommonly good market-gardener, so he grows vegetables for sale and
+makes a good thing out of it; half these boats are full of vegetables
+grown by the very men who are selling them.
+
+Soon we are in a sampan, being rapidly rowed shore-wards. The man works
+the boat standing up and faces the way he is going; he does it very
+easily, with the ends of his long oars crossed over and worked almost
+entirely by wrist play. We are right under a high, old-fashioned-looking
+trading ship now; do you see that great eye painted on the bows? There
+is another on the other side. That shows it is a Chinese ship; the men
+have a superstition that the ship cannot see without these eyes. They
+say, "No got eye, no can see; no can see, no can savee."
+
+Great rocks stick out from the foliage on the hillside, and nearer is
+the town, with its pretty thatched houses and palatial mansions and
+avenues of greenery. It is all slightly different from the countries we
+have seen already, and yet it is difficult to say quite where the
+difference lies. Here is our old friend the rickshaw man, only he is a
+Chinaman, of course, and some of these rickshaws are two-seated, so we
+can both get into one; the man who pulls starts off gently as if it were
+no trouble. He wears nothing above the waist, and we can see the
+well-developed muscles moving under his sun-browned skin. On the road we
+meet many Chinese women dressed in trousers; you must have seen some in
+Hyde Park, I think, for people often bring them over to England as
+nurses for their children, they are so clean and reliable. They all wear
+trousers like that, just plain, straight down, shapeless trousers, with
+a tunic falling over them; it is a neat and effective dress.
+
+[Illustration: CHINESE LADY IN TROUSERS.]
+
+Whew! It's hot! I don't feel inclined to move a limb; this steamy heat
+is so much more trying than the heat we had in the dry zone of Burma,
+where you and Joyce got lost; there the nights were always cool, almost
+sharp sometimes. That building you are pointing at, with the dragons
+over the doorway, is a Chinese temple, and I don't suppose they would
+mind our going in at all. It looks nice and cool, anyway. We stop the
+rickshaw man and pass through several courtyards enclosed by high walls.
+In one is an open upper storey like a first-floor room with a wall
+knocked out; this is a stage. You may well ask how anyone in the
+courtyard can see the play--they can't! Only the favoured few who sit in
+the galleries get a good view!
+
+In all the courts a few Chinamen lounge about on the steps; they are
+probably half-stupid with opium, for they are not naturally lazy.
+Passing on to the inner shrine we see a much-decorated screen, behind
+which an image is hidden, but we are not allowed to pull it aside. The
+room in which it stands is crowded with hideous figures, squat devils,
+grinning dragons, and other disagreeable forms. Before them are empty
+tin biscuit-boxes full of sand, in which are stuck messy little tapers.
+There is a funny smell of incense mixed with tallow in the air. It is a
+creepy, uncomfortable place, and the Chinese religion is not one that
+would attract a stranger; I expect you would have to be brought up in it
+to understand it!
+
+Unfortunately next day our expedition to the mountain is spoilt by
+torrents of rain which stream down unceasingly, and time hangs heavy on
+our hands.
+
+"It always rains here, all the year round, more or less," says a
+friendly Englishman in the hotel. "If you like I'll take you to see a
+well-to-do Chinaman who is a friend of mine. The Chinamen are all rich
+here, lots of them keep motors." We gladly accept and go off under
+borrowed umbrellas to the outskirts of the town. The house stands by
+itself in a clump of trees and is very imposing with its great white
+marble pillars; as we get near we see huge gold letters in weird
+characters all across the front. Then before we have time to notice any
+more we are in the hall looking at a great bowl of gold-fish, and in
+another minute our host is bowing before us. He is wearing a very
+magnificent embroidered coat of red silk with great wing-like sleeves;
+the embroidery is a marvel, dragons in blue and gold, and fishes of
+rainbow hues disport themselves all over it. Under it is a short black
+satin petticoat, rather like a kilt, and black boots with thick white
+felt soles. The gentleman is tall and well made, a fine figure of a man,
+and on his head is a little round black cap, from which escapes his
+pigtail. He stands bowing before us and shaking hands with himself,
+which, as a method of greeting, is perhaps better than our own way. He
+takes us into a dark gloomy room full of cabinets of black lacquer
+richly decorated with gold and mother-of-pearl. There are sombre carved
+wood chairs set back against the wall. It is all very costly, but to us
+it seems uncomfortable and funereal. The chief things that attract us
+are rows of little red pieces of paper of odd lengths hanging over
+strings from the ceiling, as if they were drying after a washing-day.
+The Englishman explains that the Chinaman is very proud of these, for
+they are all New Year's greetings from his friends, and the number of
+them shows what a popular man he must be. As the Chinese New Year's Day
+is on April the first, and that was only a week ago, these are all new;
+but if we had arrived at any time of the year we should have seen them
+just the same, for they are left hanging all the year round till the
+next lot arrives.
+
+[Illustration: A CHINESE GENTLEMAN.]
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CHINESE HOUSE AT SINGAPORE.]
+
+On the whole we are not sorry to leave Penang; we have felt limp all the
+time, worse even than we did in the Red Sea. The steamer we board this
+time is the _Khyber_ of the P. & O. Company. She belongs to the
+Intermediate Line, which comes right out to Japan from England, taking
+about six weeks on the way. For anyone who wants change and rest and no
+worry that's a fine voyage, as the boats stop at many places. We shall
+go on with her to Japan. As we are starting on the steamer we hear
+various cracks and snaps from the boats near, where crackers are being
+exploded. The captain happens to pass on the way to the bridge and
+smiles as he hears them. "They're not firing salvos in our honour," he
+says; "they think the ship is full of devils, and in case a few have
+escaped and might land in their blameless boats, they're frightening
+them back again before it is too late." It makes a great difference to
+have a captain who takes an interest in his passengers and bothers to
+tell them incidents as they happen, though to him they may be dull as
+ditch water, as he has been through them all dozens of times already.
+The next time we meet the captain it is growing dusk, and he points
+ahead to what looks like a black rock looming up sheer from the sea.
+"Curious thing that," he says meditatively; "it's an island, Pulo
+Jarrak,--islands are all Pulo here,--and owing to the quantity of rain
+which falls here the vegetation grows so thickly it makes the island
+stand right out; even on a dark night you can see it ten to twenty miles
+off. It looks quite black."
+
+We have only one stop on the way to Singapore, exactly midway between it
+and Penang, at Port Swettenham.
+
+As we pass southward the Straits narrow and we can see the hills of
+Sumatra on one side, and sometimes funny little villages built on piles
+out over the water on the other. Pretty good sport to be able to drop a
+fishing-line out of one's front door, isn't it?
+
+When the land gets very close on both sides we swing round suddenly, and
+behold! we are at Singapore, which, like Penang, is an island, and
+stands at the extreme south point of the long peninsula. It guards this
+useful passage where all the traffic between China and Japan on the one
+side comes to India on the other, just as Aden guards the Red Sea and
+Gibraltar the Mediterranean. Great Britain manages somehow to pick up
+all the lucky bits, and it is not by design either, it just happens that
+way. I can tell how this one happened; it was because there chanced to
+be a Man out here--a Man with a capital letter!
+
+We go ashore and get into rickshaws and start for the town, which is a
+long three miles off. We shan't have time to do more than look round.
+The road runs by the docks at Singapore, which are enormous and extend
+all along the coast up to the town. On the way we pass men of all
+nations. There are natives of India, companies of Sikhs, Madrassees like
+Ramaswamy,--who is well on his way back to his master now,--Cingalese,
+Tamils with frizzy heads, little Japanese ladies in rickshaws, plenty of
+Chinese, and many Malays. The Malays are yellow rather than brown; they
+have just that slight narrowing of the eyes which tells they are akin to
+the Chinese, and they are, as a rule, well-made neat men, wearing loose
+blue skirts, with orange or red sashes, and large hats; some of them
+have short white jackets which are the universal top garments out here,
+when there are any at all.
+
+The town itself is astonishingly well built; electric trams run
+everywhere, and there are splendid public buildings. As we trot along in
+our rickshaws we enter a large square. Do you see the name up there?
+Raffles Square. Sir Stamford Raffles was the man who made Singapore. In
+his time, the first part of the nineteenth century, Great Britain was
+very anxious to give away everything she had in the East to the first
+person who asked for it, as she did not want to fight about it, and
+could not see what use it could be, for the idea of Imperialism and
+Empire had not been developed. The Dutch asked largely and always got
+what they asked for, whether they had a right to it or not; this enraged
+Raffles, who happened to be out here, and so he looked around and
+noticed that the island of Singapore was placed in a wonderful position
+for trade, that it commanded the Straits, and that no one as yet had
+made any claim on it. He settled down here and put up the British flag.
+It was years before his country finally decided to acknowledge him and
+not give his territory up to the Dutch, who immediately asked for it;
+but in the end they did, and now here stands Singapore, a mighty city
+with miles of docks, a colossal trade, and a teeming population. There
+is a statue to Sir Stamford Raffles, as it is right there should be. The
+Botanical Gardens are worth seeing, and we can get tiffin in one of the
+palatial hotels, and then we must go back to the ship.
+
+[Illustration: A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA.
+
+LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY ABOUT AND FISH.]
+
+The scene in the bay as we depart is most lovely; ships of every nation
+are at anchor there, and as we pass out slowly we see island after
+island all covered with that rich green growth which is the result of
+the constant rain and warmth. Blue and green and gold is the world, and
+the little brown boys play about their water-built villages, tumbling in
+and out of the water, and living in the warm sea as much as on land day
+by day. Shoals of them come round us in their catamarans and dive for
+money, catching the silver bit as it twinkles down through the water,
+even though they make their spring from many yards off. As we get
+farther out we feel the difference in temperature at once, for now we
+are heading north, and the night is cold and rough--it is like passing
+into another climate.
+
+[Illustration: PIGTAILS.]
+
+These are wonderful seas, and dearly should I like some day to bring you
+on a cruise in and about this group of great islands to the south, which
+is like nothing else in the world! There is Borneo, that gigantic
+island, twice as large as the British Isles, which belongs partly to the
+British and partly to the Dutch. The story of Sir Stamford Raffles is
+outdone by the story of the Rajah of Sarawak, which shows that even in
+our own times the blood of Drake and Cook runs in the veins of
+Englishmen.
+
+Hong-Kong is another island and also belongs to the British; it was
+given to them by treaty in 1841. As we sail in under the lee of the
+island by the narrow entrance to the bay between it and the mainland, we
+see what a splendid natural harbour this is. High above on the island
+rises what is called the Peak, and up and up and up it, in rows and
+terraces, are the houses of the people who live here. We can go up the
+Peak by a tram-line if we have time. The city is called Victoria, and is
+actually built on the rock or, rather, on terraces cut out of the face
+of it, one above the other. It is strange to find this little British
+colony isolated here on a bit of China, separated from the real China by
+half a mile of sea. As the steamer comes to rest on the mainland side at
+Kowloon Wharf we must take a ferry over to the city.
+
+Once we are there we find a well-built town with wide roads, tree lined
+and very clean; there are many quite English-looking buildings of stone,
+and in the shops a strange mixture of wares, European and Eastern. Some
+of the shops are piled with the rich Eastern silk embroideries, ivory
+and lacquer work, carvings and fans, silver and metal work, paintings
+and furniture.
+
+We have time to run up to the top by the tramway, and higher and higher
+as we go, houses still, houses all the way, and even at the very top
+there are some houses where the governor and other important people live
+in summer. It has been gloomy and cloudy all day, threatening rain, but
+just as we reach the summit the sun comes out in yellow glory, dropping
+to the West, and all the innumerable inlets and bays are turned to gold.
+The land between stands up in capes and cliffs and headlands, rather dim
+and misty, with the golden water flashing between.
+
+We are off once more and up the coast to Shanghai, the last Chinese port
+we touch before going over to Japan.
+
+Next morning we come up on deck to find a wet, clammy fog--we might be
+back in England again--how astonishing!
+
+Now and again appearing out of the folds of swathing mist we see little
+islands and gaily painted fishing-boats, the owners of which seem bent
+on committing suicide. The boats sometimes are junks, with the square
+brown sails that we have by this time seen so often, or they are tiny
+little boats; whichever it is, they seem as if they deliberately tried
+to get under our bows, as you have seen village children run across in
+front of motor-cars. Again and again we feel the steamer sheer off a
+little to clear them, and sometimes she just succeeds in doing so. I
+expect the captain's temper is being pretty severely tried up there on
+the bridge. He stays there while the fog lasts, but when it clears a
+little in the evening he comes down for a hasty dinner.
+
+Then we get at him and make fresh demands on his patience by questions.
+He seems to have a stock left, for he laughs good-humouredly when I
+speak of the native boats. "They _do_ do it on purpose," he says; "they
+think it's good joss, as they say,--good luck that is, just to cross our
+bows. It means a never-ending look-out all along this coast, and nothing
+cures them. All the same they're some use when one gets fogged here, for
+you can generally tell where you are, to some extent, by the
+fishing-boats; they run in different colours and patterns at places
+along the coast, each part has its own special fashions in paint and
+rig."
+
+He has hardly time to swallow his dinner before he is back on the
+bridge. It's a ticklish bit of navigation here.
+
+We still thread our way close inshore through innumerable islands. One
+of them stands up stiff and straight, pointing like an obelisk to the
+sky. It is called the Finger Rock. We notice, too, very frequently, the
+white lighthouses, kept very clean. Then we go through a pass, two miles
+wide, called "Steep Island Pass," and are into the mouth of the
+Yangtsekiang River. Up this we go for a hundred miles before reaching
+Woosung, the Gravesend of Shanghai, which is still twelve or thirteen
+miles farther on. Then a turn and we are in sight of Shanghai with its
+factories and chimneys and great sheds called "godowns" with galvanised
+iron roofs. It is a disappointing place, but as we go farther on we see
+a public promenade and some clean, well-built stone houses. The
+Europeanised part of the city is, however, uninteresting, and we don't
+care to go into the native part by ourselves, so our chief amusement is
+watching the Chinese coolies loading and unloading the ship. Notice,
+they never push things on trollies, as our men do; they always carry
+everything slung on a bamboo. Even that great lump of iron, which must
+be part of some machinery, there it is, surrounded by a shouting horde
+of men, all slinging it up by their own little ropes, all giving a hand
+to carry the great mass along.
+
+We have gathered very little of China in our short time at the ports,
+but we shall be able to get a better idea of Japan. Our first idea of it
+is when we stop at the island of Rokwren two days later and take on the
+pilot who is going to run us through the far-famed Inland Sea. At the
+same time two or three smart little Japanese doctors in European dress
+come on board to inquire into the health of passengers and crew, and
+give us a permit, for the Japs are most particular about not letting any
+foreign germs be landed on their shores, and at every port doctors come
+on board to make quite sure everyone is free from illness.
+
+The next thing we know about Japan is her coal, for 1500 tons of it are
+brought on board, in little baskets, handed from one to another of long
+rows of men, women, and children, all working equally hard.
+
+[Illustration: CHINESE PORTER.]
+
+The narrow strait that leads into the Inland Sea is only a quarter of a
+mile wide, and after passing through it we steam along quietly amid the
+most beautiful scenery we have passed since leaving England. Everywhere
+are little islands, well cultivated, woody, and rocky. Rocks and hills
+and capes break up the vistas, and every time we turn a corner we see
+something better than before. The ship stops at Kob�, but, unluckily,
+you have got a touch of the sun and the doctor strictly forbids you to
+go on shore. Never mind, we'll soon be at Yokohama, which is far better.
+
+By that time you are quite yourself again, and when the captain calls
+us up on deck you are eager to go. He points to a solid triangle of
+rock, sticking up out of the sea not very far distant, and as we look at
+it a flash of red flame spurts out into the air and something red-hot
+rolls swiftly down the scored sides. What does it remind you of? It is
+another Stromboli, of course!
+
+"That," says the captain solemnly, "is the safety-valve of Japan. If it
+were blocked up there's no knowing what might happen." Then he swings
+round and points in another direction. Clear against the soft blue of
+the sky we see a sharp-pointed white cloud of a very curious shape, like
+an opened fan upside down. It seems quite detached from everything else,
+merely a curious snowy fan hanging in mid-air. "Why, it's Fujiyama, of
+course."
+
+So it is! The famous Japanese mountain seen in thousands of the
+country's drawings and paintings; in fact, it has come to be a sort of
+national signboard. Now that we know where to look we see that the white
+fan part is merely the snow-cap running in large streaks downward, and
+that this rests upon a base as blue as the sky. Henceforward we shall
+see Fujiyama at many hours of the day--never a wide-spreading view but
+Fujiyama will be there, never a long road but Fujiyama at the end of it,
+never a flat plain without it. So odd is the great mountain, and so much
+character has it, that we feel inclined to nod good-night or
+good-morning to it when it greets us.
+
+Then we enter the magnificent harbour of Yokohama with its hundreds of
+sampans, junks, tugs, ships, steamers, and every other craft. The
+smaller craft surround us clamorously, and looking down upon them we see
+that in almost every case there is a cat on board the junks, many of
+them tabby or tortoise-shell.
+
+"'Cat good joss,' as the Chinamen would say," remarks a man standing
+near us, "specially three-coloured cats. They wouldn't give a fig for
+our lucky black ones without a white hair."
+
+Hundreds of coolies are now clamouring for jobs all round. They are
+almost all dressed in blue, and those that wear upper garments have huge
+hieroglyphics of gay colours on their backs--these are the signs of
+their trades, or trades unions, as we might say, and each man wears his
+with pride.
+
+So, with a fleet of attendant boats, gaily-dressed coolies, and
+complacent cats surrounding us, we come to our anchorage, say good-bye
+to the captain with great regret, and make our plunge into this new
+land.
+
+[Illustration: GATEWAY, JAPAN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE
+
+
+We are standing in front of a mysterious gate which is yet not a gate.
+You must have seen pictures of Japan many a time, and in some of them
+there must have been one of these curious erections. Yet how can one
+describe it? The Greek letter [Greek: Pi] is most like it. Imagine a
+giant [Greek: Pi] with a second cross-bar below the top one. In Japan
+this is called a Torii. The one in front of us, rising like a great
+scaffolding far above our heads, is made of wood, but they are often of
+stone or metal too. They are always to be found before the entrance to a
+Shinto temple. There must have been some meaning in them once upon a
+time, but it is lost now, and they remain decorative but useless.
+
+We have left our rickshaw and are climbing up a long, long flight of
+steps to a Shinto temple not far from Tokyo, the capital town of Japan.
+Very many of the Japs are Buddhists, but it is a strange sort of
+Buddhism, not pure like that of the Burmans, and is mixed up with
+another religion called Shinto, and many of the people are Shintoists
+altogether. This religion is vague and mystical, with much worship of
+spirits, especially the spirits of the elements--earth, air, fire, and
+water. Everyone who is dead becomes in some degree an object of worship,
+and the Jap thinks more of his parents and ancestors than his
+children--his dead ancestors especially being much venerated.
+
+When we reach the top of the steps we find ourselves suddenly in a blaze
+of loveliness. To the right, to the left, and all around are cherry
+trees, covered thickly with blossom which hangs in wreaths and rosettes
+and festoons as if moulded in snow. The time for the best of the blossom
+is a little past, and the ground at our feet is as white as the trees,
+indeed whiter; for just here and there the fairy display on the trees is
+slightly browned. The scent is very sweet, and hangs in the air like
+delicate perfume. In the time of blossom there are many outings and
+festivities in Japan; people make up parties to go to the orchards, and
+thoroughly enjoy their beauty. Come right underneath the trees and look
+up, we can see the thick, heavily laden branches against the soft rich
+blue of a cloudless sky, and in our ears is the hum of a myriad bees. It
+is as if the freshness of early spring and the richness of full summer
+were mingled together.
+
+As we wander on over the scented ground we notice, a little way off, a
+rather pathetic-looking Japanese in the national costume, with a flat
+board or book in his hand. He is looking at us earnestly, and follows on
+at a respectful distance behind us.
+
+Next we come upon a quaint little garden on the lines of what we should
+call a landscape garden in England, but it is all on a tiny scale, as
+if made for dolls to walk in. There is a pond as big as a tea-tray,
+walks the breadth of one's foot, wee trees, gnarled with age and twisted
+and fully grown, but no higher than your knee. It is all so delicate and
+dainty and tiny that we are afraid to walk in it for fear we should
+spoil it; we feel thoroughly big and clumsy as Gulliver must have felt
+among the Lilliputians, and we expect every minute to see the rightful
+owners, wee men and women the size of a man's fingers, rushing out from
+the little summer-house with the curved roof at the end, and crying
+shrilly to us to go away!
+
+Treading carefully, a foot at a time, along the miniature paths, we pass
+through this and go on toward the temple which now appears amid a grove
+of deep dark pines. The steps are worn and hollowed, and on each side of
+them is an astonishing red figure of a man-monster in a very ferocious
+attitude, like that of the lions rampant seen on crests. These figures
+are a dark hot red and are dotted all over with white dabs; as we draw
+nearer to them we see that these dabs are doubled up bits of white paper
+sticking irregularly here and there without any arrangement. We cannot
+imagine what they are for, but as we stare we hear a foot crunch the
+gravel gently, and the little Jap with the board creeps up and salaams
+deeply, making at the same time a curious hissing noise as if he sucked
+in his breath. He must be very nervous.
+
+"If the honourable sirs will allow this humble servant to explain," he
+begins in fluent and perfect English.
+
+We are only too glad of his help, and not to be outdone in politeness we
+simultaneously raise our hats to him. He then tells us that all these
+paper pellets are prayers or wishes. People write down what they want on
+them and then moisten them in their mouths and spit them out against the
+images; if the paper sticks it shows the wish will be granted, if it
+falls to the ground then fate is against it. It is not a very beautiful
+custom, but perhaps not quite so bad as betel-nut chewing!
+
+Then the Jap coughs nervously, and with an overwhelming apology for
+daring to presume so far, explains that we ought to remove our
+"honourable shoes" before entering the temple. Of course we do it at
+once, though English shoes are not meant to take off and on at every
+turn, and while we struggle with our laces he knocks on the woodwork of
+the temple, and the sliding doors slip back along grooves, showing a
+very aged priest who smiles and beckons us in; so we pass on, feeling
+all the while conscious of the mystery of a country so utterly unlike
+our own. Inside, the floor is covered with thick mats, so we do not miss
+our shoes, though we step cautiously at first. It is very dim, but
+gradually our eyes grow accustomed to the want of light and we see
+lacquered screens, and little recesses, and bronze lamps, and curious
+images. Though it is spotlessly clean, very different from the Hindu
+temple, there is a strong smell of incense or burnt flowers or something
+rather odd. Our friendly Jap has gone down on his knees and is bowing
+his forehead to the ground, but we are not expected to do that
+evidently.
+
+Two weird figures in peaked caps, fastened under their chins by tapes,
+have drifted out silently from somewhere and follow us as the priest
+leads us round. There does not seem to be any one special shrine with a
+central figure for us to see; perhaps there is one, but it is not shown
+to foreigners. It is all vague and rather meaningless, and the carving
+and decoration are unsatisfying. After a while, as there does not seem
+to be anything more forthcoming, we drop a few coins into a bowl held
+out to us and prepare to go. Just as we reach the door another strange
+being in a peaked cap appears with tiny cups of clear amber-coloured tea
+on a tray, and holds them out to us. The little cups have no handles,
+and there is no milk in the tea, but on the tray are several rather
+nice-looking little cakes, only, unfortunately, they are all the colours
+of the rainbow--violet and green and scarlet. I utterly refuse to touch
+them, but the English-speaking Jap assures me they are "nice," so you,
+declaring that you are "jolly hungry," eat several and pronounce them
+"jolly good." We sip the tea, which tastes utterly different from that
+we have at home, and bowing all round again we put on our shoes and
+descend the steps. I'm sure if I lived here long I should be quite fit
+to take a position at court, my "honourable" manners would be so much
+improved. There is nothing brusque or rough or rude about these people,
+you couldn't imagine them scrambling or pushing to get in front of
+others even at a big show.
+
+A voice behind us says timidly, "Will the honourable sirs be pleased to
+employ this humble servant as interpreter?"
+
+We stop and look at him. It is not a bad idea. We have felt already this
+morning, even in coming straight from our very Western hotel here, how
+helpless we are in this land where the chair-men do not speak a word of
+English, and where even the street names are in Chinese characters. This
+little man is quite unassuming, he would certainly be no trouble and
+might be very useful. When we stop he deprecatingly opens his flat book
+and shows us drawings in freehand of scrolls and animals that he has
+made. He explains that he tries to get a living by offering such designs
+to the shops, but that he would like better to be interpreter to us, as
+he wishes to perfect his English. The terms he asks are absurdly
+moderate. Yes, we will have him.
+
+We engage him then and there, and he enters our service at once; there
+is no need for delay, for he is apparently not encumbered with anything
+beyond his drawing-book. He brightens up wonderfully when we say "yes."
+Poor little chap, I expect he is half starved. In most countries it
+would be rash indeed to engage a man at sight without any sort of
+written "character," but there is a simplicity and honesty about this
+one which gives us confidence in him. I am sure he would never cheat us
+deliberately, anyway, I am quite ready to risk it.
+
+[Illustration: RICKSHAW.]
+
+We tell him that what we want is to see something of Tokyo to-day, and
+then to go off into the country and try to get a glimpse of the real
+Japanese life, un-Europeanised, in some small village where we could
+stay at a little country inn for a day or two. He enters into the scheme
+at once and says that he will have the plans all ready to suggest to us
+this evening. Meantime he takes command, and after seeing us into our
+waiting rickshaws, calls up another for himself, gives the three men
+directions, and off we go.
+
+As we run back to the town we notice the houses standing by themselves
+in the suburbs, quite good, large houses, some of them, surrounded by
+their own gardens, shut in by high walls so that only the sloping
+red-tiled roofs, curved up at the end, are visible. Some of these are
+two storeys high, but when we get into the town we see at first only
+rows and rows of one-storey houses. There are frequent earthquakes in
+Japan, and to build many-storeyed blocks would mean frightful disaster
+and loss of life. As it is, the people can rush quickly out of their
+little homes into the streets at the first signs of a shaking.
+
+What do you notice about the streets that strikes you most particularly?
+To me it is the colouring--blue. You remember that in Burma there was
+practically no blue; the people wore red and pink and magenta and
+orange, but they seemed one and all to avoid blue. I used to think it
+was because they knew that blue would not suit their sallow, yellowish
+complexions; but the Japanese are just as yellow, in fact more so, for
+the Burmese yellow is a kind of coffee colour, and theirs real saffron,
+and yet the Japs are very fond of blue. The coolies and work-men all
+dress in it, with those astonishing signs on their backs that we noticed
+first at Yokohama, and the shops have blue banners hanging out beside
+them. These are for their names--they are signboards, in fact. Instead
+of running across horizontally, as our writing does, the Japanese
+writing--which is the same as the Chinese, though the spoken language is
+different--runs vertically. A Jap does many things exactly the opposite
+way from what we do. He begins to read a book from what we should
+consider the end, backwards, and instead of going along, he goes up and
+down a line; and the long thin strips, with those mysterious cabalistic
+signs on them, are the shopkeepers' names and businesses. The shops are
+all open to the street, without glass, in this quarter; they are just
+what we should call stalls; most of them seem to be greengrocers' or
+fruiterers'. And in the first there are always prominently in front huge
+vegetables like gigantic radishes or elongated turnips; the people eat
+them largely, though to a European both the flavour and the smell are
+nasty. In the fish shops the funniest things to be seen are great black
+devil-fish, or octopuses, with their lumpy round bodies and black
+tentacles stretching out on all sides. They are loathsome to look at,
+but the Japs are not the only people who use them for food; in parts of
+Italy the peasants eat them as a staple dish whenever they can catch
+them.
+
+There are no pavements here, and the streets are very muddy after last
+night's heavy rain, but it doesn't seem to matter a bit to the numerous
+inhabitants. All those who can afford it go in rickshaws, which pass us
+every minute, and the others wear clogs which lift them high out of the
+dirt. These clogs are called _geta_, and they are the funniest footwear
+to be found anywhere. You would find it more difficult to get about on
+them than on roller-skates, but the Japs are so much used to them that
+they trip along morning, noon, and night in them without being the least
+tired. They are simply little stools of wood, one flat piece being
+supported by two smaller ones at the toe and heel, and they are held on
+by straps across the foot. Men, women, and children are thus raised
+inches out of the mud, and patter about, ting-tang, ting-tang, all day
+long. Some of the women have coarse white stockings made with a separate
+stall for the big toe, on the model of a baby's glove, so that the geta
+strap can go through.
+
+[Illustration: GETA CLOGS.]
+
+We have now got into the middle of the town where the more populous
+streets are. You ought to notice how the colours of the clothes differ
+for the different ages of the people: the grandmothers and grandfathers
+wear dark purples and sombre hues; the middle-aged people have soft
+colouring, grey greens and palish shades; and the children are very gay,
+in every imaginable colour and often all mixed together. The girls have
+all a broad sash called an _obi_, humped up in a funny way behind their
+bodies; in the children this becomes a great bow like the wings of a
+butterfly. The people are small, and were it not for the clogs they
+would look smaller still; their country is not little, for Japan is
+larger than the United Kingdom, but the people are rarely tall, and they
+are slenderly built, with small bones, so that being among them makes an
+ordinary fair-sized Englishman feel clumsy and long-limbed. Now we are
+in the main street of all. Here comes a tram filled with Japanese, all
+smiling and chattering and looking happy; they take life with a smile.
+The houses here are larger than those we have passed, and some are just
+European buildings of stone, and the shop-windows are filled with glass,
+and show as fine a display as in the best London shops. There are many
+entirely for the sale of Western things, and others for the things of
+the country--the beautiful embroideries and silks, and silver-work and
+lacquer-work and carving, which you know so well by sight at home, for
+it is sent over in large quantities now, and anyone can buy it in London
+as cheaply as here.
+
+As we near our hotel we tell the interpreter, whose "honourable name" we
+have learned is Yosoji,--everything belonging to other people is
+"honourable" here,--that we would like to see the palace where the
+Emperor lives; so he gives an order to the rickshaw man, and we set out
+once more.
+
+On the way we see many open spaces and pass through a park, but when we
+get to the palace we find that no one is allowed to go in, and we can
+only drive round by the walls and moat. The Mikado, or Emperor, is
+worshipped by most of his people; he is in the position of a god, and it
+is no mere expression of speech to say that every schoolboy would be
+proud and glad to die for him. There is no country in the world whose
+people are more passionately devoted to their fatherland than the Japs.
+The idea of prominent Japanese going about in foreign countries trying
+to belittle their own, or undermine her power in the countries she has
+won by the sword, is unthinkable.
+
+Later in the afternoon, coming out again from our hotel, we find Yosoji
+waiting for us, and we tell him we want to walk about on foot to look at
+some of the shops. He protests, and we can see he thinks us almost out
+of our minds to suggest going on foot. He pleads earnestly that
+rickshaws are very cheap. We have to explain that it is not the money we
+are thinking of, but that we really prefer to go on foot. He doesn't
+believe it--he can't, because no Japanese would prefer to go on foot
+when he could ride. So we take no further notice of him and just walk
+away, leaving him to follow humbly and despairingly. We have not taken
+many steps when a whole flight of rickshaw men swoop across the road and
+are on our heels, crying out, "Rickshaw, rickshaw, shaw, shaw, r'sha,"
+like our old friends the pests of Egypt. We pretend not to hear, and
+walk on with what dignity we can, but they follow persistently, almost
+trampling on our heels, and reiterating their cries all the time. They
+can only imagine we must be deaf and blind. The crowd grows greater, the
+street is getting blocked. We pass a Japanese policeman in a stiff and
+badly made uniform, and are seized with sudden hope that he will send
+the offenders flying, but he does nothing of the sort; he fumbles in
+his pocket, brings out a little text-book Of English, and laboriously
+reads out, "Please secure me a good rickshaw," and looks at us
+triumphantly as if he had solved the difficulty!
+
+I have no moral courage; I don't know if you have more, anyway, let us
+take two and then they can follow us if they like, and the others will
+go away. Accordingly we give orders to Yosoji, who bows, only
+half-satisfied, and interprets our orders. The plan works, the other men
+slink off, and the two selected ones follow us limply at a foot's pace.
+
+What I am really making for is a little print shop I saw as we passed
+along here this morning, with a number of Japanese drawings in the
+window. They are so queer, so well done, and yet so conventional that
+they have a charm of their own. Here it is! Look at that extraordinary
+picture of the great fish breaking through a hole in the blocks of ice!
+The ice _looks_ cold, it is very well done, but the little bits of spray
+loop up round the fish in a stiff frill of a regular pattern. Then there
+is that one of the sea. It gives one a tremendous idea of a heavy
+lowering storm with the great indigo waves curling over that doomed
+boat, yet the edge of every wave has a sort of lace frill on it exactly
+alike! I must have those to take home; they won't take up any room.
+
+As we enter the Jap lady who is selling the prints gives a long hiss.
+She bows profoundly, and so do we. They won't know us when we get home!
+
+"But why did she hiss?" you ask Yosoji. He says it is a sign of respect.
+Oh! I thought they were nervous! How funny! As long as they don't expect
+me to do it back again--I can manage the bowing when there is no one
+there but you to see, but if I tried to hiss I should break down in the
+middle! I take out my purse to pay for the print. The money here is
+confusing, because there are yen and sen. A yen is equal to two
+shillings and a halfpenny, and a sen is only the hundredth part of a
+yen, or about a farthing. In order to reckon the change the old lady
+takes up a frame with beads strung across it on wires; I believe it's
+called an abacus, and they use them in kindergarten schools to teach
+children to count. She must be an ignorant old dame, and yet she looks
+wholly respectable. I wonder what Yosoji thinks of it. When we look at
+him he is quite demure and solemn and doesn't seem to notice anything
+odd.
+
+Coming out of the shop we find the dearest trio of children gazing at
+us. Of all the sights in Japan the children are the most fascinating.
+They are so funnily dressed, like the odd little Jap dolls English
+children buy. These three are clad very magnificently in kimonos of silk
+crape, very soft, and brilliantly coloured, with huge coloured sashes.
+Their little heads, with straight all-round fringes of black hair
+sticking out like brushes, are deliciously comic. They regard us gravely
+and without any fear or shyness.
+
+It is getting dark; suddenly someone lights a Chinese lantern across the
+street, and almost as if it were a given signal another pops out and
+another and another. Chinese lanterns with us are used for decoration,
+and it is impossible to help feeling as if it were a festival when we
+see them gleaming along the street among the coloured streamers.
+
+Altogether the lanterns, the gay dresses, the smiling faces, the funny
+shops, the clear deep blue of a perfect evening sky seen overhead, make
+a glorious picture. Shut your eyes and "think back" a moment. Think of
+Oxford Street on a wet night when the shops are shut and the high
+arc-lights shine down coldly on rigid lines and bleak grey walls!
+
+[Illustration: A JAP VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+IN A JAPANESE INN
+
+
+If we received a slight shock when we saw the woman in the shop adding
+up by the help of beads, what about the booking-clerk at the station? He
+seems unable to give the simplest change without this sort of reckoning.
+Comic, isn't it? Picture the clerks at Euston fumbling away at their
+beads while an impatient throng elbowed one another before the
+pigeon-hole!
+
+The station is quite small, merely a shed with a wooden roof set on
+posts. We are going second-class and taking Yosoji with us, so that we
+shall see some of the native life.
+
+The trains are corridor, with the seats lengthwise and across the ends.
+Many of the Japs are sitting sideways on them with their feet tucked
+under them,--they are not used to have them hanging down,--but one grand
+gentleman, directly opposite to us, is quite European in his top hat
+and long coat, and his feet are on the floor as to the manner born.
+
+We have not been long started before he begins to fidget and shuffle,
+and presently he hauls up a wicker basket beside him, undoes it, and
+fishes out a very nice dark purple kimono. His top hat goes into the
+rack. His collar, tie, and stud disappear. His coat comes off and is
+carefully folded on the seat. We watch the gradual unpeeling with an
+absorbed interest, wondering how far it will go. Luckily there are no
+ladies present! We can stare as much as we like without being rude,
+because everyone else in the carriage has their eyes fixed with a
+straight unwinking stare upon us. It is difficult to realise that we are
+more entertaining to them than the gentleman who is disrobing himself
+with ineffable dignity in public, is to us.
+
+He has now slipped on the kimono over his remaining garments, there is a
+little twist, and a slight, a very slight struggle, and in some
+miraculous way the rest of his European outfit glides off underneath the
+kimono, neatly folded. It is like a conjuring trick! Last of all come
+off the boots also, and with his stockinged feet tucked up under him he
+sits transformed into the Complete Jap. Judging from the lack of
+interest taken in the performance by his fellow-countrymen, it must be
+quite a usual thing to undress in trains.
+
+Having finished his task the gentleman on the seat turns to us and asks
+innumerable questions. Where have we come from? Where are we going to?
+How do we like Japan? Is it not a very poor, mean country compared with
+the glorious and august land we belong to? All this is interpreted by
+Yosoji, who no doubt puts our answers into the flowery language Japanese
+courtesy demands; for instance, when I say that I like Japan very much,
+I am sure, from the breathless sentence that follows, that he is saying
+that the strangers think the honourable country of Japan far more
+beautiful and wonderful than their own poor land. The man opposite does
+not for a moment think really that England is to be compared with Japan,
+but in Japan people are taught to talk like that, and must often think
+us very rude and abrupt.
+
+It is not a long journey, and after an hour or so of passing through
+pretty, hilly country, with many bushy pine trees dotted about, we stop
+at a station which Yosoji says is our destination. It is a good thing we
+have Yosoji with us, for certainly we could never have discovered the
+name of the station for ourselves. We see a long scroll covered with
+Chinese characters, and other smaller scrolls ornamented in the same
+way, these are, of course, the name of the station and the inscriptions
+on various waiting-rooms, but they leave us none the wiser. I ask Yosoji
+how any European travelling alone could discover where he had got to,
+and he smilingly points out a board at the extreme end of the station
+with some of our own lettering on it. No one could possibly see it from
+the incoming train.
+
+We still feel absurdly big as we get out of the little train on its
+little narrow gauge line and wait while Yosoji captures our luggage from
+the van. It is packed in great baskets which fit into each other like
+two lids; we see them in England often, but there they are rather looked
+down upon, here they are quite the correct thing. Indeed, among all the
+luggage in the van there is no trunk or wooden or tin box at all, only a
+great pile of such baskets of all sizes, mingled with a few bundles
+simply tied up. When our belongings are rescued and identified they are
+stowed away in a rickshaw by themselves, while we three mount in three
+others and set off for far the most interesting part of the journey. At
+first the road is quite good, and the men trot away contentedly, the
+big hats bobbing up and down before us. What do these hats remind you
+of? To me they are exactly like the lids of those galvanised dustbins
+you see put out in streets for the dustmen at home.
+
+[Illustration: PORTERS, JAPAN.]
+
+The air is brilliantly fresh and sweet; we pass along by pine trees of
+many sorts, and between them see the fresh green of the feathery
+bamboos; these two colours, the dark blue-green of the pines and the
+brilliant yellow-green of the bamboo, are seen everywhere in Japan. Then
+there are avenues of red-stemmed trees called cryptomeria, we should say
+cedars, with dark heads spreading out at the top of their immense
+branchless stems. We see squirrels leaping about and scuttering up the
+trunks. Then we go across open spaces, which are like an emerald sea,
+for they are the brightest green you can imagine, the green of the
+growing paddy, which is cultivated here as in Burma. There are men
+dressed in garments of glorious blue, like those we saw in Egypt, hoeing
+and watching the important crops. Then we plunge into cool woods and
+follow little paths up and down, and when we want to get out and walk,
+feeling lazy brutes to sit still and let a fellow-creature haul us
+uphill, Yosoji says no, it would hurt the feelings of our men, who would
+imagine we thought them poor weak things and scorned them.
+
+We twist down to a wooden bridge, dark maroon in colour, and built in
+one single span across a raging, leaping stream that dashes and splashes
+merrily far below. At the other end is one of the picturesque roofed
+arches or gates that the Japanese are so fond of, with its rich red
+tiles curved up at the corners. Not far on we catch a glimpse of a
+waving sheet of blue, a mass of flowers growing wild on a hillside, and
+in sight of it, but still in the shade of the trees, we sit down for
+lunch and to give the coolies a rest.
+
+Several times during the run we have noticed shrines with images of
+little foxes before them, some clean and new, but some weather-worn and
+grown over with lichen. As Yosoji unpacks the lunch he tells us these
+are Shinto shrines put up in honour of the god of rice. It seems very
+appropriate to hear this now, just as we are going to fare merrily on
+hard-boiled eggs, a tiny chicken, and plenty of rice, finishing up with
+those astonishing bright-coloured cakes, which we have learnt to eat
+without fear. We rest a long time, and all except you smoke contentedly,
+watching the blue films curl upward under the still foliage; and then up
+and on once more.
+
+[Illustration: OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN.]
+
+It is nearly five o'clock before we reach our destination, a little
+village, with a rather famous inn, not very far from the sea. In fact,
+as we approach we can see the blue water shining out only about a mile
+away across a flat expanse broken by hummocky sandhills. The village is
+one long straggling street of thatched huts, rather like huge beehives,
+with broad eaves. Our rickshaw men, who have been showing signs of
+exhaustion, make a gallant effort at the last, and run us up to the door
+of the inn in fine style. The inn stands on legs raised a foot or two
+from the ground, and is well built, with solid wooden posts and a tiled
+roof. It is two storeys high and has verandahs round both floors.
+
+As our men let down the shafts of the chairs for us to alight, two women
+and a man in native dress come out on to the verandah, and immediately
+fall down on their faces before us, with their foreheads on the ground.
+I don't know how you feel about it, but not having been born in the
+purple this sort of thing is embarrassing to me, and I wish they
+wouldn't! I have a vague idea that I ought to rise to the occasion by
+taking their hands and saying, "Rise, friend, I also am mortal," or
+something like that!
+
+Yosoji, of course, does all the talking, and with a great deal of bowing
+and volumes of flowing language, arranges for us to stay here the night,
+requesting us to pass on into the house. In the porch it is evidently
+expected that we should take off our boots, so we do, and they are
+stowed away in a little pigeon-hole, while we are offered instead large
+and awkward pairs of slippers like those we had at the mosques. You
+reject them, preferring stocking feet, and you have the best of me, for
+the next move is to go up a very slippery ascent like a ladder that is
+trying to grow into a staircase. While you hop along gaily I leave one
+slipper behind on the last rung, and in trying to recover it slip and
+bark my shin! However, when it is retrieved, I take off the other and,
+carrying them both in my hand, mount quite easily.
+
+[Illustration: FUJIYAMA.]
+
+The room we go into is specklessly clean, and through the wide sliding
+panels, which are open on to the verandah, we see a glimpse of the blue
+sea. The floor is made of mattresses in wooden frames neatly fitted
+together, and is quite soft and comfortable to the feet; boots with
+heels would certainly be out of place here. In a little alcove on one
+side is a miniature tree such as those you sometimes see offered for
+sale in England now, and behind it a quite beautiful sketch of Fujiyama
+on a scroll. There is no other furniture at all, but when our luggage is
+brought up we can sit on the baskets. We explain to Yosoji that we would
+greatly like--first, a hot bath, after the heat and dust of the journey,
+and next some food. Presently in comes the little Japanese maid whom we
+saw on her face at the door in company with her master and mistress.
+She prostrates herself at once, and with her forehead against the floor
+says something, indrawing her breath in a most accomplished hiss. Do you
+think we ought to do it back again?
+
+[Illustration: IN COMES THE LITTLE MAID.]
+
+Yosoji interprets that with great good luck the hot water is ready, and
+if we go down now we can have a bath. Our things have been brought up,
+so selecting a few clean garments we go once more along the polished
+passage and down that dangerous ladder, then through a room, presumably
+the kitchen, which is quite full of people, on to a covered-in verandah
+on one side of the house, where two large shining brass basins stand on
+a sink, and an iron tub stands on the floor, with its own fire beneath
+it like a copper; clouds of steam arise from it. But what catches our
+attention most quickly is an amiable Japanese man, who, clad in a very
+slight garment, has evidently just had a bath. We can see he has been
+pouring the contents of the basins over himself, and letting the water
+run away between the wooden slats of the floor, so we wait for them to
+be refilled for us. All the people who were in the kitchen have by this
+time drifted in here, and stand in interested contemplation of our
+proceedings. "Which is the bath?" I ask Yosoji. He motions toward the
+tub of boiling water. "But that's too hot; we shall be boiled sitting on
+the top of a fire," I explain. Thereupon a great commotion ensues,
+embers are raked out, and there is much running about and chattering.
+The Japs themselves take their baths at a temperature which would peel
+the skin off our bodies. As the water is still too hot, even when the
+fire has been removed, we wait for it to cool, and meantime I ask where
+is the other bath, as there are two of us? This produces great
+consternation in Yosoji; who ever heard of each person having a bath to
+himself? The notion is absurd. He knows the ridiculous prejudice of the
+English, who do not like to use the same water as the Japanese, but, as
+it happens, this water is perfectly clean, for even the gentleman who
+has just gone out did not use it. Is it possible we can't use it, one
+after the other? I ask him what state the water gets into when half a
+dozen people have been boiled in it, one after another, and he tells me
+that it is in no state at all, for, of course, etiquette does not allow
+them to use soap actually in the bath! Well, we must manage somehow;
+when they clear out we can tip some of the hot water into that second
+basin and use it afterwards. Meantime they all stand, gaily expectant,
+smiling affably. I explain to Yosoji that we can't undress before the
+crowd, and he seems to think my ideas most extraordinary. In Japan
+people always bathe in a garment and have not the least objection to
+doing it in full view of the street.
+
+With considerable difficulty our absurd scruples are made clear to the
+assembled company, who reluctantly depart, defrauded of their fun, and
+draw close the sliding screen.
+
+Then--yah--it _is_ hot! We manage to tip out two good basins full and
+fill up with cold water from a tin pail which stands near. Well, we both
+find it very refreshing. You go first, and while I am revelling in the
+hot water I hear a dismayed exclamation, "Oh, the towels!" and see you
+holding up a tiny thing no bigger than a table-napkin, embroidered in a
+wandering blue pattern. There are two for each, and though they are
+little more than pocket-handkerchiefs we must make them do.
+
+When we get back to our rooms in a more or less steamy condition, we
+find that the screens, which are made of paper framed in wood, have been
+drawn, and outside them wooden shutters have been fastened. The room is
+very close, and there isn't an inch open for ventilation. After a long
+expostulation with Yosoji we are allowed to have the outer shutters open
+an inch or two, though he explains they must be shut and bolted before
+we go to bed at night or the police will be down upon us. There are two
+loose, flowing Jap gowns lying ready for our use, and very delightful
+they are. As they are quite clean we slip into them instead of coats and
+laugh across at each other. In comes the little maid, once more
+prostrating herself, then she goes out and returns with a lacquered tray
+on tiny legs a few inches high. This she sets on the floor, and after a
+considerable interval, during which she has brought up many tiny dishes
+and bowls, she suddenly seats herself on one side of the tray and
+motions to us to begin.
+
+We wriggle across the floor inelegantly and squat opposite to her. The
+first thing we see are two steaming bowls of soup; we make short work of
+these, drinking from the bowl, and find at the bottom some tough-looking
+bits of something. Then we discover all at once there are no knives,
+forks, or spoons, only chopsticks, like forks with one prong. We try to
+fish out the bits of something, but even when we have caught them the
+result is not satisfactory; it is like eating leather. Next comes bowls
+of rice, and if it was difficult before, it is doubly so now. I should
+certainly never be able to pick up grains of rice with a chopstick while
+that solemn little maid sits opposite; it would take a Cinquevalli to do
+it! I make a desperate attempt and explode suddenly, the maid giggles,
+you roar, and even Yosoji, who is somewhere in the background, begins
+tittering. After this the ice is broken; we entreat Yosoji to get the
+maid away without hurting her feelings, and when she has departed we
+finish the rice with our fingers. There are various other things--beans
+which can be skewered on the chopsticks, and funny little bits of stuff
+like mixed pickles, but even when we have eaten everything we are as
+hungry as when we began. Just as we are realising it our little friend
+appears again with a decent-sized fish on a dish, decorated with onions,
+and we quickly fall to, using a funny kind of bean-paste made up like a
+cake, instead of bread. By the time we have finished we are rather fishy
+but very much more satisfied.
+
+The meal taken away, our handmaiden slides back a panel in the more
+substantial side of the room, which is of wood, and produces various
+stuffed rugs which she spreads on the ground--these are called _futon_,
+and are very like our useful friend the _rezai_; we have some of our own
+to add to them, and altogether the beds look so comfortable that we are
+quite ready to get into them at an early hour. Having lit a Chinese
+lantern at one end of the room before the little picture recess, a
+sacred place in every Japanese household, the maid retires for the
+night, and so does Yosoji. Only then do we discover that for pillows
+they have given us tiny wooden stools, not unlike the national clogs,
+only slightly larger! These we are supposed to place in the crick of the
+neck; having tried it you declare that if you slept at all that way you
+would certainly dream you were lying on the block to be beheaded, so
+instead you choose the lid of one of the baskets, which, being yielding,
+makes not half a bad pillow.
+
+Good-night!
+
+After a profound sleep I am awakened by a flood of light, and sit up
+with a start, to find myself in bed before an admiring crowd. The
+sliding panels opening on to the verandah have been pushed back, and
+there stand my landlord and landlady, and the little maid-servant, and
+several other persons, bowing and prostrating themselves and asking
+innumerable questions, to which, as there is no Yosoji, I can give no
+answers. Everyone in Japan asks questions, I find; it is supposed to
+show a polite interest in you. I feel rather awkward sitting up there
+among my futon and making a series of little jerks meant to be bows, and
+I am glad when you wake up too and help me a little. You are not so shy,
+it seems, for you hop out of your rugs and dance to the verandah,
+revelling in the light and sunshine.
+
+An hour later we have had a sluice down with cold water from the brass
+basins, eaten a most unsatisfying and unsubstantial breakfast, much like
+the dinner the night before, minus the fish, and are out to visit the
+village schools, at the suggestion of Yosoji, before going on.
+
+They are worth visiting! I never saw anything quite so quaintly pretty
+as these rows of little dolls in their brilliantly gay garments, tied up
+with their big sashes. They are sitting on the floor and laboriously
+making strokes with a paint-brush. That is to say, they are learning to
+write. The Chinese writing is not an alphabet like ours, but each
+complicated symbol stands for an idea, and there are thousands and
+thousands of them. It takes a child seven years even to learn fairly
+what will be necessary in after life.
+
+These little mites are not making complete signs, but just doing one
+stroke again and again, all over a large sheet of paper, and when they
+have learnt that they will go on to another, until one complete symbol
+is mastered. The writing is done by brush-work instead of with a pen,
+and is more like artistic painting than stiff writing. Suddenly the
+teacher gives a signal, and the tiny tots rush out into the air, and
+dance and play and run and twiddle each other round and round like
+little kittens; they are so gay and so bright it is quite evident that
+Japanese children are not ill-treated.
+
+It is with great reluctance we pick up our luggage, pay our very
+moderate bill, and leave this dear little village. Whatever else fades
+out of our minds as time goes on I am sure the picture of those gay
+children will never be forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN RESERVATION.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THOUSANDS OF SALMON
+
+
+We dawdled so long in the quaint and charming country of Japan that it
+was full summer when we left. As the inverted fan of Fujiyama faded
+gradually into nothingness against the illimitable spaces of the sky, we
+said again and again _sayonara_, which is the musical Japanese word
+meaning good-bye, for we felt we were taking leave of an old friend.
+Japan is on the other side of the world from England; shall we ever get
+there again?
+
+Then came the voyage across the Pacific and the landing at Victoria, the
+chief town on the great island of Vancouver, which lies off the west
+coast of Canada. It is always a little confusing to people who have not
+visited this part, because there are two Vancouvers: one the great
+island which blocks the western coast of Canada, and the other the town
+lying on the eastern side of the narrow straits, on the mainland.
+
+Well, here we are in Victoria, and the astonishing homeliness of it
+gives us both a warm feeling of delight. It seems as if we really had
+got almost in touch with our own country again. As we wandered through
+the town to-day we saw in the outskirts red-brick creeper-covered houses
+that might have been in an English market town. In spite of all its
+trams and docks and general go-aheadness Victoria is old world. We
+visited a place called Esquimault, by tram-car, and saw there British
+ships of war and many other kinds of craft. Now we are back in the
+hotel, and in our cosy bedroom there is little to remind us we have
+still a continent and ocean between us and our beloved little island.
+
+What are you doing? Putting your boots out to be cleaned? Well, that is
+one thing you won't get done here, it is not the custom; you will have
+to go down to the basement and have them cleaned on your feet, and tip
+the man who does them then and there. I'll come too, because we have to
+make a very early start to-morrow. I wish we hadn't, for some things.
+There is capital shooting and fishing here, though a great deal of the
+island, which, by the way, is more than twice the size of Wales, is
+covered with impenetrable forests. It is difficult to get about at all
+in the interior, but we could have gone around by the coast and explored
+the inlets, and with luck we might have seen something of the moose and
+the bear, to say nothing of wild fowl and salmon and trout, but we can't
+manage it this time. A friend of mine, who is in charge of a
+salmon-cannery on the coast of British Columbia, is going to put us up
+for a day or two, and he has arranged that we shall cross over on the
+cannery steamer, the _Transfer_, which leaves so early that we'll have
+to be up at half-past four in the morning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ugh, I'm sleepy! But I see the sun is already up and shining in a
+cloudless sky. It is a trifle cold when we get out at first in the
+morning, but as we walk briskly down to the steamer we feel warmed up.
+The wharf shows a busy scene; there are numbers of blue-clad Chinamen
+rushing backwards and forwards loading boxes on to our little steamer,
+which floats by the wharf, and what a comic steamer she is! She is like
+nothing so much as a great fan-tail pigeon sitting on the water! That is
+because her immense paddle-wheel is tucked away at the back. There is a
+very good reason for this too! The steamer gives an agonised scream from
+her siren, the Chinamen on board chatter and gesticulate frantically to
+their comrades left behind, there is a terrific commotion, and for the
+moment no one could help believing that something has gone wrong; but
+no, this is only the way the Celestials say good-bye, for when we are
+fairly off all the noise stops and a great calm falls on board.
+
+[Illustration: "ONE PIECY EAT BREAKFAST."]
+
+The view from the deck is glorious; in this brilliant light we can see
+the mountains rearing up behind the town. While we are admiring them a
+voice says, "One piecy eat breakfast, Master," and turning we see a
+Chinaman in spotless white bowing before us. We gladly accept and go
+below, where we find other Chinamen gliding about in felt slippers
+serving hot baked buckwheat cakes and maple syrup; the cakes are
+beautifully flaky and about the size of a saucer; we soon dispose of
+them and some decent coffee too, and return to the deck quickly not to
+miss anything.
+
+It seems no time before we are gliding along close to the land on the
+other side, startling myriads of water-fowl, who fly up in front of us
+in an endless cloud, or dive just as we get near enough to see them
+well. Then a tall white lighthouse heaves into sight and we round a
+corner into that famous salmon river, the Fraser. There are red houses
+peeping out between the trees, and boats begin to pop up here and there,
+but we don't seem to be getting on very fast, for we are zigzagging this
+way and that across the water, almost more crookedly than we did on the
+Nile or Irrawaddy to avoid sandbanks.
+
+"See the nets?" asks one of the ship's officers, coming to a halt beside
+us and pointing to a line of corks on the surface of the water; "we've
+got to keep clear of them, and that's no job for a sleepy-head, I can
+tell you." He goes on to explain that the nets are sixty feet long and
+weighted with lead on the low side in the usual fashion. At this time of
+year the salmon are all trying to get up the river. Salmon have queer
+ways. They are born far up, in the head waters of the Fraser, or any
+other great river, and come down as quite little fellows to the sea,
+where they live a free bachelor life, enjoying themselves in the open
+for three years; but at the end of that time an irresistible desire to
+return to the fresh water seizes them, and in thousands and thousands
+they press up the wide mouth of the river, tumbling over each other in
+their eagerness to get there; this is the time they are caught. The nets
+are made with wide meshes, and the fish in their struggle to get
+forward run their blunt heads through, but when they try to withdraw
+them they are held by the gills and remain fixed until they are hauled
+out to meet their fate. But from six in the morning on Saturdays till
+six in the evening on Sundays the law forbids netting, so a certain
+number always escape and get up the river to lay their eggs, after which
+they return to the sea and leave their families to hatch out; but their
+life-work is finished, and they either die on the way or soon
+afterwards. All this the officer tells us as we meander across the
+smooth water.
+
+We stop once or twice where the flag calls, just as we did on the
+Irrawaddy, to take up or put down some freight, and then we sight Lulu
+Island, where we are to stay as the guests of Mr. Clay for a day or two.
+Hullo! there he is! That tall fellow in a flannel shirt and blue
+trousers. Oh no, it isn't--it's another Englishman; but among the
+multitude of Chinese one Englishman looks very like another! This man
+greets us as we get off at the pier, and says that Mr. Clay is expecting
+us, and he pilots us into a great shed at the end of the pier. My word,
+what a sight! There are thousands and thousands of salmon lying on every
+square foot of floor, and not only covering it, but covering it
+knee-deep, as they are piled one on the other. There are Chinamen wading
+about among them, and every minute fresh boats arrive at the wharf with
+their cargoes, and the men in them throw up the fish to the other men on
+the wharf. The salmon we see here, our new acquaintance tells us, are
+called "sock-eye," and weigh about ten pounds each. The great rush comes
+every fourth year, one of which was 1913, when about thirteen million
+fish were caught in the season. The men in the boats are Japs; we feel
+quite friendly toward them. Mixed with them are some others with rather
+Eastern faces too, but quite different from anything we have seen yet.
+Notice their greasy straight hair, their flat, broad, good-humoured
+faces and little stocky figures; what race do you think they are?
+Esquimaux? That is not a bad shot; they are very like the pictures one
+sees of Esquimaux, but these fellows are Siwash Indians, who live along
+the coast hereabouts. Here is Mr. Clay, who has been watching the
+reckoning of the caught fish. He is dressed exactly like the man who met
+us, and a useful working dress it is too. He greets us with the greatest
+hospitality and says he'll take us right up to his house for breakfast
+first, as we must be starved, and we can see all we want to afterwards.
+When we are clear of the sheds we see a long, low, wooden building
+standing by itself; to reach it we have to pass over several wooden
+platforms raised on legs. These, Mr. Clay explains, are necessary,
+because in winter the whole island is pretty well under water. As we
+cross the verandah we are warmly welcomed by Mrs. Clay, and taken into a
+charming wooden room in the middle of the house, on to which all the
+other rooms open. Here is laid out a splendid home breakfast of bacon
+and eggs and porridge, and after a wash it doesn't take us very long to
+fall to! How long is it since we had bacon and eggs for breakfast? It
+seems to me to be so far back I can't remember! We are both rather thin
+after living on Jap diet so long, and are quite ready to wind up with
+more buckwheat cakes when we have finished the other things. All the
+servants are Chinamen you notice, and very well they wait too.
+
+While we eat, Mr. Clay tells us much about his kingdom. He and his wife
+have another house which is in New Westminster, not far off up the
+river, and they go there for the winter, only staying here in the summer
+when the work is in full swing. He is the manager of only one cannery
+here, and there are several others all working amicably together.
+
+[Illustration: A SIWASH INDIAN.]
+
+Then we stroll out, feeling blissfully satisfied, a condition we have
+long been strangers to, and as we smoke Mr. Clay points out the other
+houses round. There is the house for the white men who assist him, the
+houses for the Japs, and the Chinese house. At the back of his own
+premises are sheds where he keeps a couple of horses and some cows for
+his own use. Then there is the Stores, a big building full of tinned
+meats, sacks of rice, tobacco and tea, and all sorts of underclothing,
+as well as the other little things men are likely to want.
+
+Afterwards we stroll through the Chinamen's house. It is a queer-looking
+place, with bunks ranged along the walls and a huge wooden table down
+the middle, where just now numbers of complacent Chinamen are sitting
+down to a midday meal of rice with cooked fish. As we pass along we see
+that each man keeps his little treasures beside his bunk, for, though so
+impassive, the Chinaman is a home-loving creature; there are little
+images of carved ivory and other small treasures. Do you see that white
+rat with pink eyes restlessly doing sentry-go in his cage?
+
+Behind the house, and some distance off, is the Indian village, where we
+see great barn-like buildings; here the Siwash Indians live, and several
+of their flat-faced, broad-nosed children are tumbling about and
+playing; as we come up one sturdy youngster raises a heavy stick and
+flings it with all his force at a wretched little seal tied up by a
+flapper. Mr. Clay goes quickly forward and catches hold of the little
+Indian boy, and the women all rush out and talk at a tremendous rate; it
+ends in the manager giving a trifle for the seal and making a signal to
+his men, who take up the poor little beast and carry it off to put an
+end to it mercifully. He does not put it back in the water, because
+seals do much mischief in breaking the nets. The Indian children don't
+mean to be cruel, but they have no imagination.
+
+Then we go on a voyage of inspection all round the place. We saw the
+fish when they were first landed from the nets, and the next proceeding
+is when they are slit open by the Indian women, who cut off their heads
+and tails and throw them into vats of salt and water. After this they
+are fished out and chopped into round pieces to fit the tins. This is
+done by Chinamen, who get so clever at it that they can judge exactly
+how much to put into each tin to make just one pound weight; the tins
+are weighed as they pass on, and all those not right are sent back to be
+done again. The tins which pass the test roll down an inclined shute.
+Look at them, one after the other, exactly as if they were alive! As
+they run they roll in soldering stuff, so that their lids are sealed on
+the way. But they have many other processes to go through before they
+can be shipped off. Immense care is taken to get all the air out of the
+tin, because if any were left in the fish would go bad. They are tried
+and tested time after time at every stage. The salmon is cooked when
+already in the tin, and the heating is so severe that all the bone
+becomes soft too. You know this well in tinned salmon, don't you? You
+know, too, the look of the tins, with their gaudy-coloured labels, as
+they are sold in shops in England? These labels are stuck on after they
+leave the cannery, which deals with the insides, not the outsides, of
+the tins. There is a sarcastic saying at the canneries, "Eat what you
+can and can what you cannot," but this is not fair, for the very
+greatest trouble is taken to ensure the fish being quite good. When all
+is ready, sailing ships come and are loaded up and carry off the
+season's catch to all parts of the world. And this is going on all along
+the coast at many and many a cannery, day after day, week after week,
+during the fishing season.
+
+There is so much to see that when we leave the last shed the day is
+almost gone. At that moment two Chinamen pass us carrying a pig
+suspended from a pole by its four feet tied together. The poor little
+beast is going to be killed, for the Chinese are very fond of pork.
+
+When we sit on the verandah after dinner, trying vainly to keep off the
+mosquitoes by smoking strong tobacco, we are joined by one of the
+assistant managers, a man named Jones, who has fiery red hair and, I
+should judge, a peppery temper. He is very angry about something, and
+several times Mr. Clay tries to argue with him and calm him down; it
+seems that he has had a row with a Chinaman. This morning he spoke
+sharply to the man, who went stolidly on with his work without seeming
+to notice it, but later on, meeting Mr. Jones outside, the Chinaman
+drew the knife which they all carry in their belts, and muttered
+something threatening to his superior. This evening Mr. Jones keeps
+saying again and again in an excited way, "Leave him to me, I'll settle
+his hash," and Mr. Clay repeatedly tells him that he can report the man,
+who can be fined, but that it would be rash to tackle anything of that
+sort single-handed, as the Chinamen all stand together and are like an
+enraged swarm of hornets if any one of their number is touched.
+
+However, next day we hear nothing more and spend a lazy morning
+wandering about a little and sitting on the verandah until Mr. Clay
+turns up about midday and says, "Come and see all the men leaving work
+for dinner; you missed that yesterday, and it is quite a sight."
+
+So we go across with him to the big shed. Just as we reach it we hear a
+furious noise like the buzz of hornets, and coming quickly round a
+corner we run into an angry and excited crowd of Chinamen rushing this
+way and that, and stabbing at random in the air with their knives.
+
+"That fool!" ejaculates Clay. "He's done something!" and before we
+realise what he intends to do, he is right in among the mob of Chinamen,
+knives and all, without a sign of fear. You and I are too much
+interested to go away, but we keep well on the outskirts of the crowd.
+The roar redoubles as Clay is seen, but after a while it dies away a
+little, and then a small party emerge from among the rest, carrying one
+of their number, unconscious, between them, and as they pass on down to
+the house where they live, the others hurry after them, still chattering
+and brandishing their knives.
+
+Clay is much upset. "That fool!" he says again, and there is a deep fold
+of anxiety on his forehead. "This morning he took down with him to the
+sheds a piece of lead-piping, and stood by the door there, and as the
+men came out one by one, he marked the one who threatened him yesterday
+and dropped him with a stunning blow on the back of the neck. I don't
+think he's killed the fellow. Luckily it takes a lot to kill a Chinaman,
+but we'll have no end of a shindy over this; they'll lose days of work,
+and the worst is, Jones has disappeared--no one knows where he is."
+
+All the afternoon the place is in a blaze of excitement, and, as Mr.
+Clay foresaw, no work is done. Every now and then we can see, from where
+we are sitting on the verandah, a band of Chinamen burst out of their
+house flourishing knives and shouting and rushing about and then
+quieting down and slinking back. If Jones shows himself now his life
+won't be worth an instant's purchase! I try to get out of Clay what he
+means to do, but he won't tell me, yet I am sure, from something he let
+fall, that he has discovered the whereabouts of his junior, and I should
+not be surprised if the man was in this house.
+
+When we turn in at last to our beds nothing more has happened, and Jones
+has not appeared. I have been asleep for a little while when I hear a
+subdued whispering on the verandah outside my window, and jumping up I
+put my head out. There stands Clay in his pyjamas with a man I recognise
+as the night-watchman, a European. Clay sees me and waves his hand, and
+as the watchman disappears he comes over to me. "Strang has just been up
+to tell me that the Chinamen have carried the poor beggar out of the
+house and laid him on the bank of the river," he says in a low voice;
+"that means to say they think he's dying, and they wouldn't have him in
+their house, or his spirit would settle down there. That's a good job
+for us, or by the morning he'll be spirited away! There's the little tug
+ready, and it will soon run him up to New Westminster hospital. I'm just
+going down to see the poor chap aboard."
+
+"What about Jones? Aren't you going to send him off too?" I asked.
+
+"No fear! He'll have to swallow his gruel. We can't spare him. Where
+would I get another man from at this time of the season? Besides, that
+would look as if he were afraid of them. We've lost hours of precious
+time with his foolery already," he adds savagely, and I can guess the
+headstrong Jones has "caught it" from his chief!
+
+Next morning still no Jones, and all seems as usual; work is resumed,
+the Chinamen ask no questions as to their wounded comrade, and peace
+reigns. About eleven o'clock Clay comes up from the works hurriedly and
+gives a whistle, and from one of the bedroom doors emerges Jones,
+looking rather like a schoolboy who has been in disgrace and means to
+carry it off with swagger.
+
+When we get out on the verandah we find the rest of the white men
+belonging to the place all gathered together with revolvers in their
+hands, and with one consent they move off toward the big shed. For the
+life of me I can't keep out of it, and it would be rather hard to stop
+your going. I wouldn't miss seeing Jones reintroduced to his friends the
+Chinamen for anything. Come on, but let us keep behind where we shan't
+be noticed, or Mr. Clay would send us back at once.
+
+There is a busy hum surging out of the factory as we approach, and the
+noise of it rings out on the still air; then, as the white men appear in
+a little knot in the doorway, there is a dead pause, a silence so sudden
+and dramatic that it seems as if one's heart must stop beating. The
+half-dozen white men stroll up the gangway carelessly, but you note they
+all keep together, until Jones, who doubtless has got his orders,
+separates himself from the others and walks briskly ahead. His face is
+very white as he bends over a Chinaman and glances at his work in as
+natural a manner as he can command, then he looks sharply at another and
+tells him to go ahead and not waste time. Hands grow busy, the noise
+recommences, and in a few minutes the buzz rises again to concert pitch.
+The critical moment has been safely passed. We follow the others into
+the building and walk the whole length of it and back, and by the time
+we get to the doorway again no one could tell that anything unusual had
+happened.
+
+However, I shouldn't care to be Mr. Jones on Lulu Island, and if I were
+he I should apply for a job elsewhere at the end of the season!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE GREAT DIVIDE
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We are now in the train running toward the great ridge of mountains
+which rises like a backbone through the country from north to south,
+cutting off the territory of British Columbia from Alberta, though both
+are provinces of Canada. The Rockies! What ideas of grizzly bears and
+Indians and scalps and trails the name brings up before me! I don't
+suppose you have anything like the same feeling about them, because you
+weren't brought up on Fenimore Cooper and Ballantyne and all those other
+writers who are old-fashioned nowadays. Perhaps you have never even read
+_The Wild Man of the West_, or _Nick o' the Woods_? It makes me sorry
+for you!
+
+The Clays were good to the last; they brought us up on the little launch
+by river to New Westminster, and then we went by electric cable-car to
+the mighty town of Vancouver on the Pacific Coast. What a town! Wide
+streets, huge buildings, tram-cars, and much bustle and life. But what
+struck us most was the splendid playground of Stanley Park which covers
+all the ground at the end of the peninsula stretching out into the sea.
+This is not an Englishman's idea of a park at all, for we think of the
+rather stiff green expanses, with a few trees scattered here and there,
+that we are used to at home. Stanley Park is just a bit of primeval
+forest with roads running through it. There are immense trees rearing
+their crowns on stems twelve feet in diameter. There are thickets and
+wild creatures and rich undergrowth. The inhabitants of Vancouver are
+lucky indeed, and they have another park on the other side of the town
+too. Stanley Park overlooks the harbour, where lie ships of all nations,
+from the liners of China and Japan to the tiny tugs of the Cannery
+Companies. The amount of trade coming here is immense. The ships carry
+cargoes of tea, rice, and silk and oranges, with skins from Siberia, and
+take away grain, timber, fish, machinery, cattle, and manufactured
+goods. There are some sailing ships, you still see them in this part of
+the world, and these are loading masses of timber baulks from the great
+pine woods inland. Lumbering and logging are the two great occupations
+of the Western Canadian winter, and what you see here is the fruit of
+that work. Terribly hard work it is too. Swinging an axe all day among
+the great giants of the forest requires knack as well as strength, and
+when a man first starts that game he quickly finds he is as weak as a
+baby till his muscles get hardened to it. When cut down the trunks are
+dragged to any stream, or creek, as they call them here, to be drifted
+down to the coast. It is a wonderful sight to see a river about half a
+mile wide literally covered with tree trunks wedged against one another
+from bank to bank. When the logs get jammed, and have to be released, it
+requires a great deal of courage to go right into the middle of the
+stream and find the key-log, the one which holds the whole together,
+like the keystone of an arch; most exciting work this is, many a man
+loses his life or his limbs over it. In Burma, where the teak companies
+run their business on the same lines, elephants are taught to do this;
+they feel around with their trunks and draw out the right log, and then
+make for the banks at full speed, to get out of the way before the whole
+mass of tons' weight breaks loose and comes down upon them. But here
+there are no elephants; dogs are the beasts of burden, and fine work
+they do in teams, drawing laden sleighs over the frozen snow,--but dogs
+can't pull out timber when it is jammed. A lumber man has to be a bit of
+an engineer too, and learn how to dam up the stream to make enough water
+to float his logs; he is a jack of many trades, and generally a fine
+fellow too.
+
+If we had come straight on from Victoria in the Empress steamer from
+Japan we should have landed at Vancouver. The Empress Line belongs to
+the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, which has its terminus there. This
+is one of the most miraculous railways in the world. We are on it now.
+When first it ran out to the Western end, after surmounting
+indescribable difficulties in crossing the mountain country, it stopped
+at that little place we passed through when we came to Vancouver from
+New Westminster. You remember we saw a deserted town, solitary and
+silent, on the inner curve of the bay? It is called Port Moody, and the
+name suits it to a T. It has a right to be moody, for when it was known
+the railway was going to end here the town sprang up in a week or two,
+in the way Canadian towns do; but the very first winter was so terribly
+severe that ice was driven up into the bay and blocked it completely,
+preventing vessels from getting to the terminus at all, and so the
+directors saw they must carry their line on farther round the bay to the
+northern point, and here Vancouver arose; but the irony of it was that
+no such winter has ever been known again! It only came that once, just
+to blot out Port Moody's chances. So the place lies mouldering away,
+with the lumber houses falling to pieces and the wharves rotting, and
+only a few wooden crosses and headstones on the hill to mark the graves
+of those who stayed behind when the others went.
+
+[Illustration: NEGRO ATTENDANT.]
+
+This is a very fine train, the cars are open all the way down, so we can
+walk from end to end, the seats face in the direction we are going, and
+the backs can be swung over to the other side in the same way as on a
+tram-car. I know you have already noticed the very spruce negro
+attendants, because I saw you staring at the first one who appeared with
+all your eyes! There is an observation car with huge plate-glass windows
+at the end of the train, and we will go there to-morrow when we get into
+the mountains. I saw that there was a placard saying the negro attendant
+will answer _all_ questions! I hope he gets a very high salary!
+
+It was eight o'clock at night before we left Vancouver, and as there is
+a capital dining-car on the train, we had better get dinner at once.
+But the fun begins when we go to bed. I send you along first and say
+I'll turn in after a last smoke, but I have hardly settled down to an
+interesting conversation with a man in the smoking-car before I see you
+standing beside me looking very troubled. Well, what is it? In a low
+whisper you say--
+
+"I can't go to bed there; there's a lady in the same car."
+
+"Never mind! She has her own bunk, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, but----" a long pause--"she drops her hairpins on to me!"
+
+My laugh makes the man beside us very inquisitive. Never mind, old man!
+Pick them up and return them to her in a neat little packet to-morrow,
+but whatever you do don't go to sleep with your mouth open!
+
+It certainly is funny. When I join you I find that the lady is in the
+upper bunk above that which you and I are going to occupy together. The
+curtains hang straight down and it is a very tight fit indeed to wriggle
+into my place without pulling open the top part, and a still more
+difficult job to get out of my clothes lying in a space like a ship's
+berth.
+
+In the morning I take care to get up early and rouse you, and as we
+vanish out of the compartment we hear a little giggle, and looking back
+I see a long lock of brown hair hanging down over the edge of an upper
+bunk. I hope you gave her back her hairpins!
+
+We are surprised that the train is standing still, and want to find out
+why. We saunter along to the observation car and breathe the glorious
+freshness of the air, chilled by the great white peaks which rise
+shining up against a clear sky. Seeing that several of the men
+passengers have climbed down on to the track and are wandering along it
+we follow, and round the next corner come upon a cattle-train off the
+lines and blocking the way. She was just turning on to a siding to wait
+for our coming when the disaster occurred, and now she lies helpless,
+with twenty cars filled with cattle who are lowing in a disconsolate
+questioning way. Just look at the poor beasts, they are packed tighter
+than ever we see them in England, simply jammed up against each other
+like sardines in a tin. One of them has fallen, and the others bulging
+out over the space thus made are trampling on him. A fine-looking
+fellow, six feet high, in a blue shirt and cowboy hat, with a red
+handkerchief twisted round his throat, comes along with a pole, and
+skewering it under the fallen ox very cleverly levers it on to its feet
+again, holding it up until it forces its way upward itself. He jabs at
+it once or twice to make it move, but not unkindly. He looks a rough
+specimen and has a two days' growth of beard, but we go up to him, as I
+want to ask questions about the cattle. To our astonishment the moment
+he speaks we know him for an educated Englishman. "Oh, they're not badly
+looked after," he says; "they've all been out at Kamloops for twelve
+hours to get rest and food and water. They were only put on the cars an
+hour since."
+
+Looking at him keenly I find something very familiar in his face. "Are
+you a Winchester man?" I ask.
+
+"By Jove!" he says, "Mitton!" and simultaneously I cry "Wharton!" and
+our hands are locked.
+
+"Got a rough job?" I ask.
+
+He laughs. "It's all in the day's work," he says. "I've done worse
+things. It's a man's job, anyhow."
+
+"Are you going to live out here permanently?"
+
+"No; not good enough. I've been knocking about now two years, and unless
+you've got capital you can't make a start; a man can always keep
+himself, of course, and you see something of life too, but for a
+permanency, no, it's not good enough! I wrote to my people only last
+week I'd be turning up next fall to settle down again."
+
+He has to go to help the men who are raising the wheels of the truck on
+to the line again with jacks. It has been a queer accident altogether.
+The train was running down in the early hours of this morning when a
+huge boulder, which had been loosened by the vibration of its passing,
+fell with terrific force against this particular car, and knocked it off
+the rails; the coupling-pin connecting it with the next one in front
+broke, and the engine and first few trucks ran on a little. Luckily the
+derailed truck ploughed the ground and stopped within a foot or two of
+the awful gulf yawning below, though those following, which had kept on
+the track, gave it a shunt forward.
+
+It is not long before all is shipshape again, and we draw slowly past,
+waving to Wharton, who stands up in his caboose, or van, a handsome,
+healthy figure of a man. He was one of the best short-slips Winchester
+ever had. For some time after this we pass waiting trains at every
+siding, for all the traffic has been held up by the accident.
+
+For the rest of that day it is difficult to spare thoughts for anything
+but the scenery. It is grander than anything I have ever seen in my
+life. Very few people in England realise that there is not one but three
+ranges of mountains to be crossed from the coast. We are through the
+first now and into the Selkirks, and we have to climb right up these and
+down again before starting on the heights of the Rockies, which is the
+only range most people know by name. The peaks, which rise majestically
+round, are often tree-clad far up; we see huge pines, centuries old,
+towering out of a tangle of undergrowth that has probably never been
+trodden by any human foot, not even those of the Indians. There is a
+great deal of dead wood to be seen, and this hangs out in banners of
+brown among the sombre green, and here and there are long strips of
+brilliant emerald, which stand out like streaks. We apply to the
+long-suffering attendant, who tells us that they are the new growth on
+some great gash, cut possibly by a fall or landslide in the winter, and
+as we go along he shows us some of these bare patches, yet unhealed,
+torn by an avalanche of stones and mud and snow.
+
+[Illustration: INDIANS IN MODERN CLOTHES.]
+
+We pass on long trestle bridges over foaming torrents far below, and it
+makes us shudder to think what would happen if the train went over. That
+man in the smoking-car last night told me a story of what happened to
+himself on this line, some twenty years ago, when he was crossing over
+the barrier. The train he was in was trying to get up a tremendously
+steep incline on a dark and stormy night. The worst of these inclines
+are not used now, for the way has been engineered round them. The wheels
+were slipping on the greasy rails, and the engine was snorting and
+sending up showers of sparks, and inch by inch, foot by foot, the driver
+manoeuvred her up, till he reached one of these bridges. There is a
+man stationed on duty at each of them. There, notice his hut as we
+pass--they have to guard the road and see to the safety of it and signal
+to the train if anything happens to the bridge. The driver communicated
+with the man on the bridge he had reached, and asked him to wire for an
+engine to meet him at the next bridge and help him up. Engines are kept
+in certain places ready for an emergency like this; so the wire was sent
+and the train struggled on, but when they got to the next bridge there
+was no engine. The message had gone through all right, and the man in
+charge there had received a reply that the relief engine had started,
+and it ought to have arrived by then, but there was no sign of it. The
+line is a single one you notice, all the way, except at certain places,
+where there are loops to allow trains to pass each other in the same way
+as on some tram-lines. After waiting some time the engine-driver steamed
+slowly ahead. He climbed on and up, and went very slowly, expecting at
+every turn to meet the relief engine, or find it waiting for him, held
+up at a bridge. But no, there was no sign of it, and yet every
+bridge-keeper gave him the same message--it had been sent out and should
+have been here by now. At last he reached the dep�t itself, but there
+was no engine! What had happened to it? It had been dispatched on the
+single line, full steam up, into that stormy night, and it had vanished
+completely! A search-party was sent out in the morning, and found at one
+of the loops a slight fracture in the line; close to it the ground had
+been ploughed up, and there, far below, lay a shattered mass of iron
+and steel in the narrow valley, with the torrent plunging over it. For
+some unexplained reason the engine had left the rails and pitched
+straight over the precipice, carrying with her the two men in charge,
+who were, of course, killed outright.
+
+Beside the bridges there are tunnels and snow-sheds frequently on this
+line. Our puny tunnels in England are nothing to these; a new one which
+is just being bored through the Selkirks and fitted with electric light,
+is five miles in length! The snow-sheds are very peculiar; they are
+built out over the line with sloping roofs, so that when the avalanches
+of snow and stones and ice come flying down as the grip of winter
+relaxes, they are carried off right over any train that may happen to be
+passing, and thunder on into the valley below. For the line is for the
+most part laid on a mere shelf hewn out of the rock, with a precipice on
+the one side and the towering wall of the mountain on the other. We are
+not likely to get avalanches or snow-slides now, but in the spring it is
+an extraordinary experience to be in the train and hear the roar and
+rattle, as of big guns, followed by a hail of bullets, as tons of stuff
+come down, and most of it goes shooting into space, though a good deal
+is left on the sheds.
+
+These deep narrow valleys through which the rivers foam are called
+ca�ons, and the narrowest point we pass through is called Hell's Gate.
+Here the rigid walls of the cliffs come so near together that you could
+easily throw a stone across, and the tossing, foaming water careers
+along hundreds of feet below. The marvel is how any engineer could have
+made a line here at all. Think of the blasting and of the machinery
+which had to be used; how did they ever manage it? For before the track
+was cut there was nothing to rest on. The engineers must have rigged up
+some sort of scaffolding, I suppose, but it seems incredible. They had
+no choice but to do it, for there was no other way to get the line
+through, except by these narrow valleys, already occupied by a
+tempestuous river. The railway never would have been made at all but for
+that grand old man, Lord Strathcona, who died so recently. It was he who
+inspired people with his own enthusiasm and indomitable perseverance,
+and he at last who had the honour of driving in the spike which joined
+up the two ends of the line, that coming up from the Pacific slope, and
+that which had run across the plains from the Atlantic, and thus he
+bridged the continent. One of the finest peaks in the mountains is
+called after him. And the great "park" of 830 square miles, now being
+formed on Vancouver Island, is to be called Strathcona Park.
+
+The loops which the line makes are another thing to notice. Far up we
+can see another train crawling about on the mountain-side, which seems
+impossible! How did it get there? The negro attendant sees us staring,
+and grins, showing his set of splendid white teeth, "Soon see him
+below," he says, and he is right; in a comparatively short time we have
+passed that train at a siding, and afterwards, on looking down, see it
+deep below us in the valley. The line makes the ascent in a series of
+great loops, and the sides of these, seen from above or below, appear to
+be straight lines.
+
+Revelstoke is one of the interesting places we pass; here a branch goes
+off to the Kootenay country, where there is splendid land and climate
+for fruit-growing alongside the great lakes.
+
+You ought to be beginning to know something about Canada now. First the
+salmon-fishing, then the lumbering, next the cattle-export, and now the
+fruit-growing. It is a fine and prosperous country.
+
+It is the wrong time of year for the fruit, or we might have made an
+excursion to the south to get a look at it, for we could go down the
+great lakes, through the Crow's Nest Pass, and back again to the main
+line in a loop. But the blossom will all be over, of course; in spring
+it is as great a sight as it is in Japan, with the flowers springing out
+all along the trunk and branches like the hackles of a cock! Cherries
+are one of the chief exports, and then there are peaches, pears, apples,
+and plums, with other things such as strawberries and potatoes to fill
+in. But many a man's heart must sink when he comes out first from the
+old country and sees the wilderness he has to start on, for even if it
+is "cleared" there may be stumps of huge trees sticking up all over, and
+stones everywhere; it is all much rougher than our neat, tidied-up
+country. But then, on the other hand, the land is far cheaper, the soil
+is much more fruitful, and consequently the yield greater. After
+Revelstoke we pass Glacier, where the line runs round in a kind of
+amphitheatre, showing a magnificent range of peaks in solemn grandeur
+rising above the fringe of fir trees.
+
+We have come down from the Selkirk range and now rise to the Rockies,
+where the track is even steeper and more twisted; here the snowy peaks
+lifted into the region of eternal snow are higher, but the scenery is
+not so easily seen, as we are more hemmed in by even narrower ca�ons.
+The main interest is in going through Kicking Horse Pass; but here even
+the negro attendant fails--he cannot tell us how the name arose! His
+spirits droop, but rise again when he comes eagerly to tell us we are
+approaching the "Great Divide." We have been running through many
+tunnels in and out of the "Cathedral Rocks," and now we reach the
+water-shed of the country, where sparkling streams fall away in opposite
+directions, one running down to the Pacific, and the other to Hudson's
+Bay in the north-west. At last we reach Banff, a well-known place, with
+a huge hotel of the most luxurious kind, belonging to the Canadian
+Pacific Company. Near Banff is the Canadian National Park, a park
+indeed, of 5732 square miles, including mountains and forests! You
+simply can't imagine it; it is a great tract of country, preserved in
+its natural state, and the haunt of wild things. Here are herds of the
+buffalo of the West, the bison, a very different fellow from the
+domesticated Eastern buffalo who so rudely chased you and Joyce. The
+bison are fine to look at, with their extraordinarily large chests and
+heads, out of all proportion to the rest of their bodies. Their great
+shaggy fronts and humped shoulders make a peculiar outline. In years
+past they were cruelly hunted and killed, but are now protected and
+encouraged. Now the Government is doing its best to save the remnant.
+
+The amount of land yet wholly untrodden in the heart of these great
+mountains is difficult to realise; even the Indians only pass through
+some of it, and no white man's foot has ever touched more than a tithe.
+Grizzly bears, cinnamon bears, deer, wild sheep, and goats live still in
+these fastnesses, quite undisturbed by the little line that threads
+through from sea to sea.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ON A CATTLE RANCH
+
+
+Do you remember your first sight of the sea? I've not forgotten mine,
+though it must have been many years before yours. I suppose I wasn't
+more than four, and kindly patronising elder brothers and sisters had
+tried to describe it to me beforehand, but the most I pictured was a
+very, very big pond, with water as flat and uninteresting as that of
+most ponds. No one can have any real notion of the sea before seeing it;
+and it is the same with the prairie. I have often imagined it, but now
+that we are actually on it, driving over it, I find that all my
+mind-pictures are lifeless compared with the reality. It gives one a
+feeling of freedom, as if one had been living always in rooms and
+suddenly got out. It is not flat like a table, but full of gentle curves
+and sweeps, as if it were always just going to reveal something unknown,
+and yet it reaches on for ever on all sides. It makes us feel quite
+insignificant as our conveyance crawls along the centre of a gigantic
+circle which appears to move with us. But the thing which is most
+surprising is the beauty of it. The grass is growing freely and is very
+fresh, and mingled with it, like poppies and cornflowers in a
+wheatfield, are innumerable flowers, red and blue and yellow, shining
+like jewels in the brilliant sunlight--some are like sunflowers, and
+others, growing singly, are tall red lilies. There are clumps of trees,
+too, here and there, little round islands of them, bluffs, they are
+called. We have left the mountains now and descended into the great
+plains once only inhabited by wild tribes of the Redskins and mighty
+herds of buffalo, but now for the most part taken up by white men for
+grazing-ground.
+
+[Illustration: A LEAN SUNBURNT MAN.]
+
+When our engine ran into Calgary station, with a great clanging of the
+big bell, we found a sunburnt lean young man of twenty or so, in the
+shady hat, blue shirt, breeches, and leggings we have become accustomed
+to now. He greeted us very shortly: "For Mr. Humphrey's ranch?" and when
+we said "Yes," led the way outside to where an odd kind of waggonette,
+drawn by two horses, was waiting. We gather it is called a "democrat,"
+for we heard the stationmaster say, "Put 'em in the democrat" as sundry
+square wooden boxes were gathered up from a storehouse. Our luggage was
+a mere trifle compared with the miscellaneous mass of sacks and boxes
+and bundles that were piled in behind. We were six hours late, as we
+were due at two this morning and it is now eight. I remark on it to our
+silent young driver when he gathers up the reins. He laughs shortly.
+"You never can tell, sometimes it's as much as a day----"
+
+[Illustration: LONE PINE RANCH.]
+
+The trail out on to the boundless prairie, after getting clear of the
+town, is merely marked by two deep ruts. When we meet another "rig," as
+conveyances of any sort are called here, the driver usually goes off on
+to the grass to make way for us, as we have a heavy load, a courtesy our
+young driver acknowledges by raising his whip.
+
+It is very, very hot, and as we jog along in silence it is difficult not
+to fall asleep. It seems a long, long time before the driver points with
+his whip to a distant herd of cattle.
+
+"They belong to the Lone Pine Ranch," he volunteers. That's the ranch we
+are going to stay at. Then a group of log buildings, with a few trees
+near, rises out of the plain, and we draw nearer and nearer steadily and
+realise this is our destination.
+
+The principal house is built entirely of logs and has a sort of verandah
+around. Mr. Humphrey himself is waiting outside, and at a shout from him
+a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked woman in a pretty pink cotton dress and
+sunbonnet joins him, followed by a tiny toddling child.
+
+Their welcome is as warm as all the others we have received in Canada.
+To our surprise the young driver turns out to be the Humphreys' son!
+
+His father and mother laugh heartily as he disappears round the corner
+of the house to unyoke the horses.
+
+"Edmund is the best man at holding his tongue I ever came across," says
+Mr. Humphrey; "seems to have been born that way; he doesn't get it from
+either of us!"
+
+Mrs. Humphrey is doing all the work of the house herself, for her
+husband, five children, and three hired men, with the help of an Indian
+woman for the rough scrubbing.
+
+"You can't get servants here," she says; "and if you brought them out
+from England they'd get married in the first week."
+
+Edmund reappears for dinner, followed by three other young men dressed
+precisely alike. They sit down in a lump at one end of the wooden table
+and solidly consume immense helpings of boiled beef and dumpling, which
+Mrs. Humphrey carries in, disdaining any help. When we have finished she
+smilingly produces half a dozen jam tartlets from a cupboard.
+
+"I made them for you," she says, looking at you. "I'm proud of my
+pastry, but I had to hide them, for Edmund and his father have an awful
+sweet tooth, and if I'd put them out there wouldn't have been one
+left."
+
+There are gurgles and nudges from the lower end of the table, and I see
+you grow scarlet as the plate of tartlets is solemnly put in front of
+you. I'll help you out. I have a "sweet tooth" too, and the toddler will
+do his best, as he has one bestowed on him by his mother.
+
+There is a crash in the little scullery opening off the room we are in,
+and as the mistress of the house jumps up with an exclamation the round
+moon-face of an Indian woman appears for a moment in the doorway.
+
+It seems she has upset the coffee which she was going to bring in. Some
+of it is saved from the wreck, though the "boys" have to go without. As
+they file past, back to their work, Edmund follows last and snatches a
+tartlet while his mother's back is turned, winking at you as he does it.
+Mr. Humphrey immediately bolts another rather guiltily, so one, looking
+very small, is left alone in the plate.
+
+I'm afraid Mrs. Humphrey thinks we have gobbled them up!
+
+This room has nothing to hide the bare wooden walls except a few
+pictures from illustrated papers and a photo or two pinned up. The great
+stove is a very ugly thing, and its pipe goes out through the roof. Our
+room, which opens off on the same floor, is the merest slip of a place,
+with hardly room for the couple of camp-beds side by side. From the
+photos I guess it is Edmund's room, and that he has gone off to sleep
+with the men in their quarters near the barn meantime. We have the
+luxury of an enamel basin on a tripod, but, as Mr. Humphrey explains,
+it's much easier to get a wash down with a bucket outside.
+
+While we sit on the verandah he explains that he has three other
+children now at school; they will be back presently, and almost as he
+speaks a waggonette with a roof over it appears in the distance, and
+soon three rosy-faced girls, aged about seven, nine, and eleven, tumble
+out, waving good-byes to a few friends who go on in the conveyance,
+before they run in to get their dinner.
+
+"The authorities send the children from the outlying farms to school,
+and fetch them again free now," says Mr. Humphrey. "It's the latest
+thing, and a good thing too, or they would have to go without education
+when they live as far away as this."
+
+"The marvel to me is how Mrs. Humphrey manages to do it all," I say.
+
+"You haven't heard the half!" he ejaculates. "She does all the washing,
+looks after the pigs and poultry you see around here, milks the cows,
+and finds time to go to every dance within twenty miles. She's a great
+deal keener on dancing than Edmund is, though she makes him go with her.
+That's not all, either; she'll show you herself her prizes--albums and
+things she has won--that very rocking-chair you are sitting in is one of
+them; those are for winning ladies' races, there isn't one that can beat
+her. The finest day she ever did was two years ago, when Harry, that's
+the little one, was only ten months old. She got up and did the family
+washing at five, milked the cows, drove into Edmonton with the kid--she
+hadn't anyone to leave it with you see; she did her shopping, turned up
+at Poplar Lake Fair in the afternoon, and got someone to hold Harry
+while she won the ladies' race there, giving a handicap to the field!
+She's the finest dancer in the country round and has won things for that
+too."
+
+Yet she looks not much more than a girl now!
+
+Next morning we are up early, as Mr. Humphrey has asked us if we would
+like to go with him to see some cattle "shipped" by rail at Red Deer,
+thirty miles away on a branch of the main line between Calgary and
+Edmonton.
+
+The "boys" have been off with the beasts long before.
+
+[Illustration: INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW.]
+
+We reach Red Deer by half-past nine, and see from afar the great herd of
+cattle, standing lumped together, while the young men, including our
+silent friend, Edmund, sit motionless as statues on ponies surrounding
+them.
+
+As we get nearer we see kraals, or enclosures, close to the railway
+line, and on a siding some empty cattle-trucks ready. We are left to sit
+in the buggy--another name for a conveyance--while Mr. Humphrey gives
+orders and the boys begin to round the cattle up. It is a sight to see
+them, for they seem simply to flow round the herd in a continuous
+stream, they gallop so fast and handle their long-lashed whips so
+cleverly. The outer gate of one of the kraals has been unbarred, and the
+beasts are run through the opening into the kraal without the slightest
+hitch.
+
+Mr. Humphrey walks across and seats himself on the high railing of the
+kraal near the trucks. Then a bar is taken out on this side, the first
+opening having been closed, and the cowboys send the cattle through this
+on to the slanting gangway leading to the first truck. The truck holds
+just nineteen beasts, and when nineteen are out of the kraal Mr.
+Humphrey drops the bar behind the last.
+
+It is a difficult job to get the nineteen into the truck, for they are
+frightened and suspicious and there is only just room enough for them
+all to pack in. But at last it is done, the door is fastened, and the
+truck moved on so that the next one comes abreast of the gangway. When
+all the trucks but one have been loaded, we count and discover that
+there are twenty-two cattle left. Mr. Humphrey shouts out that a certain
+white steer must go in any case, and he indicates the three beasts which
+can be left.
+
+But, of course, when the whole lot come through in a bunch the white
+steer remains till the last! They are sent back again and brought
+forward once more; the three unwanted ones press forward, and the white
+steer remains by himself in the kraal, refusing to come out at all. It
+is exactly as if the beasts had understood what had been said and were
+determined to give as much trouble as possible.
+
+The boys do their work admirably. This time they "cut out" the three
+unwanted ones and send them careering off across the prairie, to make
+their own way homeward. The remaining eighteen are fitted into the
+truck, and then they turn to tackle the steer, who stands in the middle
+of the kraal waiting.
+
+Two or three of them, including Edmund, sidle up to him on their ponies
+and try to edge him toward the gangway. But he only paws the ground and
+throws his head up in the air. Just as Mr. Humphrey shouts out a
+warning, everything happens all together in a second.
+
+The steer makes a mad rush. Edmund, who is nearest the gate, is through
+it like a flash. The second man gallops for the other gate leading out
+of the kraal on to the prairie, but the third, who is in the middle of
+the green space, hesitates for an instant and is lost. The great beast
+is at him, the pony wheels, slips, and falls, and his rider is shot off.
+Another minute and the steer is on to him, pommelling at him with its
+great horns. Edmund, however, has snatched up a lasso and is back into
+the kraal like a streak of light; without ever checking his gallop he
+flings the lasso round the enraged beast's head, and drags him away in a
+great semicircle through the now open gate on to the prairie. We see him
+with a sharp turn jerk the animal off its feet, and then a revolver shot
+rings out; there is a convulsive kick or two and the great steer lies
+dead.
+
+Meantime the others have run to lift up the unconscious man in the
+kraal. Luckily he is not much the worse, for he has only a fractured
+collar-bone and a broken arm. He was stunned by his hard fall, but soon
+comes round. Nobody seems to think much of this, but they all
+congratulate him on having escaped with nothing worse. These accidents
+are daily risks in a cowboy's life.
+
+It is late before we get back, and we have no time to wander round the
+homestead that day. Next morning you are up and out early to investigate
+something for yourself. I know quite well what it is, for you talked
+"gopher" in your sleep.
+
+In coming across the prairie we saw here and there colonies of odd
+little beasts that looked a cross between a squirrel and a rat. They
+jumped up and sat on the tops of their holes to see us pass, and then
+disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box when we got near. When I go out a bit
+later I find you in fits of laughter at the inquisitive little
+creatures. They can't resist peeping, and when they have popped into
+their holes, back come the little heads and bright eyes to watch what
+you are doing. I am pretty tired, as I was kept awake most of the night
+by a bird in a tree near the window which kept saying, "Whip-poor-will"
+over and over again at intervals. I understand that's its name, and it
+is hated by the ranchers. No, it is not the bright little black and
+white bird like a small magpie which pecks around, that is a
+Whisky-Jack.
+
+I spend a gloriously lazy morning watching you crawling around behind
+the holes and trying to grab the gophers! Needless to say you never get
+one!
+
+At dinner-time Mr. Humphrey is much amused at your game. "They drive
+dogs just frantic," he says, "especially young ones that don't know
+them. Rabbits aren't in it!"
+
+After dinner he suggests driving us round the ranch, and invites you to
+come and help him to yoke up. A minute or two later you both reappear
+without the horses.
+
+"A brute of a skunk," says Mr. Humphrey tersely; "we'll have to wait a
+while."
+
+It seems that one of these awful beasts has got into the shed among the
+harness, and till he chooses to move nothing can be done. Naturally I
+want to see him.
+
+"You'll have to be as quiet as a mouse," you say, guiding me round on
+tiptoe. "Mr. Humphrey says that he has a store of acrid fluid that
+stinks like rotten eggs, and if he's disturbed he lets you know it. It's
+weeks and months before any place is free from the smell."
+
+So we peep cautiously and see an animal about the size of a large cat,
+with bright black and white markings, lying harmlessly on a pile of
+harness. It has no sting, no formidable claws or beak, and yet it is
+able to keep any number of men from disturbing it while it chooses to
+lie on their possessions. No god could receive more respect from his
+believers. It is after tea-time when you, creeping to report, tell us
+the good news that at last Mr. Skunk has gone away!
+
+A day or two later Mr. Humphrey says he will take us to see an Indian
+reserve, as he thinks we ought not to leave the country without seeing
+one.
+
+You know the Indians are now looked after by the Government. There are
+certain pieces of land kept for them, and no one else may live on them.
+As the white men have spread over the land, and used it for corn and
+cattle, the Indians have been driven farther back, and find more
+difficulty in getting a living, so now Government agents are appointed
+to manage these reserves; they know all the Indians in their charge, and
+deal out to them certain amounts of stores and look after them.
+
+The settlement we are to visit is at Battle River, about forty miles
+south of Edmonton. The day chosen is the one when the Indians come in
+from the country to get their rations. They are a shabby-looking crowd
+as they gather up near the lumber houses where the agent lives and where
+the stores are kept.
+
+These are men and women of the tribe of the Crees, a very quiet,
+peaceful tribe, not troublesome, like the Blood Indians. If you imagined
+we should see them with feathers sticking out round their heads and
+fringes of scalps on their leggings you will be terribly disappointed.
+All these men are in European clothes, with round black felt hats,
+soiled coats, and blue overalls for trousers. The only thing Indian
+about them are their moccasins, the soft leather foot-covering they wear
+instead of boots. They have broad faces, lanky hair, dark reddish skins,
+and rather a sullen expression mostly, and look dirty and untidy, like
+old tramps. The squaws, who wear old shawls and skirts, sit solemnly
+smoking all the time; they nearly all carry on their backs papooses
+(babies) tied up tightly like little mummies. There are endless numbers
+of lean cur dogs, yapping and snarling at each other as they prowl for
+scraps.
+
+The Indians go in single file past the counter in the store and get rice
+and tea and flour dealt out to them, and then each one receives a
+portion of meat. The agent speaks to each of them by name, calling them
+Jim, Dick, or Charlie. Such grand names as "Sitting-Bull" or
+"Swift-as-the-Moose" are mostly discarded now in favour of something
+more European, which is considered more fashionable. The Indians hardly
+speak and never smile, the expression on their faces does not alter in
+the slightest when the agent chaffs them. When they leave the store they
+carry their provisions over to where a lot of rough-looking ponies are
+grazing. Do you see what a simple arrangement these ponies drag? It is
+made merely of a couple of long sticks, which run on each side of the
+pony like shafts; at the back the ends are crossed and tied together and
+trail on the ground. The goods are fixed on to these sticks, and then,
+seating themselves on the top of the bundles, the Indians set off
+homeward, followed by their patient squaws, who trail along after them
+on foot, carrying the papooses.
+
+[Illustration: CROSSING LAKE SUPERIOR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE GREAT LAKES
+
+
+If we found the prairie astonishing even when uncultivated, what of
+this? Corn, ripened in the sun, and spreading over mile after mile on
+both sides of the railway line! There are no neat little fences to cut
+it up into fields, and it does not grow unevenly, but all at one height,
+so the effect is a flat and boundless plain, yellow as the desert sand.
+Everyone has heard of the grain fields of Canada, the great stretch of
+land, about a thousand miles in width, from whence corn is shipped to
+the remotest ends of the earth.
+
+We lingered on so long with the Humphreys that already the harvest is
+ready for cutting. On leaving Calgary we passed through some towns with
+astonishing names. The first we noticed was Medicine Hat, which Mr.
+Kipling has written about as "The Town that was Born Lucky," because gas
+was discovered in great quantities below the surface, and when holes are
+bored for it huge jets spring forth and can be used in countless ways;
+even the engines of the C.P.R. make use of it.
+
+Then we came across Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Indian Head, and Portage
+La Prairie. I forget at which of these it was we saw Indians in all the
+gaudy finery of their ancestors, with feathers sticking up on their
+heads, buckskin shirts covered all over with beads and decorated with
+tassels, in which coloured grasses were twisted. As the Indian may not
+take scalps now he has to find other trimmings! These men dress up like
+this to attract tourists, because they want to sell buffalo horns,
+bead-work moccasins and bags, and many other things.
+
+Then we got to Regina, the headquarters of the Royal North-West Mounted
+Police, and were lucky enough to catch sight of one or two of the force
+in their neat work-manlike khaki, with their round broad-brimmed hats
+which the Boy Scouts have imitated. These men are hard as nails and
+absolutely fearless; the story of the adventures of the force would make
+a thrilling book.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN IN ANCIENT FINERY.]
+
+At every station we notice tall odd-looking buildings which form no part
+of an English station. These are grain-elevators. When the farmer has
+threshed his corn he can bring it here and receive a receipt for it,
+and have it stored; then it is run up to the top of one of these places
+by endless ropes, and thence can be easily poured down out of a
+funnel-like shaft into the waiting trucks for shipment.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE.]
+
+At last there is a farm where the corn is being cut! I have been
+watching to see one. That row of machines following each other, in what
+seems from here to be a line, are cutting and binding the corn and
+turning it out in neat sheaves. The Canadian farmer is often very much
+ahead of us in the way of machinery. He has to be, for sometimes he has
+furrows four miles long and a farm the size of an English county. There
+is, for instance, a steam-plough which takes twelve fourteen-inch
+furrows at once! What would an English yokel, meandering along at the
+tail of his two slow horses, say to that? His little job would be done
+before it was time for breakfast! Hullo! there is another field, all in
+stooks already--look across the boundless plain to the horizon. There is
+nothing to be seen but stooks and that thin telephone wire running like
+a line in the sky in the far distance. When you look at any map of
+Canada you can't help noticing how straight the boundaries of the
+provinces are, just as if ruled with a ruler; as a matter of fact they
+run usually on lines of longitude or latitude, and are thus very
+different from our county boundaries, which have grown up anyhow. This
+province we are now in, Manitoba, has recently been increased by an
+immense area of land in the north, so that it now has a seashore on
+Hudson Bay, but before that it was nearly square. The farms are measured
+out in the same exact way too; men have land given to them in sections a
+mile square, and a man can take more than one section, or he can have a
+part of one, but every bit of land granted is marked out evenly like the
+squares on a chess-board.
+
+The days of our journey east seem to be just a succession of endless
+cornfields and grain-elevators, with glimpses of busy towns and small
+stations. And in the evening we see a yellow glow of sunset lighting up
+the uncut fields in a splendour of light that is worth coming far to
+see. There is a very striking difference about the twilight here and in
+the East. You remember there how night seemed to shut down close upon
+sunset, here the light remains on in the sky for many hours, even at
+nine o'clock we can see the hands of our watches.
+
+Every now and then we discover our watches are an hour slow, and we have
+to jump the pointers on. This is because Canada and the States are
+divided up into strips by north and south lines, which mark off the
+time to be kept in each. As I explained long ago--how very long ago it
+seems!--America is too vast a continent to keep one set time from shore
+to shore, as we do in our little country, so it was found convenient to
+make definite lines, each one hour apart, all the way across.
+
+Then we arrive at Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba and the largest
+corn-market in the world. The town is almost exactly half-way across
+Canada. But we are not going to stop here, for towns do not interest us
+so much as nature, though if we could have had a peep into the wide main
+street, with its towering buildings, remembering it was a prairie trail
+thirty years ago, it would have been worth while.
+
+The rest of that day we run through much prettier scenery than the
+cornland, which has become very monotonous, and at night-time arrive at
+a place called Port Arthur, where we are going to leave the train and
+explore the Great Lakes. Well may they be called "Great"! In Lake
+Superior, the largest of the five, you could put the whole of your
+native land, Scotland, and have nearly two thousand square miles left
+over! This is the largest fresh-water lake in the world. There are five
+lakes here lying together, and the three largest--Superior, Michigan,
+and Huron--spring from a common centre and stretch out just like the
+fingers of a horse-chestnut leaf, but you will find out all this
+to-morrow.
+
+It is a glorious afternoon the next day when we first catch sight of the
+steamer waiting to take us across Lake Superior. She is more like an
+ocean liner than anything else. She is called the _Hamonic_, and is
+indeed as large as many of the ships of well-known lines running out to
+the East from England, for she is five thousand tons, with accommodation
+for four hundred first-class passengers. On the upper deck is an
+observation room with windows along the whole length of each side. For
+all we can see, when once we are out of sight of the shore, we might
+have left Canada for ever and be taking our final plunge across the
+Atlantic homeward. And it is the same thing all the next day. We see no
+land and might as well be on the broad ocean, until, after luncheon, we
+come to the great lock, or canal, which joins the two lakes of Superior
+and Huron. It is nine hundred feet long, and had to be made because the
+levels of the two lakes are different, and no steamer could have come
+through the rapids which the Indians used to love to shoot in their
+canoes. When we are through the lock we stop at a large and flourishing
+place called Sault Ste Marie, and then get into far the prettiest part
+of the route among the islands, where we see fine trees already turning
+crimson and gold. Right across Lake Huron we go, passing the entrance to
+Lake Michigan, and reach Sarnia at one o'clock the next day. Sarnia
+stands on a narrow strait, and just opposite is part of the territory of
+the United States of America.
+
+If Canadians are sons and daughters of Great Britain, the Americans are
+first cousins, for there is no other country in the world, outside the
+British Empire, of nearer kin to us than the mighty nation which leads
+in the van of progress in all manufactures and enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: A GATEWAY IN QUEBEC.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+OLD FRIENDS AGAIN
+
+
+Supposing that some of our friends in Britain, who are expecting to
+greet us at home in a week, could see us now, suddenly, I wonder where
+they would think we had got to! Covered in borrowed oilskins, we stand
+in a mighty cavern, whose vast stone roof reaches up to a hundred feet
+or more, though in width it is comparatively narrow, like a long shelf.
+In front of us is a wall of water so thick and overwhelming that it
+resembles a curtain of giants; the roar of the falling water and the
+howl of the never-ceasing wind mingle in a great turmoil, and the air is
+thick with dashing spray. Fitting is the name of the Cave of the Winds!
+For we are standing in a cave right beneath one of the wonders of the
+world--the Falls of Niagara, on the American side. We have only had a
+glimpse of the gigantic waterfall so far, for we came straight here, and
+presently are going round outside on an electric tram.
+
+[Illustration: THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.]
+
+These Falls lie between the two least of the Great Lakes, Erie and
+Ontario, and on one side of them is America, and the other Canada. We
+crossed on a bridge from the American side to an island in the middle
+called Goat Island, and then dived downward to this gigantic cave right
+below the American Fall. It gives one a mighty idea of power, doesn't
+it? The world can't afford to waste power nowadays when it can be
+harnessed up for use in generating electricity and a hundred other ways,
+and not long before the end of the last century power stations were
+started on both sides of the Falls to use this force. People cried out
+at first, thinking that the stupendous sight might be spoiled, but not a
+bit of it. What man has used is but as a few spoonfuls compared with the
+vast energy of the tons of water flowing resistlessly and ceaselessly
+day and night down these precipices and onward to the sea. Put out your
+finger and thrust it into the wall of water; the force of it sends your
+arm down to your side like a railway signal. We are not alone in the
+cave; there are many other people from all parts of the world. We heard
+French and German talked as we came across, though there is no chance of
+hearing any conversation now. As we climb up again and put off the wet
+oilskins, kept for the use of visitors, the roar becomes less, and when
+suddenly someone takes hold of my arm in a friendly way, and calls out
+my name, I wheel round to face the "nice" American who saved us from
+starvation in the train in Egypt! He has recognised us at once and grips
+our hands heartily. When we emerge on to the bridge he is full of
+questions about our trip, and wants to know what we have seen and what
+we have done. He has with him a boy who looks several years older than
+you, and he tells us that this is his son, who is studying at Harvard,
+but off on the long vacation. So we all go together back to Prospect
+Park, on the American side, and get into an electric car, which swings
+over a bridge just below the Falls, where we can see the whole grand
+panorama and both Falls. The Canadian one is called the Horseshoe Fall.
+Often you must have seen pictures of Niagara; but pictures do not convey
+much, and this is one of the few sights in the world that runs beyond
+expectation. As the torrent pouring over strikes the water below, the
+foam flies up in a vast frothy mass into the air; we, from our height,
+look down upon it and upon a tiny steamer in the basin just below. The
+reason why the steamer is able to sail so near the Falls without being
+swept down is because the falling water descends with such force that it
+goes right below the surface of the bay and does not agitate it at all.
+On the other side, away from the Falls, farther down the river, there
+is a high suspension bridge belonging to the Grand Trunk Railway of
+Canada, with a place for carriages and foot-passengers below the lines.
+A carriage crawling over it looks like a small beetle. There was an
+awful scene here not so long ago in the winter-time, when the river was
+frozen from shore to shore. Some people were on the ice, which began to
+break up in large blocks, and in the very sight of hundreds of their
+fellow-creatures, who vainly tried to save them by throwing ropes,
+several were swept away, including a man and his wife, who were on a
+floating hummock. The man actually got hold of one of the ropes, but his
+wife had fainted, and in trying to support her the rope slipped through
+his fingers, and together the two black specks on the white ice-block
+were borne by the current to their doom. A never-to-be-forgotten
+tragedy!
+
+[Illustration: THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.]
+
+After we have crossed the water we run along on the Canadian side close
+to the edge of the cliff, high up, following the course of the current
+downward; we go round a great curve, where it boils in a whirlpool, we
+pass by a tall monument, and then, much farther down, we cross another
+bridge, and are brought back on the American side, where the line runs
+at first low down and gradually mounts till, after passing below the
+suspension bridge, we reach our starting-place. While we are close to
+the surface of the water we see the Rapids splendidly. This is where the
+swift water from the Falls has come again to the surface, and, hemmed in
+by the walls of the gorge, it tosses in fury; long sprays leap up from
+below like grabbing fingers clutching to drag men down; miniature
+whirlpools boil, and in the centre the water is forced up higher than at
+the sides.
+
+All the time our American friend and his son, who seems quite a man of
+the world, and has been to the Falls several times before, are trying to
+persuade us to go home by New York and pay them a visit _en route_.
+Unfortunately we cannot. Our passages are booked by a steamer belonging
+to the Allan Line, which sails from Montreal the day after to-morrow.
+But I think perhaps sometime we may come back and make a tour of the
+States!
+
+[Illustration: THE ST. LAWRENCE.]
+
+It is hard to say good-bye and tear ourselves away from our hospitable
+friends, but it must be done. The next day sees us at the fine city of
+Montreal, having come by way of Toronto, the capital of Ontario.
+
+Montreal is a very bright city, with trees lining the streets and the
+mountains rising at the back, and all the inhabitants seem cheerful and
+good-natured. The great liner waiting to carry us homeward can only get
+as far as this up the St. Lawrence in the summer; in winter she sets
+down her passengers at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, right out on the ocean.
+
+As she steams slowly up the beautiful river we see the trees bursting
+out here and there into a perfect flame of colour. The maple is Canada's
+special tree, and it is the maples that make those crimson flame-like
+patches among the other foliage. We notice, too, what an unusual
+quantity of dead wood is left standing; this, in a small country like
+England, would be cleared out or cut away, but here the forests are so
+vast that it is left to rot.
+
+Then we pass Quebec on its heights, where Wolfe won his great victory,
+and so made Canada British for ever. It is odd, however, to notice,
+especially during the last part of our journey, how very French the
+people are in their ways and customs. At one small station I remember
+hearing a man chatting away in French and gesticulating like a
+Frenchman, and as he turned to go another called after him, "Ha,
+MacDougall!" The truth is that the original settlers here were mostly
+French, but after a while many emigrants came over from Scotland and
+intermarried with them, and the children, who naturally bore their
+father's surnames, learned their mother's native tongue!
+
+Once out of the St. Lawrence we begin to feel the roll of the great
+waves, but we need not at this time of year expect anything very bad,
+and we shall see no icebergs. The early summer is the worst time for
+them, for the warm currents have loosened them from the icefields in the
+north, and they float southwards. The voyage is uneventful, and,
+seasoned sailors as we are, we never miss a meal during the week that it
+takes to cross before we sight the chimneys and wharves of grimy
+Liverpool.
+
+As we step on to British soil once more, on the wharf we turn and look
+at each other.
+
+Has it come up to expectation? You are not sorry you went with me?
+
+As for me, I have never had a pleasanter companion and never wish for
+one. Hullo! here are your people, ready to carry you off, rejoiced to
+find you safe and sound after not having seen you for nearly a year,
+during which time you have spanned the world and travelled somewhere
+about twenty-five thousand miles.
+
+Good-bye!
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abu Simbel by sunrise, 109.
+
+Acre, 147.
+
+Aden, 165.
+
+Africa, 51.
+
+Albert, Lake, 55.
+
+Amenhetep II., tomb of, 90.
+
+Amenhetep III., 79.
+
+Ants, white, 278, 279.
+
+Anuradhapura, 194.
+
+Apes, Barbary, 27.
+
+Arabs, 128.
+
+Asia, 120.
+
+Assouan, 102.
+  dam at, 118.
+
+
+Babel Mandeb, Straits of, 165.
+
+Bakshish, 70, 181.
+
+Banff, Canada, 369.
+
+Barbary apes, 28.
+
+Battle River, 380.
+
+Bazaar, an Indian, 228.
+  at Jerusalem, 129.
+
+Benares, 242.
+
+Betel-nut chewing, 258.
+
+Bethany, 137.
+
+Bethlehem, 137.
+
+Bisharin tribe, 105.
+
+Bison, Canadian, 370.
+
+Bitter Lake, 157, 160.
+
+Bo tree, the sacred, 200.
+
+Bombay, 203-208.
+
+Bonito, the, 168.
+
+Borneo, 313.
+
+Boxing in Burma, 269.
+
+Brahmans, 214, 231.
+
+Brazen Palace, Ceylon, 198.
+
+Buddha, 186, 196, 254, 260, 261.
+
+Buddhists, 186, 244, 252, 321.
+
+Buffalo, a Burmese, 292.
+  North American, 370.
+
+Burma, 250.
+
+
+Cairo, 53, 56, 58.
+
+Calcutta, 218.
+
+Calgary, 372.
+
+Camels, 68, 104.
+
+Canada, 345.
+
+Canadian Pacific Railway, 360.
+
+Ca�ons in the Rockies, 367.
+
+Caste, Indian, 214.
+
+Cathedral Rocks, 369.
+
+Cattle ranch, a Canadian, 371-381.
+
+Cattle train, a Canadian, 363, 376.
+
+Cawnpore, 235.
+  Well of, 236.
+
+Ceylon, 179.
+
+Cheops, King, 61, 62.
+
+Child-widows of India, 231.
+
+Chinamen in Malay, 306, 308.
+  in Vancouver, 347.
+
+Chinese temple, 307.
+
+_Chuprassie_, a Burmese, 264.
+
+Cingalese, the, 180.
+
+Circuit House, Mandalay, 272.
+
+Clogs, Japanese, 327.
+
+Colombo, 179.
+
+Colossi, the, 87.
+
+Corn-growing in Canada, 382, 384.
+
+Cotton-growing in Egypt, 68.
+
+Crees, 380.
+
+Customs house, French, 10.
+
+Cyclone, a, 175, 176.
+
+
+Dagoba, a, 194, 195.
+
+Dead Sea, 136.
+
+Delhi, 218-234.
+
+Delta of the Nile, 54.
+
+Der El Bahari, Temple of, 92.
+
+Desert, the, 157.
+
+Dolphins, 172.
+
+Dover, 5, 7, 8.
+
+Dragoman, the Egyptian, 85, 87.
+
+Dutugemunu, King, 197.
+
+
+Earthquakes, 50.
+
+Edmonton, 380.
+
+Edward, Lake, 55.
+
+Egypt, 53.
+
+Egyptian gods, 82.
+
+Elala, story of, 197.
+
+Elephants, Burmese, 276, 292, 360.
+
+Esquimault, 346.
+
+Etna, Mount, 49.
+
+
+Fakir, a, 244, 245.
+
+Fellaheen, Egyptian, 69.
+
+Figs, Indian, 45.
+
+Fire-flies, 201.
+
+Fish, deep-sea, 170.
+
+Flying fish, 168.
+
+France, journey through, 8-19.
+
+Fraser River, 348.
+
+Fruit-growing in Canada, 368, 369.
+
+Fruits preserved, 16, 17.
+
+Fujiyama, 318, 338.
+
+
+Galilee, Sea of, 145.
+
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, 247.
+
+Ganges, the, 242, 243.
+
+Garden party in Burma, a, 264.
+
+Gateway, Japanese, 320.
+
+Gendarmes, French, 16.
+
+Georgetown, Penang, 305.
+
+Geta clogs, Japanese, 327.
+
+Gethsemane, Garden of, 136.
+
+Ghurkas, 220.
+
+Gibraltar, 27-32, 50.
+
+Gizeh, Pyramids of, 60, 62.
+
+Glacier, 369.
+
+Golden Pagoda, the, 257.
+
+Gophers, 379.
+
+Grain elevators, 383.
+
+"Great Divide," the, 369.
+
+
+Haifa, adventures on way to, 146, 147.
+
+Hatshepset, Queen, 92.
+
+Herculaneum, destruction of, 40.
+
+Hindus, the, 244.
+
+Holy Land, the, 120.
+
+Hong-Kong, 314.
+
+Huron, Lake, 387.
+
+
+India, 203.
+  travelling in, 208-217.
+
+Indian corn, 66.
+
+Indian Ocean, 168.
+
+Indians, North American, 350, 352, 380, 383.
+
+Irrawaddy, the, 251.
+  the voyage by cargo boat on, 278.
+
+Ismailia, 156.
+
+Israel, the land of, 123.
+
+Italy, in, 36.
+
+
+Jaffa, 121.
+
+Japan, 320.
+
+Japanese gateway, a, 327.
+  inn, in a, 332-344.
+  porters, 335.
+
+Jerusalem, a walk about, 120-138.
+
+Jews, the, 121, 128, 134.
+
+Jews' Wailing-Place, 134.
+
+Jim's story of his adventure with Joyce, 291-303.
+
+Jordan, the river, 137.
+
+Joyce, 278-289.
+  her adventure with Jim, 291-303.
+
+
+Kandy, 184.
+
+Karnak, Temple of, 83.
+
+Kashmir Gate, Delhi, story of, 224.
+
+Khartoum, 106, 115.
+
+Kicking Horse Pass, 369.
+
+Kishon, the river, 149.
+
+Kob�, 317.
+
+Kootenay, 368.
+
+Kutab Minar, Delhi, 227, 228.
+
+Kutho-daw, Mandalay, the, 275.
+
+
+Lakes, the great African, 55.
+  the great American, 382-387.
+
+Lascars, 157, 281.
+
+Leogryphs, Burmese, 257.
+
+Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 52, 153, 154.
+
+_Let-pet_, 281.
+
+Lulu Island, salmon cannery on, 349.
+
+Lumbering, 359.
+
+Luxor, 65, 75.
+  Temple of, 78-84.
+
+
+Macaroni, 39.
+
+Malays, 306, 312.
+
+Mandalay, 272.
+
+Mangoes, 266.
+
+Manitoba, 385.
+
+Maples, Canadian, 393.
+
+Marseilles, 16-19.
+  strange bridge at, 18, 19.
+
+Mecca, 159.
+
+Medicine Hat, town of, 383.
+
+Messina earthquake, 47-49.
+  Straits of, 47.
+
+Mikado, the, 329.
+
+Mimosas, 292.
+
+Mohammedans, 107, 159.
+
+Monkeys, grey, of Ceylon, 195.
+
+Monks, Burmese, 252.
+
+Monsoon, the North-East, 175, 176.
+
+Montreal, 392.
+
+Moses' Well, 161.
+
+Mosque of Omar, 132, 133.
+
+Mosquitoes, 57.
+
+Mount of Olives, 134, 135.
+
+Mummies, Egyptian, 89.
+
+
+Naples, 37, 50.
+
+Nazareth, 138, 140-146.
+
+Negro attendants on C.P.R., 361.
+
+New Zealand, 166.
+
+_Ngap�_, 253.
+
+Niagara Falls, 388.
+
+Nile, the, 53-56, 77.
+  voyage by steamer up, 95-108.
+
+North-American Indians, 350, 352, 380, 383.
+
+Nubia, 103.
+
+
+Ocean, depths of the, 168-178.
+
+Olives, Mount of, 134, 135.
+
+Orient line, the, 6, 20.
+
+
+Pagahn, Burma, 284.
+
+Pagodas, Burmese, 257, 284.
+
+Palestine, 120.
+
+Paris, 14.
+
+Parsees, 207.
+
+Penang, 304.
+
+Persian, a, 206, 207.
+
+Pharaohs, the, 79.
+  tombs near Thebes, 85.
+
+Phosphorescence, 174.
+
+Policemen, French, 16.
+
+Pompeii, story of, 39, 40-45.
+
+_Poongyi_, a Burmese, 252.
+
+Port Moody, 360.
+
+Port Said, 52, 153.
+
+Porters, Japanese, 335.
+
+Potter, an Indian, 232.
+
+Prairie, the Canadian, 371.
+
+Pulo Pera, sea-birds on, 305.
+
+Pw�, a Burmese, 285.
+
+Pyramids, the, 60.
+
+
+Quebec, 393.
+
+
+Raffles, Sir Stamford, 312, 313, 314.
+
+Rameses II., 79, 80, 194.
+  statues of, 110, 111.
+
+Rangoon River, 251.
+
+Red Sea, 162.
+
+Regina, 383.
+
+Revelstoke, 368, 369.
+
+Rice-growing in Ceylon, 184.
+
+Rickshaws, Ceylon, 180, 182.
+  Japanese, 325.
+  Malayan, 307.
+
+Rocky Mountains, 358.
+
+Rokwren Island, 316.
+
+Roman Empire, the, 50.
+
+Rosetta Stone, 79.
+
+Ruanveli dagoba, 196-198.
+
+Russian Pilgrims, 131, 137.
+
+
+_Saddiyeh_, a, 98.
+
+St. Lawrence River, 392.
+
+Salmon cannery on Lulu Island, 349, 352-353.
+
+Salmon in Fraser River, 348.
+
+Sampan, in a, 306.
+
+Sarnia, 387.
+
+Sault Ste Marie, 387.
+
+Sawbwa of Hsipaw, the, 268.
+
+Scarabs, Egyptian, 93.
+
+Scorpion, a, 274.
+
+Selkirk Mountains, 304.
+
+_Shaduf_, a, 96.
+
+Shanghai, 316.
+
+Sheep-farming in Australia, 166.
+
+Shinto Temple, 320.
+
+Shintoism, 321.
+
+Ship, life on board, 21.
+
+Shiva, the god, 247.
+
+Shwe Dagon, the, 259.
+
+Sicily, 47.
+
+Sikhs, the, 221.
+
+Sinai, peninsula of, 161.
+
+Singapore, 311.
+
+Siwash Indians, 350, 352.
+
+Skunk, 379.
+
+Snake-charmer, a, 180-181.
+
+Snakes, 202.
+
+Solomon's Temple, 132, 134.
+
+Soudan, the, 106, 114.
+
+Southern Cross, 164.
+
+Spain, 26.
+
+Sphinx, the, 62.
+
+Storm on the Indian Ocean, 174-178.
+
+Straits Settlements, 304.
+
+Strathcona, Lord, 368.
+
+Stromboli, 45.
+
+Suez Canal, 153-161.
+
+Sugar-cane growing in Egypt, 69.
+
+Sumatra, 305.
+
+Sunrise at Abu Simbel, 109.
+
+Superior, Lake, 386.
+
+Sydney, 166.
+
+
+Tailor, the Indian, 230.
+
+Tamils, 180.
+
+Tarantula, a, 275.
+
+Tea-plantation, a visit to, 179-191.
+
+Temples, Burmese, 257, 284.
+  Chinese, 307, 308.
+  Shinto, 320.
+
+Thebes, 77.
+
+Theebaw, King, 268, 275.
+
+Thunderstorm, a tropical, 179-191.
+
+Time, alteration in, 172, 385.
+
+Tokyo, 321, 325.
+
+Tombs of the Kings, 85.
+
+Tooth, Temple of the, 185.
+
+Torii, a Japanese, 320.
+
+Tortoises, sacred, 193.
+
+Toulon, 32, 50.
+
+Towers of Silence, Bombay, 208.
+
+Tripoli, 38.
+
+Typhoon, a, 176.
+
+
+Vancouver Island, 345.
+  town of, 358.
+
+Vesuvius, Mount, 37, 40.
+
+Victoria, Lake, 55.
+
+Victoria, Vancouver, 345.
+
+Volcanoes, 36, 50.
+
+Vultures, 207, 208.
+
+
+Wady Halfa, 114, 116.
+
+Weaver, an Indian, 231.
+
+Wheat-growing in Canada, 382, 384.
+
+Winnipeg, 386.
+
+
+Yokohama, 318.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Round the Wonderful World
+
+Author: G. E. Mitton
+
+Illustrator: A. S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #28783]
+
+Language: English
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD ***
+
+
+
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+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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+
+
+
+<h1>ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD</h1>
+
+
+<h3><i>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME</i><br /></h3>
+
+<p class="center">
+A BOOK OF DISCOVERY<br />
+<span class="smcap">By M. B. Synge</span><br />
+<br />
+THE WORLD'S STORY<br />
+<span class="smcap">By E. O'Neill</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus004.jpg" width="420" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<h1>ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD</h1>
+
+<h2>BY G. E. MITTON</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF</h4>
+
+<h4>"THE BOOK OF LONDON" "IN THE GRIP OF THE WILD WA" ETC.</h4>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus005.jpg" width="500" height="227" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">WITH 12 DRAWINGS IN COLOUR AND 120 IN CRAYON BY<br />
+
+A. S. FORREST<br /><br />
+
+
+LONDON: T. C. &amp; E. C. JACK, Ltd.<br />
+35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br />
+AND EDINBURGH<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<h4>TO</h4>
+
+<h3>JIM</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+CHAP                                             <span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br />
+<br />
+I. <span class="smcap">Which Way</span>?     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></span><br />
+<br />
+II. <span class="smcap">Really Off!</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></span><br />
+<br />
+III. <span class="smcap">Fiery Mountains</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></span><br />
+<br />
+IV. <span class="smcap">The Strangest Country in the World</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+V. <span class="smcap">The Highway of Egypt</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></span><br />
+<br />
+VI. <span class="smcap">A Mighty Man</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></span><br />
+<br />
+VII. <span class="smcap">The City of Kings</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></span><br />
+<br />
+VIII. <span class="smcap">On the Nile</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></span><br />
+<br />
+IX. <span class="smcap">A Million Sunrises</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></span><br />
+<br />
+X. <span class="smcap">A Walk about Jerusalem</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XI. <span class="smcap">The Country of Christ's Childhood</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_139'>139</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XII. <span class="smcap">An Adventure</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XIII. <span class="smcap">The Gateway of the East</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XIV. <span class="smcap">The Depths of the Ocean</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XV. <span class="smcap">A Tropical Thunderstorm</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XVI. <span class="smcap">A Sacred Tree</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_192'>192</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XVII. <span class="smcap">Unwelcome Intruders</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XVIII. <span class="smcap">The Capital of India</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>XIX. <span class="smcap">To the Death!</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_235'>235</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XX. <span class="smcap">A City of Priests</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_242'>242</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXI. <span class="smcap">The Golden Pagoda</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXII. <span class="smcap">The King's Representative</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Centre of the Universe</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_271'>271</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXIV. <span class="smcap">On a Cargo Boat</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_278'>278</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXV. <span class="smcap">Jim's Story</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_291'>291</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXVI. <span class="smcap">Through Eastern Straits and Islands</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_304'>304</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXVII. <span class="smcap">The Land of the Little People</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_320'>320</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXVIII. <span class="smcap">In a Japanese Inn</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_332'>332</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXIX. <span class="smcap">Thousands of Salmon</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_345'>345</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXX. <span class="smcap">The Great Divide</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_358'>358</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXXI. <span class="smcap">On a Cattle Ranch</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_371'>371</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXXII. <span class="smcap">The Great Lakes</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_382'>382</a></span><br />
+<br />
+XXXIII. <span class="smcap">Old Friends Again</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_388'>388</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Index</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_395'>395</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PLATES IN COLOUR</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">The Mighty Seated Figures at Abu Simbel</span>      <span class="tocnum"><i><a href="#front">Frontispiece</a></i></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="tocnum">FACING PAGE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">She is on the point of leaving her Country, perhaps for ever</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">English Soldiers climbing the Pyramids</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Jews' Wailing Place, Jerusalem</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Swaying its lean unlovely Body to and fro in Time with the Tune</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">A Carpet Shop, Delhi</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_224'>224</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Golden Pagoda</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_256'>256</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">A Burmese Play</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_288'>288</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">A Village built on Piles, Sumatra. Little Brown Boys play about and fish</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_312'>312</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Our Dinner in a Japanese Inn</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_336'>336</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Indians as they are now</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_376'>376</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Falls of Niagara</span>     <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_388'>388</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus011.jpg" width="500" height="204" alt="STRANGE BRIDGE AT MARSEILLES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">STRANGE BRIDGE AT MARSEILLES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>WHICH WAY?</h3>
+
+
+<p>When you have noticed a fly crawling on a ball or an orange has it ever
+occurred to you how a man would look crawling about on the earth if seen
+from a great height? Our world is, as everyone knows, like an orange in
+shape, only it is very much larger in comparison with us than an orange
+is in regard to a fly. In fact, to make a reasonable comparison, we
+should have to picture the fly crawling about on a ball or globe fifty
+miles in height; to get all round it he would have to make a journey of
+something like one hundred and fifty miles. It would take a determined
+fly to accomplish that! Yet we little human beings often start off on a
+journey round the world quite cheerfully, and it is more difficult for
+us than for the imaginary fly, because the globe is not a smooth surface
+of dry land, but is made up of jungles and deserts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> forests and
+oceans. There are some places where people can do nothing in the heat of
+the day, and others where their flesh freezes like cold white marble in
+a moment if they don't take precautions.</p>
+
+<p>To set out on foot around such a world would be folly, and man has
+invented all sorts of ingenious machines to carry him,&mdash;trains and
+steamers, for instance,&mdash;and with their help he can do the journey in a
+reasonable time. It costs money, of course, but it is a glorious
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Here, in our own homes, we see pretty much the same things every
+day&mdash;green fields and trees, cows and sheep and horses, if we live in
+the country; and houses and streets and vehicles, if we live in the
+town. Everyone we meet speaks the same language; even if we were to go
+up to a stranger to ask a question we are tolerably sure that he would
+understand us and answer politely. We have cold days and warm ones, but
+the sun is never too hot for us to go out in the middle of the day, and
+the cold never so intense as to freeze our noses and make them fall off.
+The houses are all built in much the same way; people dress alike and
+look alike. Someone catches me up there, "Indeed they don't; some are
+pretty and some are ugly and everyone is different!"</p>
+
+<p>Yes, you think that now, but wait until you have travelled a bit, and
+seen some of the races which really <i>are</i> different from ours, then
+you'll think that not only are British people alike, but that even all
+Europeans are more or less so.</p>
+
+<p>You are not likely to travel? Well, I'm not so sure of that, for I'm
+going to offer to take you, and, what is more, you need not bother your
+head about expenses, and we will have all the time we want. I am going
+to carry you away with me in this book to see the marvels of other
+lands; lands where the burning sun strikes down on our own countrymen
+wearing white helmets on their heads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> and suits of snowy white as they
+walk about amid brown-skinned natives whose bare bodies gleam like
+satin, lands where lines of palm trees wave their long fronds over the
+pearly surf washing at their roots. We will visit also other lands where
+you look out over a glowing pink and mauve desert to seeming infinity,
+and see reflected in bitter shallow water at your feet the flames of
+such a sunset glory as you never yet have imagined. Or you can ride out
+across the same desert lying white as snow beneath a moon far larger and
+more glistening than any you ever see here. You shall watch volcanoes
+shooting out columns of fire which roll down toward the villages
+nestling in their vineyards below, and you shall gaze at mountains which
+raise their stately heads far up into the silent region of eternal snow.
+You shall see the steel-blue waves rising in great heaps with the swell
+of an unquiet sea. You shall talk to the mischievous little Burmese
+women and watch them kneeling before their pagodas of pure gold, and
+shall visit the little Japs making merry in their paper houses; you
+shall find the last representatives of the grand races of North American
+Indians in their wigwams. And these are only a very few of the wonders
+of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Where shall we begin? That requires some consideration. As the world is
+not a solid block of level ground we shall have to choose our track as
+best we can along the routes that are most convenient, and we can't
+certainly go right round in one straight line as if we followed a piece
+of string tied round the middle of the earth. Of course we shall have to
+start from England, and we shall be wisest to turn eastward first,
+coming back again from the west. The eastern part is the Old World, and
+the western the New World, of which the existence was not known until
+centuries later. It is natural, therefore, to begin with the older part
+first. If we do this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> we must start in the autumn so as to arrive at
+some of the hottest countries in what is their winter, for the summer is
+unbearable to Europeans. So much is easily settled.</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever realised that Great Britain is an island? I hear someone
+say "Silly!" under their breath; it does seem an absurd question, for
+surely every baby knows that! Well, of course even the smallest children
+have been told so, directly they begin to learn anything, but to
+<i>realise</i> it is a different matter. An island is surrounded by water,
+and none of us have ever sailed round our own country and made the
+experiment of seeing for ourselves that it is so. You have been to the
+sea certainly, and seen the edge of our island home, but have you ever
+thought of that long line which runs away and away from your seaside
+place? Have you followed the smooth sandy bays and the outlines of the
+towering cliffs; have you passed the mouths of mighty rivers and so gone
+steadily on northward to the bleak coasts of Scotland where the waves
+beat on granite cliffs; have you rounded stormy Cape Wrath, and sailed
+in and out by all the deep-cut inlets on the west of Scotland, and thus
+come back to the very place from whence you started? If you can even
+imagine this it gives you some idea of what being an island means. We
+are on every side surrounded by water, and nowhere can we get away to
+any other country without crossing the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The very nearest country to us is France, and at the narrowest point of
+the Channel there are only twenty-one miles of sea to get over. One way
+of starting on our great enterprise is to cross this little strip of
+water and take the train across France, right to the other side, there
+to meet a ship which will carry us onward. Or we can start in the same
+way across the Channel but go much farther on by train, all along Italy
+as well as France, and then we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> catch the same ship a considerable
+way farther on in the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>Or there is another way, the quickest of all, and the newest; by this
+means&mdash;after crossing the Channel&mdash;we can go the whole distance across
+Europe, and Asia too, by train, and come out on the other side of the
+world, near China, in about ten days! To do this we should have to get
+to Russia first by any European line we pleased, and on arriving at the
+town of Moscow change into the train which does this mighty journey. It
+starts once a week, and is called The International. It is quite a small
+train, though the engine is large. There are only half a dozen coaches,
+and one of these is for luggage and another is a restaurant. First-class
+people are put two together into a compartment. It certainly sounds as
+if that would allow plenty of room, but then if anyone has to live and
+sleep and move for ten days in a train, he can hardly be expected to sit
+cramped up all the time, he must have some space to stir about in. At
+night one of the seats forms one bed and another is let down crossways
+above it. There is, alas, no bath, but there is a small lavatory for
+every two compartments where we can wash after a fashion. There are even
+books provided in the restaurant car, some in Russian, some in French,
+some in German, and some in English.</p>
+
+<p>The journey itself is not very interesting, and we should be glad enough
+to get to the end of it I fancy. No, I am not going to allow you to take
+me that way, not even if you begged hard! It is very useful for business
+men, whose one idea is to save time, but for us who want to see all we
+can of this glorious world it would be folly.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, the route I should like to take is the very longest of
+all, and that is by sea the whole way, on one of the great liners
+running east. The real choice lies between this and the railway journey
+across France to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> seaport of Marseilles, or Toulon, according to
+which of the great British lines of steamships we choose&mdash;the Peninsula
+and Oriental, known as the P. &amp; O., or the Orient. I am willing you
+should decide between these routes. Think well. In order that you may
+understand better what the choice means I will tell you what you will
+see if we take the railway journey.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus016.jpg" width="450" height="400" alt="AT CHARING CROSS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AT CHARING CROSS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We shall have to start one morning from Charing Cross Station in London.
+All around us people are carrying bundles of rugs and magazines. Some,
+like ourselves, are going far east and they are parting from those who
+love them and will not see them again for a long time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> That fair young
+man standing by the carriage door looks little more than a big
+schoolboy, but he is going out to India to help to govern there. He is a
+clever fellow and has passed a very stiff examination to gain this
+position, and he eagerly looks forward to all the new scenes in the life
+awaiting him. His charming mother and sister are seeing him off; they
+are so much alike they might be mistaken for sisters; they are trying to
+talk and joke lightly, but you can see how hungrily the mother's eyes
+are fastened on her son, as if she could never see him enough. Rightly
+too, for when she meets him again, he will not be the boy he is now. His
+face will be browned by the tropical sun, and he will have become a man;
+he will have an air of command which comes naturally to a man who lives,
+often by himself, in charge of a district, and has to rule and judge and
+decide for the dark-skinned people.</p>
+
+<p>Close beside us there are several men smoking big cigars, and one of
+them says loudly, "All right, old chap, I'll bring one back for you next
+week; I shall cross again on Monday." He runs over to Paris on business
+every week and thinks no more of it than of going to his office in the
+morning. A trip to France is very easy when you have the means to do it
+comfortably.</p>
+
+<p>Then we take our seats, and the train steams out of the station, leaving
+the crowd on the platform to scatter. After a long run, with no stops,
+we reach Dover and go on board a steamer which seems quite large enough
+to anyone who is not used to steamers. Our heavy luggage has been sent
+on board the big ship which will meet us at Marseilles, so we have only
+our handbags to carry. The crossing is quite short, and it is best to
+stay on deck if you don't want to be ill. The very first thing to
+notice, as we gradually draw away from the land, is the whiteness of the
+towering chalk cliffs which stand out prominently near Dover. Often you
+must have read of the "white cliffs of Old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Albion," and if you live in
+the north or away from the sea, you must have wondered what they were;
+now this explains it all. When the Romans came over from the Continent
+they crossed the sea the shortest way, and in approaching this unknown
+island were struck with astonishment at the high gleaming white cliffs,
+unlike anything they had seen before; they were so much amazed that ever
+after the "white cliffs" were the chief feature of Britain in their
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There is a break in the cliffs, where Dover now stands, and here the
+Romans later on made a port, and a port it has remained to this day.</p>
+
+<p>If we are lucky in getting a fine day for the crossing we can sit on
+deck-chairs, looking at the dazzling milky-blue sea and sky until
+someone cries out, "There's France!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus018.jpg" width="450" height="568" alt="NUMBERS OF EAGER LITTLE PORTERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NUMBERS OF EAGER LITTLE PORTERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>You will not be able to make out anything at all at first, because land
+does not look in the least what you expect when you see it first from
+the sea. You would naturally search for a long dark line low down on the
+horizon, but it isn't like that at all. There is a hazy bluish cloud,
+very indistinct, and seemingly transparent, but as we draw nearer it
+grows clearer, and then houses and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> ships can be discerned, and after a
+good deal of man&oelig;uvring and shouting and throwing of ropes and
+churning up the water with the screw, two bridges are pushed across to
+the dock, and numbers of eager little porters, dressed in bright blue
+linen suits with very baggy trousers, surround us and implore us to
+allow them to carry our baggage.</p>
+
+<p>"Me Engleesh speaking, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good me, good man me."</p>
+
+<p>"Baggage carrying me."</p>
+
+<p>They are here, there, and everywhere, so good-natured, so lively, so
+different from the stolid English porters. Their eyes are very bright
+and they will take money of any kind, French or English, it matters not
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>We have had to get our money changed on the boat, and that is the first
+thing that makes us feel we are really out of England. In exchange for
+an English gold pound we get twenty-five&mdash;not twenty&mdash;French shillings;
+these shillings are called francs and are not unlike our shillings at a
+first glance, but they are thinner and lighter. Some have the head of
+Napoleon, the last French Emperor, on them&mdash;these are old; the latest
+new ones are rather interesting, for they have a little olive branch on
+one side and a graceful figure of a woman sowing seed on the other, so
+one can interpret the meaning as peace and plenty. If you change a franc
+into copper you get ten&mdash;not twelve&mdash;pennies for it, and French pennies
+look very much like those of England. There are also half-franc pieces
+like little sixpences, and two-franc pieces like smaller florins, and
+gold pounds called Louis or Napoleons, and half-sovereigns too, but all
+the money seems light and rather unreal when one is accustomed to our
+more solid coins.</p>
+
+<p>We walk up the gangway into a large barn-like place, where we meet some
+smart-looking men in uniform with pointed moustaches turned up to their
+eyes and a fierce expression. They stand behind a shelf, on which all
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> baggage from the boat is put, and we approach this with our bags in
+our hands.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus020.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="PASSING THE CUSTOMS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PASSING THE CUSTOMS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The official demands in French if we have anything to declare, meaning,
+are we bringing across anything which it is forbidden to sell in France,
+such as brandy, matches, or cigarettes, for if so we must declare it and
+pay something to the Government for allowing us to bring it. We answer
+that we have nothing. "Rien, Monsieur," very politely, hoping to soften
+his heart, and as we both have honest faces he believes us and scrawls a
+chalk-mark on our bags and lets us pass. We are lucky, for now we can go
+straight on to the train and get good places before the crowd follows.
+Some unfortunate people, however, are caught. One woman who is wearing a
+hat with enormous feathers and very high-heeled shoes, has two huge
+trunks.</p>
+
+<p>She tries to slip a five-franc piece into the hand of one of the
+custom-house officers. It is a silly thing to do,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> for it at once makes
+him think she is concealing something; very loudly and virtuously he
+refuses the money, hoping that everyone notices how upright he is, and
+then he insists on the contents of her trunks being turned out on to the
+counter. Piles of beautiful underclothing are spread out before all
+those men; silk and satin frocks come next; numberless dressing-table
+ornaments in silver and gold, and little bottles by the dozen; boots and
+shoes and books follow, while Madame begins to weep and then changes to
+screaming and raving. She is a Frenchwoman who has been staying in
+England, but she did not escape any more than an English-woman. How she
+will ever manage to get all her finery stuffed back into those boxes
+without ruining it I don't know, and we haven't time to wait to see.</p>
+
+<p>The platform is very low and the train looks in consequence much larger
+than an English one, as we have to climb up into it almost from the
+ground. It is a corridor train, and the first classes are lined with a
+kind of drab cloth, which does not seem so suitable for railway work as
+our dark blue colour. The guard sets us off with a little "birr-r-r"
+like a toy cock crowing. When we move out of the station at last we find
+ourselves going at a snail's pace along a street, and at once we catch
+our breath with interest&mdash;it is all so strange! Never will you forget
+that first glimpse of a foreign land! The very air is different, with a
+sharp pleasant smell of wood-smoke in it. Some people say that every
+foreign country has its own smell and that they would know where they
+were with their eyes shut! This must be an exaggeration, still there is
+something in it!</p>
+
+<p>As the train goes slowly forward a clanging bell rings on the engine to
+warn the people to get off the lines, which are not fenced in in any
+way. On every side you see neat little women wearing no hats, with their
+hair done up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> in top-knots; they are out marketing, and most of them
+carry immense baskets or string-bags stuffed with cabbages and carrots
+and other vegetables. The children are nearly all dark, with brown skins
+and bright black eyes, and they look thin but full of life. The boys
+wear a long pinafore or overall of cheap black stuff, and even the
+biggest go about in short socks, showing their bare legs, which looks
+rather babyish to us. The sun is shining brilliantly, and on most of the
+pavements there are chairs set out around small tables where men in
+perfectly amazingly baggy corduroy trousers and blue blouses sit and
+drink variously coloured drinks. A little boy who was too near the line
+is caught away by his agitated mother, who pours out over him a babble
+of words, and the child, laughing roguishly, answers her as volubly. Not
+one sentence, not one word, can we understand, though we are quite near
+and can hear it all. When you remember the painfully slow way you have
+learnt <i>avoir</i> and <i>&ecirc;tre</i> at school it is maddening to think that this
+child, much younger than you, can rattle away in French without any
+trouble, and it is still more annoying that when you <i>did</i> think you
+knew a little French you cannot make out one single word! French spoken
+is so very different from French learnt out of a book! However, for your
+comfort you must remember that that little bright-eyed boy, whose name
+is probably Pierre or Jacques, would think you very clever indeed to be
+able to talk in English.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 133px;">
+<img src="images/illus022.jpg" width="133" height="400" alt="A LITTLE FRENCH BOY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A LITTLE FRENCH BOY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The houses have a strange look; it is chiefly because every single one
+of them, even the poorest, has sun-shutters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> outside the windows, set
+back against the wall; they are of wood, mostly painted green and
+pierced with slits. In countries where the sun is hot and strong at
+midday the rooms must be kept cool by such shutters.</p>
+
+<p>When we are once clear of the town the train soon gets up great speed,
+and we race through green fields with hedgerows and trees as in our own
+land, and yet even here there is something different. It may be because
+of the long lines of poplars, like "Noah's Ark" trees, which appear very
+frequently, or it may be the country houses we see here and there, which
+are more "Noah's Ark" still, being built very stiffly and painted in
+bright reds and yellows and greens that look like streaks. At the level
+crossings you see women standing holding a red flag furled, for women
+seem to do as much of the work on the railways as men; and waiting at
+the gates there is often a team of three or four horses, each decorated
+with an immense sheep-skin collar, that looks as if it must be most hot
+and uncomfortable. Occasionally we catch sight of what looks like a
+rookery in the trees seen against the sky; however, the dark bunches are
+not nests at all, but lumps of mistletoe growing freely. Rather a
+fairytale sort of country where mistletoe can be got so easily!</p>
+
+<p>We can stay all night in Paris if we like, and travel the next day to
+Marseilles, and stay a night there too. That is doing the journey
+easily. Many people go right through, running round Paris in a special
+train and being carried speeding through France all night. There are
+sleeping cars made up like little cabins with beds in them and every
+luxury. But it is tiring to travel on continuously in a French train, as
+the carriages are made very hot by steam, and French people object to
+having the windows open at all, so the atmosphere gets almost
+unbearable, according to our ideas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We shan't have time to see much of Paris if we just stay the night
+there, but as we drive through in a taxi-cab we can see how full of life
+it is, though at this time of the year people do not sit out at the
+little tables on the pavements late in the evening as they do in the
+summer. There are taxi-cabs everywhere, and they all pass each other on
+the right side, you notice, the opposite side from that which we use;
+you will find this in all other foreign countries but Sweden, and in
+some Provinces of Austria. Though Great Britain stands almost alone, in
+this case she is certainly in the right, for the driver ought to be on
+the side near the vehicle he is passing, and also the whip coming in the
+middle of the street is less liable to flick anyone than if it was on
+the pavement side.</p>
+
+<p>The hotels in Paris are many and magnificent; when we arrive at one all
+gilt and glitter, we ask for small rooms, as it is only for one night,
+and are taken up to two tiny apartments simply crammed with furniture.
+It is enough to make anyone laugh, for there is hardly room to turn
+round. Both are alike. In each the bed is covered with a magnificent
+yellow satin brocade coverlet; there is a large arm-chair, which quite
+prevents the door of the huge wardrobe from opening. The washing-stand,
+which has taps of hot and cold water, is crammed into a corner so that
+one can hardly get at it. There is a writing-table with ink and
+blotting-pad and everything else for writing, but no dressing-table and
+nowhere at all to put one's brushes. Above the mantelpiece is a big
+mirror, too high for you to look into, though I can peer round that
+immense gilt clock to do my shaving. The rest of the mantelpiece is
+taken up with heavy marble ornaments&mdash;utterly useless&mdash;and gilt
+candlesticks. There is a telephone on the wall, and down this we can
+give our orders into the hall. Luckily I know enough French to ask for
+what we want, though if you stand giggling at me every word will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> go out
+of my head when the man below inquires my wishes.</p>
+
+<p>It is by means of this telephone I order breakfast for us both to be
+sent up next morning. All we can get is coffee, or tea, with rolls and
+butter and two poached or boiled eggs. You'll have to make this do. It
+is the custom here. In France people start with only coffee and rolls
+and then go off and do a good morning's work, and come back again to eat
+a large meal which is a sort of breakfast and lunch rolled into one, at
+about twelve o'clock. It all depends on what one is accustomed to, and
+certainly we look very hungrily at the small dish of eggs that appears!</p>
+
+<p>Meantime I am getting a little anxious about my boots. I put them out
+last night to be cleaned, but this is such a large place, with so many
+people coming and going, that I began to wonder if they have been taken
+to the wrong room; timidly I ask the waiter, who brings the breakfast,
+if he can find them. With a knowing smile he stoops down and opens a
+tiny cupboard in the wall near the door, and there, slipped in from
+outside, are the boots! "Voil&agrave;!" he says triumphantly, as if he had just
+brought off a successful conjuring trick. Certainly what with the taps
+and telephone and trap-doors for boots this hotel is very much up to
+date.</p>
+
+<p>North of Paris we have seen orchards of apple and cherry trees, but
+farther south, as we rush along, we get into a land of vineyards, where
+rows of little vines are being cultivated on every foot of ground on the
+hillsides. By nightfall we reach Marseilles, and if we were going on to
+Toulon it would have taken two hours more.</p>
+
+<p>Marseilles is the largest seaport in France, and is second only to Paris
+in size and importance.</p>
+
+<p>Do you know those preserved fruits which generally appear about
+Christmas-time in oval cardboard or long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> wooden boxes? Have you ever
+wondered if they are real fruit, and where they come from? They <i>are</i>
+real fruit, boiled and dipped in syrup, though they taste very different
+from the same fruit freshly gathered. A great deal of the preserving is
+done in France, especially along the south coast, and when we get to
+Marseilles we are in the very heart of the business.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the night in an hotel we have time to wander about a bit
+before going down to the docks to find our ship.</p>
+
+<p>The sun is shining brightly as we turn out after another breakfast,
+which only seems to have given an edge to our keen British appetites.
+There is a nasty cold wind blowing round corners and buffeting people.
+The pavements are very lively; we see women and girls hurrying about
+doing household shopping, and boys in heavy cloth capes and military
+caps, so that they look like cadets, this is the uniform worn by
+better-class schoolboys in France. The French policemen, called
+gendarmes, are also in uniform of so military a kind that unless we knew
+we should certainly mistake them for soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>There are stalls set out on the pavements, heaped up with embroidery and
+odds and ends, including soap, which is manufactured here very largely.
+Bright-eyed girls try to entice us to buy as we pass. One street is just
+like a flower garden, lined with stalls piled up with violets and roses
+and anemones and other blossoms. Trams follow one another along the
+rails in an endless procession. We walk on briskly and turn down a side
+street; here at last is what I have been looking for, and well worth
+finding it is too! It is a shop with great plate-glass windows; on one
+side is every kind of preserved fruit, and on the other a variety of
+chocolates, tarts, and expensive sweets. Look at that dainty box filled
+with dark green figs, artistically set off by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> sugared violets pressed
+into all the niches! These are rather different from the flat, dry brown
+figs which is all that English children recognise under that name.
+Another box glows with tiny oranges, mandarins they call them here, and
+piled up over them are richly coloured cherries shining with sugar
+crystals. In the centre is an enormous fruit like a dark orange-coloured
+melon, surrounded by heaps of others, while the plain brown chestnuts,
+that don't attract much notice, are really the best of all, for they are
+the <i>marrons glac&eacute;s</i> for which Marseilles is famed, and once you have
+tasted these, freshly made, all other sweets will seem insipid to you.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 168px;">
+<img src="images/illus027.jpg" width="168" height="400" alt="THE FRENCH POLICEMAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE FRENCH POLICEMAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Inside the shop there are many carefully dressed ladies, daintily
+holding little plates, and going about from one counter to another,
+picking up little cakes filled with cream and soaked in syrup. They eat
+scores of them, and they do it every day and any hour of the day, in the
+morning or afternoon or whenever they happen to pass. No wonder they
+look pasty-faced! We are only here for once, so we need have no
+compunction about our digestions, especially as there is an empty place
+left after that tantalising bacon-less breakfast. We are soon provided
+with a plate each and a little implement which looks as if it had
+started life as a butter-knife and suddenly changed its mind to become a
+fork.</p>
+
+<p>The shop-girls take no notice of what we eat; we can pick and choose
+freely, and at the end they trust us to say how many cakes we have had.
+We can get here also cups<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> of thick rich chocolate, and, if we wanted
+it, some tea, though it is only of late years that French people have
+taken to drinking tea at all freely, for coffee is their national
+beverage.</p>
+
+<p>Well, come along, tear yourself away, we must get a cab and go down to
+our ship which is at the docks.</p>
+
+<p>In the cab we pass what is called the Old Port with picturesque rows of
+weather-beaten sailing boats; only the sailing boats are allowed to come
+in here. Rising up against the sky at the far end of the port is a
+curious bridge quite unlike any other you have seen, for the bridge part
+is at a great height and there is nothing below by which people or
+vehicles can cross over. How is anyone going to take the trouble to
+climb up there? How, above all, are carts or carriages going to manage
+it?</p>
+
+<p>You can easily make a rough model to see the principle of this bridge
+for yourself. Get a couple of the tallest candlesticks in the house, and
+put a stick across them, run a curtain ring on to the stick, and to the
+ring attach numerous threads fastened at the lower end to a flat bit of
+card or board like a raft. Then, by pushing the ring along the stick,
+you can make the raft follow across below. The stick represents the high
+bridge, and the raft in reality rests on the surface of the water, and
+when the machinery above, represented by the ring, is set in motion, it
+rumbles across and draws with it the floating raft, which is large
+enough to take a great number of men and vehicles. Every ten minutes or
+so this floating bridge passes over from one side to another, and people
+pay a sou, which is the French halfpenny, to travel with it. Thus, you
+see, when a tall ship comes in she has only to avoid the raft, and she
+can sail in beneath the high bridge without any trouble. We could, if we
+wished, go up in a lift to the high bridge; but the railings up there
+are far apart, and there is a high wind blowing, you are not very big,
+and if you slipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> between I should have to give up my voyage round the
+world; so I think we won't, if you don't mind!</p>
+
+<p>Besides, we have to catch our ship waiting at the docks, and she will be
+off very soon.</p>
+
+<p>Now that you have heard what we should probably do and see if we went
+across France, will you take this journey or will you start from England
+and go right round in the ship?</p>
+
+<p>You answer that though you would like to see the little blue-bloused
+porters, and that it would amuse you to think that the little French
+boys and girls could speak no English, and though you would certainly
+<i>love</i> the <i>marrons glac&eacute;s</i>, you think, after all, having heard about
+it, we might just as well go the other way round, though, of course&mdash;the
+<i>marrons glac&eacute;s</i>&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Sensible boy! Forget about them! We'll go round. In the very next
+chapter we'll be up and off in earnest.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus030.jpg" width="450" height="174" alt="OUR OWN POWERFUL AND UGLY IRONCLADS, LIKE BULLDOGS
+GUARDING THE FORT." title="" />
+<span class="caption">OUR OWN POWERFUL AND UGLY IRONCLADS, LIKE BULLDOGS
+GUARDING THE FORT.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>REALLY OFF!</h3>
+
+
+<p>It is exciting to start on any journey, even if it is only one we have
+done before, but to go off round the world that is a real adventure!</p>
+
+<p>There are many lines of steamers we could choose to go by, but we will
+select for this first part of the journey the Orient Line. The choice
+really lies between that and the P. &amp; O., as we have already decided,
+and for many reasons it is best to begin with the Orient and join the
+other later. The main reason being that I want you to see a little of as
+many European countries as possible, and the Orient ships stop at
+Naples, in Italy, while those of the other line do not.</p>
+
+<p>The ships in the Orient fleet all begin with an O; there are the
+<i>Otranto</i>, <i>Otway</i>, and many more, but the boat which suits us and
+happens to sail on the date we want to start&mdash;in the beginning of
+November&mdash;is the <i>Orontes</i>. She is not the largest ship in the fleet,
+having about half a dozen before her on the list, but she is a good ship
+and very steady.</p>
+
+<p>Our jumping-off place is London, whence a special<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> train runs from the
+station of St. Pancras down to the docks at Tilbury, where the <i>Orontes</i>
+is waiting for us. The long platform beside the train is covered with
+people when we arrive there, so that we have some difficulty in finding
+seats. If all these people were coming with us we should have a full
+ship indeed, but the one half of them is only seeing the other half off!</p>
+
+<p>The line passes through dreary flat country, and at last we catch sight
+of open water and funnels and feel as if we must be right down at the
+Thames' mouth, but we are very far from that yet.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus031.jpg" width="450" height="239" alt="THE ORONTES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE ORONTES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The heavy luggage has all been sent on ahead, and passengers are told
+only to bring with them what can be carried in the hand; judging from
+the piles of boxes that are tumbled out of the train many of them must
+have tolerably large hands!</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 247px;">
+<img src="images/illus032.jpg" width="247" height="400" alt="A STEWARD." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A STEWARD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We pass through a great shed, and coming out on the other side find our
+ship there, right up against the dock side. It towers above us, blocking
+out the sky as a street of six-storey houses would do. In fact, it is
+rather like looking up at a street side, and when we see the sloping
+ladder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> leading to the deck, like those used for hen-roosts but on a
+giant scale, we feel our adventure is well begun. Hang on to the
+hand-rail, for the wind is blowing hard, and if you went down into the
+black dirty water between the ship and the dock there would be very
+little chance of getting you out again; even as we climb up something
+flicks past us and is carried away, and we see it floating far below; it
+is an enormous white handkerchief which the man up there on deck has
+been waving to his wife in farewell. It is gone, and it is to be hoped
+he has another handy, he'll need it to-day. At the top of the ladder a
+man in uniform looks at our ticket and calls out the number of our
+cabin. He is so smart and has such a dignified manner we might well
+mistake him for the captain, but he is an officer, called the purser,
+who looks after the passengers. A bright-faced steward, unmistakably
+English, takes possession of us and pilots us down some well-carpeted
+stairs, through a large room where small tables are laid for lunch, and
+into a very long narrow passage shining with white enamel paint. There
+are little doors with numbers on them on one side, and about half-way
+along the steward stops and ushers us into our cabin. It is a tiny room.
+If you lay down from side to side you could touch each wall with head
+and heels, and if I lay down from end to end I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> could do the same, and I
+am rather bigger than you! There are two shelves, one above the other,
+made up as beds, a piece of furniture with drawers and a looking-glass
+in it, a fixed basin such as those you see in bathrooms, and a few pegs
+to hang things on, and that is all. Our cabin trunks, which we sent on
+ahead, are here before us, and through the open round port-hole we catch
+a glimpse of grey water. We are lucky indeed to get a cabin to
+ourselves, for in many, not a bit larger than this, there would be a
+third bunk or bed, and a stranger would be forced in on us. When we have
+settled our things you will be surprised to find how comfortable it all
+is, for everything is so conveniently arranged. It is just as well to
+put out what we shall want at once while the ship is steady, for once
+she begins to roll&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>When we have done this we go back to the saloon, encountering many
+people rushing wildly to and fro with bags and bundles, still unable to
+find their cabins, having come on at the last minute. In the great
+saloon, those who are going ashore are hastily swallowing cups of hot
+tea, and just as we arrive a bell rings to warn them to get off the ship
+if they don't want to be carried away with her.</p>
+
+<p>They flock down the gangway while we stand high above, and many
+good-byes are shouted, and some are tearful and some are quite casual
+and cheerful. Then the gangway is moved, but just before it goes down
+with a run there is a shout, and two policemen hurry along the quay
+hauling two shamefaced-looking men who are hustled up into the ship
+again. They are stokers who fire the furnaces for the engines far down
+below in the bowels of the ship. They had signed on for this voyage and
+at the last minute tried to slink away, but have been caught and forced
+back to their work.</p>
+
+<p>Now the strip of water widens and very slowly we move from the quay,
+being dragged ignominiously backward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> across the great basin in which we
+lie by a diminutive steamer called a tug. We are not out in the river
+yet and our own engines have not begun to work. You can understand that
+it would be very difficult to load a ship if she stood always in the
+river, where there are rising and falling tides, so, to make this
+easier, great docks have been built along the river, and in them the
+flow of the tides is regulated, so that the water remains always at
+pretty much the same level.</p>
+
+<p>The tug that pulls us across the dock on our way out looks absurdly
+small, like a little Spitz dog pulling a great deerhound; but it does
+its work well, and presently we glide into a narrow cut between high
+walls; this is the lock, the entrance to the dock, and the water is held
+up by great gates at each end as required, just as it is on river locks
+for boats. Once we are inside the great gates behind us are shut, and
+presently those at the farther end open and we see two other little tugs
+waiting there to take us in charge. We are going out at the top of the
+tide, and if we missed it should have to wait for another twelve hours,
+or there would not be sufficient water in the river to float the ship
+comfortably. We are still stern first, so if we want to see the fun we
+must climb up to the top deck at that end. The wind is blowing a perfect
+gale and almost drives us off our feet; it catches the side of the ship
+and makes it far harder work for the gallant grimy tugs, which are
+pulling and straining at the taut ropes till they look like bars of iron
+lying between us and them. They churn the water to a fury, and pour
+forth volumes of black smoke; inch by inch we feel the ship moving out;
+her stern is dragged up-stream, so that when she is finally swung clear,
+her bows are pointing seaward and she is ready to go. It is an exciting
+moment when the ropes are cast off, and there is a great deal of running
+about and shouting, and then our own engines begin gently but powerfully
+to do their work. The screws beneath the stern revolve and we have
+started on our long, long voyage!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 424px;">
+<img src="images/illus035.jpg" width="424" height="600" alt="SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY. PERHAPS FOR
+EVER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY. PERHAPS FOR
+EVER.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There are no waves in the river; only those who are very nervous will
+think about being ill yet awhile, and this is a good chance to examine
+the great ship which is to be our home for some time.</p>
+
+<p>There is plenty of room to walk about on the decks or to play games when
+we reach a more summer-like climate. There are many rooms where we can
+shelter in the wet and cold weather, a great lounge with writing-tables,
+and a smoking-room&mdash;and there is no house on earth kept so spotlessly
+clean as a ship!</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 257px;">
+<img src="images/illus037.jpg" width="257" height="400" alt="THE CAPTAIN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE CAPTAIN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we go down to dinner we sit on chairs that swing round like office
+chairs, only they are fixed into the floor, and as they only swing one
+way, there are some funny scenes till people get used to them. We have
+hardly taken our seats when a very magnificent man with a white
+waistcoat and gold shoulder straps and much gold lace on his uniform
+comes and sits down too, and smiles and bows to everyone. This is the
+captain, and we must be more distinguished than we guessed, for we have
+been put at his table, where the honoured passengers usually find seats.
+Though this captain has such a kindly smile, a captain can be very
+terrifying indeed; he is king in his ship, and has absolute authority;
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> word is law, as, of course, it must be, for the safety of the whole
+ship's company depends on him, and there is the fine tradition, which
+British captains always live up to, that in case of any accident
+happening to the ship the captain must be the last man to quit her.
+Innumerable captains indeed have preferred to go down into the
+unfathomable depths with their ships sooner than leave them when they
+have been wrecked.</p>
+
+<p>For several days there are very few people to be seen about, and the
+rows of empty chairs at the table and on deck are rather depressing, but
+as the weather brightens a little people creep out of their cabins;
+white-faced ladies come to lie, rolled in rugs, on the sheltered side of
+the deck, and the chairs are filled. Yet it is still a little dismal,
+though we tramp sturdily up and down and would not admit it for the
+world. The strong wind blows endlessly and the great grey waves are
+always rolling on monotonously one after another, one after another, in
+huge hillocks. So we plough down the English Channel and across the Bay
+of Biscay, which is no rougher than anywhere else, though people ask
+with bated breath, "When shall we be in the Bay?" "Are we through the
+Bay yet?" as if there was no other bay in all the world.</p>
+
+<p>Then comes a day when all at once everyone on board seems to wake up and
+become alive again. The sun shines in patches along the decks and the
+sea is blue and sparkling. We are passing close beside a steep and rocky
+coast, and so near do we go that we can see the white waves dashing
+against it and even spouting up in sheets of spray through blow-holes in
+the cliffs. What we see is the coast of Spain, so we have set eyes for
+the first time on another country than our own. There are many other
+steamers in this stretch of water, some small and some as large as ours,
+some coming and some going. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> all much more lively than it was.
+Soon we have pointed out to us the place where the battle of Trafalgar
+was fought, when Britain won a victory that assured her the dominion of
+the seas up to the present time&mdash;a battle in which our greatest sailor,
+Lord Nelson, was killed in the moment of victory!</p>
+
+<p>It is the next morning after this that, when we wake up, we find that
+the tossing and rocking motion has ceased; it is curiously quiet, the
+iron plates that bind the ship together no longer creak and groan as if
+they were in agony. We are bewildered. Then in a moment the meaning of
+all this flashes upon us. We have reached Gibraltar!</p>
+
+<p>Coming up on deck we find the scene glorious. The sun is shining out of
+a cloudless sky on to a sea so blue that it gives one a sort of pleasant
+pain to look at its loveliness. The air is brilliant, as if we were
+living at the heart of a crystal. The ship is stealing along so silently
+and gently she hardly seems to move, and then she comes to anchor in a
+bay that seems to be surrounded on all sides with hills. Some of these
+hills, lying rather far away, gleam white in the sunshine; they are part
+of the great continent of Africa, and so, though it is only in the
+distance, we have set eyes on our first new continent. Towering up
+before us, with mighty bulk, is an immense rock, rising bald and rather
+awful into the pure sky. Near the summit its sides are completely bare,
+seamed by great gashes, and broken by masses of rock that look as if
+they might crash down at any moment. Apes live up there, wild
+mischievous creatures, who descend to steal from the orchards below, but
+are so shy that they are hardly ever seen of men. They are of a kind
+called Barbary apes, only found elsewhere in Africa; and it is thought
+that perhaps, many ages ago, Europe was joined to Africa at this point,
+and that when a great convulsion occurred which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> broke the two asunder
+and let the water flow through the Straits of Gibraltar some of the apes
+may have been left on this side, where their descendants still are,
+sundered for ever from their kinsfolk by the strip of sea.</p>
+
+<p>About the base of the rock is a little town running up the hill and
+brightened by many trees&mdash;this is Gibraltar itself, one of the most
+famous places in the world. For this alone it is well worth while to
+come round by sea.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus040.jpg" width="400" height="296" alt="A BARBARY APE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A BARBARY APE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Anyone can see at a glance why it is so important. That little strait,
+about a dozen miles across, is the only natural entrance by water into
+the Mediterranean Sea, which lies all along the south of Europe. At the
+other end men have had to cut a way out by means of a canal. If ever
+European nations were at war, the nation which held Gibraltar would be
+able to prevent the ships of other countries from getting into or coming
+out of the Mediterranean. It could smash them with big guns if they
+tried, or blow them up. So that even if the country on each side were
+flat this would still be an important place; but nature has made here a
+precipitous rock, which is a natural fortress, and by great good luck
+this belongs, not to the country of Spain, of which it is the southern
+part, but to Great Britain. To find out how this is so you must go to
+history. Gibraltar has been held by Britain for many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> years now, and
+though the King of Spain is very friendly with Britain, and has married
+an English princess, I think he must sometimes feel a little sore over
+Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>Lying in a basin on one side of us are some of our own powerful and ugly
+ironclads, like bulldogs guarding the fort, and on the other side are
+ships of all nations, come on peaceful trading errands or for pleasure
+cruises, including a dainty little white French yacht that looks like a
+butterfly which has just alighted.</p>
+
+<p>We go ashore in a launch and are met on the quay by a medley of strange
+folk and a great clamour of voices! The men and women are nearly all
+dark skinned and black eyed, and yet they are all speaking English after
+a fashion. A woman offers us a curiously twisted openwork basket of
+oranges, with the deep-coloured fruit gleaming through the meshes, a man
+implores us to take some of the absurdly neat little nosegays he has
+made up, picture postcards are thrust under our noses, and cabmen wildly
+beseech us to patronise their open vehicles. It is a brilliant scene,
+full of life and colour and warmth, and the people all seem
+good-humoured and jolly.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting huddled up against a wall, with some odd-looking bundles beside
+them, are a group of very poor people; they are emigrants about to leave
+their own country for South America. Out there in the bay is the
+emigrant ship, and dipping toward her over the open water are several
+boats loaded down to the gunwale going out; others have reached her side
+and the people swarm up like flies. This group on the quay are awaiting
+their turn. A small boy and girl are rolling about in the sun like
+little lizards and laughing gaily. The little girl is called Maria and
+is about ten years old; she has a tiny scarlet shawl pinned across her
+chest, and her bright black hair shines in the sunlight; in her wee
+brown ears<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> are little gilt ear-rings, and she is hugging tightly to her
+bosom a large and very gaudy doll. It is not exactly the kind of doll an
+English child would care about, because its face is the face of an idiot
+and it is made of some sort of poor composition stuff; its clothes are
+tawdry material of tinsel and stiff muslin, and are pinned on by pins
+with coloured glass heads glittering in the sun. Maria thinks it lovely
+and shrieks if her young brother Sebastian lays a finger on it. She is
+on the point of leaving her own country, perhaps for ever, to travel for
+thousands of miles to a land where everything is different from what she
+is used to; but she is as unconscious of this as if she were a little
+kitten, and as long as she can roll in the sunshine and hug her doll,
+the first she has ever possessed, the thought of the morrow does not
+trouble her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Her home lies far away in the interior of Spain, and her parents have
+travelled to Gibraltar in carts and then in a marvellous thing called a
+train which made the children shriek with delight when it moved off
+without horses. Maria and Sebastian were brought up in a hovel with a
+mud floor, and only one room, shared with the donkey and the goat. They
+were never taught to obey, or to have their meals at regular hours, or
+to go to bed at night at a particular time; they ran in when they
+pleased, clamoured for something to eat or drink, or else fell down on a
+bundle of rags in the corner and were sound asleep in a moment. They
+often slept in the heat of the day and were up almost all night
+listening to a neighbour playing the guitar, or singing and rollicking
+with other children. Their usual drink was sour red wine made from
+grapes grown on the neighbouring hillsides after all the best juice had
+been already pressed out of them. This the peasants bought in immense
+bottles, swollen out below like little tubs, and cased in wicker-work
+with handles which made them easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> to carry. In every hovel there was a
+bottle like this. To match it there was an enormous loaf of
+dark-coloured bread, made flat and round as a cart-wheel or a small
+table; bits of this were chopped off as required, and when Sebastian and
+Maria cried out they were hungry they had a lump of bread and sip of
+wine given to them, and then they became quite happy again. Sometimes
+they had olives with their bread, or chestnuts, or a salad made from
+herbs growing by the roadsides, and they had oranges very often and
+goat's milk cheese. On high days and festival days they had sometimes
+very thin hot cabbage soup out of a great black pot that boiled over a
+few sticks; they dipped their bread into it or supped it up out of large
+flat wooden spoons, wrinkling their little noses meantime because it was
+so hot. A grand treat was a purple or crimson pomegranate given by a
+kindly neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>When Maria was about seven the whole family moved into a town where the
+narrow streets were always dark between the tall thin houses. It was
+much more exciting here than in the country; there was always something
+to see, and in the evenings the whole place was like a bazaar with
+people coming and going, and shows and entertainments open half the
+night. On festival days the streets were gay with lanterns, and festoons
+of coloured paper and flags were waved until the children thought it
+like heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a talk of crossing the sea. Some members of the family and
+very many friends had already made a journey to a far-away country
+called Argentina, and others were thinking of going. It seemed that in
+that land, which was as sunny and warm as their own, there was more
+money to be made than in Spain, and as party by party made up their
+minds and set off in one of the great emigrant ships Maria's father grew
+more gloomy and unsettled, until at last, by one means or another, he
+had scraped together enough money to pay for their passages,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> and then
+they all started on the great adventure, even a greater one than our
+going round the world.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 406px;">
+<img src="images/illus044.jpg" width="406" height="450" alt="A FLOWER SELLER AT TOULON." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A FLOWER SELLER AT TOULON.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is only a couple of days after leaving Gibraltar that we reach Toulon
+in good time in the morning. We anchor well outside the splendid bay, as
+Toulon is one of the most important French ports, and no prying eyes are
+wanted there. In the little steam-launch we run past the huge
+battleships <i>La Verit&eacute;</i>, <i>La Republique</i>, and others lying solidly in a
+row manned by French sailors with little red top-knots on their flat
+caps. Then we see the beautiful range of high hills surrounding the bay,
+and are landed on the quay. The market is one of the most interesting
+things here, and we are lucky to be in time for it. Up a long narrow
+street are lines of open-air stalls covered with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> masses of fruit and
+vegetables. The natty little Frenchwomen who sell them almost all wear
+blue aprons and black dresses, and have little three-cornered shawls
+over their shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Look at that bunch of celery there, it is monstrous&mdash;the size of a
+child! Everything seems on a huge scale; there are artichokes on great
+stalks, melons gleaming deep orange-red and too large for any but a man
+to lift; scattered all about are bunches of little scarlet tomatoes not
+much bigger than grapes. But the oddest thing to us are the bunches of
+fungi, tawny-coloured, piled up in heaps, and evidently very popular!
+There are squares of matting covered with chestnuts, and whelks, like
+great snails, sticking out their horns and crawling over each other in a
+lively way. A strange medley! The flowers are lovely; you can buy a big
+bunch of violets for a son, and sou is the peasant word for a halfpenny.
+Gladiolus, anemones, roses, and mignonette fill the air with fragrance.
+It is a beautiful place this market.</p>
+
+<p>After lunch we stroll down to the quay again and wander idly about
+looking at the people until the launch comes to take us back to the
+steamer. There is a huge fat man seated on a low stool cleaning the
+boots of another man equally stout. Wedged into the corner beside them,
+so that they cannot stir, are two small white boys with thin pathetic
+little faces. As we watch we see the boot-cleaning man, who has a cruel,
+mean expression, pull hold of the little tunic of the nearer one, and
+point to a smear upon it, then deliberately he raises his large hand and
+smacks the child hard across the cheek. The little chap makes no effort
+to escape,&mdash;he evidently knows it is hopeless,&mdash;he only crooks a thin
+little arm over his cheek as he shrinks back. Deliberately the great man
+holds down the thin little arm and strikes him again with savage force.
+It is sickening! If we interfere the child will probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> only get it
+worse afterwards. There are a few brutes like this who make their own
+children's lives a misery, though mostly French people are very kind.
+The children look so ill and pale, too, they probably don't get half
+enough to eat.</p>
+
+<p>"May I get them some sweets?"</p>
+
+<p>Happy thought! We passed a shop a minute ago. Here, wait a second, say
+to the father in your best French this sentence&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ils sont &agrave; vous, ces gar&ccedil;ons, Monsieur? Tr&egrave;s beaux gar&ccedil;ons!"</p>
+
+<p>You see you have put him in a good humour, he is pleased, though the
+poor little chaps are very far from being "beaux." They seem almost too
+stupefied to understand the sweets, but they know the way to put them in
+their mouths.</p>
+
+<p>While we are waiting on the tender before it starts we see a different
+set of little boys; one, a delicate, pretty-looking little fellow, about
+your age, but not nearly so tall or strong, raises his cap and begins in
+English, "Good-day, Monsieur." His little companions sit around in awe
+at his knowledge and audacity. His name is Pierre, he tells us, and that
+badly dressed sturdy little boy with a sullen face is Louis. Pierre
+tries to make conversation in our own language to entertain us. "Are you
+to Australie going?" he asks. We tell him we are going first to Egypt.
+"Monter au chameau!" he cries excitedly, going off into a gabble of
+French and beseeching us to take him with us as "boy." We tell him that
+he is too small and that it costs much money. "Have you money&mdash;English?"
+he asks. He is very much interested when we show him half a crown and
+explain that it is equal to three francs of his own money. Then he
+catches sight of some English stamps. "Timbres!" he cries, and then,
+with a great effort, "I college," meaning "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> collect." We give him a
+halfpenny stamp, which he carefully puts away in a battered purse
+already containing two French pennies. Louis, who has been giving
+convulsive hitches to his little trousers, which threaten to part
+company altogether with the upper garment, bursts in eagerly, asking us
+to give him a penny, adding solemnly: "Ma m&egrave;re est morte," as if the
+fact of his mother being dead entitled him to demand it. We explain that
+it is not polite to ask for money. "Cigarette," he then says promptly.
+We tell him that in England the law forbids boys under sixteen to smoke,
+whereat they all shriek with laughter. So we add that Englishmen want to
+grow up tall strong men, and if they smoke as boys they won't, whereupon
+they grow grave again and nod their little heads wisely.</p>
+
+<p>The waves are quite wild out in the bay and we have considerable
+difficulty in jumping on to the slippery step at the foot of the long
+gangway up the ship's side. Hanging on with a firm grip we struggle
+upward, and when we reach the top we see the little French boys waving
+their good-byes to us from the tender, Pierre bowing gracefully, cap in
+hand, Louis with his disreputable air of being a little ragamuffin and
+rejoicing in it.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus048.jpg" width="450" height="225" alt="A STREET IN POMPEII." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A STREET IN POMPEII.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>FIERY MOUNTAINS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Do you learn Physical Geography? I did when I was in the schoolroom, but
+it is quite likely to have been given up now, or perhaps it is called by
+some other name. It sounds dull, but is not really, at least there was
+one part of it that interested me immensely, so much so that that
+particular page was thumbed and dirty with being turned over so many
+times. This was the page on which volcanoes were described. I never
+thought I should see a volcano, but the idea of these tempestuous
+mountains, seething with red-hot fire inside, and ready to vomit forth
+flames and lava at any time appealed to the imagination. This lava, it
+seemed, was a kind of thick treacly stuff, resembling pitch, which ran
+down the mountain-sides boiling hot and carried red ruin in its track.
+It seems nothing less than idiotic for people to live on the slopes of a
+volcano where such an awful fate might overtake them at any time, yet
+they not only <i>did</i> so but still <i>do</i>.</p>
+
+<p>One of the reasons why we came by the Orient line is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> to see Naples,
+which stands almost under the shadow of one of the best-known volcanoes
+in the world&mdash;Vesuvius.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus049.jpg" width="450" height="213" alt="VESUVIUS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">VESUVIUS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We arrive at Naples early in the morning and are the very first to be up
+and out on deck. The bay has been called one of the most lovely to be
+seen anywhere, but to-day at least it is disappointing, for there is no
+sun and only a dull grey drizzle, which carries our thoughts back to
+England at once.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of the town rise in tiers up the hillside, very tall and
+straight, and seem to be filled with innumerable windows.</p>
+
+<p>However, it is not the view of Naples itself which is called so
+beautiful but rather that of the bay <i>from</i> Naples, especially on a blue
+and golden day, and that we have no chance of seeing. On one side of the
+bay rises the mighty mountain whose furious deeds have made him known
+and respected all over the world. There is a heavy cloud hanging around
+his crest so that we cannot see the crater; the cloud looks as if it
+were composed of smoke as much as anything else, for even yet Vesuvius
+is terribly alive.</p>
+
+<p>We get a hasty breakfast, for though we are going to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> here till late
+afternoon, there is much to see, and we have no time to spare. Then we
+get into a little launch and steam past all the great ships lying at
+anchor. On the quay we find ourselves in a great crowd of grey uniformed
+soldiers, many of them mere lads, carrying their kit, and drawn up in
+lines waiting their turn to march on board the towering troopship
+anchored alongside, while some of them wind up the gangway like a great
+grey snake. Those already in the ship are letting down ropes to draw up
+bottles of wine or baskets of fruit from the women who sell such things.
+Within a short time Italy has become mistress of Tripoli, a country in
+Africa, and now she is finding she will have to garrison it in order to
+hold it; and though it costs her a great deal of money she is sending
+out many of her young soldiers to guard the new possession.</p>
+
+<p>We get some money changed on the quay, receiving in exchange a number of
+lire; the lira is very like a franc and corresponds with it and the
+English shilling, though a little less in value.</p>
+
+<p>This done we walk along the front to the station. Many of the streets
+are high and broad with splendid houses lining them. In them are men
+busily at work washing away the mud with long hose pipes mounted on
+little wheels, so that they look like giant lizards or funny snakes on
+legs running across the streets by themselves, and as much alive as the
+well-known advertisement of the carpet-sweeper and Mary Ann!</p>
+
+<p>Other streets are very narrow and filled with people buying and selling.
+There are swarms of children rolling about in the filth of the roadway;
+they are dressed in rags and their bodies show through the large holes.
+They are often playing with old bones or pebbles. Their faces are
+sometimes quite beautiful, rich golden-brown in colour, and their great
+velvety brown eyes look so sweetly innocent you would be easily taken in
+by them; but they are terrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> little rogues and would beg from you or
+steal if they got the chance. Here and there are shops where macaroni is
+sold; it is ready boiling in great pans; this and cakes made of a kind
+of flour called polenta are the chief food of the Italians. The macaroni
+is made out of flour mixed with water to a stiff paste and squeezed
+through holes in a box till it comes out in long strings. It used to be
+made in all the dust and dirt of the villages, and is still often to be
+seen hanging over posts there to dry, but there are now large
+manufactories where it is made quite cleanly by machinery; we shall see
+some as we pass on our way to Pompeii, where we are going. There is one
+pleasant thing to notice, namely, wherever you look you see flowers
+growing; the larger and better-class houses have balconies filled with
+broad-leaved plants and creepers, and the very poorest people living
+high up towards the sky have window-boxes filled with flowers.</p>
+
+<p>At the station we find a little train, like a tram, with red velvet
+cushions, and while we sit and wait for it to take us to Pompeii, the
+city buried by Vesuvius, the rain falls softly and steadily. Presently
+the stationmaster and his assistant step out gingerly along the
+uncovered platform, holding umbrellas over their uniforms, and give the
+word of command, and very slowly we start, and jolt along, stopping
+frequently. We pass through market gardens first and then through
+endless vineyards, in many of which the clinging vines are not propped
+up on sticks, but merely looped from one poplar tree to another, for the
+trees are growing in straight rows and form a natural support. This
+ground is particularly good for vines, for the lava which has been dug
+into the soil is peculiarly fruitful.</p>
+
+<p>There are little white box-like houses amid the vines, and they are hung
+all over with bunches of brilliant scarlet fruit, which, when we get
+near enough to see, we find to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> tiny tomatoes. Other houses have
+pumpkins also and melons and chillies, all hanging out to get dried, so
+that they look quite decorative with their strange adornments. Suddenly
+our attention is called to a broad strip of black earth, in shape like a
+river, flowing down the hillside, but made up of huge blocks as if it
+had been turned up by a giant ploughshare. This is a lava bed made by
+the last great explosion of Vesuvius in 1906, when the lava ran down in
+molten streams, tearing its way through the vineyards and sweeping
+across the railway lines; at that time two hundred people were killed.
+An enterprising firm has run a little railway to the very top of
+Vesuvius, and anyone who cares to do so can go by it and peep into the
+awful crater at the summit, and a cinematograph operator has recently
+been down one thousand feet into the crater to take films for
+exhibition. When Vesuvius is in a bad humour and has growled and
+grumbled for some days, people are not allowed to go up to the top lest
+he vomit forth his fury even while they are there and overwhelm them.</p>
+
+<p>While we are on the way to Pompeii I will tell you something of the
+fascinating story.</p>
+
+<p>Many years ago, long before the people on our islands were civilised,
+when Britons ran about dressed in skins and floated in wicker-boats
+covered by skins, there were intelligent and refined people living all
+round the base of Vesuvius; they knew, of course, that the mountain was
+a volcano, but there had never been any very terrible explosion that
+they could remember, and, anyway, the slopes of the mountain where the
+towns stood extended so far from the crater that no one thought it
+possible for any great disaster to happen. The two principal towns were
+called Herculaneum and Pompeii. The people there dressed in lovely silks
+and satins; they had beautifully built houses filled with statues and
+pictures:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the women wore costly jewellery; they had plenty of
+amusements, for they danced and sang and visited each other, and had
+stalls at the amphitheatre, and supported candidates at political
+elections, and gossiped and drove in chariots, and lived and loved. They
+thought, as we all do in our turn, that they knew everything and that no
+one could reach so high a pinnacle of civilisation as they had reached.
+This was only about fifty years after Christ's death on the cross, and
+the Christians were still a comparatively small and despised band.</p>
+
+<p>Well, one day there was a certain amount of uneasiness felt, for a
+curious black cloud had formed over Vesuvius, and it was not quite like
+anything that had ever been seen before; people also spoke of strange
+rumblings in the bowels of the earth, and there was an oppressiveness in
+the air which alarmed the timid. Then came terrifying noises, cracklings
+and explosions, and a fine dust filled the air and began settling down
+everywhere; no sooner was it brushed off than there it was again; it
+penetrated even close shut houses, and filled the hinges so that the
+doors would not open easily. The rich people began to make arrangements
+to get away, but before they could carry them out awful confusion fell
+upon them; day was turned to night, the clouds of dust fell thickly and
+chokingly, stifling men as they ran; volumes of lava poured forth,
+sweeping like fiery serpents down the mountain-side; they rushed over
+Herculaneum, which was not far from Pompeii, so that while the one city
+was boiled the other was smothered. Curses and prayers alike were no
+avail. Men were caught and choked, houses were silted up, and the whole
+district was buried.</p>
+
+<p>Years passed and the tradition of the destroyed cities remained; it was
+known that they were thereabouts, but so completely had the mountain
+done its work that no one knew exactly where, and it was only
+comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> recently that money was subscribed and the work of
+unearthing them began. By the railway we have passed through
+Herculaneum, and here we are at Pompeii. Now you shall see what this
+city of two thousand years ago was like.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus054.jpg" width="450" height="258" alt="A HOUSE IN POMPEII." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A HOUSE IN POMPEII.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The station is close to it, and as we step out of the train we go almost
+immediately into the gates of the once buried but now uncovered city,
+which is one of the wonders of the world, attracting people across
+leagues of sea and land.</p>
+
+<p>We find ourselves in a long narrow street lined by roofless houses. The
+stones which form the pavement are uneven and much worn, the foot-walks
+on each side are raised very high, because in wet weather these streets
+were mere torrents and the water rushed down them. Here and there are
+stepping-stones, to enable people to cross from one side to the other.
+It would have been impossible in most places for two chariots or carts
+to pass one another, and we wonder how they managed. As a fact, the
+Pompeians did not use wheeled vehicles much,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> but chairs or palanquins,
+and the men went on horseback. There are many open counters beside the
+street, showing that these buildings were used as shops, and in one or
+two are large marble basins hollowed out where the wine which was sold
+was kept cool. Along the side of one house is a gaudily painted serpent,
+signifying that an apothecary, or, as we should say, a chemist, lived
+here.</p>
+
+<p>We can go into one of the better-class dwelling-houses and we find that
+it was built around a courtyard or central hall, and we can peep into
+the sleeping-rooms, which, in spite of all the luxury of the
+inhabitants, were mere little dark cupboards with no light or air. Well,
+so they were in our castles until quite recently! There was a garden
+behind the hall in all the better-class houses, and this had almost
+always a tank for gold-fish; we can see it still; but all the little
+personal things that have been unearthed&mdash;the jewellery and household
+utensils and even the statues&mdash;have been taken to the museum at Naples
+for safe keeping, which is a pity, as the streets and living-rooms seem
+bare and cold and we need a good deal of imagination to picture them as
+they must have been.</p>
+
+<p>Here at last is something that makes us start and brings back the awful
+scene of death and dismay. In a deep recess by a doorway are six
+skeletons, lying in various attitudes, left exactly as they were found.
+These people had been caught; they were hurrying, evidently to get out
+of the outer door, and finding it had been silted up by dust and that
+they could not open it, had turned back, too late, and been smothered!
+There they lie now, nearly two thousand years after, just as then.</p>
+
+<p>There were about two thousand skeletons thus found and taken away&mdash;only
+these few were left to give visitors some idea of the tragedy that
+happened. The sticky dust and ashes which poured down upon the doomed
+city reached a depth of twenty-six feet, and they encased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> everything in
+a kind of crust. Dogs and cats were caught in this way, and even little
+lizards, such as those that live in the cracks of the walls in Italy to
+this day; and though their bodies had decayed away long before they
+could be dug out, yet the exact impression remained, and in many cases,
+by pouring soft plaster into the holes, men have reproduced to the life
+the poor little wriggling body that was caught in such a terrible
+prison! You can imagine what great value it has been to historians to
+find the things used by people so long ago. In most cases customs change
+gradually; the implements and utensils which one generation use are
+broken and lost and replaced by new fashions, but here, in one lump,
+stamped down hard for ever, are the things caught in a second of time
+and held in an iron grip while the years rolled by.</p>
+
+<p>Passing on we find a small temple to the Egyptian god Isis, and this was
+the very first object to be discovered. Some men quarrying for stone
+struck upon it and thus the long-lost site of the town was found. Then
+we see the public baths with all the arrangements for heating the water;
+the Pompeians, like the Romans, were very fond of bathing. But it is the
+little things of everyday life that impress us most, and we are brought
+up suddenly by seeing on a wall a poster of the day advocating the
+return of one particular candidate to what was the Pompeian Parliament.
+This carries us right back into the midst of them! So does also that
+drinking-fountain by the street side, where the marble has been worn
+hollow by the hands of those who leaned on it as they stretched forward
+to drink at the spout!</p>
+
+<p>We can walk through the market-place where the people bought and sold,
+and look down into the great amphitheatre where the shows which they all
+loved were held; but as our ship leaves at four o'clock we shall have to
+tear ourselves away and hurry back along the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> line again, running
+round the base of the sullen brooding mountain which may at any time
+hurl down his thunder-bolts on the vineyards which still creep up his
+sides. Past Herculaneum, now partly unburied, and so to gay Naples,
+where the sun is breaking out.</p>
+
+<p>On the quay we see barrows covered with a curious flesh-coloured fruit
+about the size and shape of a large pear, and this is quite new to us.
+We discover these are called Indian figs; but why Indian? They are grown
+here and are a popular native fruit. They are covered by a thick skin,
+easily peeled off, and are full of juice and very large pips; they have
+a sweetish rather sickly taste, but one can imagine they must be a great
+boon to the poor Italians who can get a good refreshing drink for almost
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Once aboard we discover that something has gone wrong&mdash;a propeller has
+dropped a blade and the ship will not start for some hours. We might
+have stayed longer in Pompeii after all!</p>
+
+<p>There are compensations for everything and soon we find that this delay
+is going to be a good one for us, for it will enable us to see two other
+volcanoes which otherwise we should have missed in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>We ask the night-steward to wake us in time for the first, and it seems
+as if our heads had hardly touched the pillows when we hear his voice at
+the door, "Stromboli in sight, sir!" It is cold and we are very sleepy;
+grumbling, we make our way to the front of the deck below the bridge,
+and suddenly, in the blackness ahead, there shoots up a short straight
+column of fire like that from the chimney of a blast furnace. It
+disappears as quickly and quietly as it came, and odd bits of flame,
+like red-hot cinders, roll this way and that, then all is black again.
+As the sky quickly lightens we see outlined against it a cone or
+pyramid, and from the summit there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> shoots out another column of flame,
+to disappear almost instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Stromboli sky-rocketing," says the voice of one of the officers on the
+bridge above.</p>
+
+<p>All the time we are gliding nearer and nearer to the wonderful mountain,
+when, with an amazing swiftness, up flashes the sun, sweeping rays of
+colour over the sky, changing it from pale primrose to fiery orange, and
+there, black against it, is a little island so neatly made that it
+appears an exact triangle with a bite out of one side near the top.
+Stromboli is one of a group of little islands. What had appeared as
+flame in the darkness shows at the next eruption to be a puff of smoke
+from which burning lumps fall on the rocky sides and down the
+precipices. This happens about every quarter of an hour. The sea
+meantime changes to vivid blue. We are quite close now and can see tiny
+white houses nestling on the edge of the island amid clusters of green.
+What happens to the people if the boiling lava rolls down through their
+vineyards and into their houses? There is no one to answer that
+question. Perhaps it never gets so far, perhaps Stromboli has not yet
+shown himself to be a fierce volcano, but limits his eruptions to angry
+splutterings which beat on the scarred precipices of the steep sides
+above the dwellings of the people,&mdash;anyway, I don't think I should care
+to live there, just in case&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>We awake suddenly from our intent gazing to find ourselves the
+laughing-stock of a crowd of decently dressed men and women who have
+come up in the daylight, properly clad, and there are we in
+dressing-gowns, not over-long, and slippered feet! But no one minds
+these little mishaps on board ship, and with dignity we pass through to
+our cabin, smiling and feeling very superior to have seen so much more
+than the lie-abeds!</p>
+
+<p>As it happens, it is Sunday morning and a very different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> day from
+yesterday, with bright sun and a clear sky. As a rule there is service
+on board ship on Sundays, but to-day we are just going to pass through
+the Straits of Messina, and the captain must be on the bridge the whole
+time, and there is no clergyman to take the duty for him, so we can't
+have it. But we could hardly pass a Sunday better than in admiring the
+marvellous beauty which God has given to us in this world for our
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>It is about four hours after passing Stromboli that we enter the straits
+which separate Sicily, the three-cornered island, from Italy, which
+seems to be kicking it away with the toe of its foot. Land begins to
+close in on us, and in the dazzling sunshine it appears radiant, while
+the sea is a mirror of blue. On both sides we see houses and villages
+built on the sloping shores, but the interest heightens when we come
+close abreast the great town of Messina which, on the 20th of December
+1908, suddenly became world-famous owing to the awful misfortune which
+befell it. All educated people knew Messina by name previously, but it
+was not until the Italian wires flashed the story of the earthquake
+which had wrought destruction so swiftly and dramatically that it will
+always be ranked as among the most appalling that ever happened, that
+everyone with one consent turned their attention to Messina, and the
+eyes of the whole world were focused on it. The suddenness of the
+calamity was the most terrible feature of it. It was early in the
+morning when the earth shook and heaved and raised itself, and in about
+four minutes, what had been a happy prosperous town was reduced to a
+smoking ruin, a shambles of dead bodies, and a hell on earth for the
+miserable beings who lived in it! Almost all the houses fell together;
+whole streets of them collapsed like a pack of cards, and the shock was
+so tremendous that in many cases even the bricks and stone of which they
+were made were ground to powder. Tens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> of thousands of people were
+buried before they could get into the streets, and their own houses,
+where they had been happy and miserable, had been born or married or
+suffered, were turned into their tombs. Those who were killed outright
+were not the most unfortunate, for others were caught by a limb beneath
+falling stones, or crushed and held yet living, and their direful
+shrieks of agony added to the horrors, for there was none to help them,
+all were in the grip of the same misfortune. To add to the disaster
+flames broke out from the ruined houses, and the city was lit by the
+lurid light of fire rising to heaven. No one will ever know how many
+hapless creatures were burnt to death! There was no possibility of
+working the telegraph wires, and the people left alive simply had to
+wait for help till help came. And meantime volumes of water, disturbed
+by the change of sea-level, rolled in upon the land!</p>
+
+<p>Directly the news startled the whole civilised world, ships of all
+nations, which happened to be anywhere near, hastened to the rescue.
+Camps were hastily run up and the survivors taken to them, food was
+supplied to all who needed it, the wounded and maimed were attended to,
+and wherever possible those who were still living in the ruins were dug
+out and set free. But, as you may imagine, this was a work of great
+danger, because dragging out a beam or stone often sent a shattering
+avalanche down on the top of the rescuers.</p>
+
+<p>The number of those destroyed can never be known certainly, but it is
+estimated at somewhere about 200,000, for Messina is a large town.
+Charitable people sent subscriptions from all quarters; money flowed in;
+those children who had lost their parents, and even in some cases their
+names and identity, being too small to give any account of themselves,
+were placed in kind homes and provided for, and those who were
+completely crippled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> assured of support; others were given the means to
+start life once more. It is difficult to imagine that all this happened
+only a few short years ago now; even though we are quite close to
+Messina, and have the use of a very fine pair of field-glasses, it is
+difficult to make out any of the mischief. It appears as if the houses
+had been rebuilt, warehouses and chimneys stand as usual, and the great
+viaduct spans the valley; but those who know say that this is only a
+good face seen from the sea, and that ruins still lie in quantities
+behind. In the memories of those who passed through the earthquake there
+must be a shuddering horror never to be forgotten, a black mark passing
+athwart their lives and cutting them into two parts&mdash;that before and
+that after the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>Farther on more little villages appear, some looking just like a spilt
+box of child's bricks tumbled any way down a mountain spur. Then we
+catch sight of the great majesty of Etna, the third volcano we have seen
+in two days, and we stand lost in admiration of his pure beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The smoothness of the eternal snow glows like a silver shield on the
+breast of the giant peak. Far below are vineyards, olive groves,
+orchards, and orange and lemon groves, for Sicily is celebrated for
+these fruits. Above them are beech-woods, so deep and dark that they are
+seldom penetrated even by the peasants; beautiful as the beech is, it is
+a poisonous tree and nothing can live beneath its shade.</p>
+
+<p>It is all so smiling and peaceful on this serene Sunday morning that we
+can hardly believe that in Etna too there lies the raging demon of
+mighty force. Even as we watch a faint puff of pure white smoke, so thin
+that it might be mistaken for a wisp of cloud, floats away from the peak
+into the infinite blue, and we know by his breath that the demon is not
+dead but only sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucky indeed to get Etna clear of clouds," says one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> of the passengers
+near us. "I've been through the Straits a score of times and I've hardly
+ever seen it as you are seeing it for the first time to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Volcanoes and earthquakes are closely connected. There lies within this
+world of ours an imprisoned power of vital heat, which now and again
+bursts through at weak places in the crust. Geologists tell us that
+these weak places may be traced in long lines on the earth's surface,
+and along one of them lie the volcanoes we have seen. But the laws which
+govern the earthquake and the volcano are hardly yet understood, even
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>After calling at another little Italian port for the mails, we do not
+stop anywhere for the next few days, but steam along steadily, making up
+for lost time. We have seen something of the southern part of our own
+continent of Europe. We have landed in Spain at Gibraltar, we set foot
+on French soil in Toulon, where the steamer called to take on passengers
+from across France, we have visited Italy at Naples, and these are the
+principal countries which line the huge land-locked sea. In old times
+the whole civilised world centred around the Mediterranean, and Rome,
+which is now the capital of Italy, dominated it all, making one mighty
+empire. The dominion of Rome reached far northward to our own islands,
+and she was so secure and supreme in her power that it never entered the
+heads of the Romans then living that some day the whole empire would be
+split up and distributed. Their dominion reached even to Egypt, where we
+are now going, and to the Holy Land, which we shall visit afterwards;
+their fleets covered the sea, their armies strode hot-footed across the
+land, making broad ways that passed over hill and valley without pause
+or rest, yet now the empire of Rome is but a name.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus063.jpg" width="450" height="318" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD</h3>
+
+
+<p>Looking down from the deck of the <i>Orontes</i> it seems as if we were
+peering into the folds of a black gauze curtain, between which demons
+from the pit rush yelling to and fro. These men are black from head to
+foot, with the exception of the gleaming white teeth which show between
+their open lips. They are black to begin with by nature, and are further
+covered, scanty clothing and all, with a thick coating of coal-dust,
+which sticks to their oily skins and dirty rags. They are digging
+frantically into the heaped-up coal of a great barge lying alongside,
+gathering it into baskets and rushing up planks to deposit it in the
+coal bunkers of the steamer, and all the while they shout in a strange
+chant at the tops of their voices. When white men are doing severe work
+they are silent, as they need all their strength for the task in hand,
+but when their dark-skinned brothers work they find it necessary to
+shout as loudly as they can, and the harder the work the more noise they
+make. At a little distance their confused yelling is like the cheering
+of a great crowd at a popular football match.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus064.jpg" width="450" height="321" alt="PORT SAID&mdash;STATUE OF DE LESSEPS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PORT SAID&mdash;STATUE OF DE LESSEPS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>All the port-holes have been closed to keep out the dust, the ship's
+carpets are rolled away, the place looks as if prepared for a spring
+cleaning. It is time for us to go, for we have arrived at Port Said, the
+principal landing-place for Egypt, and we have to say good-bye to the
+<i>Orontes</i> here, though we shall not forget her as the first of the many
+ships which carry us on our great adventure.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy enough to get a boat, competition is keen, and the laughing
+bright-eyed boys who row us across seem in the best of humour; they make
+a brilliant picture, for they are dressed in scarlet and blue for
+choice, with bits of orange wherever they can stick them on.</p>
+
+<p>Port Said, where we have landed, is a large town with a big business,
+yet it is built on a site which a comparatively short time ago was
+nothing but a marshy salt lake. Men of all nations walk in its streets,
+and ships of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> nations pass through its port. It is a strange
+mingling of East and West. Here the two meet, and those who come from
+the West for the first time cry with delight, "This is the East!" while
+those who have been exiled for many years from their western homes and
+are at last returning, exclaim, drawing a long breath, "Now I feel I
+really am in sight of home."</p>
+
+<p>We are actually in Africa, that mysterious land which still contains the
+greater part of the unexplored territory of the world, and which for
+long was described as "The Unknown Continent," though it can hardly be
+called that now. Of all the countries which make up Africa, Egypt is the
+strangest, indeed, she is the strangest country in all the world&mdash;a
+weird and mysterious land whose ways are not as the ways of any other
+country on earth.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a land much longer than it is broad, in the shape of an ordinary
+hearth-rug, and then lay down lengthwise along this a mighty river which
+divides it into two parts. Have you seen the Eiffel Tower? If not, you
+have at all events seen pictures of it, well, imagine an Eiffel Tower
+lying prostrate along the hearth-rug and you will have a pretty fair
+idea of Egypt and its river. The legs of the Eiffel Tower are very near
+the bottom and stick out sharply; from the point where they meet the
+long body stretches upwards straight as an arrow.</p>
+
+<p>The Nile is like that. Not so far above where it runs into the
+Mediterranean Sea it is split up into many channels like the legs of the
+tower. It is at the foot of one of these legs we have just landed, and
+presently we are going to pass on up to the junction of the many
+channels at Cairo, which is the capital town of Egypt. Of course the
+Nile is not perfectly straight and rigid like the man-made tower; it
+winds and turns, as all rivers do, but, taking it as a whole, the
+comparison is a good one.</p>
+
+<p>We have to wait for our baggage to be brought across<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> from the ship so
+that we can see it through the custom-house, and here it comes at last;
+it is carried by a boy about your age who is simply lost to sight
+beneath it. They begin young! He stands grinning, well pleased with
+himself. He certainly deserves a good tip, for he is no shirker. We have
+just got some Egyptian money from Cook's, so can give it him in his own
+coinage, though he would not in the least mind taking English money.</p>
+
+<p>Egyptian money is not very difficult to understand: the principal coin
+is a piastre, which is equal to twopence-halfpenny; and half a piastre,
+which looks like a silver sixpence, but isn't silver at all, serves the
+purposes of a penny, though it is really equal to a penny-farthing.
+There are no coppers here. The most useful coin&mdash;corresponding to our
+shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira&mdash;is rather like an
+overgrown shilling to look at and equal to five piastres or a halfpenny
+more than a shilling.</p>
+
+<p>Now we have only to buy some cigarettes for me and some Turkish Delight
+for&mdash;well, for us both! Then we can go on to our train. Cigarettes and
+Turkish Delight are the two things no one ever fails to buy at Port
+Said, for here you get them good and cheap.</p>
+
+<p>It will take us four hours to reach Cairo by rail, and we shan't see
+anything of the country, as it is dark. And what a country it is!</p>
+
+<p>You will never get used to it, for it is run on lines of its own. The
+part of it lying between the legs of the imaginary Eiffel Tower, in
+other words, between the mouths of the Nile, is called the Delta, from
+the Greek letter &#916;, which shape it is. Except in this delta
+rain never falls, that is to say, not to speak of. Up in Assouan, one of
+the larger towns, which we shall visit, they say, for instance, "Rain?
+Let me see&mdash;oh yes, we did have a shower, two years ago it was, on such
+and such a day at four in the afternoon. Pretty smart shower too; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+roofs of the mud houses got squashy and slipped down on the inhabitants.
+Quite funny, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>It seems funny to us that anyone could remember the hour of one
+particular shower two years ago! With us if there is no rain for a few
+weeks the farmers begin to cry out that their crops are ruined. What a
+glorious land Egypt must be to live in when there is no chance of any
+excursion being spoiled by the weather!</p>
+
+<p>"But how in the world does anything manage to grow?"</p>
+
+<p>I thought you would ask that. Egypt has a system of its own. Once every
+year this gigantic river, which cleaves the land into two parts, rises
+and overflows all its banks; it submerges the low-lying flat land near
+it and carries all over it a rich fertilising mud. The land is
+thoroughly soaked, and when the Nile slowly retires, sinking back into
+its channel, the crops are planted in the spongy earth.</p>
+
+<p>For many ages no one knew why this happened, and indeed no one troubled
+to ask; the ancient Egyptians thought the Nile was a god, and that this
+wonderful overflow was a miracle of beneficence performed for their
+benefit. Then Europeans began to penetrate into the heart of Africa and
+the mystery was solved. The Nile rises far up in the vast continent
+where there are mighty lakes lying in among the hills. The three largest
+of these lakes are called Victoria, Albert, and Edward, after our
+sovereigns, for the men who discovered them were British and naturally
+carried the names of their rulers to plant as banners wherever they
+penetrated. These lakes are not in Egypt, but far beyond, in a region
+where at one season of the year there is a terrific downfall of rain;
+this swells them up and makes them burst forth from every outlet in a
+tremendous flood. The Nile carries off most of this water, and some
+other rivers, which flow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> into it up there, bring down masses of water
+too, and all this rushes onward, spreading far over the thirsty land of
+Egypt and turns the desert into a garden, making it "blossom as the
+rose." Wherever the water reaches the land bears fruit, but beyond it is
+sandy and sterile desert.</p>
+
+<p>The length of this amazing river from Lake Victoria to the sea is now
+reckoned to be between three thousand and four thousand miles, or almost
+half the length of the earth's diameter, and for over a thousand miles
+it receives no tributaries at all. In almost all rivers we are
+accustomed to we see streams and other tributaries running in and
+swelling the volume of water as the main river passes down to the sea,
+but for all these miles the Nile flows unsupported and unreplenished
+beneath the blazing sun. No wonder the Egyptians worshipped anything so
+splendid!</p>
+
+<p>The total length of England and Scotland together, from John o' Groats
+to Land's End, is eight hundred miles, which gives us a measuring rod to
+estimate the length of this splendid highway, which is frequently half a
+mile broad.</p>
+
+<p>Though the yearly inundation made cultivation possible, men soon learned
+that it was not enough; besides this they must water the crops between
+times, and so means were devised for storing up the water; but these
+were mostly very simple and primitive until Great Britain went to Egypt
+to help the Khedive out of his difficulties and to teach him how to
+govern for the good of his people. Then immense works were started for
+holding up the water which would otherwise have run away to the sea at
+flood-time and been wasted.</p>
+
+<p>We arrive at Cairo very late at night, and when we get to our bedroom we
+find both beds looking rather like large meat-safes, for they are
+enclosed in white net curtains. These fall from a top or ceiling
+resembling that on old four-posters.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;">
+<img src="images/illus069.jpg" width="436" height="600" alt="ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus071.jpg" width="450" height="348" alt="THE MOSQUE AT CAIRO." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE MOSQUE AT CAIRO.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>You stare at them in a puzzled way a minute or so, and then declare,
+"What a stuffy arrangement! I'm not going to sleep shut in like that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Please yourself, but you run the risk of having red lumps on your nose
+in the morning if a mosquito takes a fancy to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they're mosquito-curtains! I've heard of them. What are you going
+to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Run no risks!"</p>
+
+<p>At last, protesting, you agree to do likewise, and climb inside your
+meat-safe. You'll soon get used to it, and though it is too cold here
+for any mosquito to be very lively, it is safer. In some countries the
+curtains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> are useful for keeping off worse things than
+mosquitoes&mdash;tarantulas, for instance!</p>
+
+<p>We are only staying one day in Cairo so are out early the next morning,
+and find that the town looks on the whole very like a French town.
+Indeed, were it not for the red fez or tarboush which so many men wear,
+even when they dress otherwise in European costume, and for the turbans
+and flowing robes of the native dress, we might be in Paris or
+Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>We go to the top of a very wide main street to await the tram which is
+to take us to the Pyramids.</p>
+
+<p>"Poste-carte, sir-r-r-r," says insinuatingly a ragged ruffian, thrusting
+vividly coloured picture postcards into our faces as we stand. We turn
+away, shaking our heads. He quickly runs round to face us again,
+"Poste-carte, sir-r-r," in a tone as if the conversation had only just
+begun and he had great hopes of a sale.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;">
+<img src="images/illus072.jpg" width="353" height="450" alt="&quot;POSTE-CARTE AND BEADES,&quot; CAIRO." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;POSTE-CARTE AND BEADES,&quot; CAIRO.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"No, thank you; go away," I say as sternly and emphatically as I can,
+for he is not too clean.</p>
+
+<p>"Poste-carte, Cismus cards, nice," he continues with unabated zeal as if
+we had not spoken at all. Resolutely we turn our backs on him and are
+confronted by a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> gorgeous individual in a long loose gown and
+turban, with innumerable strings of beads of the cheapest and commonest
+"Made-in-Germany" kind, hung in festoons round his neck. "Beades,
+sir-r-r," he begins persuasively, and the other chimes in a duet,
+"Poste-carte." "Beades," continues the new tormentor, swinging his wares
+in our faces. Evidently "no" is a word not understood by these gentry.
+They go on at it hard for about five minutes, our stony silence in no
+way diminishing their enthusiasm, and then from the corner of my eye I
+see a tall man, with an exceptionally handsome face, clothed in a
+beautiful long coat of blue cloth cut away to show a great orange sash
+underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"You want guide?" he says, hastening to the fray and sending the other
+men flying with "Imshi, imshi!" "Me good guide, beest guide in Cairo,
+show you Pyramids, all-a sights, verry cheap, sirr, me show you, only
+ten shillings, citadel and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want a guide, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman's knowledge of English is limited apparently, for he
+doesn't understand that. In exactly the same tone in which he has just
+spoken he begins again, "Me good guide, showing you all sights, cheap,
+verry cheap, Pyramids, telling you all things, bazaar, only eight
+shilling&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>By the time he has worked himself through all the grades down to two
+shillings, his eye falls on two other newly arrived tourists, evidently
+Americans, and he rushes upon the fresh prey. Luckily our car comes in
+sight just then, for a second dragoman, as these guides are called, has
+just caught sight of us and is racing across the street as fast as his
+legs will carry him.</p>
+
+<p>As the tram starts we hear his desperate "Me verry good guide,
+best&mdash;bazaar&mdash;&mdash;" He is quite willing to risk his life in jumping on to
+the moving tram at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> smallest sign from us, so we simply hold our
+breath and resolve not to wink an eyelid until the danger is past.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus074.jpg" width="450" height="293" alt="THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>So those are the Pyramids!</p>
+
+<p>We have arrived after a very cold and rather monotonous run of about an
+hour.</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever a time when one had not heard of the Pyramids and
+pictured their vast triangles rising out of the desert? But for my part,
+I had always imagined them set far off in solitude so that one came upon
+them gradually, seeing them first as mere hillocks in the immensity of
+the sand. Instead of that they spring upon us suddenly, rearing up on a
+height as the tram speeds toward them along a tree-shaded road across a
+vast artificial lake.</p>
+
+<p>The lake is picturesque, studded with little islands and promontories
+covered with houses and palm trees, so also are the groups of donkeys
+and camels with their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> attendant men waiting at the terminus for
+tourists, but these things disperse the mystery to which we had looked
+forward. The large and comfortable hotel at the foot of the white
+winding road which leads up to the Pyramids is doubtless useful, but&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>As we approach on foot we experience surprise to see that the blocks of
+which the largest Pyramid is composed are so small they look almost like
+bricks. Pictures show them as gigantic blocks up which stout ladies are
+being "boosted"&mdash;sorry, but there is no other word&mdash;by heated dragomans.
+As we draw near we see that the blocks <i>are</i> fairly big. Nearer
+still&mdash;what is that crawling about on the edge of the great cone? Hullo,
+it's a man, and there is another and another. They do look small. Why,
+there is one who has reached the top; he is not to be compared with a
+fly so much as a midge&mdash;who would have thought it? We are close under
+now and I find that the block by which I am standing is the height of my
+shoulder, and I am fairly tall. This must be an exceptional one, but&mdash;it
+isn't! They are all the same! Watching the men clambering up above,&mdash;men
+who we now see are English soldiers dressed in khaki,&mdash;we can understand
+why they seem to find the ascent so difficult&mdash;each block is shoulder
+high and requires much strenuous exertion to surmount. They cannot
+stride from one to the other as on a flight of stairs. One man is
+exhausted and gives up half-way, and a cheerful Cockney voice comes down
+from above telling him to "put his beck into it!" He'll need it.
+Standing thus and looking up we get some idea of the enormous size of
+the Pyramid, which makes its blocks look small by contrast. It is
+bigger, far bigger than one expected. This is the largest of all, built
+anything between 5000 and 6000 years ago, as the tomb of King Cheops. He
+built it for himself by cruel forced labour crushed out of starving men;
+he intended that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> body should lie like the kernel of a nut in this
+mighty shell.</p>
+
+<p>As we pass beyond it we see another, farther off in the desert sand, and
+yet another. We are accustomed to speak of the Pyramids as if these few
+at Gizeh were all, but there are others scattered about Egypt, though
+they are less known and visited.</p>
+
+<p>Then, quite unexpectedly, we come upon the Sphinx. It is in a hollow in
+the sand like the nest children scoop out for shelter on the seashore,
+only vastly greater. As we struggle round the yielding rim, with the
+powdery sand silting over our boot-tops, we feel something of the wonder
+of it thrilling through us. Let us sit down here facing it by these
+broken stones, where we can be a little sheltered from the chilly wind
+and gritty sand. We are looking at the oldest thing in Egypt. You will
+see farther south many splendid examples of amazing age but nothing to
+equal the Sphinx. When Abraham came down into Egypt the Sphinx was old
+beyond the memory of man! When King Cheops built his Pyramid the Sphinx
+sat with his back turned to it wearing the same inscrutable smile that
+it has to-day. It has watched kings succeed and die, it has watched
+empires spread and collapse, it has watched civilisations ripen and
+wither away. All the known history of mankind has unrolled before it,
+not the short history of a few trifling centuries which we call ours,
+but the history of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The crouching figure is lion-like in attitude, but how human of face in
+spite of its broken nose. It was carven of the solid rock and fashioned
+with its face to the sunrise and its back to the desert. No one knows
+the thought in the mind of the puny artist who brought it into being and
+then shrivelled beside it like a blade of grass. Was it intended to be a
+god? It has been silted up by sand and unburied again; it has been
+worshipped and hated. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> has been reverenced and shot at, so that its
+face is chipped and its nose broken away, and still it smiles with
+fierce serenity.</p>
+
+<p>Sit silently.</p>
+
+<p>"Poste-carte&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Imshi, imshi."</p>
+
+<p>That Arabic word, picked up at hazard from the dragoman, has acted like
+a talisman&mdash;the pest has actually gone!</p>
+
+<p>There creeps up beside you, very slowly and determinedly, an old, old
+man. "Fortune told," he says almost in a whisper, groping for your hard
+boyish hand. So be it! He at least does not send the spirit of the place
+flying away. Nonsense it may be, but these fellows do know something&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Give him that five piastre piece that looks like a large shilling and
+listen to his quaint expressive English.</p>
+
+<p>"Clever head, head very much good, gooder than many men, but an enemy
+inside there. You see a long, long road, and you go that road, then
+coming hills and that road grow tiresome and you stop and say, 'Not
+worth it, I don't care,' an enemy here&mdash;slay him!</p>
+
+<p>"Much work lies to your hands to do when they grow large. In many lands
+I see them plucking down cities and raising ships from the depths of the
+sea. Strange things be waiting for those hands in all the world. Many
+tongues you speaking, and many things you gain. But the hand not opening
+easily. What it gains it grips, hard and tight; it is a close hand, and
+that which comes thereout drops slowly between the fingers to friends
+also as to foes. Riches and work and honour hold the hands, and only
+death will tear them away. With them all is a bitterness and a glory
+greater than the shine of what men count joy. But in that day when you
+eat with kings the desire of life shall pass from you!"</p>
+
+<p>Hullo, old boy! He gave you a good shilling's worth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> anyhow! Though it
+was rather a nasty hit that at your Scottish national character! You
+don't believe it surely? Look at the Sphinx and laugh. What does it
+matter if we two midges, among all the midges that have crawled about
+his paws, don't exactly enjoy ourselves the whole of our brief day?</p>
+
+<p>What is that? How you start! No, it's not a lion roaring, though it's a
+pretty good imitation; it's only a camel cursing and snarling with all
+his might while his owner piles a few bushels' weight on his back. He
+doesn't really mind it, but it is the immemorial custom of camels to
+protest with hideousness and confused noise, and if he didn't do it his
+trade union would be down upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Poste-carte&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Come, let us go!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus079.jpg" width="450" height="122" alt="STRANGE LOOKING BEASTS MINCING ALONG LIKE GIGANTIC
+PEACOCKS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">STRANGE LOOKING BEASTS MINCING ALONG LIKE GIGANTIC
+PEACOCKS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HIGHWAY OF EGYPT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Of course you have been in a cinematograph theatre, and there, seated
+comfortably, have watched the various scenes pass before you. The great
+charm of these scenes is that the people really did do the things which
+we here see them doing, even down to the smallest gestures. But often
+the pleasure is spoilt by knowing that the actors were only making these
+gestures for the purpose of being photographed; also the scenes are
+sometimes disconnected and scrappy, and seldom indeed is it that they
+are represented in colour, and then, though the colour is clever enough,
+it is not like that of nature.</p>
+
+<p>To-day we are watching a cinematograph which has none of these
+drawbacks. We are seated in a leather-lined railway carriage running
+from Cairo southward up the country to a place called Luxor, and passing
+before us every minute are vivid pictures of the life of Egypt. The
+railway runs along the middle of Egypt, just as the Nile does, but we do
+not often see the river from the line, for at this time of the year it
+flows low down between its banks. It is on the other side of the railway
+that the main interest lies. Here there is a canal as straight as the
+line and close beside it, and on the far side of it is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> sort of raised
+tow-path&mdash;the great highway of Egypt. We see it against a fringe of
+bushy palm trees at one minute, and the next against a field of tall,
+green-growing stuff, which looks exactly like those rushes found on the
+banks of our own rivers. This, however, is maize, or, as you probably
+know it better, Indian corn, which forms the staple food of the people.
+The brown feathery heads wave in the wind, but the corn itself is tucked
+away in the thickness of the stalk. You must have seen a "cob" of Indian
+corn some time, with all the flat yellow grains nestling in a honeycomb
+of little cells. To-day in Egypt you will see everyone eating them; even
+the solemn baby seated astride its mother's shoulder picks out the
+grains and nibbles them like a little monkey. The straw part of the
+plant is used for many things: it feeds the numerous domestic animals of
+the Egyptians to begin with&mdash;the donkeys, camels, buffaloes, bullocks,
+goats&mdash;and it forms thatch for the huts and makes bedding.</p>
+
+<p>Notice that man over there in the field; his cotton gown is of the
+purest blue, which shows up richly against the vivid green of the maize
+stalks. There is another seated far back on the rump of a small donkey
+who is tripping along on its stiff little legs. It wears no harness of
+any kind beyond a cord round its neck, which enables anyone to catch
+hold of it. The man has no saddle and he holds his long legs straight
+forward to prevent his feet from touching the ground, and from time to
+time he guides or goads the donkey with a little sharp-pointed stick.
+Close behind him, walking fast to keep up, is a tall woman in black with
+a black shawl covering her mouth, her dress is a mass of grey dust as
+far as the waist, and drags up the dust in clouds as she moves. On her
+head is a large bundle and on her hip a large baby. She is the wife of
+the lordly individual riding so comfortably ahead, and she takes this
+state of affairs as a matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> course. The scene arouses anger in the
+breast of a nice American with a grey moustache and keen grey eyes, who
+shares our compartment.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus081.jpg" width="450" height="252" alt="&quot;MAN AND WIFE.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;MAN AND WIFE.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"So long as they treat their womenfolk like that they'll never rise to
+anything better," he says emphatically. "The higher the civilisation of
+a nation is the higher the position of its women. A nation of men who
+ride and let the women carry the burdens is bound to be rotten and
+flabby."</p>
+
+<p>Next there passes across our window-frame a flock of goats, but they are
+not much like those we know&mdash;they are dark brown and black, with thick
+rough coats and cheeky tufted tails; numbers of kids dance up and down
+the steep sides of the tow-path after the manner of kids all the world
+over. A small boy, dressed in what appears to be a striped flannel
+night-shirt, with a tiny skull-cap on his head, is driving them. He
+pulls his single garment up to his waist as he dances and pirouettes as
+if the joy of living were almost too much for him. He is enveloped in a
+cloud of dust raised by the goats, but he snatches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> handfuls of the dust
+from the ground and flings it in the air around as if he could never get
+enough of it!</p>
+
+<p>"The Lady of Shalott," in Tennyson's poem, who watched in her mirror all
+who went down to Camelot, cannot ever have seen anything half so
+interesting as this.</p>
+
+<p>Presently we meet a long string of fine-looking camels, one of them pure
+white; they are fastened by a connecting rope and so covered with loads
+of bristling twigs that each looks like a walking bush, out of which the
+great padded feet are planted with deliberate steps and the haughty
+heads swaying at the ends of the long necks stick out. It is the scrub
+of the cotton bush that they are carrying; you will see fields of it
+presently, some of it bursting into fluffy pods, for cotton growing is
+one of the most extensive and profitable of Egyptian industries. The
+twigs and branches are used as fuel by the people, who have a happy
+knack of letting nothing be wasted.</p>
+
+<p>"I never!" exclaims the American. "If that isn't like them!" We are
+overtaking a second string of camels, precisely similar to the first,
+and similarly laden, stepping gingerly and protestingly in the opposite
+direction from the first, having just passed them. "Why couldn't they
+arrange things better?" demands the American. "If one lot is going this
+way and the other that, an exchange would have saved time and labour."</p>
+
+<p>In America labour is costly and all sorts of inventions for saving time
+have been invented; in this eastern land time is of no value at all, and
+a man working all day in the fields is content to earn a shilling.
+Perhaps the contrast with their own country is the reason of the
+fascination Egypt has for Americans!</p>
+
+<p>What are those strange-looking beasts mincing along like gigantic
+peacocks? As we draw nearer we see that they are camels too, each
+bearing a load of sword-bladed leaves, which hang down over their
+hindquarters exactly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> like the folded fan-tail of a peacock. Upon my
+word I never noticed it before, but a camel walks just like a peacock,
+with the same hesitating "Don't-care-a-hang-for-you" stride. The bundles
+so arranged hide the animals' hind legs and bring out the resemblance.</p>
+
+<p>But what is it they are carrying? Not maize stalks this time, nor bushy
+cotton twigs, for these stalks are a dull crimson at the upper end. It
+is sugar-cane, which grows in quantities here, and forms a more
+profitable crop than maize. You will see it sold at the stations; the
+people buy it, and, breaking off a joint, eat it with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot tear ourselves away from this fascinating window even for a
+moment; far in the distance across the green fields and waving palm
+trees we see glimpses of the desert, looking pinkish-yellow, and rising
+up in it, changing with every mile we travel, are many pyramids, not
+only those famous ones at Gizeh we visited yesterday, but others
+stretching farther and farther away. You will notice that the favourite
+colour for the dress of the peasants, or fellaheen, as they are called,
+is a glorious blue, but that all the women are in black&mdash;most unsuitable
+of hues, as they live and move and have their being amid drab-coloured
+dust; khaki would be much better.</p>
+
+<p>As our breakfast, though better than that in France, was nothing so very
+wonderful, we begin to feel hungry, and are ready to go along early to
+the luncheon-car; we had a good dinner in that one on the train coming
+up from Port Said to Cairo, and anticipate something of the same kind.
+As we get up the American remarks casually, "Best pull in your belts and
+have a smoke&mdash;there isn't any."</p>
+
+<p>No luncheon-car! No means of getting any kind of refreshment on the
+train! And we, having started at eight, are in for a journey of fourteen
+hours! Lively this! It is one of the little incidental discomforts of
+travel! The American is in the same plight himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> But he found out
+soon after we started that there was no restaurant-car; it only runs
+three times a week, for the season hasn't begun yet!</p>
+
+<p>We call the Egyptian attendant to find out if there is any prospect of
+buying anything on the way. He stands grinning very affably but doesn't
+understand a word of English. Presently, however, he seems to
+understand, and dashes off, to return triumphantly with a feather-brush
+in his hand with which he violently flops the seats of the carriages and
+all our personal belongings until we are choked and smothered with the
+dust.</p>
+
+<p>In English fashion we have kept the windows open, not realising that in
+this country it is impossible, and that slowly we have been silted up
+with a layer of fine soft dust; but we didn't feel the inconvenience of
+it much until this idiot stirred it up and made it unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>Having accomplished this great feat he stands still, grinning and
+holding out a broad palm. Officials on the trains are probably forbidden
+to utter the wicked word "Bakshish," meaning tips, but they can ask
+quite as well without it.</p>
+
+<p>Having got rid of him, we turn in despair to the station at which we
+have just pulled up. There is a fine mingled crowd on the platform.
+Lying in the sun, awaiting their master's pleasure, are two beautifully
+kept white donkeys, with their hides clipped in neat patterns, very
+superior creatures indeed to what we know as donkeys, more like mules in
+size. A group of children, fascinated by our strange faces, draw nearer
+and gaze their fill unwinkingly; one poor little mite of about four has
+a mass of flies crawling all over its face, especially about the eyes.
+It never attempts to brush them off, for long habit has made it callous.
+Formerly very many children were so afflicted, and the crawling flies,
+carrying disease, made them blind; but since the British took the matter
+in hand the evil is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> much less. Yet so indifferent are the mothers, that
+in many cases even when lotion is supplied free for the children's faces
+they will not trouble to use it!</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing eatable being sold in the station except fruit, but
+there seems plenty of that, and by the time the train starts again we
+find ourselves with a fine assortment in rich colours of purple and
+orange and scarlet. First there is a packet of dates which looks all
+right on the top, but turning them out we find the purple side of one
+had been placed carefully uppermost, and the rest are all hard, green,
+and unripe, not in the least like the sweet juicy dates we are
+accustomed to. The attendant, who is watching, scoops them up and
+devours them as if he hadn't been fed for a month. Then comes a bit of
+sugar-cane, stringy and sickly, which makes us feel as if we had bitten
+into a piece of sweet wood when we try it. That great purple pomegranate
+is, like all pomegranates, unsatisfactory and full of seeds, and though
+the little green limes are refreshing for the moment while we suck the
+juice, after a while our lips begin to smart as if they were raw, and we
+both keep on furtively wiping them. It is a tantalising feast, and the
+American smiles serenely as he smokes in his corner and refuses to have
+anything to do with it. The only thing we do get out of it are some
+really good green figs, which cannot, however, be eaten without
+shameless messiness, as they are so difficult to peel.</p>
+
+<p>When the afternoon sun grows scorchingly hot the grinning attendant
+proves himself for once useful, by showing us that we can pull up
+sun-shutters with wooden slats outside the glass ones. He has indeed
+been anxious to pull them up all round the compartment ever since we
+started, and nothing but physical force has restrained him, for he
+cannot conceive how anyone could want to look out. Even now we keep down
+those on the sunless side, which grieves him deeply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So all the afternoon we watch the glorious scenes changing in sunlight;
+we see the sailing boats, with their tapering white wings, laden with
+cargoes of straw, drifting up the canal, driven by the strong north
+wind; we pass innumerable villages, and some larger towns, where
+market-day has attracted vast crowds.</p>
+
+<p>The small villages are indeed wonderful, and the first one excited us
+all three so much that we had to hurry to the window. Imagine a colony
+of last year's swallows' nests under the eaves, or a collection of
+ruined pigsties and sheds, only they are not ruins at all, but living,
+thriving villages with healthy people in them. The houses are all made
+of mud; a few are fashioned out of mud bricks, but many are merely of
+mud stuck and moulded together as a child would form a mud house with
+his hands. The doors and the holes for windows are crooked and lop-sided
+as they would be in a childish attempt. The roof is covered over with an
+untidy thatch of straw, thrown on anyhow, with piles of cotton scrub on
+the top of it. This scrub is for firing, and it is kept up there in the
+Egyptian's only storehouse; it is backed up by cakes of dried buffalo
+dung used for the same purpose. As it never rains the fuel is quite safe
+from damp.</p>
+
+<p>Every man builds his own house as it pleases him, without regard to the
+style or position of his neighbour's, consequently the streets are
+narrow crooked passages of uneven levels; there is not a green thing in
+them, and the people live in dust and eat it and wallow in it. Here and
+there you can see a tray of flat cakes pushed out into the midst of the
+dust to bake in the sun and form a playground for the flies and the
+microbes, for the Egyptian has no respect for microbes, he is
+germ-proof; for generations he and his forefathers have drunk the Nile
+water, unfiltered and carried in goat-skins not too well cured. Yet the
+people are happy and the children apparently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> a gay set of youngsters.
+Little Gassim or Achmed, in the single unchanged and unwashed garment
+that covers their little brown bodies, dance and roll and sing and drive
+the loathly black buffaloes to the water and eat scraps of sugar-cane,
+and are as happy as the day is long. They work hard, it is true, from
+the time they can toddle, but so does everyone else, and all the animals
+do their share of toil, day in and day out. "I can't understand why they
+don't find a way of harnessing the turkeys," says the American
+sarcastically as we pass a lordly camel, stepping, with protest in every
+movement, alongside a sturdy bullock who helps to drag a primitive
+plough. The plough merely scratches the surface of the ground, but that
+is enough, for the Egyptian will never go deeper than he need.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus087.jpg" width="450" height="547" alt="A WATER-CARRIER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A WATER-CARRIER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We are getting very hungry indeed! Six hours more! How are we going to
+stand it?</p>
+
+<p>Hurrah! A bit of luck! The American has been along the corridor and come
+across some friends who are getting out at the next station. They have
+presented him with the remains of a lunch-basket supplied by their
+hotel, and he is generously willing to share it with us. Never was
+prize-packet opened with greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> eagerness; suppose it should only
+contain enough for one?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus088.jpg" width="450" height="230" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Amid the white wrappings of the open pannier we find slices of tongue,
+rolls of bread, chicken legs, hard-boiled eggs, and a bottle of
+soda-water!</p>
+
+<p>Never did food taste better! We sit gnawing the chicken bones and
+blessing the American!</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the sun falls and a splendour you never yet have imagined fills
+the air. Streaks of flaming colour shoot athwart the sky, bursting up
+behind the tufted palms; the eastern sky catches the reflection and
+shows softest blues and pinkest pinks in contrast. A veil of amber light
+hangs like a curtain overhead and changes to orange and again to apricot
+as the afterglow sweeps the sky before darkness falls like the curtain
+on a scene at the theatre.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus089.jpg" width="450" height="415" alt="COLUMNS IN THE TEMPLE AT LUXOR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">COLUMNS IN THE TEMPLE AT LUXOR.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>A MIGHTY MAN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Our beds face the windows, which open like high glass doors, French
+fashion; before retiring we set them wide, and close outside the long
+shutters made of slats of wood. In the morning we are awakened suddenly,
+almost at the same instant, by a red flame glowing between the slats as
+fire glows between the bars of a grate. Springing from our curtains we
+fling open the shutters, expecting to see a great conflagration, and
+behold, it is the sunrise!</p>
+
+<p>The sun does not greet us in such boisterous fashion in England! Here it
+fills the sky with a blood-red radiance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> and lights up the palm groves
+in the garden below, where a mighty congregation of small birds are
+shrieking out their joy to greet the god of morning. There is an
+intensity in it all, in the flaming sky, and in the thrill of the birds'
+clarion that sends exhilaration into our veins and makes us feel it is
+good to be alive!</p>
+
+<p>It is not long before we are out and around the garden&mdash;and what a
+garden! Strange coffee-coloured men in blue garments like smock frocks,
+with baggy blue trousers caught tightly round their ankles, appear and
+disappear noiselessly, their bare brown feet making no sound on the
+sanded paths. There is something unreal about it all, something that
+makes one think of the <i>Arabian Nights</i> and an enchanted garden. The
+hotel is called "The Winter Palace," and in England we should associate
+such a name with a vast artificially warmed glasshouse filled with
+broad-leaved plants of dark green; here, right overhead, is a tall bush
+covered with masses of sulphur-coloured flowers, shaped like tiny
+trumpets, hanging in festoons against a sky of glorious blue. Through
+plumed palms we catch glimpses of the spreading fingers of a deep red
+poinsettia; there is a pink frilled flower shooting toward the sky, so
+decorative that it looks exactly like those made of crinkled paper for
+decorations; this is the well-known oleander. The grass is so vividly
+green that it seems as if the greenness sprang away from the blades; as
+we draw near to it we see that it is not all matted together and
+interwoven, as is our grass, but is composed of separate blades, each
+one apart and upright, all together standing like a regiment of
+soldiers. It has to be sown every year freshly, for no roots can survive
+the long drought. Close by is a lawn of bare earth, and a boy of about
+your age, with a thin pathetic brown face, runs round and round it,
+shouting and waving a flapper to keep off the birds from the newly sown
+seed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We are just going to plunge into a grove of trees&mdash;some acacias with
+leaves like delicate ferns, and others eucalyptus with long narrow
+leaves looking like frosted silver&mdash;when we find they are growing in a
+swamp, with the earth banked up all round to keep the water in!</p>
+
+<p>Other flowers, familiar to us in England, such as roses, look rather
+pale and washed-out here in contrast with the flaming beauty of richest
+mauve and brightest orange worn by those which are at home in a hot
+country. As the sun gets strong we hear the drone of a swarm of great
+creatures like prodigious wasps with legs like stilts, which fly around
+the sweet-scented blooms. In ancient inscriptions this wasp, or hornet,
+was used as the sign of Northern or Lower Egypt. Across the flower-beds
+run miniature canals of stone, by means of which the water from the
+life-giving river is carried all over the ground, so that it can be
+easily watered; a very large part of the time of the blue-bloused
+gardeners is spent in watering. A garden which was watered from the sky
+would be a miracle to them.</p>
+
+<p>We come back again to the hotel and pass through to the other or front
+entrance, where we catch sight of the majestic Nile, which we could not
+see in the darkness of our arrival last night. Standing on a high
+terrace, bounded by a parapet covered with riotous masses of magenta
+bougainvillea, we see the turquoise-blue river, flecked with boats
+carrying high, white, three-cornered sails; on the other side rise calm
+hills of orange-yellow. We shall visit those hills, for in them are
+buried some of the mightiest kings of Egypt, and the wild fastnesses
+form a truly royal burial-place, grander than any ordinary mausoleum or
+cemetery could ever be. On both sides of the river at one time stood the
+royal city of Thebes, one of the best known of all the capitals of Egypt
+which sprang up from time to time in its agelong history.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If ever you "do" the ix. book of the <i>Iliad</i> in your schoolwork, you
+will find that Homer speaks of Thebes as having one hundred gates and
+possessing twenty thousand war-chariots! It extended for about nine
+miles along the river-bank.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast our first plunge into sight-seeing is a visit to the
+temple of Luxor, which faces the river just five minutes' walk along the
+street from the hotel. This is the very first Egyptian temple we have
+examined and it is astonishing how much we can learn from it. That
+mighty row of columns, larger and higher than any cathedral pillars you
+have ever seen, makes us feel like midgets. Standing close together the
+columns spring right into the clear sky, as there is no roof left. Not
+so very long ago they were covered up to the capitals in sand and
+d&eacute;bris. The poorer Egyptians had built their mud huts in and around them
+for generations, and when one hut crumbled away another was put up on
+the top of it, and thus the level of the accumulated earth grew higher
+and higher. Then some learned Frenchmen saw the wonder of the buried
+temple and bought the people out, persuading them to go elsewhere, and
+they gradually cleared away the rubbish until the original beauty of the
+temple was visible again. Even now, high up on all sides, you can see
+the depth of the earth surrounding it like cliffs, and on the top are
+squalid huts with dirty children and fluffy impudent goats and
+shrill-voiced, black-clad women, living their daily lives and looking
+down into the temple.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient Egyptian writing was by signs&mdash;a bird meant one thing, a
+flower another, and a serpent another, and so on, but for a long time
+the meaning of it had been forgotten, and it was impossible for anyone
+to read these wonderful signs. But at the very end of the eighteenth
+century a great stone was found which had upon it an inscription written
+in Greek and in hieroglyphics, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> sign-writing was called, and also
+in another writing which used to be employed by the priests, and from
+this, before many years had passed, clever men were able to understand
+the language of signs and read the inscriptions on the temples, which
+told who had built them and much else. This stone was called the Rosetta
+Stone, after the place where it was found. It is now in the British
+Museum.</p>
+
+<p>This was long before Luxor was unearthed, and the inscriptions were
+deciphered as they came to light; by their help it was found that the
+temple had been built chiefly by two kings, Amenhetep <span class="smcap">iii.</span> and Rameses
+<span class="smcap">ii.</span> who came after him, though not immediately. Rameses added to the
+existing work and carried it on. So far as we know all this was between
+three and four thousand years ago. In a village in England people are
+proud if they can point to any part of their parish church and say,
+"This is Norman work," and yet the Normans only came over to England
+less than nine hundred years ago! Go back more than three times that,
+and try to realise the age of this temple. And even this, as we know, is
+not old compared with the Pyramids! Doesn't it make us feel that, as a
+nation, we are rather young after all?</p>
+
+<p>Long before we were a nation these mighty kings flourished in Egypt and
+lived in pomp and splendour. They each had a different name, of course,
+and more than one, but yet they were all Pharaohs, just as at one time
+in the Roman Empire each emperor was a C&aelig;sar.</p>
+
+<p>The Pharaohs had unlimited power in their own dominions, and forced
+their subjects to work for them as they pleased without giving them any
+payment. By some means we can't understand these mighty blocks of
+sandstone composing this temple and many others were brought from a
+place farther up the river. It is supposed that they were put on great
+rafts and floated down at flood-time, but the handling of them is still
+a mystery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> The men who dealt with them had no steel tools, no driving
+force of steam or electricity at their backs, yet they reared buildings
+which we to-day, with all our appliances, think masterpieces.</p>
+
+<p>Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span> was called the Great; he reigned for over sixty years, and
+he has a peculiar interest for us because he is believed to have been
+the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites, while his son and successor,
+Menepthah, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.</p>
+
+<p>Walk up the great aisle of giant columns into the courtyard at the end,
+there, between the pillars, stand massive images of granite, most of
+them headless, but one perfect except for the ends of the fingers and
+toes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">
+<img src="images/illus094.jpg" width="259" height="400" alt="STATUE OF RAMESES II. AT LUXOR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">STATUE OF RAMESES II. AT LUXOR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sit down on this fallen block and look at that marvellous image; it is
+the mighty Rameses himself! There is a repressed energy and indomitable
+purpose about him that tells in every line of a man who never let go and
+never allowed himself to be thwarted. His almond-shaped eyes and full
+lips, the proud tilt of his head, are not merely conventional, they are
+an actual likeness of the man taken from life. He is every inch a king.
+His successor, who was his thirteenth son, was probably of the same
+type, and one can well imagine his scornful indignation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> at being asked
+to yield up that nation of slaves, the Israelites, whom he treated as we
+would not treat animals nowadays. The miracle is that Moses was not
+instantly slain for his boldness in proposing it; he was, of course,
+screened by his relationship to Pharaoh's daughter, but that would have
+counted little had he not been protected by a power far above that of
+the king of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Close down under the knee of the standing Rameses is the figure of a
+plump woman, his favourite wife, Nefertari. The Egyptians had the rather
+childish idea that size meant importance, and to them now, as well as
+then, women seemed of much less importance than men, so the wife was
+represented as being about as high as her husband's knee. In spite of
+this, however, women of royal blood were treated with great deference,
+and royal ladies enjoyed a freedom like that of western women to-day.
+They gave their opinions and transacted business and were seen in
+public. Many a king only sat securely on his throne because his wife had
+a better title to it than he had. This did not, however, prevent them
+from making women very often quite diminutive in size in their statues,
+though in some cases the king and queen are the same size and are shown
+seated side by side.</p>
+
+<p>It is very quiet and beautiful here in the temple this Sunday morning;
+the natives themselves are not allowed to come in, and visitors only on
+production of a ticket costing twenty-four shillings, which admits to
+all the temples of Egypt; and, as it happens, there is no one but
+ourselves. The sparrows twitter overhead in the holes and crannies of
+the pillars, and the great grey and black crows wheel silently against
+the blue sky, throwing moving shadows on the honey-coloured columns.</p>
+
+<p>If we walk round the back of these solemn statues we shall see that
+there is a quantity of deeply cut hieroglyphic writing on a great plaque
+at the back of each. The name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> of the king himself is always written
+enclosed in an oblong space called a cartouche; sometimes this cartouche
+is supported by two cobras, who are supposed to defend it. The rest of
+the writing tells of the deeds of the king and all the mighty feats that
+he performed.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the walls we find them covered with pictures, not coloured
+but done in outline by means of deep-cut clean lines. We see the king
+offering fruit to weird-looking beings with men's bodies and animals'
+heads&mdash;these were the Egyptian gods; there were numbers of them, far too
+many to remember, but here are a few: Anubis, the jackal-headed; Thoth,
+the stork-headed; Sekhet, a goddess with a lion's head (some say a
+cat's). Besides these there were others of great importance: Osiris, the
+god of the dead, and Isis, his wife&mdash;these were the father and mother of
+Horus, the hawk-headed god. But it was to the glory of Amen-ra, the king
+or chief of all the gods, who can be recognised in the pictures by two
+tall feathers like quills standing straight up on his head, that that
+particular temple was built.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 148px;">
+<img src="images/illus096.jpg" width="148" height="400" alt="AN EGYPTIAN KING." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN EGYPTIAN KING.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On one of the walls we see a long row of men, all exactly similar, one
+behind the other&mdash;these are some of the numerous sons of Rameses making
+offerings. You soon notice that in spite of the vigorous and excellent
+outlines of these pictures there is something funny and stiff about
+them. That is because the Egyptians had an odd custom of drawing a
+person sideways, with his two feet in a straight line, one behind the
+other. No one stands like that in real life, and if you try it you will
+find how difficult it is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> to fall over! Also, though the people they
+drew were invariably shown from the side, yet the artists used to make
+them look as if they were squared round in the upper part to show the
+chest and both shoulders, so that Egyptians in pictures always look
+oddly wedge-shaped, being very broad at the top and narrow below. The
+eye was also put into the profile face as if it were seen from the
+front! Look at any typical Egyptian picture and you will soon pick out
+these peculiarities. It seems rather a pity they kept so rigidly to
+these silly notions, as they really drew extremely well; but no artist
+was original enough to dare to break away from the established custom!</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 142px;">
+<img src="images/illus097.jpg" width="142" height="400" alt="AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Inside the temple walls all these scenes have something to do with the
+gods and the offerings made to them by the king, but come outside and on
+one of the finest bits of wall still standing you will see a most
+spirited battle-scene. Look at the king in his chariot with the plunging
+horses! He is drawing his bow and pursuing his enemies, who are dead and
+dying under his wheels, and fleeing before him. To show how much more
+important he was than the enemies he had himself made very large and the
+enemies shown very small. That is not quite our idea of honour and glory
+nowadays; we should think it more glorious to overcome enemies larger
+and stronger than ourselves! This afternoon we are going to visit a
+still larger and more wonderful temple, a mile or two away, called
+Karnak, and there you will see pictures of the king of that time holding
+the hair of his enemies' heads in the powerful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> grasp of his left hand
+while he prepares to strike off all their heads at one sweep with his
+sword.</p>
+
+<p>The original entrance of Luxor temple does not face the river on the
+side we came in; to find it we have to scramble over heaps of rubbish to
+one end and there we see a great obelisk, a companion to the one which
+is now in the principal square of Paris, the Place de la Concorde, and
+we see also two huge buildings reared up on each side of the ancient
+entrance&mdash;these were called pylons and were always built in Egyptian
+temples. On festival days they were decorated with flags on tall staves
+and made very gay.</p>
+
+<p>Then we go out again into the main street amid all the life of the
+place, and see men cantering past on gaily caparisoned donkeys; we note
+dancing, capering, gleeful children, guides in gorgeous gowns, shopmen
+of some mixed nationality from the Mediterranean, who run out of their
+shops and entreat you to come in. "Only look round, no paying, not
+wanting you buy," they lie. "Look and be pleased; there is no charge
+just only to look."</p>
+
+<p>We stop at last and buy two fly-whisks with short bamboo handles and
+long silvery horsehair tails; of course they do look very smart, but we
+do not buy them just for that, but because they are useful.</p>
+
+<p>As we have found already, nothing less than physical force suffices to
+remove an Egyptian fly, who sticketh closer than his English brother. No
+shake or puff will induce him to stir an eyelid, and yet he is quick on
+the wing and you rarely get him, sleepy as he appears! He doesn't buzz,
+and there generally appears to be only one of him, but if, by the aid of
+a fly-whisk, you get rid of him, another takes his place immediately!</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus099.jpg" width="450" height="385" alt="THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CITY OF KINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>I think this is the gayest scene I have ever looked upon in my life. See
+those mahogany-coloured boatmen in their brilliant scarlet and white
+striped jerseys and blue petticoats, grinning so as to show all their
+milk-white teeth. The boats are apple-green and scarlet, and they are
+reflected in the clear still water, and the dragoman, who marshals all
+the party into them, is a very splendid person indeed, in a long
+overcoat of turquoise blue cloth as soft and fine as a glove, with a
+striped gown of yellow Egyptian silk underneath.</p>
+
+<p>We are off with a party of Cook's tourists to explore the Tombs of the
+Kings on the other side of the river It is a pretty stiff day's work, so
+we are up early, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> is only half-past eight now. As we near the
+other side of the river we see an excited group of donkey-boys who have
+brought their animals over earlier, and now stand expectant, looking
+like a fringe of blue beads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus100.jpg" width="450" height="291" alt="THE FAT LADY ON HER DONKEY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE FAT LADY ON HER DONKEY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Lily best donkey&mdash;Lily name for Americans, Merry Widow for
+Engleesh&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, lady, with me, Sammy best donkey in Egypt, verry good, Sammy my
+donkey, best donkey&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Kitchener, lady, best donkey in Egypt, me speak verry good Engleesh,
+alla way gallop."</p>
+
+<p>And so on in a continuous yell. The dragoman shouts out the numbers of
+the donkeys, and helps the ladies of the party to mount. Some ride on
+side-saddles, others, unused to any form of riding, prefer to get up
+astride, which they find difficult in the tight modern skirts. One
+German girl, after a frantic attempt, has to give it up, and sits
+wobbling on her saddle with her arms round the donkey-boy's neck,
+agonisingly appealing to him not to move! A very stout lady in black is
+lifted on to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> mount by the united efforts of the dragoman and two
+donkey-boys, and, held in position by the boys, moves off, threatening a
+convulsive landslide to one side or the other at every step.</p>
+
+<p>We are lucky in securing two fine greyish-white animals, almost as large
+as mules and very well fed and kept; yours is named "Sirdar" and has a
+single blue bead slung on a string round his neck as a charm, while
+mine, "Tommy Raffles," has a rattling chain of yellow and blue beads and
+much scarlet wool in his harness. You won't have much difficulty, I
+know, as you have been used to a pony since you could walk.</p>
+
+<p>At first the soft powdery sand makes the going stiff, and we have much
+difficulty in restraining our boys, who run behind, from smacking or
+prodding the donkeys as they plough through. These boys are very proud
+and fond of their donkeys and treat them well, but it is the ambition of
+every donkey-boy to see his donkey head the cavalcade, and he is ready
+to die of envy and mortification if any other boy's donkey gets in front
+of him. We pass through clouds of dusty earth and then turn on to uneven
+narrow ways between tall green stalks of growing dhurra, stuff which
+looks like maize, except that it has a heavy head of grain which is
+ground up for making rough bread for the poorest people.</p>
+
+<p>Along by a canal, over a bridge and a railway line we gallop, our
+animals going well. Their trot is impossible, as we soon find, but the
+easy loping canter delightful. We pass many black-clad women working in
+the fields, with crowds of bright-eyed friendly children who murmur
+"'Shish" in the vain hope that we may throw them some money. Then we see
+herds of black goats in among the cut stalks, and a tethered baby camel,
+who looks at us with innocent wondering eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Far off rise up from the plain two mighty seated statues,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> the Colossi,
+set up by Amenhetep <span class="smcap">iii.</span> as part of a temple now vanished. Presently we
+all stop to see another temple, interesting enough, but not so
+interesting as those already visited at Luxor and Karnak.</p>
+
+<p>The dragoman, whose work is not easy, brings up the rear of the
+cavalcade, having managed to keep even behind the fat lady, who has
+stuck to the slippery surface of her saddle with many a desperate plunge
+firmly resisted by her escort.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 253px;">
+<img src="images/illus102.jpg" width="253" height="400" alt="BOATMAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BOATMAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The dragoman describes the temple fluently and intelligently, first in
+English, then in French, and adds a little explanation in German for the
+benefit of two men of that race who have talked loudly in their own
+guttural tongue all the time he has endeavoured to make the rest of the
+party hear. The dragoman does not reel his words off as if he were
+repeating a lesson, as, alas, so many of the guides at our own
+cathedrals do. He is a clever man, well educated and capable. It has
+taken him years to learn all he knows, and it is only the clever boys
+who can become good dragomans. One of our donkey-boys, a bright little
+fellow who speaks far better English than most of his companions, tells
+us, "I am going to be a dragoman." He says it deliberately, with a pause
+between each word to get them correctly. "Thus I speak always with the
+English and the Americans. To the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> English I speak English, which is
+what I have learned, but when I am with Americans I can talk to them in
+their own tongue too."</p>
+
+<p>Laughing, we mount and are off again.</p>
+
+<p>We are now penetrating into the great hills of sandstone we saw afar off
+from the hotel. The road winds into a gorge, and at each turn displays
+more vivid beauty. We feel a strange joy rising within us, so that we
+would like to sing or shout at the tops of our voices. The brilliance of
+the air shows up every line in the great precipices of orange-yellow,
+streaked with red and purple, which rise against a sky of thrilling
+blue. There is not a blade of grass or a leaf to be seen in these vast
+solitudes, only the massive stones, broken and split and scattered, lie
+in the fierce sun or black shadow. We can imagine these defiles looking
+much the same when three or four thousand years ago the funeral
+procession of one of the mighty Pharaohs wound its way into the heart of
+the mountains, carrying the man who had never known opposition or denied
+himself his slightest wish. They were very magnificent these
+processions, composed of hundreds of people who carried all sorts of
+things&mdash;furniture, chariots, boats, animals, fruit and flowers&mdash;with
+tremendous ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>It is a longish ride before we alight again, and leaving the donkeys
+under a slight straw shelter penetrate into the fastnesses of the hills.</p>
+
+<p>How many of these rock-tombs were made here will probably never be
+known, but year by year more are uncovered. The first we step into is
+like a large well-lighted cave cut out of a cliff-side, from it opens
+another cave-like room, and from that another, each sloping downward and
+the whole series giving the impression of a series of puzzle-boxes
+fitting into one another and then drawn out. The walls are covered with
+pictures, paintings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> on plaster, not outline pictures like those we saw
+in the temples, but filled in with blue and green, orange and
+terra-cotta, laid on thickly, and as fresh as the day they were done.
+Ever descending we pass on until we reach the last chamber, where the
+great sarcophagus or coffin of the king was placed right up against the
+face of the rock. The sarcophagus might be a mighty block of granite,
+enclosing a wooden case, and that again another case, probably carved
+and gilt, and finally, as a kernel, there was the body of the king,
+preserved and dried by spices, lying awaiting the final resurrection.
+The Egyptians believed in a future world, but they could not imagine a
+future world without there being human bodies in it such as we have now,
+so they took infinite trouble in preserving the dead body that it might
+be ready for its time of call. Most of the sarcophagi from these tombs
+have been removed and taken to the museum at Cairo, but in one to which
+we penetrate, hewn out at a slope so steep that we have difficulty in
+keeping our feet as we slither down, the mummy has been replaced and is
+left uncovered.</p>
+
+<p>Lit up by electric light we see King Amenhetep <span class="smcap">ii.</span>, with his skin
+blackened to a parchment, drawn tightly over his chiselled aristocratic
+features. In the dome-shaped forehead, the Roman nose, and the tightly
+compressed lips there is an expression of infinite disdain, as if he, in
+his time the mightiest ruler in the world and the leader of
+civilisation, knew that now he was exposed to the gaze of a party of
+outer barbarians whose national histories were but of mushroom growth.
+This king struck terror into the hearts of his enemies; he raided the
+land of Syria, slew seven chiefs with his own hand and brought them back
+to Thebes, hanging head downward from the bows of his boat!</p>
+
+<p>The very day after a king ascended the throne he used to begin hewing
+out the sepulchre where he should lie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> The scenes drawn on the walls
+show what he expected to find in the other world. We see a pair of
+scales with the heart of the dead man in one balance and a feather in
+the other; a monkey sits on the top and adjusts the weight. The heart
+must weigh the feather exactly, for to be over-righteous was as bad as
+being wicked! The dead man also had to pass before forty-two judges, who
+each examined him searchingly as to whether he had committed one
+particular sin. As one of the party remarked in an awe-struck voice,
+"And if he did pass them all safely and another started up and asked him
+if he ever told a lie he'd be done, for no man could deny that he had
+committed any of the forty-two principal sins and remain truthful!"</p>
+
+<p>To accompany the soul to the other world many things used to be buried
+in the tombs, clothes and food and utensils and weapons, and, thanks to
+this custom, numberless things have been saved to show us how the
+ancient Egyptians lived. These, however, have mostly been taken to Cairo
+for safe keeping. But here in Amenhetep's tomb one thing has been left.
+In a small side chamber, with the light falling full upon them, are
+three mummies, each with a hole in the skull and a gash on the breast,
+showing that they were the king's slaves, killed in order that their
+souls might accompany him and serve him beyond the tomb!</p>
+
+<p>They lie there with their hair still on their heads, and even the false
+hair, they used to increase it, showing; on their faces is a ghastly
+grin. We wonder if they submitted quietly, proud of having been chosen,
+or if each fought fiercely for the life which belonged to him and was
+not any man's to take away.</p>
+
+<p>It is very hot and close down in the rock-hewn chamber, and we are glad
+enough to stumble up and out again, though we are blinded by the
+sunshine as we emerge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next part of the day is the hardest of all, for we scramble up a
+mountain-side to gain a splendid view of gorges and valleys on one side
+and the flat plain spreading to the Nile on the other. The view is
+indescribable; from lemon-yellow to orange and saffron are the hills,
+with blue-grey shadows in their folds. Right opposite is one absolutely
+perpendicular, with immense rounded columns looking like giant organ
+pipes rising on its face. A fresh wind is blowing, and when we mount our
+donkeys, which have come round to meet us another way, and ride along a
+path a few feet wide, with no fence of any kind and a drop of some
+hundreds of feet on one side, we are devoutly thankful that the German
+girl and the stout lady went round the other and longer way by the
+valley!</p>
+
+<p>Over the summit the donkeys are set free to get down the steep descent
+as best they may, and they are as sure-footed as goats, but we who
+follow find considerable difficulty as the loose stone and sand fall
+away in miniature avalanches from beneath our slipping feet and we get
+very hot. We are sheltered here from that fresh wind which is such a joy
+in Egypt, the sun is at its height, and we have done a good morning's
+work already after an early start. There, far below, looking like a
+doll's house, is the rest-house where we lunch, and beside it two of the
+men of the Mounted Police Camel Corps in khaki on their long-legged
+beasts.</p>
+
+<p>Whew! That last bit was tough! I am glad to get a long drink and equally
+glad to go on after it to an excellent cold lunch which has been brought
+to meet us. Hard-boiled eggs, salad, cold meat and fruit! We try them
+all and then rest on the verandah looking at the towering orange cliffs
+which hem us in. They seem to hang right over that little temple near,
+to which we shall presently pay a visit. That is the temple of Der El
+Bahari and was built by Hatshepset, the greatest of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> Egyptian queens.
+Hatshepset was the daughter of one king and the wife of another, and
+after her husband's death she ruled for about sixteen years. She made
+expeditions to the Red Sea and acted in every way like a man. In the
+drawings of her on the temple wall she is represented as a man and is
+dressed in man's clothes. When her son-in-law, Thothmes <span class="smcap">iii.</span>, who had
+married her daughter, succeeded her, he scratched out her name wherever
+he found it and chiselled out the pictures of her. He had evidently had
+a bad time while she lived, but he must have been a small-minded and
+spiteful man to take that petty revenge after her death!</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 274px;">
+<img src="images/illus107.jpg" width="274" height="400" alt="A SOLEMN GIRL-CHILD." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A SOLEMN GIRL-CHILD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the way home across the dhurra fields I see you stop riding suddenly
+and stare intently down at something on the ground. I think at first it
+is a scorpion you have found on the patch of light-coloured sand, but it
+is only an immense black beetle, with a strong horny skin and a horn or
+trumpet-shaped excrescence on the front part of its head. He belongs to
+the scarab&aelig;us, or dung-beetles, and big fellows they are; this one would
+just about cover the palm of your hand. The Egyptians called one of
+their gods Khepera, or the beetle, and believed him to be the creator of
+all things, so they used to make images of these beetles and put them in
+their temples; you saw a huge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> one, you remember, on a pedestal at
+Karnak, and any time you are in London you can see them at the British
+Museum. There were also tiny images of them made in stone and amethyst
+and porcelain, and almost anything else, and these were frequently
+buried in the tombs with the mummies. Sometimes they had the name of the
+person with whom they were buried inscribed on the back in hieroglyphic
+writing, or the name of a god. These scarabs, as they are called, are
+bought and worn in rings and ornaments by visitors. The natives quickly
+found out that there was a demand for them, and as they could not always
+find old genuine ones they set to work to make them! Hundreds of new
+ones are palmed off as old in this way on unsuspecting tourists.</p>
+
+<p>"Scarab!"</p>
+
+<p>A solemn girl-child clad in a rust-coloured garment has come up on
+seeing our donkeys halt and holds out a brilliant blue scarab for sale
+in a hot little hand. She nods violently, repeating, "Scarab! Verry
+old." "Found in tombs," says our donkey-boy gravely, willing to help her
+to take us in. He picks it up and pretends to examine it carefully,
+"Genuine anteekar," he pronounces. Laughing, we hand the "genuine
+antique" back to its owner, knowing that it is probably "genuine
+Birmingham," and then we canter after the rest of the party.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus109.jpg" width="450" height="226" alt="A NILE STEAMER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A NILE STEAMER.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE NILE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In my ears is the sound as of the tuning up of a thousand fiddles! I
+hear the agonising scrape of strings, the squeal of the bows! I have
+heard it all before at many a concert, but this time it is intensified a
+thousandfold and penetrates even into my dreams. I imagine I am in a
+concert hall and spring up wildly with the intention of getting outside
+until the music begins, but the movement wakes me, and behold I am not
+at a concert in London on a dim Sunday afternoon, but in a brilliantly
+white two-berth cabin with the sun flooding in through the square
+window! Peering out I see we are running smoothly along up-stream close
+in to a high mud bank, and that is where the noise comes from. It is
+caused by the squeaking of one wooden rod against another as hundreds of
+Egyptian fellaheen raise the water from the Nile to moisten their crops.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long before we are both dressed and out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> examine the
+curious sight. The banks are about the height of a high room, and at the
+distance of, it may be, fifty yards, all the way along them there are
+deep cuts like miniature denes, or chines, running down to the water. At
+the foot of each of these a brown-skinned man stands with his bare feet
+at the edge of the water, gripping with his toes to save himself from
+slipping in the mud. At this time in the morning he is clothed in a
+quantity of garments, mostly mud-colour, but as the sun grows strong he
+throws them aside and stands forth a fine bronze statue with his skin
+gleaming in the clear light. Just above his head there is a pole
+bridging the cut, or chine, and fastened to the middle of it at right
+angles is another, which swings up and down upon it like a see-saw.</p>
+
+<p>A huge lump of mud like a swollen football is plastered on to the far
+end of this, and at the other end a basket or basin made of skin is
+attached to a string. The mud ball is heavy, and when it is allowed to
+go free it hangs down to the ground; but the brown man constantly
+reaches up and raises it by pulling down the basin, which he dips in the
+Nile water, then lets the heavy end swing it up as high as his head,
+when he tips it up, and the water from it flows into a pool at that
+height. Another man stands on the edge of this pool and he has a similar
+arrangement, by means of which he raises the water out of the pool with
+a basin like the first, and there may be another above him, and another
+again. This primitive arrangement is called a <i>shaduf</i>, and by its means
+the water from the Nile is lifted up to the surface of the fields, where
+it runs away in miniature channels to water the roots of the maize. This
+is one of the most extraordinary sights in the world. Think of all the
+mills in which machinery does delicate work like that of the human hand;
+think of the patterns made by the machines, of the newspapers printed
+and folded with very little human guidance, and then leap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> back to this
+clumsy device used now by the Egyptian as it was used by his ancestors
+thousands of years ago! A few pints of muddy water raised by a weight,
+half of it falling out of the badly constructed basin as it goes, and
+the same drop of water handled again and again by four men till the tiny
+trickle reaches the fields! We watch with amazement. The shrieking and
+squeaking of the <i>shadufs</i> goes on, the brown figures stoop down, rise
+again, and swing with regularity, minute after minute. We steam on round
+the next corner and see more of them and yet more again; how many have
+we not seen already in the short time we have been on deck? Multiply
+that times without number for all the miles we came up by train and
+double it to include both banks! Imagination gives way!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus111.jpg" width="450" height="427" alt="A &quot;SHADUF.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">A &quot;SHADUF.&quot;</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't bear it," says the nice American who was in the train with us
+and has now joined us in the trip up to Assouan in one of Cook's
+steamers. "It's maddening! Why can't a whole village form a company and
+get some sort of machine to work? It would water all their crops in a
+tenth of the time."</p>
+
+<p>As he speaks there comes into view something just a little better. At
+the top of one of the deep cuts on the bank two bullocks plod slowly
+round and round in a circle as if they were threshing corn; they work a
+wheel, which revolves horizontally and is fitted into another which
+turns vertically, deep down into the hole it reaches, low enough to
+touch the water at the bottom. Earthenware jars are strung all round it
+like beads on a necklet, and as each pot dips into the water it brings
+up its share, and when it reaches the highest point it tips it into a
+little channel, where it runs away. This is called a <i>saddiyeh</i>. The
+wheels groan and creak, the patient beasts turn in their dizzy circle,
+and the youngster seated on the wheel prods them with a sharp-pointed
+stick when they slacken. At least the water runs away in a continuous
+stream at the top, however tiny.</p>
+
+<p>Then the steamer takes a sharp turn, leaves the bank, and careers across
+into midstream! We go up on to the top deck and see three dark-skinned
+men, warmly wrapped up in brown coats, sitting in a little glasshouse in
+the bows and watching earnestly the channel ahead.</p>
+
+<p>This is the <i>reis</i>, or captain, with his two assistants. They know every
+turn and dip in the river; but the river changes ever, no two days is it
+alike as it falls and washes away a bank or deposits sand so as to make
+an island where none was before. So the three men watch intently and
+steer the boat to this side and that wherever they can find the deepest
+channel. The Nile is low for this time of year and caution is necessary;
+when there is any doubt as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> there being enough water, one of the crew
+below handles a long pole, dipping it in to find the bottom and calling
+out the depth as he goes.</p>
+
+<p>There are twenty passengers or so on the boat and they sit about the
+sunny decks watching the panorama of the banks and the wonderful
+changing scenes ahead, hour by hour. Hardly anywhere would you find a
+greater variety of nationalities than on one of these Nile boats, for
+Egypt draws people from all parts of the world with her mystery and
+beauty. The odd people one meets add to the interest, and the strange
+manners, which are not ours, are like flavouring in the dish of travel,
+which, if it were composed only of scenes of perpetual beauty, might be
+a little insipid.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, I am English and you are Scottish, we have our friend the
+American and four of his compatriots, not by any means so delightful as
+he is. He takes care to steer clear of them, we notice! One of them is a
+little man who might be any age from twenty to fifty; if we examine him
+with field-glasses we shouldn't be able to discover how old he is. His
+yellow skin, drawn tightly over a bony face, gives no sign of age or
+youth. He eats sweets all day out of a box as large as a child's coffin,
+and he is attended by three stout ladies, doubtless "his mother and his
+aunts." They are veiled and swathed in wraps, and seem to spend their
+time gossiping or asleep in the innermost recesses of the cabin. We
+never once catch them admiring the scenery or taking any interest in the
+wonders we pass. Then there is a Swiss, a gentle-mannered bronzed man
+with a brown beard; he speaks only French, and in an unobtrusive way
+seems to have seen a great deal of the world; we discover, for one
+thing, that he has lived out in the desert near Tunis for many years.
+There are three Russians, mother, father, and daughter, who speak
+practically nothing but Russian, with a few words of French; they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> are
+brave to have started out on such a journey so ill-equipped. Coming
+across a Russian dragoman in Cairo they trusted him joyfully; he bought
+three temple tickets for them at their expense and promised to meet them
+somewhere up the Nile. They seem to expect to find him sitting on every
+sandbank, and their faith is pathetic; they'll never see those tickets
+again, for the man will sell them to the next party of victims. Then
+there is a Belgian, also a couple of lively pleasant French people, and
+two Germans, a sister and brother, who dress in clothes intended to be
+very sporting.</p>
+
+<p>It is an interesting crowd, and it is well kept in hand by the manager,
+who looks like a fair-haired, brown-faced boy of two-and-twenty, but has
+been everywhere and speaks half a dozen languages fluently. In addition
+to this he sketches in water colours, plays the fiddle, and breaks in
+horses! You have to travel to come across people like that! Here he is
+nothing so out of the way&mdash;every dragoman is able to talk in three
+languages at least. Doesn't it spur you on to feel how much we have to
+learn and how ignorant we are in our stay-at-home villages?</p>
+
+<p>All the morning we sit about and watch the graceful white-sailed boats
+coming down with cargoes of every kind. Sometimes we see them stranded
+on a hidden sandbank with the crew making frantic efforts to get them
+off again. We see the reaches lying ahead glittering like jewels in the
+sun, and then we land and ride a short way to a temple, under the care
+of the dragoman of the boat. The most moving thing in all that temple is
+a set of scenes of a hippopotamus hunt shown with great spirit; the poor
+little hippo looks more like a pig when he is at the bottom of the water
+with a spear or harpoon sticking in him, but when they haul him up by
+means of a noose round one leg the ancient artist represents him
+becoming bigger and bigger as he comes to the surface!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The walls are, besides, covered with all the usual scenes of the king
+making offerings to the gods, and overriding his enemies, and doing all
+those noble things which kings wanted their posterity to know about
+them.</p>
+
+<p>A high-pitched voice, speaking in a hyper-refined affected tone, breaks
+in on our enjoyment; it belongs to one of the English people from the
+boat, a lady who evidently considers it her mission in life to instruct
+people; information flows from her ten finger-tips, she cannot help it,
+she was born to be a schoolmistress certainly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt," she says, "that the king
+is wearing; sometimes you see him with one and sometimes with the other,
+here he has both together."</p>
+
+<p>As this is about the first thing a dragoman tells anyone in the first
+temple he sees, and as it is repeated at least once at every temple
+afterwards, only an idiot could fail to know it. We murmur something
+politely and turn away. Round a corner we stop to admire the rich colour
+still left in the ceiling, where a heavenly blue, covered with golden
+stars, represents the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"When we were here three years ago," says the lady at our elbows, "they
+had not uncovered those pillars, but we are told&mdash;that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The peace and beauty are spoilt! Again we murmur something and make a
+dive to get away, but are confronted by a clean-shaven man in glasses.
+"When we were here three years ago," he begins, "perhaps my wife has
+told you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>It is rude, but there is nothing for it but to bolt; people like that
+would take the effervescence off newly opened champagne! We leave them
+confronting each other, and wonder what they do when they are alone
+together! Do they force their mixture of guidebook and water on each
+other?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus116.jpg" width="450" height="235" alt="THE DAM AT ASSOUAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE DAM AT ASSOUAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we look back upon Egypt these river days will stand out most
+clearly, for the glory of them and the interest of them are unfailing.
+We have to leave this boat at Assouan, but we shall come back and go
+right down the Nile to Cairo on our return journey, so that is something
+to look forward to.</p>
+
+<p>At Assouan we are not going to stop but to change on to another steamer,
+one belonging to the Government this time, and we shall penetrate
+farther into the heart of the land to see something, which, after the
+Sphinx, is the most wonderful thing in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>But we can't step off one steamer on to another, for at Assouan is the
+first of the many cataracts that for ages has hindered the navigation of
+the Nile. The river, hemmed in between two rocky sides, tears down,
+dashing over stones and whirling round corners in a dangerous way. So
+the steamer for the upper part of the river waits above the cataract and
+we have to make a short train journey of half an hour or so to join it.</p>
+
+<p>Picture the scene at an English railway station of any size, with its
+solidly-built platform and its gloomy roof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> and its row of uniformed
+porters drawn up waiting the arrival of the incoming train. I don't
+suppose anywhere you could find anything less like this than the station
+at Assouan where we await our train this afternoon. There are great palm
+trees springing out of the platform itself, not fenced in in any way.
+There are masses of scarlet poinsettias growing. And the porters! yes,
+they <i>are</i> porters, not criminals waiting to be hanged! There they
+stand, a ragged regiment indeed, dressed in any sort of garment that
+takes their fancy. Most of them look as if they had collected all the
+dish-clouts and dusters which had seen service and piled them on anyhow.
+To add to their adornment each man has a double coil of shabby-looking
+rope hung round his neck, this is to fasten together the luggage he
+hopes to carry. The men are of all sizes and all colours. That
+good-looking fellow at the end is not darker than a sun-browned
+Englishman, while that stout, round-faced, thick-lipped one next to him
+is as black as the polished boot seen in an advertisement. He is a
+Nubian, for here we are on the borders of Nubia, now counted part of
+Egypt. The porters are making a tremendous hullabaloo, chattering and
+quarrelling at the tops of their voices, so a native policeman in khaki
+comes along and smacks one of them hard on the side of his face, and
+then catches him a crack on the other side to make him keep his balance;
+the man does not resent it at all&mdash;he rubs his cheek and takes the hint.
+Fancy a policeman in our country smacking a porter on the face; what a
+row there would be!</p>
+
+<p>Here is the train! The engine-driver and his mate are dressed in shabby
+European clothes crowned by turbans which have gaudy orange and red
+handkerchiefs twisted round them. They get down on the platform, and
+suddenly the fireman sees a rather unpleasant-looking man, with a beard,
+standing away from the others; he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> rushes at him, bows low before him,
+and finally kisses both his hands. The man is probably a sheikh of the
+Mohammedan church.</p>
+
+<p>The train is a corridor one, and we mount the platform at the end of a
+carriage and find ourselves in a compartment thick with dust, where the
+seats vary from straight leather-covered benches to comfortable-looking
+basket-chairs. The place is crammed with "kit"; dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases, sword-cases and leather bags fill every corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me," says a pleasant-voiced sunburnt man as he stoops to remove
+some of his things to make room for us. "We've come right up from Cairo
+and things get a bit scattered," he adds apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>When we get clear of the town we find that in addition to glass windows
+and wooden shutters there are also windows of blue glass to keep off the
+glare, a splendid idea, as they do not hinder the view. One of these is
+up, and peeping through it we get our first real glimpse of the desert,
+transformed as if it lay beneath bright moonlight. From the other side
+we can see it as it is in its yellow colouring. How fascinating! Its
+runs away in sweeping low waves to a line of hills and is crossed by
+caravan tracks; even as we watch we see a man riding a small donkey
+ahead of a string of camels laden with huge bales. The railway is still
+but a small thing in Egypt; it runs right ahead, with few side-lines,
+and from it the desert tracks lead off in many directions. The camel,
+who has been the bearer of Egyptian traffic for generations, still does
+a large share of the transport. A good camel is expensive, but a man who
+owns one is sure of a livelihood, for he works backwards and forwards
+across the great solitudes, eating his handful of dates or grain, and
+drinking the water he carries with him, if he is not lucky enough to
+camp near a well. Oddly enough camels are not represented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> on the
+wall-drawings of the ancient Egyptians, and though it is true they were
+probably not to be found in the country in the very earliest times, yet
+they were certainly introduced as early as the horse, who is often shown
+in battle-scenes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus119.jpg" width="450" height="352" alt="MEN OF THE BISHARIN TRIBE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">MEN OF THE BISHARIN TRIBE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>What rivets our attention directly it comes into sight is an encampment
+of low mat huts like beehives right out in the midst of the sand.</p>
+
+<p>"Those belong to the Bisharin," says the same fair-haired, keen-faced
+man who had first spoken; "tribe of fuzzy-wuzzies! They extend right
+away from here to the Red Sea. Live on raw grain mostly. Quaint lot!"</p>
+
+<p>Some of the men from the camp are standing near the railway line, so we
+can see them well; they are very tall and extremely handsome, with
+well-cut features and well-proportioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> figures. Their hair is cut
+exactly after the fashion of the palm trees, with a tuft standing up in
+the middle and two tufts dropping away from it on each side. These men
+are quiet enough now that they have learnt the British power, but not so
+long ago they were inflamed with fanatical hatred.</p>
+
+<p>You have heard of the dervishes who were killed in thousands at
+Omdurman, outside Khartoum, in the great battle at which Lord Kitchener
+won his title when he freed the Soudan from the power of the Mahdi? Now,
+having seen the Bisharin, you can imagine what dervishes looked like.
+For they dressed their hair in the same way, they wore the same
+dirty-white garments, and as they came yelling onward at a run,
+brandishing their weapons, it must have taken some courage for the
+Egyptian soldiers to meet them steadily.</p>
+
+<p>All the men in the carriage with us are going on up to Khartoum and
+beyond. They are soldiers, administrators, and Government officials, men
+whose lives are passed on the outposts of civilisation, and who carry
+the British ideals of cleanliness, honesty, and straight-dealing far
+into the desert; but they do not talk about it, as Kipling says they
+speak:&mdash;"After the use of the English in straight-flung words and few&mdash;"</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Baulking the end half won for an instant dole of praise.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stand to your work and be wise&mdash;certain of sword and pen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who are neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Khartoum is the capital of the Soudan, but we have not arrived in the
+Soudan yet. This great province was won from barbarism and brutality by
+the English, who had trained and commanded the Egyptian army for the
+purpose through years of heart-breaking work, and it is held jointly by
+England and Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Then we arrive at Shellal, the station where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> steamer waits, and in
+a moment we are plunged into a turmoil of confusion and shouting.</p>
+
+<p>The red sun is setting in a flame of glory over the great lake-like
+expanse studded with black rocks; this is the huge dam or reserve of
+water held up for the use of the crops when the Nile goes down. The
+scene beggars description; bags, bundles, bales, boxes are pitched out
+pell-mell. Gleaming black faces are lit up by the flames of leaping
+fires lit on the sand. Petticoated porters thrust metal numbers at us so
+that we may be able to recognise them again and reclaim our luggage
+safely. We make our way to the steamer and mount to the first-class deck
+and look down on the whirl of turbans and red fezes (also called
+tarbooshes) below. The perpetual chatter, the long low cries, the
+beating shout of men staggering under heavy loads make up a resounding
+din. Clamped boxes, camp-chairs, enamel basins, dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases are carried swinging up the gangway. Here is a man wildly
+waving a gun-case which a non-commissioned officer wrenches from him;
+another is struggling under a folded tent, the end of which catches on a
+post and nearly precipitates him into the water. Black Nubian sailors in
+white and blue jumpers are wrestling with an endless series of
+mail-bags; third-class passengers, lost under piles of bedding, straggle
+into a great barge alongside. In the midst of it all one sailor detaches
+himself a little from the rest and drops down on his knees on the quay,
+prostrating himself and bowing with his forehead to the ground; he rises
+again, stands straight, with head erect, then down he goes again. He is
+praying at sunset, as a good Mohammedan is told to do. No one notices
+him or ridicules him. What would happen to an English sailor who knelt
+to say his prayers on an English dock? We feel that we have something to
+learn from this people, who are at all events not ashamed of their
+religion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A man is selling oranges on the quay, another has large round flat
+loaves of bread tucked well under his arms and hugged against his body.
+A black hand, extended from the lowest deck beneath us, grasps one of
+these loaves and begins to finger it with a view to purchase; we cannot
+see the owner of the hand, but we can see his fingers feeling cautiously
+all around that loaf; he nips it between finger and thumb, he prods it,
+kneads it, rubs it, and finally, when no inch of it has been untouched,
+he hands over reluctantly a small coin and withdraws with the bread.</p>
+
+<p>"Hope that isn't for us," says the cheerful voice of a young officer
+leaning over the rail beside us in the dark. "Think I'll cut off my
+crust at dinner to-night on the off-chance, anyway!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus123.jpg" width="450" height="407" alt="AN EGYPTIAN SOLDIER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN EGYPTIAN SOLDIER.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>A MILLION SUNRISES</h3>
+
+
+<p>It is very cold and quite dark when I wake. The steamer is anchored
+close up to the bank and not a sound comes from the still water. My
+blankets are very comfortable; it can't be time to turn out yet. It is
+an effort even to stretch out a hand and strike a light to see my
+watch&mdash;5.15! Yes, we ought to go!</p>
+
+<p>You take some waking, and only my threat of, "You'll never get another
+chance in your life," brings you out of your bunk at last.</p>
+
+<p>If you've ever done anything nastier than trying to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> dress against time,
+two together in a small cabin on a cold morning in the pitch dark, I'd
+like to know it. The electric light is off, because the engines are not
+running, and there are no candles. By the time we've got into some sort
+of clothing we're both at snarling-point. Twice I've violently tried to
+put on your boots, thinking they were mine, and I know you've got my
+shirt on, because I couldn't find it and had to drag out a clean one!</p>
+
+<p>A walk along the cold dark deck and across a slippery plank to the mud
+bank does not improve matters. Apparently we have this exhilarating
+entertainment all to ourselves, for the rest of the fifteen passengers
+have not appeared.</p>
+
+<p>The sand is like the softest silk, and it seems sometimes as if we must
+be walking backwards so little headway do we make. If it wasn't for this
+icy wind I should think I was still dreaming. All the time that red bar
+in the east glows steadily brighter, and warns us that if we want to see
+one of the grandest sights in the world&mdash;Abu Simbel by sunrise&mdash;we must
+hurry up.</p>
+
+<p>When at last we get clear of the sand we find ourselves on a piece of
+ground cut up by cracks wide enough to put a foot in. There is just
+sufficient light to keep us from twisting our ankles if we walk along
+with our eyes glued to the ground, and so we get along somehow, till
+suddenly we stop&mdash;sunrise is here!</p>
+
+<p>A considerable distance in front of us and above our level we see three
+mighty seated figures and the remains of a fourth in a flat recess
+chiselled out of the side of a great rounded cliff. That first touch of
+dawn has tinged them with rosy pink, and they sit with their faces to
+the sunrise, which they must have seen somewhere about one million times
+already. Night succeeding day, day succeeding night, light following
+darkness, darkness following light, thus has time flickered before them
+throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> their stupendous age. As we creep nearer and climb higher
+they seem to rise and rise in size. Silently we seat ourselves on a
+stone, forgetting the shivering wind, and we stare and gaze spellbound
+at the triumphant eager expression on those mighty features, which, as
+the dawn spreads, softens to a deep complacence. Then the pink changes
+to a splendour of living gold, which sweeps over like a curtain, and the
+full majesty of them strikes us almost like a blow.</p>
+
+<p>Their expression has in it something akin to that of all mighty
+time-resisting images set up by man; it is found in the face of the
+Sphinx and on that of the Buddhas of the East. It is an expression of
+soul-crushing superiority, so without doubt of its own unassailable
+dignity that it can afford to be benign. We must make up a word and call
+it "supremity"&mdash;it is the only one that fits it.</p>
+
+<p>Under the knee of each mighty figure is the plump outline of a little
+wife, small it looks from here, but draw nearer still, stand right under
+that colossus on the right and you will find that she is twice the
+height of a man.</p>
+
+<p>As they tower above us, seeming to grow greater every instant as the
+light filters into the crevices, we get some idea of the monster size of
+these noble statues, and discover that each foot is nearly as long as a
+man! From the broken face of the sloping cliff they have been hewn, not
+built and pieced together and brought here from elsewhere, but born full
+size, springing to life from out the living rock. They all represent the
+king with whom we are already familiar, Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span>, who caused this
+great temple to be made to celebrate his victory over the Kheta, a tribe
+of Syrians, living far away by the river Orontes in the north of the
+Holy Land.</p>
+
+<p>Two on each side of the temple doorway the statues sit, and between
+them, in low relief, is the small figure of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> the god Harmakhis. Running
+above, across them all, is an inscription, part of which signifies&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I give to thee all life and strength."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Look up at it beyond those towering immovable heads, and from it again
+to the rough cliff untouched by tool, and from that to the sky, now of
+the purest, softest blue, hanging like a canopy above.</p>
+
+<p>The high black doorway of the temple lies like a gash on the face of the
+cliff, and on one day of the year the ray of light from the rising sun
+falls through it clean as a shot arrow. The black-robed guardian has
+been expecting us, he stands waiting, holding his staff of office, and
+admits us to the interior. It is very dark, and even with the light of
+the flickering candle he holds up it is difficult to make out those
+great columns, each seventeen feet high, carved with an image of the god
+Osiris. As for the deep-cut pictures everywhere on the walls we can only
+get the merest glimpses of them. We pass on through several halls,
+noting how the angles and lines are absolutely plumb and true, and come
+to the innermost sanctuary, where we find the king again as one of four
+seated statues, not very large, the other three being gods! That was the
+idea Rameses had of his own importance!</p>
+
+<p>Then it grows on us with increasing wonder that all this temple&mdash;the
+walls, the columns, the statues&mdash;are cut out of the actual rock, and
+that all the stone dislodged in the cutting must have been carried out
+through that doorway. How was it achieved? The depth of the temple to
+its farthest wall is one hundred and eighty-five feet, or almost three
+times a cricket-pitch! Imagine this depth driven in to the rock and
+cleared out to a great height without any machine power or modern tools!
+And this was accomplished in the reign of one king. Rameses reigned some
+sixty years, and his great victory over the Kheta was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> five years after
+his coronation, so perhaps sixty years is the longest we can give for
+the construction of the temple, and it was probably much less. The story
+goes that in this great battle the king, cut off from his men and alone
+in the midst of a hostile army, performed prodigies of valour; he slew
+and hewed right and left until he sent the greater part of the Syrian
+army flying before him; all this is recorded on the walls. Of course in
+the case of kings these doings are apt to be magnified, still, there is
+no doubt that this was one of the most memorable occasions of his life,
+and he has certainly caused it to be remembered by building this
+enduring monument.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/illus127.jpg" width="300" height="400" alt="A CHILD HOLDS OUT A STRANGE LITTLE BEAST." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A CHILD HOLDS OUT A STRANGE LITTLE BEAST.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We hear voices, and are joined by half a dozen of our fellow-travellers
+from the steamer. As we all walk back together a child sidles up and
+holds out a strange little beast with a head like a skull and a long
+tail like a rat. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> is about as big as your hand. One of the army men
+takes it and puts it in the sleeve of his green tweed coat, and as he
+walks along carrying it the quaint little beast turns a greenish colour.
+It is a chameleon and has the faculty of changing to the colour of its
+background whatever that may be; this forms a protection against its
+enemies, who cannot easily see it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll keep it," says the soldier, laughing and giving the child a coin.
+"He is a useful little beggar. You should see that tongue of his flick
+out and catch an unwary fly half a foot away."</p>
+
+<p>The steamer hoots a warning note and we all scramble on board hastily.
+Yes, I <i>told</i> you it was my shirt!</p>
+
+<p>An hour or so later we pass the boundary into the Soudan.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we are out of Egypt," says another of our friends, a Government
+official with years of experience behind him. "The Soudan is a greatly
+superior place; no one is allowed to bother you here&mdash;we don't let them.
+The children don't even know the meaning of the word <i>bakshish</i>; they
+are not allowed to learn it."</p>
+
+<p>This sounds comforting and gives a good prospect for the day we shall
+have to spend at our stopping-place, Wady Haifa, before going back on
+the steamer to Assouan.</p>
+
+<p>There is no railway between Assouan and Wady Haifa, and so Government
+steamers run all the year round to bridge the gap between the two ends
+of the railway. In the season Cook runs steamers too, and they give much
+more time for passengers to see Abu Simbel and other temples on the way;
+unfortunately, as we are too early in the year, we could not take
+advantage of them and had to go on a Government boat.</p>
+
+<p>The men we have been with are all passing on by rail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> from Wady Haifa,
+and when we land there we go in the afternoon to see them off at the
+station. They are a keen, hard-bitten crew, and make us feel proud of
+our countrymen; they are reticent mostly, bearing the unmistakable stamp
+of responsibility. Men who "build the Empire" are little apt to "slop
+over" or demand sympathy. The boyish vigour remains with them later than
+with most men, but it is tempered by a certain hardness outside. The
+train is particularly comfortable and well managed, with sleeping-cars
+that bear comparison with the best in Europe, and a good dining-car; and
+it is necessary, for these men have a journey of a day and a night
+before reaching Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan, and the way lies
+right across barren desert, where the sand insidiously creeps in at
+every chink in spite of the closely shut windows. To some of them indeed
+Khartoum is only a jumping-off place. There is one army man who received
+orders to leave Cairo at ten days' notice and plunge into Central
+Africa, there to hold an outpost as the only white man for hundreds of
+miles around. He knows little of what is expected of him beyond the fact
+that he is to purchase a year's stores in Khartoum, and that when he has
+gone as far as boat and waterway can take him, he will have to march at
+least a hundred miles through country where his equipment must be
+carried by natives, as it is the haunt of the dreaded tsetse fly whose
+bite is fatal to animals. He has a map made up mostly of rivers
+"unexplored" and country "unknown." It looks quite full of information
+and names when you merely glance at it, but when you begin to handle it
+you find a great deal of the print tells you only what is not there. The
+owner of it hardly knows what language he will have to speak, but he is
+as pleased about it all as a girl going to her first ball. In his own
+words, he "has got his chance." When we ask him what he is going to
+take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> with him, he answers with a merry twinkle, "I started with two
+dozen tooth-brushes; I should think in their line they would be enough."
+So long as England produces men of this metal she need not fear the
+decadence of the race.</p>
+
+<p>When we have parted from them all we stroll down the bazaar at Wady
+Haifa and are immediately followed by a horde of children of all ages,
+sizes, and descriptions, who, whenever we stop and look around at them,
+say with growing confidence, "Bakshish, bakshish!" even the tiny fat
+babe who can scarcely toddle murmurs "'Shish!"</p>
+
+<p>Still pursued by the horde we make our way to a tea-house, where
+numerous natives of Haifa sit out in a little compound surrounded by a
+wooden fence and refresh themselves. We order tea, and get it after some
+difficulty; but it is more because the attendant guesses what we would
+be likely to ask for than because he understands us that we eventually
+are provided with a small pot of quite decent tea.</p>
+
+<p>While we drink the children gather from afar; every one in Haifa under
+the age of fourteen is there I should say. They glue themselves to the
+fence and force their little faces between the posts, or spike their
+chins on the top and then watch in solemn deadly earnest the ways of
+these strange beings whom fate has so kindly sent to amuse them. The
+rest-house attendant does not approve of these manners, so he slips out
+of a side-door with a basin of water in his hand and pitches it straight
+over the little crew as if they were a flock of intrusive chickens; they
+fly, shrieking with delight, and return in thicker swarms than ever
+inside of two minutes.</p>
+
+<p>An affable gentleman in a gown seats himself beside us.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you good-day," he says in English, and we return his greeting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am dragoman here," he continues.</p>
+
+<p>We point to one small girl with a face quite different from that of the
+other children, and her hair done in innumerable little tight pigtails,
+and ask him who she is. "Nubian," he says. "Eat castor oil, plenty oil,
+like it much." We tell him to bring the child to us, but directly he
+translates, she flies screaming, is captured by the other children, and
+a noise begins like that inside the parrot-house at the Zoo. I explain
+that we don't want her to be frightened, but that if she will come and
+speak to us she shall have bakshish. The magic word produces instant
+calm, the child comes forward at once with coquettish assurance and
+when, through the interpreter, we inquire her name, and she tells us it
+is "Nafeesa," we give her half a piastre and let her go.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 235px;">
+<img src="images/illus131.jpg" width="235" height="400" alt="A LITTLE NUBIAN GIRL." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A LITTLE NUBIAN GIRL.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we start off again for the steamer the whole crowd follows hard on
+our heels, for it is we who provide the free circus to-day. One mite
+trotting forward with his eyes glued on us goes smack into a tree and so
+hurts his little face that he covers it with a crooked arm and sets off
+homewards wailing softly.</p>
+
+<p>This is really a deserving case, even in England it is allowable to
+soothe the feelings of a hurt child, so we mutter "Bakshish," and all
+the eager crew rush after the little suffering child, yelling,
+"Bakshish," and they bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> him back triumphantly with the tears already
+dried on his hurt face.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the Government official!</p>
+
+<p>Now we are off really! Back down the Nile and good-bye to this glorious
+land. Rapidly we fly down-stream, past Abu Simbel, past the sweeps of
+deep rich yellow sand seen nowhere south of Assouan in such glorious
+colouring; sand that is swept smooth by the wind into great banks and
+drifts with sharp edges like snow-drifts; past masses of plum-coloured
+rock sticking up out of it; past defiles of stony mountains falling
+sheer to the water; hiding here and there in their folds tiny villages
+indistinguishable from the rocks without glasses. There is hardly a
+<i>shaduf</i> to be seen and very little cultivation, it is either desert or
+stony hills on each side. Grand beyond thought is it when seen in the
+flaming light of the afterglow!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 318px;">
+<img src="images/illus132.jpg" width="318" height="450" alt="THE PEOPLE GOING HOME IN THE EVENINGS&mdash;WATER-CARRIERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PEOPLE GOING HOME IN THE EVENINGS&mdash;WATER-CARRIERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At Assouan we have time for a glimpse at the great dam, extending for
+over a mile in length and built of masonry eighty-two feet thick at the
+bottom. This banks up the water, we have already seen, among the hills
+into a prodigious lake when the great swirl of the river comes down at
+flood-time, and thus much of it, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> would have rushed away and been
+lost, is stored and let out gradually through the sluice-gates as
+required.</p>
+
+<p>Then we change on to one of Cook's steamers, and for days we fly
+down-stream to Cairo. We see the green fields of maize, and we watch the
+people going home in the evenings with the tired oxen and the little
+donkeys carrying their provender on their backs. And one day we arrive
+at Cairo and take the train for Port Said.</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye to Egypt! Mysterious, beautiful land! Never in all our
+wanderings round the globe shall we come upon a country more
+interesting.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus134.jpg" width="450" height="178" alt="JERUSALEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">JERUSALEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM</h3>
+
+
+<p>We have passed along the south coast of Europe and have been into a
+corner of Africa, and now we are going to set foot on a new
+continent&mdash;Asia. From Port Said, before we go on eastward, I want you to
+see just a little of the Holy Land&mdash;the scene of the Bible. The Holy
+Land stands by itself, apart, and though it is in Asia it doesn't seem
+to belong to it. Someone once said that it is to the world what a church
+is to a town&mdash;the centre of religion. Anyway, it is curious and
+interesting to notice that it forms the middle point where three
+continents meet, so that they all share it. I expect you know the
+position quite well. At the east end the Mediterranean does not run into
+a point as it does at Gibraltar, but comes up against a straight wall of
+land which cuts it off squarely, and this straight line is the coast of
+Palestine, better known as the Holy Land. If the schoolboys of Palestine
+were set to draw a map of their own country, they would find it much
+easier than a British boy would if told to make a map of his country.
+For all that the Jewish boy would have to do would be to make a fairly
+straight line, sloping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> a little out at the bottom end. There would be
+hardly any indentations on it and only one small bay.</p>
+
+<p>Palestine, of course, is the country of the Jews, though people of many
+other races and nations live there, and thousands of the Jews are
+scattered in all parts of the world. Some people dream of restoring all
+the Jews to their own land, but it is difficult to see what good it
+would do them. Palestine is held at present by the Turks, but everyone
+can visit it when they please. It is not a very large country, only
+about the size of Wales, and yet there isn't a country in the world to
+equal it in importance. Thousands of people visit it every year in spite
+of the fact that it is very difficult to get there. There are no good
+harbours, and the landing at Jaffa, which is the principal port for
+Jerusalem, has to be done in small boats. As we have to make our visit
+in the winter we may find the sea rough and dangerous, and may even be
+carried on north of Jaffa and have to come back on another boat as some
+friends of mine did. The Holy Land is not great or powerful or even
+beautiful nowadays, though in the spring the wild flowers are lovely.
+Seen in the winter it is just a rather barren, stony land, with many
+hills, and it is inhabited by very poor people. Yet this little country
+has been more fought over than any other. For centuries there were
+crusaders, or soldiers of the cross, who went out to try to conquer it,
+to hold it in Christian keeping, but they did not succeed.</p>
+
+<p>We must leave our heavy luggage at Port Said, to be picked up again on
+our return, and only take what we can carry in handbags. The rather
+small steamer which is to take us starts in the evening, and it is best
+to go straight to bed on board, as we shall have much to go through when
+we arrive to-morrow morning. After a rather disturbed night we are glad
+to get up and dress and come on deck. The ship is at anchor off Jaffa,
+tossing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> up and down on the grey water, so that we have to clutch at
+handrails and hold on to keep our footing on the slippery deck, which is
+cumbered up with bags and bundles and people and crates in a most
+confusing way.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus136.jpg" width="450" height="195" alt="JAFFA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">JAFFA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>All around the ship are big clumsy-looking boats filled with swarthy
+shouting men wearing turbans and immense baggy blue trousers with enough
+stuff in them to clothe a whole family! Except that they are not armed
+we might imagine we were held up by pirates! In front of us, a little
+distance off, are cruel jagged rocks over which the waves pour and dash,
+spouting up in cascades as they come slap on the hard surfaces.</p>
+
+<p>One of the boats is close to the ship and the men in her are hanging on
+by a rope which they gather up or let out as they rise and fall at the
+bottom of the long slippery gangway, much worse than that we climbed at
+Toulon. The men in our ship are pitching in bags and bundles very
+cleverly as the boat comes up, and among the things we see our own brown
+bags. Very soon we shall be pitched in too! How will you like that?</p>
+
+<p>Near us is a very fat Turkish lady, who is so rolled up in clothes, head
+and all, that it is quite possible she might be mistaken for a
+feather-bed. Two sailors get hold of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> her and carry her down the
+gangway, depositing her neatly in the boat as it swings near.</p>
+
+<p>Before you have quite realised what has happened a muscular man has
+caught you up like a sack of potatoes. You are run down the gangway with
+his hand on your arm like a vice, the boat comes up, and just at exactly
+the right second, when it balances on the crest of the wave, your captor
+lets you go and you land on the seat gently and sink away again with the
+boat. I follow, but am not so lucky, for the next wave catches the boat
+awry and sluices me from neck to heel! However, I have a stout coat on
+and do not mind. Then, in the heavily laden boat, with the Turkish lady
+and the bags and the bundles, we start for the distant shore.</p>
+
+<p>This is the principal landing-place for Palestine! Babies and bishops,
+pilgrims and pigs, pianos and potatoes have all to be pitched into
+boats!</p>
+
+<p>Our excitement is not over yet, for as we near the rocks it looks as if
+we must be smashed by the heavy waves. The roar of the surf is so great
+that we cannot hear each other speak, and the rain and foam bespatter
+our faces. We blink and hang on to each other, see-sawing up and down,
+and wondering every second if we shall be feeling colder yet when we are
+actually in the water, and then the boat swings up on a wave and runs
+through into calmer water beyond.</p>
+
+<p>We thread our way in and out of narrow channels, still between rocks,
+and see ahead of us a desolate land with a queer flat-roofed town.</p>
+
+<p>When at last we are on firm ground our guide leads us quickly through
+some narrow dirty streets, and before we have time to notice anything we
+are in a noisy, fussy little train, bound for Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>We are actually in the land of Israel, the land where all the Bible
+stories happened, not only those of the New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> Testament but also of the
+Old! Here Noah lived when the Flood came, here Abraham and Isaac and
+Jacob pitched their tents and pastured their flocks. From here the sons
+of Jacob, who was also called Israel, went down to the land of Egypt to
+buy corn when there was a terrible famine lasting many years. We know
+that they settled there, having found their brother Joseph in great
+power; and long, long after they had all been dead their descendants
+multiplied into a great people and were treated as slaves by the
+Egyptians, so God brought them back again to the land of their
+ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived here, after wandering many years in the wilderness,
+they found the country occupied by stranger races whom they fought and
+conquered; among them were the Hivites and Jebusites and Amorites and
+Hittites. Then the Israelites became a great nation and had kings of
+their own. The second king, David, was of the tribe of Judah, one of the
+best of old Israel's sons, and he drove out the people who occupied
+Jerusalem and made it his capital. His son, Solomon, built here the most
+wonderful temple ever known. But later on trouble came upon the
+Israelites, and mightier nations from the east swept down upon them, and
+carried them away as slaves. After long years of captivity some came
+back to Jerusalem, and they were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin,
+but the other tribes returned no more, and no one knows what became of
+them; they are spoken of to this day as the Lost Ten Tribes, but the
+descendants of Judah were called Jews. These Jews, who returned and
+lived again in Jerusalem and other parts of the country, were again
+conquered by the Romans, and when the Saviour Jesus Christ was born the
+Romans held the supreme power in the Holy Land.</p>
+
+<p>As the train goes on we see a bare and bleak country, which looks as if
+giants had had a desperate fight and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> hurled stones at each other, after
+which the stones had lain there ever since. This was the part of the
+land inhabited by the Philistines, against whom the Israelites had so
+many and such bitter fights. It is quite likely that Goliath of Gath,
+whom David fought, once strode among the fields; and we know that the
+great Israelitish hero, Samson, the strong man, lived about here and
+wandered in among the valleys. Most people are disappointed with the
+country unless they come in the spring, but when you get used to it you
+find it has a wonderful charm.</p>
+
+<p>It takes nearly four hours in the train to reach Jerusalem station. It
+seems quite odd to think of Jerusalem having a station. We have heard
+the Bible stories so long that we forget that they are real, and that
+they actually happened just as truly as the stories in our own history.
+Jerusalem is a real town, just as real as York, though it is not like
+it, except for the fact that it has city walls. The station is a good
+way from the town, and a mob of eager men are waiting there to catch any
+tourists and drive them up. They are quite ready to fight each other or
+to clutch us to gain this privilege, and if it were not for our guide we
+might be torn in pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Our dragoman is a clever man; he chooses his driver at once and helps us
+into the ramshackle old conveyance and off we go over the hillside. Soon
+we see ahead of us the encircling wall of the city on a height above,
+and we wind up to it by gradually inclined roads till we come to the
+great gate. We cannot have the satisfaction of saying to ourselves,
+"Jesus actually looked at these walls with His human eyes," because the
+walls were built long after His death. The town was utterly destroyed
+about sixty years after the crucifixion, and nothing was left but piles
+of stones, and when the rebuilding began no one remembered where the
+streets had run or where the holy places<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> had been. All we can say with
+certainty is that the present city must be very much the same kind of
+city as that Jesus knew.</p>
+
+<p>The hotel is just inside the gateway, and here we can rest and get
+something to eat, and then we can go out; but we must have the guide
+with us, for any well-dressed European walking alone in the city would
+be pestered to death by beggars and touts trying to get money out of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long before we sally forth and are led into a curious long
+dark alley or passage where the houses almost meet overhead; it slopes
+down steeply and there are shallow steps at intervals. The sun has come
+out, luckily, and looking up we can see a very narrow strip of blue sky,
+but down below it is very dark. You slip and nearly come full length on
+the pavement because of the old cabbage leaves, bits of orange peel, and
+other messy remnants of food left about, and then I, in my turn, go
+almost headlong over a bundle of rags lying on a door-step. Immediately
+a shrivelled hand shoots out and a long melancholy cry which curdles our
+blood comes from the heap. It is a woman, so wrapped up in rags that she
+looks like nothing human. A small coin dropped in her hand brings down
+what we must suppose are blessings on us in her own tongue.</p>
+
+<p>The wee strip of blue sky is cut across here and there by iron bars,
+high over our heads; these are "camel-bars" put to prevent camels
+passing through this way, though the donkeys and people can get along
+underneath. Then we turn a corner and pass into a slightly wider
+thoroughfare, though it is still merely a passage in comparison with any
+streets in our western towns. Swaying high above us is the head of a
+camel whose squashy feet come down almost upon us as we hastily tumble
+back into our entry, while the great bales on his back brush the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> walls
+as he goes on his lordly way. Women selling vegetables crowd the more
+open spaces at the crossing of the narrow streets. Men in red fezes and
+flowing garments like dressing-gowns stride along; brown-faced boys run
+in and out, and the din, the confusion, and the smell are very trying.
+We begin to wonder when we shall get out into the real streets and we
+ask the dragoman. He tells us at once that we <i>are</i> in a street, one of
+the principal ones, that, in fact, they are all like this, and no
+wheeled vehicle can pass in any part of Jerusalem! This is so
+bewildering that we feel as if we were in a labyrinth, and huddle close
+up to the guide anxious not to lose sight of him for a moment.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus141.jpg" width="450" height="338" alt="A BEGGAR, JERUSALEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A BEGGAR, JERUSALEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Overhead there are arches sometimes spanning the narrow space, and at
+others we cross over curious little open bridges joining one house to
+another, then we plunge into a cellar and walk right through it and out
+on the other side. Everyone seems to be doing the same; it is a regular
+passage-way, and yet people live in that cellar, for we see them
+crouching over a red fire in the cavernous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> dark, and we wonder how they
+like strangers to make a highway of their home.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 266px;">
+<img src="images/illus142.jpg" width="266" height="450" alt="A JEW." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A JEW.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>All the way we see people of so many kinds we have never seen before
+that it is difficult not to stand still and gape. There are men in
+cloaks and wrappings, weather-beaten and worn, and men in European
+clothes and brown or yellow boots, there are thick-lipped negroes with
+rolling yellow eyeballs, and warlike Turkish soldiers, who clank down
+the street thrusting everyone aside. The Jews themselves are the least
+attractive of all, with very greasy head-gear, from each side of which
+hangs down a corkscrew curl, as often red as black; they wear usually a
+kind of soiled dressing-gown garment and seem afraid of being struck. Of
+the many types of men the Arabs are the manliest, and come nearest to
+our idea of the old patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They wear a
+kind of cloth on their heads falling down behind, you could easily make
+something like it with a towel any day. This is bound round the forehead
+by a fillet sometimes made of camel's hair, which holds it in its place
+tightly, like a cap. They have across their shoulders a striped narrow
+blanket of brilliant orange or scarlet, and they walk with a free stride
+and their heads held up; they are men of the desert, accustomed to
+freedom and to taking care of themselves against all comers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;">
+<img src="images/illus143.jpg" width="429" height="600" alt="JEWS&#39; WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">JEWS&#39; WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At one corner a man who has been angrily expostulating with another
+bangs him with a bag he carries, the bag bursts and the air is filled
+with a cloud of flour which envelops the two until they cannot be seen.
+Furious voices come out of the cloud, and as everyone hastens to the
+sight we take the chance to go the other way.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 371px;">
+<img src="images/illus145.jpg" width="371" height="450" alt="AN ARAB IN JERUSALEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN ARAB IN JERUSALEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In every Eastern city there is a "bazaar" corresponding with what in
+England we should call the market-place. The guide leads us to the
+"bazaar," and at the first glance we can hardly believe he is right, for
+we plunge into a long narrow passage arched overhead so that it is
+simply neither more nor less than a tunnel. There are three of these,
+and the light only comes in from the ends or from some holes far
+overhead. In this dimness we see caverns or recesses on each side, quite
+open, with no glass, and these are the shops. There is a curious glare
+from some of them where the owners have a fire for cooking food or for
+heating their forges. Butchers and shoemakers abound, and the smell of
+raw leather is revolting. In the next passage many things are sold, and
+there are quite a number of chemists' shops. In most of these the owner
+sits serenely smoking as if he had nothing on earth to do. In one we see
+a chair tilted up against the merchandise, this is to signify that the
+owner is away and that no one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> must touch anything till he returns. In
+the third tunnel, which is the noisiest and darkest of all, there are
+many silversmiths showing some wonderful work. It is no use our buying
+any of it, for we cannot carry it round the world with us. Even if we
+could, we should be rash to get it here, for every man asks about four
+times as much as he expects to get. That is one of the things which is
+so different in the East and West. Fancy going into one of the big
+west-end shops in London where an article was marked at a fixed price
+and trying to beat the shop assistant down. He would only smile, hardly
+answer, and turn away. Such a thing is absurd, but in the East any
+article is worth just as much as it will fetch, and the merchant says at
+first an enormous price in the hope that his customer is ignorant and
+will give it him, but if the customer bargains he will slowly come down.
+It takes much time to shop in this way, and is not altogether
+satisfactory, for you really have to know what the things are worth
+first.</p>
+
+<p>After this we must go back to the hotel, for we have wandered about all
+the afternoon and are weary and bewildered, and we have many sights to
+see to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Thoroughly rested after a good night we start out next morning to see
+something of the sacred places. Of course we know very well that when
+the long lane is pointed out down which Jesus bore His cross, the very
+spots where He stumbled and where Simon was made to carry it for Him,
+that these things cannot be true. Speaking of Jerusalem Jesus said once,
+"There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
+down," and it came literally true, so the present streets are not those
+He trod. Yet even so the scene is wonderfully interesting, for the old
+Jerusalem must have been like the present town, and the sights Christ
+saw must have resembled those we see, as for the first time we walk down
+these narrow steep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> alleys. We are going to the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre built over the place where the sepulchre of Christ is supposed
+to have been. As we go toward it we come across more beggars than we yet
+have encountered. A perfect army of halt and maimed and lame and blind
+crouch by the sides of the lane and live on the charity of the
+passers-by. This sort of thing would never be allowed in any Western
+country, and, as we are not accustomed to it, it strikes us as very
+distressing. Then we come out into an open space where there is a great
+building so irregular and piled up that it is difficult to recognise it
+as a church. Here are seated on the pavement numerous gaily clothed men
+with crucifixes and mementoes of the Holy Land for sale. They spread
+their wares out on the paving-stones.</p>
+
+<p>Passing them all we go inside the church and find a darkened atmosphere
+where red lamps burn always.</p>
+
+<p>We are led up steps and down steps and this way and that, and have many
+things pointed out to us. We are shown, for instance, the slab on which
+Christ's body lay and the sepulchre hewn in the rock where He was
+buried, and though we know that neither of these things can be true,
+still we feel we are in a more sacred place than any we have ever yet
+visited. For centuries men of all races and all nations have come here
+to worship and pray, as the shepherds and Wise Men came to worship and
+pray at the manger in Bethlehem. The slab of the marble is worn away by
+the soft lips of adoring pilgrims, who fall prostrate before it and kiss
+it while tears roll down their cheeks. Of all that come from far the
+Russian pilgrims are the most devout. These poor people, worse off than
+any English labourers, save their pence from year to year, and then
+tramp hundreds of miles from their country homes to the seaport of
+Odessa in Russia in order to come across to see the Holy Land. They live
+on the charity of other poor villagers as they go, or they carry sacks
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> bread-crusts, getting more and more mouldy every week. Thousands
+arrive at the Holy Land every year just before Easter, old and frail men
+and women who have undergone incredible hardships. They say, "What does
+it matter what happens to our bodies?" and many of them die
+uncomplainingly. They are so good and simple that they believe
+everything that is told them, and almost faint with joy to think they
+have at last arrived at the holy places. The air seems to glow with
+their wonderful faith and love and kindliness to one another. If,
+indeed, this is not the real sepulchre, at least it is a very holy
+place.</p>
+
+<p>After this the guide leads us through so many churches of all sorts that
+we are quite bewildered, until at last we come out on a high open place
+where all is quiet, and in the midst there stands a huge church quite
+different from anything we have yet seen&mdash;it has a round dome rising
+from walls of exquisite blue and green slabs of polished stone. This is
+the church of the Mohammedans, called a mosque, and why it is so
+especially interesting to us is because it stands on the very spot where
+stood the Ark of the Jews, and where, from the days of King Solomon,
+they worshipped God in the Temple. When Solomon built the Temple it was
+the most wonderful and beautiful church in the world. It was put
+together of massive stones, made ready and hewn and carved before they
+came to this place, so that there was no sound of axe or hammer in the
+sacred precincts. And the fittings were made of carved cedar wood,
+brought down by sea from Lebanon, while the furnishings were of pure
+gold. Never was any building before so carefully finished or so
+artistically designed. Solomon's Temple was utterly destroyed, but there
+were temples built and rebuilt on the same site, and that site is
+considered to be peculiarly sacred, because it is a peak of a mountain
+called Mount Moriah. You remember that it was to Mount Moriah Abraham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+was told to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him? The Jews hold that the
+very peak on which the mosque now stands is that place. It is, indeed,
+quite certain that there is an outcrop of rock belonging to part of the
+summit of Mount Moriah in the mosque which stands just where the Temple
+stood. You shall see it. Meantime we must put on huge loose slippers,
+made of sacking and straw, over our boots before we go in, for the
+Mohammedans always take off their own shoes on entering holy places, and
+as our modern boots are not constructed to be easily slipped off like
+Eastern shoes, we must cover them up. The man at the entrance ties on
+these enormous things and we shuffle along in them as best we can.
+Inside, the mosque is light and high and very rich in polished stone and
+gilding; it is very different from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We
+are led through it, wondering and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> gazing, until we come suddenly to a
+bare rock cropping up out of the pavement to just about your height, and
+this, for all the ages past, has been a sacred rock. Indeed, no one can
+say that it was not on this mountain-top, then in the midst of wild
+natural country, that Abraham laid his only son bound. From this cause
+the mosque is often known as the "Dome of the Rock."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus149.jpg" width="450" height="320" alt="THE MOSQUE OF OMAR ON MOUNT MORIAH, JERUSALEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE MOSQUE OF OMAR ON MOUNT MORIAH, JERUSALEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One more sight we must see before going out on to the quiet hillside
+called the Mount of Olives. This is that most curious place called the
+Jews' Wailing-Place.</p>
+
+<p>To reach this we pass down long staircase-like streets in a poor
+quarter. We see many tall and fierce-looking men, with hooked noses and
+keen eyes, who wear a white cloak thrown round their heads and hanging
+down on their shoulders; but there are also many other Jews from all
+parts,&mdash;the Polish Jews are most conspicuous in their brilliant crimson
+or purple plush gowns, with round velvet hats of the same colour edged
+with fur; and then we come out into an open space with a huge wall as
+high as a very high house made of enormous blocks of stone. This is said
+to be part of the actual wall surrounding the Temple built by Solomon.
+It is Friday afternoon and there is a great concourse of men and women
+in flowing garments, bending and bowing and kneeling before the wall and
+wailing out their prayers. Some crouch low, others cling to the giant
+blocks and kiss the rough surface, others beat their breasts as if in
+agony. Standing not far from us is a tall man who calls out some words
+in a long wailing cry, immediately the crowd respond as in a Litany.
+What they are crying out is something like this&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For the sake of the Temple that is destroyed<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We sit solitary and weep;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the walls that are thrown down<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We sit solitary and weep."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We are alone at last. All the morning it has been raining heavily, and
+in our wanderings about the city we got drenched by water-spouts from
+roofs that stuck out across the street, and deluged by drippings from
+window-sills. In many of the narrow streets we simply had to wade, for
+the water rushed down them like mountain-torrents, and then we went back
+to the hotel to get warm and dry before sallying out again. Now we are
+sitting on a great grey stone on the Mount of Olives, and the sun is
+coming out and drying up all the dampness. We look down upon Jerusalem
+as Christ looked down on it that day when He entered in a triumphal
+procession and paused to weep over it. We can see the domes and the flat
+roofs with the sun glinting on them and making them shine out white, and
+the great wall with its turreted top running round all. It is not the
+same city He saw, but it must be very like it. These buildings,
+churches, and mosques were not there, of course, and there were a good
+many more trees than there are now. An olive tree never looks young;
+from the earliest time it always has a twisted cross appearance like an
+old man who knows what rheumatism is. The blue-green leaves are small
+and narrow, and they turn edgewise to the sun as if they were reluctant
+to give anyone beneath them any more shade than they could help. There
+is one line of a hymn that always comes into my mind when I look at an
+olive tree, it runs&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Beneath the olive's moon-pierced shade."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That is very good, because the brilliant clear white light of an Eastern
+moon would certainly pierce through any "shade" an olive tree could
+make.</p>
+
+<p>Many, many times must Jesus have crossed this hill, and the most
+memorable time was when the people came running beside Him, singing
+Hosannas and cutting down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> palm branches, and even spreading their
+clothes for Him to pass over, on that first Palm Sunday so long ago. The
+association, which is the most sacred and heart-stirring, is of that
+night before the crucifixion, when He came out here with His disciples
+and, kneeling, prayed earnestly while they slept. That was in what is
+called the Garden of Gethsemane. There is more than one place on the
+Mount which claims to be that garden. The monks have fenced one in and
+planted it with gay flowers, and there is a good deal of reason to
+believe this may be actually right. In the country, places cannot be
+utterly swept away as they are in towns under an avalanche of brick and
+stone. We can look down from the hill into this garden, even though it
+is surrounded by high walls. In the middle is a very ancient olive tree,
+said to have been growing in Christ's time. Rosaries are made from the
+stones of the olives which it bears. There are little round flower-beds
+carefully tended in the garden, and between them you can see a monk
+walking in his long coarse gown.</p>
+
+<p>The hill is not very high, and the country is barren and stony and would
+be rather dull were it not for the thought of all the wonderful scenes
+that have happened here. Let us climb on to the very top. From there,
+away to the east, we see a long line of high blue hills, the mountains
+of Moab, and nearer, in a deep hole in the ground, we catch just a
+glimpse of the water of the Dead Sea. It is a strange name and a strange
+place! It lies deep, deep down, far below the level of the ocean, and
+though many rivers and streams run into it none run out. You would think
+it must always be getting larger, but no. The water evaporates very
+quickly. You know if there is a drop of water or a wet mark on your hand
+and you wave it about in the air, presently the water disappears, that
+is because of evaporation. The dampness has not really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> gone but turned
+into another form and made the surrounding air a little more damp. If
+that drop had been salt, the salt would not have entered into the air,
+but stayed on your hand, so when the air drinks up the water from the
+surface of the Dead Sea, the salt remains behind and the sea gets more
+and more salty; it is many times more salt than the water of an ordinary
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>The sandy shores all round are full of this salt and nothing can grow
+there, so all is desolate and dreary, and thus it is that the name Dead
+Sea is so appropriate. If you tried to swim in that sea you would find
+it impossible to sink, for just as sea-water holds you up more than
+fresh, so the Dead Sea water holds you up more than that of the ordinary
+sea. All the same, though you could not sink to the bottom you might
+drown, because the head and chest being heavier than the legs go down
+naturally, and a man might not be able to recover himself but be drowned
+legs upward, as many have been through not knowing how to manage a
+lifebelt.</p>
+
+<p>The sacred river Jordan runs into the Dead Sea. We have met one of the
+sacred rivers of history already&mdash;the Nile,&mdash;and the Jordan, though very
+small, is another. It is almost absurdly small in contrast with the
+Nile, being only one hundred miles long! From all over the world people
+send to get water from the Jordan with which to baptize their babies;
+they have a feeling that it is different from ordinary water because
+Christ Himself was baptized in it. As you have heard, the Russian
+pilgrims go down in crowds to bathe in the Jordan in their shrouds, for
+they too look on the river as sacred.</p>
+
+<p>About six miles to the south of where we are sitting is Bethlehem, where
+Jesus was born, and where the shepherds and Wise Men found Him. Much
+nearer is Bethany, where He often stayed.</p>
+
+<p>To-day something of the wonder of the Holy Land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> has come upon us. We
+have got out of the narrow crowded lanes and away from the jostling
+people into the country; so the Bible story has become more real than it
+ever was before. Here is the hillside over which He passed. There are
+the olive trees, exactly like those He saw.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus154.jpg" width="450" height="200" alt="ABOUT SIX MILES TO THE SOUTH IS BETHLEHEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ABOUT SIX MILES TO THE SOUTH IS BETHLEHEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have visited Him in His daily life. It is now only left for us to go
+to Nazareth, where He spent all His life up to the time when He
+announced Himself as the Christ, the Messiah, and began His Mission. But
+Nazareth is a long way off. It will take us about three days to get
+there. We can ride or drive, whichever you like. You prefer to ride? All
+right, but don't expect a sleek, home-fed pony, or a fine horse champing
+the bit, or even a well-grown, well-fed Egyptian donkey; wait and you
+will see what riding means here!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus155.jpg" width="450" height="271" alt="WOMEN AT A WELL IN NAZARETH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">WOMEN AT A WELL IN NAZARETH.</span>
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COUNTRY OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD</h3>
+
+
+<p>If you only knew how funny you look! Perched up on a dirty, thin, white
+horse which scrambles along somehow, while the great iron stirrups,
+shaped like shovels, dangle far below your feet. Aha! I thought so, one
+has fallen off. I try to pull up quickly to dismount and help you, and
+my bridle, which is made of worsted, like the toy reins children play
+with, breaks suddenly and my noble steed comes a cropper!</p>
+
+<p>By the time I recover and get to you I find our guide, who looks more
+like a bundle of rags than anything else, tying up your stirrups with a
+crazy bit of string full of knots and quite rotten. This is the way we
+journey in the Holy Land in the present year! This is the third day of
+it, and these little accidents don't affect us; the harness must have
+been broken in at least two dozen different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> places since we started,
+and, as an Irishman might say, most of it is made of gaps.</p>
+
+<p>To-day we ought to reach Nazareth while it is still light, though, as it
+is dull and grey, the evening will close in sooner than if the sky were
+clear. What a pity we could not manage to come here in the spring when
+the fields of blue lupins look like a strip of summer sky fallen to
+earth and fill the air with their scent for miles around. There are
+anemones too, purple and red and white, and lilies, but I think nothing
+would strike us so much as the homely little daisies which grow here
+just as they do at home. There is something strange and yet familiar in
+this country, where so many different sorts of trees and plants grow,
+that a man coming from almost anywhere in the world will find something
+that carries his heart back home. Besides the daisies we have the
+sparrows, just as pert and neat as our own sparrows, yet other things
+are odd. Yesterday we saw a man carrying a sheep on his shoulders; he
+wore a striped garment hanging down on each side of his neck, and even
+the sheep did not seem quite the same as ours. It was some time before
+we discovered why, and then we found out that the long flapping ears
+hung down, while the ears of our sheep are small and upright. It is a
+most difficult thing to remember how an animal's ears grow. Nine people
+out of ten, on being told to draw a pig, will give him small, pointed,
+upright ears, instead of making the flaps fall over!</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the flock of sheep quietly followed the shepherd who carried
+the hurt one, for in the East sheep are used to being led, instead of
+being driven by a dog, as in Britain, and that is why so often we hear
+in the Bible of the sheep being led. Jesus took almost all His parables
+from natural things around Him&mdash;the cornfields, the lilies growing, the
+sparrows, and the vineyards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus157.jpg" width="450" height="468" alt="A MAN CARRYING A SHEEP ON HIS SHOULDERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A MAN CARRYING A SHEEP ON HIS SHOULDERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have been steadily rising for long past, now we mount a steeper bit
+of rising ground and suddenly there comes into view a tiny valley from
+which the hills rise again, and on the opposite slope, spread out before
+us, is Nazareth. We pull up and look at it in silence. The little,
+flat-roofed, white houses are dotted about among gardens and trees, and
+resemble the square white dice one throws out of a box. Very much as it
+appears to us now must this little hill-village have looked to Jesus
+when He lived here, except that the slopes of the hills were more
+cultivated, and there were more houses. Jesus came here as a small child
+and lived here until He was thirty. <i>You</i> know, of course, every tree
+and hole and stream and almost every stone and bird's nest about your
+own home in the country; you will never get to know any other place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> so
+well again in your life, for when one is grown up one can't climb trees
+and dabble in streams and build huts and root about in the earth. Jesus
+was just a natural boy; He grew to know all the byways between the
+little gardens, all the trees which bore figs or pomegranates or olives
+or oranges, and He climbed the hills around with other lads when He had
+a holiday&mdash;no other place would ever be to Him what Nazareth was.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus158.jpg" width="450" height="432" alt="NAZARETH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NAZARETH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One or two tall buildings stand out prominently, these are the churches,
+and they, of course, were not there in His time. None of the houses can
+be the same after nineteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> hundred years, but many of them are probably
+exactly like those that existed then.</p>
+
+<p>As we go down toward the village at a foot's pace we see grave,
+brown-faced, bright-eyed boys, who stand and stare but do not bother us
+for coppers, as the Jerusalem children did. We pass in among the houses
+and come to the well where both men and women are standing, for it is
+just the time that they come to draw water in the evening. This well is
+one of the most interesting things in Nazareth, for it is the only one,
+and has been known for generations. It is almost certain that it must
+have been here when Jesus lived in the village. Now it has a stone arch
+over it, and as the water gushes out the women fill hand-made
+earthenware jars with narrow necks and curving sides, and having filled
+them they put them on their heads and walk gracefully away. Just so must
+Mary, the mother of Jesus, have filled her jar in the ages long ago, and
+the child Jesus may have clung to her skirts as that tiny brown boy is
+doing, shyly hiding at the sight of us. The women are very good looking,
+and dress in a great variety of colours, many wearing striped clothes.
+One or two have chains or bands of silver coins across their foreheads,
+very many have bright red head coverings falling down over blue dresses.
+There are some swarthy-looking men too, in sheepskins, and one is
+waiting to water his camel. On one side is a very handsome lad of
+sixteen with a flock of black goats. They all look at us with interest,
+but they are quite accustomed to strangers and are not at all
+embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>We go on between the houses by the widest road, which is now slippery
+with mud, and after our guide has asked permission of a man standing in
+a doorway, we dismount and get a chance of seeing inside one of these
+little dark houses. The only light comes from the doorway, for there is
+no window; it shines into one room with a mud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> floor, beaten hard by
+many feet. There are a few mats laid about, a few stools, and on one
+side a kind of shelf with more mats and some cushions&mdash;this is where the
+family sleep at night. In a corner are some of the earthenware jars and
+some pots and pans. That is all. There is no reason to think that the
+house Jesus lived in was at all more luxurious than this.</p>
+
+<p>As we turn to go out we hear a flutter of wings, and a flock of white
+doves rise from the ground and alight on the roof, cooing softly.</p>
+
+<p>In this village are a good many shops, but they are not the sort we are
+accustomed to. Picture the village shop at home with its small glass
+panes and the post-office on one side. The window crammed with marbles
+and liquorice and peppermint, and slates and balls and copybooks and
+hoops and everything that the owner thinks anyone would be in the least
+likely to buy. In Nazareth the shops sell only one sort of thing, and
+those that sell the same sort of thing have a general inclination to
+come together. In one little street, for instance, are the saddlers'
+shops.</p>
+
+<p>The front of the house is open, but there is no glass to fill it in, and
+we can see the men working at their trade inside. The harness is
+extremely gay, painted in all colours, red and blue and yellow, and made
+up with bits of tinsel and glitter. The more decorated he can afford to
+have his harness the prouder is the rider. As we stand watching, a
+number of women steal gently up behind us and offer some embroidery they
+have made; they do not push or scramble, and when we shake our heads
+they melt away again.</p>
+
+<p>As we turn a corner, there, right in front of us, is a carpenter's shop
+with the front quite open to the street, as in the harness-makers'
+shops. The bearded man who leans over a cart-wheel and handles it with
+long brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> hands might have been Joseph himself. In just such a
+workshop as this Jesus learnt His trade.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus161.jpg" width="450" height="360" alt="IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN JOSEPH HIMSELF." title="" />
+<span class="caption">IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN JOSEPH HIMSELF.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The life of a little Jewish boy of those days was carefully ordered, and
+in his life there was much more saying of prayers and going to
+church&mdash;that is, the synagogue&mdash;than you have in yours. At school there
+was a great deal to be learnt by heart, and what with that and the
+churchgoing and the workshop there cannot have been much spare time.</p>
+
+<p>We go slowly on to the inn, where we are to pass the night. To-morrow we
+will go down to the Sea of Galilee and watch the fishermen drawing in
+their nets as they did in Christ's time when He called them to be
+fishers of men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After that we will come back, pass Nazareth once more, and make our way
+to a port called Haifa, where we can get a steamer to take us down to
+Jaffa instead of returning to Jerusalem again by three days' journey on
+horseback.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus163.jpg" width="450" height="178" alt="THERE IT WILL STAY TILL IT ROTS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THERE IT WILL STAY TILL IT ROTS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ADVENTURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>We are late, very late, the moon is rising and I must confess I am just
+a wee bit uneasy. When we reached Haifa safely last night, coming from
+Nazareth, and found we couldn't get a steamer till to-morrow it seemed
+the best thing to drive across the bay and get a look at Acre, that
+celebrated town which has spent its existence in the turmoil of sieges
+and assaults. It is a great fort built out into the sea, and nearly
+everyone who wanted to get possession of the Holy Land has tried first
+to take Acre as the key to it. One of the most memorable sieges was that
+of two years in the reign of our own King Richard <span class="smcap">i.</span>, who ended it by
+arriving with fresh troops and helping his allies the French; but it is
+reckoned the two countries, between them, lost 100,000 men, one way and
+another, before they took the stubborn town. After that it remained in
+English hands for a century.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks held it in much later times against Buonaparte; they were
+helped by an Englishman, Sir Sydney Smith, and if Acre is celebrated for
+nothing else it should be celebrated for the fact that it held out for
+sixty-one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> days against Buonaparte, who was in the end obliged to give
+up and go away!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus164.jpg" width="450" height="385" alt="WOMEN WITH BUNDLES, WHICH THEY ALWAYS THINK NECESSARY TO
+DRAG ABOUT WITH THEM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">WOMEN WITH BUNDLES, WHICH THEY ALWAYS THINK NECESSARY TO
+DRAG ABOUT WITH THEM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We drove this morning, with three horses abreast, across the twelve
+miles of sandy bay between Haifa and Acre, in one of the ramshackle
+waggonettes that take the place of omnibuses and carry any passengers
+who want to go. We came with numbers of natives, chiefly women, and
+innumerable bundles and bags, which they always think it necessary to
+drag about with them. We did not get here till midday, and after
+spending a few hours we had seen all we cared to of the place, and were
+ready to go back. But in the East things are not done like that. So we
+waited and waited long after the hour the omnibus was said to return,
+and when at last the driver did saunter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> up, the scarecrow horses had to
+be sought for, and then the harness, of course, had to be mended with
+string, and that wasn't nearly the end, because, after waiting again a
+long time for nothing at all that anyone could see, a Turkish woman who
+was evidently of some consequence, attended by a maid and quantities of
+baggage, came up, and everyone had to turn out until all her things were
+stowed away. So it was nearly nightfall before we got off.</p>
+
+<p>The sands are in most places firm and make good going, but a couple of
+rivers run down across them to the sea; one of these is that "ancient
+river, the river Kishon," mentioned in Deborah's song of triumph when
+the Israelites had overcome their enemies. These rivers have to be
+crossed with care, and, not so long ago, some people got bogged and were
+set upon by robbers and stripped, and one was drowned by the incoming
+tide; but I ought not to tell you these things. We are half across now,
+and the moon is getting high, so we shall have more light presently.</p>
+
+<p>Bump! The horse on the off-side runs out of his traces suddenly and
+stands facing the other one in a sort of mild amazement. The harness has
+given way once more. Grumbling and growling the driver climbs down and
+pulls him back and goes on muttering to himself. Far off the lapping of
+the water is heard out at sea; it wouldn't do to be caught by the tide
+in this situation, but they tell us the tide has not turned yet. The
+moon sheds a curious unearthly light that fills the air with mystery.
+The long low sandhills on the shore show up plainly, and nearer there
+are countless wrecks which have been piled up on this desolate coast.
+That large one, nearest of all, looks just like the huge up-curving ribs
+of some mammoth that has had the flesh picked clean from his bones.
+Look! There is something moving close to it, in the shadow; what is it?
+It comes out a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> way into the light, it is a furtive-looking
+little four-footed creature whose fur shines with a reddish tinge; there
+is another, peeping out from the sandhills, and another and another!
+They are all over, but so silent and light-footed are they that it is
+difficult to believe them to be anything but shadows. A wave of the hand
+and they have disappeared! They are jackals, inquisitively watching us
+with their bright eyes. Nothing to be afraid of. They dare not attack a
+man if he is alive, though they would gleefully devour him dead. They
+are much more frightened of you than you are of them. Weird, shy,
+furtive little beasts. One can imagine them on a night like this playing
+games and chasing one another in and out of the ribs of the drowned ship
+in a sort of witches' dance.</p>
+
+<p>Heigho! Well, we're on again at last.</p>
+
+<p>We journey at a foot's pace for another mile or so and the lights of
+Haifa begin to shine out clearly ahead, when all of a sudden the
+carriage seems to be going down on one side. The two Turkish women, who
+are on the high side, roll violently down on to us, screaming and
+sobbing hysterically. I don't know what you feel like, but I am nearly
+smothered by the flowing shawls and the strong smell of scent; when I
+manage to get free I find that you have disappeared altogether till I
+get hold of a leg and jerk you forth.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage has gone further and further over; the horses are splashing
+and struggling; and as we stand up the middle one goes down and
+disappears altogether. The water must be deep and we are evidently in
+the river.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing for it but to go to the driver's help, so I leave you
+to reassure the ladies and get up to my waist almost at once as we pull
+the horse's head above water, while the sand slips away beneath our
+feet. The poor beast, after desperate kickings, gets on to his legs
+again, but no effort of ours can move the carriage, which seems to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> be
+sinking deeper and deeper. With the struggles of the horses the harness
+has all come to bits again, and the poor, mild, dismayed creatures turn
+round, quite free from their trappings, and look at the vehicle as much
+as to say, "What a shabby trick you have served us!"</p>
+
+<p>The driver brings the horses alongside, and the bundle of scented
+wrappings, which is the more important lady, is lifted on the back of
+one. The man himself gets up behind her to hold her on, and when she
+feels his wet embrace she raises a perfect storm of shrieks as if she
+were being carried away by a robber. He takes not the slightest notice,
+but solemnly sets his horse's head to the shore, and they splash away.
+By yourself you have managed to land on to the back of the next horse,
+and before you have time to turn round or do anything to help with the
+other lady, the horse kicks up its heels, sending you shooting on to its
+neck, and whinnying wildly scrambles off after its comrade. The Turkish
+lady's companion makes no fuss at all about coming with me. She slips on
+to the remaining horse as if she were used to riding all her life, and,
+sitting astride like a man, holds him in until I mount behind. It is
+lucky indeed this animal has no spirit left, or she and I would have
+been stranded!</p>
+
+<p>At this rate we shall soon reach Haifa.</p>
+
+<p>When we do get there what a chattering and what excitement!
+Unfortunately, as we can't speak the native tongue, we miss most of it,
+but the excited gestures and loud voices show that we are heroes indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I find myself none the worse for my wetting, and before we
+leave we have the satisfaction of seeing all the bundles and packages
+belonging to the ladies safely recovered. But we gather that the
+waggonette remains immovable. We can see it, far off, partly surrounded
+by the swirling water like a little black island.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> The united strength
+of a dozen men and six horses have been unable to pull it on to firm
+ground. There it will stay till it rots, in the midst of the stranded
+ships, and the little soft-footed shadowy jackals will dance around it
+and tell one another strange tales of that wonderful night when the air
+was shaken by piercing screams, and strange heavy animals galloped
+across the sands, making them shake and quiver, and yet, after it all,
+there was nothing left for them to eat!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus169.jpg" width="450" height="234" alt="THE SHIPS SEEM TO BE GLIDING ALONG THE TOP OF A
+SANDBANK." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE SHIPS SEEM TO BE GLIDING ALONG THE TOP OF A
+SANDBANK.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST</h3>
+
+
+<p>The anchor is up and we are in a stately ship moving on slowly into the
+Suez Canal. When we arrived at Port Said&mdash;how many weeks ago was it? It
+seems to me like a year&mdash;we were on the <i>Orontes</i>, of the Orient Line,
+and we steamed into the harbour past a long breakwater like a thin arm;
+standing upon it is a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who made
+the Suez Canal. That meant nothing to you then, for the canal was merely
+a name and not of any special interest, but now that we are actually
+passing into it it is different.</p>
+
+<p>Just here, you remember, we are at the place where three continents
+meet, Europe being represented by the Mediterranean Sea. The other two,
+Asia and Africa, are joined by a strip of land called the Isthmus of
+Suez, about a hundred miles across. For ages men had it in their minds
+to cut through this strip so that their ships could sail straight from
+the Mediterranean into the Red Sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> on the other side of the Isthmus.
+But it wasn't quite so easy to do as it sounds, for the land was mostly
+desert sand, and if you have ever tried to dig out a trench on the
+seashore and then let water into it, you will know very well what
+happens. The sides slip down, and in a few minutes your trench is level
+up to the top and is a trench no more!</p>
+
+<p>The ancient Egyptians frequently marched across the Isthmus with their
+armies and advanced into Palestine and made war on the wild tribes
+there. They built also a strong wall across the Isthmus to prevent the
+inhabitants of Palestine from retaliating, just as the Romans built a
+wall across Northumbria to hold back the Picts and Scots.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until comparatively recent days, that is to say, in the time
+of your grandfather, that the attempt to cut a canal across the Isthmus
+was successful, and the man who did it was Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose
+statue stands on the breakwater. He was a Frenchman, but he wished to
+get other nations to help in the great work, as France could not raise
+all the money alone; unfortunately Great Britain would have nothing to
+do with the idea, though luckily afterwards, when the canal had been
+built, the Government managed to buy a large number of the shares in it
+from the Egyptian Government. It took ten years to make the canal, but
+it was done at last after the expenditure of quantities of money and the
+loss of many lives, and even up to the opening day there were many who
+scoffed and said it could never be made useful; yet now that bronze
+statue stands solemnly watching, day by day, the great ships of many
+nations crawling slowly into the narrow opening at the northern end.</p>
+
+<p>Not only had the canal to be made but it has to be kept in working
+order, for the sand silts back into the channel, and so numbers of
+dredgers are constantly at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> work scraping out the bottom so as to keep
+it deep enough for ships of large size.</p>
+
+<p>At first the depth of the main channel was twenty-six feet, but now it
+has been deepened to twenty-nine feet; but even that seems less than we
+should expect.</p>
+
+<p>At one time the storms of January and February used to drive quantities
+of sand from the Mediterranean into the mouth of the canal, and even
+now, though the breakwater has been lengthened to prevent it, there is
+always difficulty. Steamers are only allowed to go through slowly,
+otherwise the suction or pull of the water they disturb would tear down
+the banks and soon make the canal useless. You have no idea what a wave
+a big ship can raise in going through that narrow trough; even at a
+moderate pace it would be sufficient to tear another ship from her
+moorings by the bank, and then there might be a collision and disastrous
+results. Ships have to pay a heavy toll for the privilege of using the
+short cut, but the toll is needed to meet the working expenses and to
+pay the interest on the money spent in the construction.</p>
+
+<p>The ship we are in is considerably larger than the <i>Orontes</i>; she is the
+<i>Medina</i>, belonging to the P. &amp; O. Company, and was chosen to take the
+King and Queen to India in 1911. She is not very cheerful looking
+outside, being painted buff, with black funnels, but she is a
+comfortable boat, and we are lucky in having a large cabin on the upper
+deck, so that we can have our port-hole open whatever the weather may
+be.</p>
+
+<p>The sun is setting in a flame of salmon and scarlet as we pass the canal
+offices and turn into the narrow channel. There are sidings dug out
+about every five or six miles, for as only one big ship can go through
+at a time, if she meets another, one of them must stop and tie up. There
+are telegraph stations at every siding, and every ship entering the
+canal is controlled all the way by an elaborate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> system of signals which
+tells the pilot exactly what he is to do, whether he must "shunt into a
+siding," to use railway language, or if he may go right ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Directly we are in the canal we see over the banks on both sides; on the
+west is a wide sheet of water lit up to smoky-red by the reflection of
+the sinking sun. Flocks of storks and pelicans and other birds cover it
+at certain times of the year to fish in the shallow salt waters, for
+this is a salt lake, a sort of overflow from the sea. One day it will be
+drained and then crops can grow upon it. The canal is cut through it and
+hemmed in by an embankment; farther on it runs through the desert and
+then goes through another lake. For the greater part of the way a
+railway line runs beside it, passing through Ismailia, the junction for
+Cairo, and going on to Suez, and from some parts of this line you can
+see a strange spectacle, for, as no water is visible, the ships appear
+to be gliding along the top of a sandbank; there is apparently just a
+huge modern steamer lost among the sandhills and making the best of her
+way back to the sea!</p>
+
+<p>The pilot who is on board now takes us to Ismailia, half-way down, and
+then another replaces him as far as Suez, where the canal ends. Every
+ship over one hundred tons is compelled to carry a pilot, who is
+responsible for her while she is in the difficult channel. And, indeed,
+a pilot is necessary, for the canal is not by any means a straight, deep
+trench; there are curves where it is a delicate job to man&oelig;uvre a
+ship of any length, and in places in the deeper lakes the course is only
+marked by buoys. It needs a man who spends his whole time at the work
+and gives all his attention to it. The danger at the curves is lest the
+propeller at the stern should come in contact with the banks, so the
+ship has to be man&oelig;uvred most slowly and carefully round them. Only
+at one place in the whole length of the canal was no digging out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+necessary. This is in the great Bitter Lake, where for eight miles the
+water is deep enough for the ships to pass safely.</p>
+
+<p>There is not much to see at first; the banks are lined by scrubby
+bushes, and on them, in a sandy open patch, we see a man falling and
+bowing at his evening devotions; a few camels pass along the raised
+bank, looking like gigantic spiders against the illuminated sky, and
+there comes faintly to us the distant bark of a jackal.</p>
+
+<p>When we come on deck again after dinner we find the air quite mild; we
+are only going at the rate of six miles an hour, which is the
+speed-limit.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere across the desert where we are passing to-night have passed
+also the feet of many mighty ones of history. Abraham crossed it with
+Sarah, his beautiful wife, Joseph was carried down a captive over the
+caravan track of that day. Later on his brothers twice journeyed, driven
+by famine, and lastly came old Jacob also. Many times, as we know, did
+the armies of the Pharaohs start out in all the panoply of war and
+return victorious bringing captives in chains. Across the wilderness
+somewhere Moses led forth the children of Israel, and, most wonderful
+remembrance of all, Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, brought down to
+Egypt his wife and her infant son to escape the wrath and jealousy of
+Herod. Hardly any strip of land we could name has so many associations
+interesting to all the world.</p>
+
+<p>Why do you start and catch hold of my arm to draw my attention? That is
+only a Lascar, one of the sailors, a picturesque fellow, isn't he?
+Didn't you notice them when we came on board? The P. &amp; O. ships carry a
+crew of Lascars to work under the white quartermasters; they are dark
+brown men with shining eyes and gleaming teeth, who dress in bright blue
+with red belts and caps; they love a bit of finery and stick it on
+wherever they can.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> They come from the coasts of India and usually sign
+on for three years under one of their own headmen called a <i>serang</i>; you
+can always pick him out by the silver chain of office which he wears
+round his neck, Lord-Mayor fashion. I saw him just now, a little man
+rather like a monkey. He is a very important personage, for all the
+orders are given through him, and he receives the pay for his men and is
+responsible for their good behaviour. Woe be to the man who is
+insubordinate! Not only will he be punished now, but his whole village
+will hear about it, and he will be disgraced and find it difficult to
+get work thereafter.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 217px;">
+<img src="images/illus174.jpg" width="217" height="400" alt="A LASCAR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A LASCAR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The moon is covered with clouds to-night, which is a pity, but the
+brilliant reflectors the ship carries in her bows throw the light well
+ahead on to both banks.</p>
+
+<p>Hullo! We're coming to something; there is another ship tied up waiting
+for us to pass. No, it is true I can't make her out, but I can see her
+searchlights, so I guess she is behind them. Very slowly we crawl on,
+making hardly a ripple; we are going dead slow now, scarcely moving, in
+fact. That light from the other ship is blinding; just where it strikes
+the water there are any number of little fish wriggling and squirming in
+an ecstasy of painful delight. The water is alive with them, churning
+and threshing over one another like a pot full of eels. Bright lights
+attract fish and it is a very old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> dodge, known all over the world, to
+hold a flare over the water and then spear or net the fish who are
+attracted by it. Fish must have something akin to moths in their nature,
+as many of them simply cannot resist a light.</p>
+
+<p>Now we are alongside; the other ship's light is out of our eyes and our
+own falls full upon her. What a spectacle! She looks like a phantom ship
+carrying a cargo of ghosts! She is transformed by our lights into blue
+fire! Every plank and rope stands out brilliantly in the ghastly light.
+Her decks are crowded by a mass of turbaned and fez-covered men, mostly
+in light garments, and they, their faces and their clothing, are all
+blue-white. They stand silently, packed side by side like sardines; it
+doesn't look as if they would have room to lie, or even to sit down. As
+we glide slowly past a strange odour floats over from them enveloping
+us&mdash;an odour made up of spices and camels and tired unwashed humanity;
+there is a hint of coffee in it and a touch of wood-smoke&mdash;it suggests
+Eastern bazaars and the desert.</p>
+
+<p>Then our light slips off them and we see the ship as she really is under
+the faintly diffused light of the clouded moon. She is a dirty
+commonplace hulk, packed with men in soiled clothes, no longer the
+radiant white ship of our vision.</p>
+
+<p>"Taking pilgrims back from Mecca," says one of the passengers who is
+leaning over the rail near us smoking. "They pack them like cattle
+usually. On some of these vessels their fare doesn't include any
+accommodation or food; they have to bargain with the captain for a bit
+of deck to lie down on, and the highest bidder secures the best place!"</p>
+
+<p>Mecca, which lies many miles inland from the port of Jiddah, half-way
+down the Red Sea, is the birthplace of Mohammed, and the sacred city of
+the Mohammedans; when they kneel at their devotions it is with their
+faces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> turned towards Mecca. Those who have managed to pilgrimage there
+even once in their lives are looked upon as superior beings.</p>
+
+<p>The siding we have just passed is one of the largest in the canal, and
+three ships can lie up there together if necessary. It is here that the
+Syrian caravans cross over into Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we are up on deck in good time, as we want to see all we
+can of the canal. We are by this time out in the wide water of the
+Bitter Lake, where we can go at a good speed, then the canal itself
+begins again and we pass one of the little station-houses where the
+signalmen live; it looks as if it was built out of a child's bricks, and
+stands on the arid banks with only a few scanty palms near. It must be a
+dreary sort of life for ever signalling to ships which are going onward
+to all countries of the world, while you yourself remain pinned down in
+the same few square yards of land.</p>
+
+<p>This narrow waterway that passes down between Asia on the one side and
+Africa on the other is stimulating to the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>We catch a glimpse of Suez afar off and run by a tree-shadowed road that
+leads to a peninsula, where are the P. &amp; O. offices and a row of houses
+inhabited by the men whose work in life it is to look after the canal.
+Notice that buoy on the port side of the ship, it is about as far from
+the bank as a man could throw a cricket-ball, yet through that strip of
+water, which marks the deepest channel, every ship has to pass either on
+entering or leaving the canal. Think of it! Between five thousand and
+six thousand ships steam through in a year, they are of all sizes, of
+many nations, carrying many kinds of cargo. There are the mail ships and
+passenger ships of the European countries, there are pilgrim ships from
+Russia and Turkey, there are transports carrying our own khaki-clad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+soldiers; you can always recognise one of these transports, for she is
+painted white and carries a large white number on a black square at the
+stem and stern. Then there are merchant ships innumerable; it is true
+that the heavily laden Australian ships go home round the Cape, as the
+distance (from Sydney) is much the same, but those stored with teak wood
+from Burma, with tea, cotton, spices, and silk from China, Ceylon, and
+India come through here. If a boy were to sit on the verandah of one of
+those houses and hear the names, destinations, and freight of all the
+vessels he saw, he could learn the geography and commerce of half the
+world with hardly an effort!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus177.jpg" width="450" height="208" alt="IN THE SUEZ CANAL, THE NARROW WATERWAY BETWEEN ASIA AND
+AFRICA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">IN THE SUEZ CANAL, THE NARROW WATERWAY BETWEEN ASIA AND
+AFRICA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>That range of mountains across there, which look strangely like ruined
+forts and castles, forms part of the great peninsula of Sinai where the
+Law was given to Moses, and though it is in Asia it now belongs to
+Egypt. It looks as if you could hit it with a stone, so wonderfully do
+distant objects stand out in this clear atmosphere, but it is seven or
+eight miles away. That dark clump midway between it and the sea marks
+the place called Moses' Well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We are in the Gulf of Suez now, and it must have been somewhere about
+here that the Israelites crossed over with the host of Pharaoh pursuing
+them.</p>
+
+<p>We are getting up better speed, and it is not long before we have
+reached the end of the gulf and pass out into the wide waters of the Red
+Sea.</p>
+
+<p>There were two delusions I cherished for many a year about this sea. I
+always imagined it a long, narrow strip, like a river, in which you
+could see from bank to bank as you sailed along; and secondly, I thought
+there must be some red colouring on the banks or in the water to account
+for the strange name. As a matter of fact, the sea is over one thousand
+miles long and varies from twenty to one hundred and eighty miles in
+breadth. Being on it in a ship is like being out in the open ocean, for
+one can see no shore. The name "Red" Sea has never been satisfactorily
+explained, but some people suggest that it may have arisen from the
+spawn or eggs of fish which float on the surface in quantities at
+certain times of the year and are of a reddish tinge, others say it is
+from the coral which grows so well here, and others think it may have
+something to do with the rocks of red porphyry on the Egyptian side of
+the Arabian Gulf.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time since we left England we begin now, as we go
+southward, to feel uncomfortably hot. It was never too hot in Egypt, for
+there was always a fresh wind. Here at first we have a following wind
+which makes it seem dead calm; there is a kind of clammy dampness in the
+air which makes it impossible to do anything requiring energy. The deck
+games of "bull" and quoits and even cricket, which have been carried on
+in such a lively way lately, fall off; no one cares to do anything.</p>
+
+<p>Even the children cease from troubling. There are quite a number of them
+on board, for this is an Australian ship; if she were going to India
+there would be no small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> children. Here I counted fifteen at the table
+downstairs where they have their meals. You, of course, are treated as a
+grown-up person, and quite right too, as you are on the eve of a public
+school. I wonder how you will settle down at Harrow next winter after
+all this change! There is only one other boy of about the same age. I
+saw you talking to him this morning; what do you make of him?</p>
+
+<p>A "rotter"? Yes, I thought so too. He seems to consider that the
+greatest fun on board is to rumple up the stewards' hair or to knock off
+their caps, and as they can't retaliate it is poor sport. He never plays
+games either, which is odd considering he is an Australian.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, I hoped that child had sunk into a sweet slumber! He is a nuisance;
+he can't be more than four, but he never seems to rest day or night, and
+he spends the laziest hour of the afternoon dragging a squeaking cart up
+and down the wooden deck, to the annoyance of everyone except the fond
+mother, who encourages it as a sign of genius! Odd one never can travel
+without at least one child of that sort on board. There's a nice alcove
+aft behind the smoking-room where we may find refuge.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I grant the little girls are just as bad as the boys; there is that
+pert spoilt little miss who rushes after the steward when he carries
+round the <i>hors d'&oelig;uvre</i> before dinner and clamours for them.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not for children," he told her.</p>
+
+<p>"But mother doesn't forbid me to have them," she retorted, standing on
+one leg with her finger in her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>If she refrained from doing only what her mother <i>did</i> forbid her she
+would have a fairly easy time I think.</p>
+
+<p>It is too stifling to sleep in the cabin, so we will try the deck
+to-night. It is rather pleasant stepping out on to the warm dry boards
+when the lights are out. The awning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> shuts us in overhead, but at the
+side we can see the smooth water lying white in the moonlight. Here is
+our place, with our mattresses laid out neatly side by side and the
+number of our cabin scrawled in white chalk on the wooden boards beside
+them. There is a story of a certain ape who got loose on board ship and
+paid a visit to the deck when all the men were asleep! A funny sight it
+must have been as he landed on the top of one after the other!</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the calmness of the night it is always more or less noisy on
+a ship: there is the flap of an awning, the crack of a rope, the
+creaking of the plates, and the frilling away of the water past the
+ship's side. I lie awake a long time, turning uneasily and feeling the
+taste of the salt on my lips. At last, low down between the rails, away
+on the horizon, I see the well-known constellation, the Southern Cross.
+You have often heard of it I expect. It is one of the most famous groups
+of stars in the southern hemisphere and as much beloved by southerners
+as the Great Bear is by us. As the Great Bear sinks night by night lower
+in the north so the Southern Cross rises into sight. It is not a very
+brilliant or even cross, but rather straggly, and the stars are not very
+large, but it means much&mdash;hot skies, blue-black and brilliantly
+star-spangled, lines of white surf breaking on silvery sand beneath palm
+trees, fire-flies and scented air&mdash;I am growing drowsy at last&mdash;sleep is
+coming.... I must show you the cross another night.</p>
+
+<p>Hullo! it's morning! A Lascar is standing by grinning, with a bucket of
+water and a deck-swab; they want to begin holystoning down the decks.
+How sleepy I am! And as for you, the night steward, who is still on
+duty, lifts you in his arms and carries you into your bunk, where you'll
+find yourself when you do wake. It's only five&mdash;time for some more hours
+yet. Sleeping on deck is rather an overrated amusement I think!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Before getting out of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean we have to pass
+through the Straits of Babel-Mandeb, which means the Gate of Affliction
+or Tears, because of the numerous wrecks there have been here. Then we
+stop at Aden, where the passengers going on to India change to another
+P. &amp; O. steamer, the <i>Salsette</i>, which is waiting for them. The <i>Medina</i>
+goes across to Ceylon and then south to Australia, but the ship
+following her next week goes straight to India.</p>
+
+<p>It is lucky for Britain that she owns Aden, for it is the doorway at the
+south end of the Red Sea, as the canal is the doorway at the north end.
+Of course it is more important to us that the route to the East should
+be kept clear than it is to any nation, because in case of difficulties
+in India we should have to send troops there at once. It is more by good
+luck than good management that just these little corners of the world,
+that mean so much, should happen to fall into our possession&mdash;Gibraltar,
+for instance, the gateway of the Mediterranean. And though the British
+Government refused to have any hand in the making of the Suez Canal, yet
+afterwards, because the Khedive of Egypt was hard up and willing to sell
+his shares, we bought at a reasonable rate and have much influence in
+the management of the canal.</p>
+
+<p>Standing beside us, watching the passengers for India climb down the
+gangway, is a fresh-looking, pink-faced young man of about
+one-and-twenty. He has a simple look, and you would think he was too
+young and innocent to go round the world by himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm right down glad I'm not going to 'do' India," he remarks. "I'm sick
+of travelling; I'm just longing to get back."</p>
+
+<p>"To Australia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'm a sheep-farmer there. I've worked four years without a break,
+so I took a holiday in Europe."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Anything less like one's idea of a sheep-farmer it would be hard to
+find! I always pictured them stern bearded men, with brick-red faces and
+sinewy limbs. This lad doesn't look as if he had ever been in a strong
+sun, and his slender loose-jointed legs and arms do not give the
+impression of an open-air life spent mostly in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a sheep-farm? Hard life, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Best life in the world," he answers with enthusiasm. "Always on
+horseback, miles of open country, not shut in by beastly houses."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's a lack of water, isn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can always sink a well, that's what they do now. It costs a good
+deal, but you can get water almost anywhere within reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you far out?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, only about three hundred and forty miles from the town where my
+mother lives. I go down to see her at week-ends; we're lucky in being
+close to a station, only a fifteen-mile ride."</p>
+
+<p>Three hundred and forty miles! About the distance from London to
+Berwick! Good place for week-ends, especially with a fifteen-mile ride
+at one end! I suppose our ideas get small from living in a little
+country. Pity we can't visit Australia, but we can't manage it this
+time. That great island-continent and its sister, New Zealand, are well
+worth seeing. Except for the Canadians there are no people nearer akin
+to us than the Australasians. The world-famous harbour of Sydney, the
+great hills clothed in eucalyptus, hiding in their depths vast caverns
+of stalactites, the wide open ranges stretching for leagues inland, all
+these things are attractive. In New Zealand, too, we should find
+tree-ferns of gigantic size, lovely scenery, and spouting geysers; it is
+an England set in a very different climate from ours! Then we might pass
+on to those strange South Seas, gemmed by coral islands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> and to the
+latitudes where the mighty albatross swings overhead like an aeroplane,
+only, unlike an aeroplane, he glides in a never-ending plane without
+apparent effort or even one flap of his huge twelve-foot wings.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, we can't see everything this trip!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus184.jpg" width="400" height="182" alt="A FLYING FISH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A FLYING FISH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Now we are right out in the Indian Ocean, and it is a bright day with a
+certain freshness in the air, instead of that horrible muggy heat that
+made us feel so languid when we were in the Red Sea. Look over the
+ship's side and watch the rainbow in the spray; that is one of the
+prettiest things to see on board. As the vessel cuts through the water
+she raises a frill of foam on either side&mdash;what the sailors call "a bone
+in her mouth." The frill, rising to a continuous wave along the side,
+catches the sunlight and a perpetual rainbow dances in it, changing
+always but remaining ever. Whew! What a rush! Flying fish. Look at them!
+These are the first we have seen so near; when they spring out of the
+water like that and skim along in the air they are not doing it for fun,
+but to escape a bitter enemy in the water, the bonito, a ferocious large
+fish who preys upon them; he is their chief foe, but there are many
+others also. They curve up all together like a glittering bow and
+slither down again. In dropping back into the sea they make a kind of
+pattering noise, though, of course, we are too far to hear it, and the
+fishermen in the small islands near India make use of this in trying to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+catch the bonito. They go out in boats specially built for the purpose,
+with a kind of platform overhanging the stern; here they sit and make a
+splashing with their paddles, at the same time using some little fish,
+which they catch and breed in tanks, for bait. The noise attracts the
+large fish, who think there is a shoal of the small fry about, and they
+jump at the bait and are caught. The catch is often very good, and the
+boats come back to the huts laden with the ogre fish, destined to be
+eaten in their turn!</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever thought what it must be like right down there in the deeps
+below the green water? We can't see because of the light striking the
+surface, but if we had a water-glass we could. This is a wooden funnel
+like that made of paper by village shopkeepers to roll up soft sugar in.
+At the broad end is a piece of strong glass, which is thrust under the
+water, and by peering through the small end it is possible to make out
+what is happening below if it is not too deep; anyway, we are too high
+up out of the water to use one here even if we had it, but in a boat
+near the coral reefs and islands there are wonderful things to be seen
+by the help of one of these glasses.</p>
+
+<p>If you dropped a stone overboard here it would sink and sink gradually
+for about two miles, until it found a resting-place on a slimy bottom of
+ooze in a strange dark place. You have a pretty good idea of what a mile
+is from running in the school races; in imagination set it up on end,
+and add another to it, and then think of that stone sinking that
+distance into the grey water! Down there it must be quite dark, for the
+mass of water above cuts off the sunlight like a black curtain. There
+are many beasts living there, nevertheless; lobsters and other
+shell-fish as well as fish, and in a great many cases those that have
+been examined are found to have no eyes; it is probable that they have
+lost their eyesight in the course of many generations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> because it would
+be no help to them in getting a living in those black depths. The
+subject is not fully understood yet, because <i>some</i> deep-sea fishes have
+exceptionally good sight, but these may possibly live higher up in the
+water, where there is a certain amount of glare, and then their eyes
+would become sharpened by necessity.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus186.jpg" width="400" height="374" alt="DEEP-SEA FISH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">DEEP-SEA FISH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The bed of the ocean is not a level plain; if you could see it emptied
+of all water, you would discover that the land slopes down, sometimes
+gradually and sometimes with terrific precipices from the shores, and
+that at the mouths of great rivers there are great banks of mud brought
+down by the current and piled up, making a fat living for innumerable
+sea-creatures. But at the very bottom, in this carpet of slime, there
+are no weeds, or as we might call them sea-vegetables, for they cannot
+live altogether without light, so the creatures which have their home in
+what to us would seem this cheerless, miserable retreat, must live on
+one another. They are differently built from surface fish, because they
+have always resting upon them the weight of an enormous pile of water.
+Picture a pyramid of water two miles high resting on anybody. It would
+crush him to atoms; but the fish and crustacea down there are used to
+it, and fitted by nature to support it, and so, if they are brought up
+to the surface by any means, they burst! In deep-sea trawling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> it is
+quite a common occurrence to see fishes literally burst open, with their
+eyes protruding from the sockets, and this annoys the fishermen, because
+they are of no use for the market in that condition. It is difficult to
+imagine creatures unable to live without a great weight resting on them,
+but as a matter of fact it is the same thing with us in a less degree.
+There is a column of air some miles high resting on every one of us, and
+if we could imagine ourselves lifted out of it into space, our heads
+would throb, and our eyes would burst out, and we should be as helpless
+as a deep-sea fish brought up to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>As for light, they have strange methods down there in the black depths.
+A great many of the deep-sea inhabitants carry their own lights, for
+they are more or less luminous, shining by internal light as glow-worms
+and fire-flies do. One extraordinary fish has a row of shiny spots
+stretching from his head to his tail, and when he is swimming about he
+must look like a liner with a lighted row of ship's ports stretching
+along his side. Even lobsters and crabs shine luminously, and what use
+it is to them when they are frequently blind it is hard to conjecture;
+it must have something to do with catching prey, who are perhaps not
+blind and may be attracted by the lights. There is at least one fish who
+hangs out what is like a red lantern, only it is the tip of his fin, and
+by this means he draws to himself small creatures who swim right into
+his capacious mouth; thus his dinner comes to him without his having to
+search for it!</p>
+
+<p>I want to go to the bows, for it never seems to me I am in a ship until
+I can get to a place where there is nothing to shut one in. These modern
+liners are horribly shut in, one might as well be in a drawing-room most
+of the time. Here we are at last, and it is good to draw a deep breath,
+feeling the huge dome of the sky above and the wide rim of the horizon
+around with nothing to cut them off. Look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> down where the ship cleaves
+the sea with her bows cleanly and beautifully like a living thing.
+Hullo! there is a dolphin! We are in luck! Can you see him dancing round
+us and plunging in under water and coming up again, much as a dog does
+on land when he goes out for a walk with his master? There is another,
+and another! What they call a shoal. They go fast enough; I expect we
+are making about fifteen or sixteen knots, or miles, an hour, which is
+good going, and yet these little chaps swim round and round, cutting
+across ahead of us, diving under us and coming up again all the time; to
+them it is mere child's play, and they really are playing; they are full
+of fun, and there is no earthly reason why they should behave like that
+except for amusement!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus188.jpg" width="400" height="137" alt="A DOLPHIN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A DOLPHIN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There goes the bugle for lunch.</p>
+
+<p>Seems early, you say? As if we had only just finished breakfast? Yes.
+Look at your watch. It is hopelessly wrong, of course; so is mine and
+everyone else's. We are going just about due east now, so we are meeting
+the sun half-way, so to speak. That is what makes the time different.
+You know that when the sun is at the highest point overhead at any place
+then it is midday, and as the earth spins round from west to east a
+constant succession of places come beneath him in turn, each getting
+their midday a little later than the one before. In the British Isles
+there is really very little difference between the hours when the
+eastern and western coasts meet the sun. Take Yarmouth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> say, and Land's
+End; there is perhaps something like half an hour between them, but as
+it would be awkward for railway work and business if every place had a
+little different time, so, for convenience' sake, one "standard" time is
+adopted in England, Scotland, and now even in some of the nearest
+continental countries; this is the hour when the sun is highest above
+Greenwich, where is our greatest observatory. And this is called midday,
+even though as a matter of fact the real midday at different places may
+be earlier or later.</p>
+
+<p>As we journey east across the world, however, we are constantly going
+forward to meet the sun. We are not only on the earth, which is turning
+round all the time, but we are going ahead ourselves as well, and
+out-running the earth, and so we arrive at noon sooner and sooner each
+day. Our watches of course take no heed of <i>real</i> time as judged by the
+sun, they are just mechanical and tick away their sixty minutes to each
+hour whether the sun is overhead or not. At this moment we are about
+four hours ahead of our friends in England. It is one o'clock here, but
+they will only be having breakfast! When we live always in one place it
+is easy to forget that we are on a ball spinning round in space, but
+this brings it home to us and makes us realise our absurd position in
+the universe. Well, let us get our lunch. There is one thing on board,
+everybody is always ready to eat an amazing amount after they have got
+over sea-sickness, and the number of meals we manage to consume here
+would surprise us at home!</p>
+
+<p>As the evening closes in, the day undergoes a change; there is a thick
+bank of black-looking cloud in the west, and just as the sun goes down
+this breaks up into wild streamers and shows deep ragged gulfs of livid
+light between; there are glimpses of green and tawny-red and angry
+orange flashing through, and then the veil of cloud blots out the light.
+Yet it is still, there doesn't seem to be a ripple of wind, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> sea
+has a curious oily calm upon it. Would you like to come along to the
+bows after dinner? Don't, if you don't want to. It is more difficult to
+get there than we expected, for though it looks so calm there is a big
+swell, and we are rising and falling considerably on the smooth-backed
+hillocks of water. Creep under these ropes and over this barricade. Then
+we are free from all the entanglements. There are no dolphins now, but
+there is a strange light dancing away like fire from the cutting bow; it
+comes in streaks and flashes, one moment it seems as if it must be only
+a reflection in the cut water, and the next one could swear there was a
+real flash.</p>
+
+<p>That is phosphorescence, which is very common in tropical seas,
+sometimes the whole sea is alight with it. Look at that! It is a vivid
+light like a wave of green fire, most beautiful! It is only, however,
+where the ship strikes the water that we see it to-night. But sometimes,
+though not often at this season of the year, the whole ocean seems to be
+alight with it; it is the effect of innumerable millions of tiny
+sea-creatures floating on the surface, though exactly why they do it at
+one time more than another is yet unknown. The curious thing is that
+there are so many different kinds of phosphorescence; there is the
+bright fiery kind like this we are seeing now in flashes, and there is a
+dull luminous kind which sailors call a "white sea." Then the whole sea
+appears as white as milk, or, as someone who has seen it describes it,
+as if it were changed to ice covered with a coating of snow. This was on
+a dark night before the moon had risen, but when she did get up it all
+disappeared and the sea looked much as usual, glittering only where the
+beams struck it, except for odd patches of shiny light here and there,
+and oddly enough exactly the same thing happened the following night.
+I'm afraid we shan't be lucky enough to see that.</p>
+
+<p>Is the motion making you uncomfortable? No? I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> glad of that; you're a
+first-rate sailor. Let us go back to that jolly alcove at the end of the
+smoking-room looking aft, where we can see the great green-black waves
+rising suddenly behind us.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, this is distinctly comfortable and quite interesting. It seems as
+if every wave rose in a great hill suddenly just after we had passed the
+spot! We must have come over it, but sitting like this we didn't feel
+it, we are riding so smoothly.</p>
+
+<p>If we look out ahead we shall see the same sort of thing happening; we
+approach a black hillock of water, and just as we get to it it rolls
+down and disappears under us. The ship is so large that though she
+climbs those hills, we get the impression that the hills straighten
+underneath her. You must have noticed something of the same kind in
+riding a bicycle; if you are running down one hill and see another
+rising in front, the other one looks terrifically steep, but as you get
+on to it, it flattens out in an inexplicable way; it is the change in
+our own position that accounts for the phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>It is very close to-night and there is an uneasy feeling in the air; the
+captain did not appear at dinner. It is a good thing that they put off
+that fancy-dress ball which was to have been held this evening, for
+there could not have been much dancing. Your costume will come in useful
+another time. I want to see you sometime as a little Egyptian with a
+skull-cap and a garment like a flannel night-shirt! But we shall have
+another chance.</p>
+
+<p>"Hope we're not in for a cyclone," says one of the men, appearing out of
+the smoking-room with a pipe in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Very unusual at this time of year in the North-East monsoon," replies
+another as they disappear.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment forked lightning plays across the sky in a great ragged
+streak, and immediately there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> another display as if answering it,
+but we can hear no thunder.</p>
+
+<p>What is the North-East monsoon? It sounds rather like some kind of
+animal, but it is only the name given to a certain wind that blows
+always at one season of the year.</p>
+
+<p>Across broad spaces of the ocean there are always steady winds to be
+counted on, such as the trade-winds, which are caused by the air at the
+Equator getting hot and rising, and being replaced by the cold air from
+the Poles which rushes in; besides this there are other winds which blow
+half the year, called monsoons, these are due to very much the same
+causes. The North-East monsoon comes in the northern winter; the air
+from the North Pole coming down slowly is met by the earth as she turns,
+and as she rushes into it she makes it a north-eastern wind; this,
+coming over the land from the north, is a dry wind, while the other one,
+the South-Western monsoon, coming from the south over the ocean in the
+other half of the year, is a wet wind and brings the rain which is such
+a boon to India.</p>
+
+<p>The lightning is continually playing, and I shouldn't be surprised if we
+are on the edge of a cyclone, but with a big ship like this, and a
+captain who knows his business, there is nothing to be afraid of. These
+cyclones, which are called typhoons in the China seas, are curious
+storms which twist round and round in a circle, all the time progressing
+onward too, and the danger is in getting into the middle of one, for
+there, as you may imagine, the wind comes from all quarters at once, and
+the waves are piled up on all sides like huge overhanging pyramids. I've
+never been in the middle of one, I'm thankful to say, but those who
+have, and have escaped with their lives, say that the ship is buffeted
+as if by mighty billows which smack down upon her from all directions.
+Sometimes there is seen a space of blue sky, and there is a great calm,
+but this to the commander is the most ominous sign of all, for he knows
+he must be in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> centre funnel of the storm, so to speak, and that it
+will be worse for him directly!</p>
+
+<p>We had better go to bed, there's nothing else to do.</p>
+
+<p>Are you awake? Yes, I thought even you could hardly sleep through that!
+What a smack! It sounds as if the heavens had opened and a water-spout
+had descended on deck! What a roar! Can you hear me? All right, come in
+here beside me if you like, but there is precious little room. It seems
+as if every noise on the ocean had been let loose. The rain must be
+simply one great volume of water, and the thunder&mdash;&mdash;Even through our
+port-hole the cabin is as light as day with the lightning; it is just
+two o'clock in the morning. The thunder seems to come absolutely
+instantaneously with the lightning; we must be right in it! I never
+heard such crashes. One minute our heads are down below our feet and the
+next we are almost standing on end. Hang on! We shall probably get
+through all right, this noise doesn't mean anything very bad. But I
+thank my stars I'm not an officer on the bridge. How they ever manage to
+keep on their feet I don't know, much less how they give directions. One
+man told me that he was once in such a sea that when he was pitched off
+his feet into one end of the bridge he hadn't time to recover himself
+before the same pitch came again and sent him down just as he was trying
+to get up! At any time the life at sea is hard, but doubly so in a storm
+like this! Hour after hour it goes on. I don't suppose anyone has slept
+through this, and many must be feeling very ill. We are lucky to be
+spared that!</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, though the lightning had ceased, the wind is terrific, it
+goes screeching past, and the rain comes down in buckets; with great
+difficulty we get into our clothes and scramble up to the smoking-room.
+It is a miserable day and very few of the passengers appear, but by the
+afternoon the worst is over, and we can get out into our alcove. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> are
+still labouring heavily in a blue-black sea, and can see a very little
+way as we are surrounded by mountains of water. Hurrah! There is a cleft
+over in the east, which means the storm is breaking. Our captain knows
+the law of cyclones and has judged rightly which way to turn to get out
+of the track of the storm. We have passed through a corner of it, and
+though we have got out of our course, that won't mean much delay.
+Anyway, you've had an experience very few people have had, for there are
+few indeed of all the thousands who go to India who have ever been in
+the tail of a cyclone! It is most unusual, but in these seas one never
+knows what will happen.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus195.jpg" width="450" height="230" alt="A NATIVE VILLAGE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A NATIVE VILLAGE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>A TROPICAL THUNDERSTORM</h3>
+
+
+<p>We have really arrived in the East! We are in Colombo, the capital town
+of Ceylon, the great island which lies swung like a pendant from the
+southernmost point of India. We are sitting in the shady verandah of one
+of the largest hotels, the Grand Oriental, called G.O.H. for short, and
+as we sip lemon-squash we look out over a scene so full of interest that
+it is difficult to take it all in. This is quite different from Port
+Said. There it was bright and clear, but there was not the wonderful
+smell and sense of being the East that we have here. The air is full of
+scent, a kind of spicy smell mingled with a touch of wood-smoke, and
+there is a balminess in it that we have never felt till now. The water
+in the harbour is a glorious emerald green, and small boys, almost
+naked, play about on roughly shaped log canoes called catamarans. They
+used to dive for pennies, but the sharks lopped off a leg here and an
+arm there and swallowed one up whole now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> and again, and so the
+Government forbade it. The dark wooden wharf forms a frame for gay
+figures in pure pinks and greens and yellows, and on the roads there run
+past continually the funniest sturdy little men with their loin-cloths
+tucked up, pulling light-looking chairs on high wheels with people in
+them. These chairs are called rickshaws and are the chief way of getting
+about. Very comfortable they are too, and quite cheap; we will go in
+them presently. The men who pull them have funny chignons of frizzy
+black hair sticking out under their little red caps, and it would be
+easy to mistake them for women. That attendant from the hotel at your
+elbow is asking you if you'll take another lemon-squash; he is quite a
+different sort of man from the runners, isn't he? Much taller and with a
+mild expression; his straight hair is adorned by a curved tortoise-shell
+comb of considerable size; he wears it round the back of his head, and
+how he makes it stay on among his very scanty locks is a miracle. His
+flowing white garments are immaculately clean, and he doesn't look as if
+he could kill a mosquito! He is a Cingalee, and the little men who run
+in the rickshaws are Tamils; these races live side by side in Ceylon,
+though there are many more Cingalese than Tamils. They are quite
+distinct, though they both originally came over from India, and in the
+old days when the Cingalese gave a line of kings to the island they were
+always fighting the Tamils; to-day both live together peacefully under
+British rule.</p>
+
+<p>This place is a positive bazaar! There is a deep, crafty old merchant
+sitting like a spider over his pile of sheeny silks in the corner&mdash;he
+hopes to get good prices from the unwary tourist; there is another with
+a stall of beautiful brass and copper hand-worked things, and others
+with jewellery and carved ivory. But more interesting than any is the
+snake-charmer, who has just squatted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> down in front of us, prepared to
+give us an entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>That is a cobra he takes out; you know it by its large, flat head. It
+seems sleepy and stupid, but its bite is deadly. It is possible, of
+course, that he has abstracted the poison-fangs which make its bite
+fatal, but even without them I shouldn't care to handle it. It is a huge
+beast, seven or eight feet long I should guess. See how he teases it; he
+is making it rise up on its coils and swing this way and that, darting
+its forked tongue out at him, and yet all the time it fears him. He has
+a marvellous power over it; its narrow, wicked light eyes are fixed on
+his face; it never looks away. Now he begins to play to it on a little
+flute; it is dancing, swaying its lean unlovely body to and fro and up
+and down in time with the tune. He puts down his pipe and makes a motion
+to it as if he were mesmerising it, passing his hands this way and that,
+until it comes to him and puts its flat head on his shoulder, nozzling
+into his neck. It makes one shudder to see it! It coils round his body
+again and again; he is enveloped in the coils. I should not care for
+that profession! It is not every man that can do it, only some of the
+natives have a gift for it, and they really have a power over snakes,
+even those in a wild state, for they make them come forth out of holes
+when called and remain passive at their feet. This man deserves a good
+tip. Bakshish they call it here too; that word accompanies you round the
+world!</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 146px;">
+<img src="images/illus197.jpg" width="146" height="400" alt="A CINGALEE WAITER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A CINGALEE WAITER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I think we'll go for a jaunt, if you're ready, as the light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> falls
+quickly here. There is no difficulty in getting two rickshaws, and how
+they spin along. They say the men who drag them don't live many years,
+as the constant running wears them out, but they look healthy enough and
+show no more exhaustion after running than a horse does after trotting.
+Each one has twisted up his dhoti, as the white skirts they wear are
+called, showing his bare brown legs; the upper garment is simply a
+European cotton vest. We spin along the bright red road by the sea,
+seeing the long lines of foam breaking gently on the beach, and then
+turn into shady roads where trees with brilliant yellow leaves light the
+wayside. Then we pass through a native village with huts of thatch,
+while plantains, which at home we call bananas, grow on broad-leaved
+plants by each door. There is dust enough here, and mangy-looking pariah
+dogs, and cocks and hens, and multitudes of bright beady-eyed children
+with hardly any clothing on. There is plenty of foliage and greenery and
+a freshness and richness of colouring that is much better than the grey
+leafless harshness of an Egyptian village, for this land gets plenty of
+rain. Everyone seems good-humoured and happy, and the children look fat
+enough; some of them are very black, with woolly heads, of a different
+type from the others. These are the children of a race called Moormen.</p>
+
+<p>When we get down near the hotel I want you to come into this jeweller's
+shop in the arcade; you'll see a strange sight. A crowd of tourists are
+sitting round a table which is covered with little heaps of shining
+stones, unset and piled on squares of white paper; some are brilliant
+blue, others flashing crimson, others sombre in hue, but showing a
+glitter of living light whichever way you turn them. The odd thing is
+that the visitors are handling them and turning them over, and examining
+them quite freely, while the owner, a wizened old man in horn
+spectacles, hardly watches!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They're not real?"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed they are! Rubies, star-sapphires, opals, and many another
+precious stone. That native owner has a queer faith in the honesty of
+his customers! Long may it last!</p>
+
+<p>We are only in Colombo for one night, and to-morrow we are going
+up-country to stay with a friend of mine, a tea-planter.</p>
+
+<p>As we are undressing you give a sudden start, "What's that?" Only a
+lizard scuttling over the dark-washed bedroom wall, first cousin to the
+chameleon you saw at Abu Simbel. He is quite harmless and lives on
+flies. He runs like a little shadow across the wall and sometimes he
+loses his balance and comes down thump on the floor, or breaks his fall
+on the mosquito curtains. He is one of the signs that we really are in
+the East; here is another. Listen for a moment at the window. There is a
+distant barking of dogs, a far-away crow from a defiant cock, a strange
+murmurous chant of men, weird cries intermingled, and now and then the
+deep beat of a parchment drum. The people of the land are all awake and
+stirring though it is late&mdash;the East never really sleeps as profoundly
+as does the West; there is a restlessness in the blood that stirs too
+much, and a pulsating warmth in the air that does not allow of deep
+slumber; it is the restlessness of the jungle translated into town life.</p>
+
+<p>Next day at the station we find that the porters, though dressed in neat
+blue suits, have pronounced chignons of the same type as their brothers
+who draw the rickshaws, and in spite of their European-cut coats and
+trousers they run about with bare feet! We might make a museum of the
+strange porters we see on our wanderings, collecting a specimen from
+each country!</p>
+
+<p>The train is comfortable enough and there is a luncheon-car, so we
+shan't starve this time; besides, the journey to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> Kandy is only a few
+hours. There I hope we shall be met, as I haven't the least idea
+whereabouts my friend, Mr. Hunter's, tea-plantation is; however, I sent
+him a wire yesterday directly we arrived to say we would come by this
+train, so he is sure to be there.</p>
+
+<p>The line for the greater part of the way is laid on a terrace or shelf
+cut out of a hillside, and it winds along climbing ever up with a
+towering wall on one side and a precipice on the other. The little
+stations have hardly room to wedge in, but they are very gay with
+flowers&mdash;indeed the whole line is, for great yellow daisies and the
+terra-cotta blossoms of a pretty creeper called lantana climb
+everywhere. As we get higher and higher we can look down and see the
+country spread out before us like a map; it is cut up into neat little
+fields and would be like a draught-board except that the fields are
+often on different levels one above the other, made on land cut out from
+the hillsides. These people grow rice, which is to them what maize is to
+the Egyptian. In the fields, before it has been threshed, it is known as
+paddy. They live on rice and very little else, and seem to thrive on it.
+Rice pudding if repeated every day for a month at both breakfast and
+dinner would grow monotonous, but the man of the East does not find it
+so. His rice is not cooked with milk but with water, and is eaten with a
+little curry made of fish or vegetables to give it flavour.</p>
+
+<p>Higher yet, and soon we see the hills laid out with rows of a tiny
+dark-green bush, planted as neatly as rows of turnips; this is the tea
+for which Ceylon is famous, and we shall get a nearer look at it
+presently. That and rubber are the staple crops that Englishmen come out
+here to raise, but they also grow coffee and other things too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus201.jpg" width="450" height="409" alt="DOWN IN THE PADDYFIELDS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">DOWN IN THE PADDYFIELDS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we arrive at Kandy there is no sign of anything to meet us and no
+white man on the platform, so I make inquiries of the stationmaster, who
+is a Eurasian, which means that he has some white blood in his veins. He
+knows Mr. and Mrs. Hunter perfectly well, he says, though he has not
+seen them for a day or two. If, as I say, I wired, they are certain to
+send in a trap to meet us; but it may have been delayed or still be in
+the town. If we care to go up and look round, and come back again, he
+will meantime make inquiries. With many thanks we take his advice. The
+town is quite near and we find the main part of it built around a pretty
+little lake near which is the famous Temple of the Tooth. This is a
+massive building visited by thousands of pilgrims, because it enshrines
+a relic of great sanctity, nothing less than the tooth of Buddha! What
+Mohammed is to the Mohammedans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> so Buddha is to the Buddhists, among
+whom the greater part of the people of Ceylon may be counted. But Buddha
+is more than a prophet; his followers say that he has appeared on earth
+many times, and that the last time he came in the form of an Indian
+prince who, instead of living in careless luxury, left his home and
+wandered forth among the people to discover the meaning of life. When he
+found it, after deep meditation, he left certain precepts and rules to
+his followers. Some of them are very good, resembling our own
+Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not lie," "Thou shalt
+not steal," "Thou shalt not drink intoxicating liquor." But, unlike the
+Mohammedans, the Buddhists do not believe in God. Their idea of blissful
+happiness at the last is to melt away into a kind of nothingness of
+perfect peace, with no desires, no worries, and no cares.</p>
+
+<p>All over the East you find temples which are supposed to contain some
+part of Buddha's person, hairs, teeth, even a collar-bone! Of course it
+is impossible that these things should be genuine, and in any case, if
+they were, there is nothing sacred about them. The worshippers always
+say they do not look upon Buddha as a god, but only a great spiritual
+teacher, yet the poor and ignorant come and worship and bow down in
+these temples, and there is no doubt that to them the image itself
+stands for a god. The tooth which is here is kept in many caskets, one
+within the other, and it is never shown except on very great occasions.
+Mr. Hunter saw it once, and says it is not a human tooth at all, but a
+great thing like a boar's tusk or possibly an elephant's tooth. He
+couldn't get a good look at it, anyway he saw enough to be quite sure
+that it is not human at all, and the same may be said without doubt of
+all similar relics.</p>
+
+<p>What a lovely scene! The graceful dark-skinned crowd in their softly
+flowing garments of the purest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> pinks you ever saw, with sulphur yellow
+and rich red draperies thrown over them, are idling by the hoary grey
+steps of the temple and dropping bits of bread into the ponds in front.
+They are feeding the tortoises, fat lazy beasts who will hardly move to
+snap at the fragments unless they fall before their very noses. These
+beasts are supposed to be sacred too, and so they have an uncommonly
+good time of it. This massive building, temple and palace in one, was
+inhabited by the old line of native kings who made Kandy their capital.</p>
+
+<p>We must get back to the station or we may miss Mr. Hunter. When we
+arrive there we find there is no sign of him, whereat the attentive
+stationmaster is greatly distressed. He advises us to hire a trap and
+drive to some place with an unpronounceable name, where Mr. Hunter is
+sure to meet us; visitors often do that, he says. I try to discover why
+we can't drive all the way, but his answers are not enlightening; "big
+hill," he replies, and I don't see why the trap can't go up a hill!
+However, we shall see. He engages a trap for us, anyway; with a
+scarecrow horse and a friendly looking driver whose hairy legs protrude
+from wrappings of cinnamon-coloured cloth&mdash;once white, I suppose&mdash;and we
+are off. The roads at first are very good; and there is none of the dust
+we suffered from so much in Egypt, for Ceylon is a moist land. In fact,
+it looks rather like rain now, with heavy clouds gathering up.</p>
+
+<p>After going at a slow trot for a considerable distance the driver pulls
+up, and pointing with his whip to a tree-covered mountain says something
+unintelligible, which turns out to be "'Unter Tuan," after he has
+repeated it about six times. This means Mr. Hunter, "Tuan" being the
+same term of respect here that "Sahib" is in India.</p>
+
+<p>There is no sign of a house or any living being; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> place is
+absolutely deserted. In vain I sign to the man to go ahead; he shakes
+his head and remains seated on his box like an image of despair. I get
+out and see that the road runs away to nothing in the bushes and scrub
+in front, it just ends suddenly for no apparent reason, and while I am
+looking I hear a slight crackling in the bushes, and a tall, thin, very
+dirty-looking youth appears and salaams respectfully. The driver
+immediately begins to converse with him, whereupon the youth takes our
+bag unceremoniously out of the carriage and putting it on his head
+beckons to us to follow him. There is nothing else for it, so, after
+paying the driver, we do so, feeling like two infants in charge of this
+fellow.</p>
+
+<p>I try the lean lad in English, asking him if he knows Hunter Tuan's
+place, but he swings round, looks at me gravely, and continues his
+graceful, elastic walk.</p>
+
+<p>It is pretty warm, and the path is narrow and lined by thorn bushes, so
+the going is not easy; but the youth seems to float on ahead with
+mysterious ease, and we pant after him feeling as if our lives depended
+on not losing sight of him. At last the bushes get so thick that we have
+to push our way through, and we suddenly see him a good distance ahead,
+half-way across a broad and shallow river which bubbles round his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi!" we shout after him. "Stop!" And he turns, but only to beckon
+imperturbably and continue evenly on his way. It is evidently the custom
+of this country to walk through rivers when you meet them! Easy enough
+for the inhabitants, who are not encumbered with shoes and stockings,
+but for us....</p>
+
+<p>Down we go and are soon hard after him with our boots slung round our
+necks and our stockings stuffed into them; the cool water splashing
+round our legs is rather pleasant. Lucky it is not deep. We have to stop
+and re-clothe on the other side. Here our coolie has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> condescended to
+wait for us, and just as you are about to sit down on a convenient
+hillock of bare brown earth he waves you away, and you see that big red
+ants with a most fierce and warlike appearance are running about it; it
+is their home and fortress! Once more booted we struggle on, uphill now,
+on a stony path, and very stiff work it is. When we tell our guide to
+stop for a moment he looks at us condescendingly and stands with his
+burden poised on his head, not even caring to put it down as he waits
+until these poor creatures, who are not carrying anything at all, regain
+their breath, and that makes us feel so inferior we don't like to stop
+often! The clouds gather and blacken, the perspiration is running down
+my back, and I am as wet as if I had waded through the river up to my
+neck. I should be glad to see the house, for we have been scrambling
+upwards for quite an hour now. What a place to live in! Fancy having to
+come down here every time you wanted to do a little shopping!</p>
+
+<p>Another hour at least! A few drops, muttering thunder, and then, quicker
+than one can say it, a blinding, crashing downpour. Never in my life
+have I seen rain like this until that night at sea when we passed
+through the edge of the cyclone, and now twice have I met it in a week!
+It is simply a water-spout. A brilliant flash of lightning shows us the
+youth crouching under a bank some yards ahead, and we dive into the
+nearest place, following his example. Luckily the bank is high here and
+there is a kind of cave beneath a mass of broad-leaved plants; there is
+just room for the two of us huddled close together, and the wall of
+water sweeps past the entrance like a curtain. The rain makes a
+deafening noise, it literally crashes down; the path is a mountain
+torrent; if we had stayed there we should have been swept off our feet;
+it seems as if the whole mountain-side must go. We hang on to each
+other, avoiding the trickles as best we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> can. Hullo! this plant is a
+cardamom, carrying little seeds rather like spicy pepper; nibble one, it
+may keep off the effects of the wetting we have been unable to avoid
+altogether. How cold it seems to have grown all of a sudden! Is it the
+rain, or because we are so much higher up? I suppose really it is the
+latter, because I remember now that the planters always live on the tops
+of hills to get the fresh air, which is more healthy there than in the
+stifling valleys.</p>
+
+<p>It is a long time before the storm passes, and when at last it dies down
+to a few drops and we emerge and shake ourselves, all trace of the
+coolie boy has vanished! Yes, it is true! He has gone, and the bag too!
+Well, he must have gone upward or we should have seen him pass, so let
+us hope he is honest and has taken the bag to the house. There is only
+one path, so we can do nothing but follow.</p>
+
+<p>On we climb again, and presently the scene changes; we have got into the
+tea-scrub, and wander among rows of bushes about the size of gooseberry
+bushes, receiving deluges of cold water against our legs. The path
+zigzags this way and that, rising each time so that we can look back and
+see it lying below us in fold after fold. At last! There is an opening!
+I see a glimpse of green lawn and some poinsettias! This must be the
+place! Yes, I can see the bungalow, and here is a mackintosh-clad figure
+hastening down the path to greet us.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow! However did you get here? Why on earth didn't you let
+us know? We'd have sent to meet you!"</p>
+
+<p>As we grasp hands I explain about the telegram. "Oh, then I shall get it
+with the letters to-morrow morning!" he says lightly. "No matter, so
+long as you are here and safe. I was afraid you had got lost upon the
+mountain-top, and was setting forth to seek you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But how did you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your coolie arrived with the bag a quarter of an hour ago, and your
+name is written on the label very large and clear. Delighted to see you!
+The missus is romping round getting your beds aired and pinning up
+curtains in your honour!"</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus208.jpg" width="450" height="313" alt="RUANVELI DAGOBA AT THE &quot;BURIED CITY.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">RUANVELI DAGOBA AT THE &quot;BURIED CITY.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A SACRED TREE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Do you remember that just about this time last week we were crouching in
+a hole in a muddy bank waiting for the thunderstorm to pass on? How
+different now, though we are still in Ceylon and, as crow flies, not so
+many miles from the Hunters' mountain-side. It is a gorgeous tropical
+afternoon, the bits of sky we can see through the feathery-leaved trees
+are of the deepest blue, and we are resting, because it seems too hot to
+move a limb. In front of us there stretches a sheet of limpid water
+which might be a lake except that it is surrounded by a raised bund, or
+bank, artificially made, with hewn granite slabs as steps going down at
+one end. We are glad of the shade of the trees falling across the short
+turfy grass, and we are seated on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> some broken blocks of granite,
+keeping a sharp look out for snakes. They will hardly be likely to
+trouble us here, but in that jungly bit behind it wouldn't be at all
+safe to rest like this. Even to sit on the short grass might be
+unpleasant, as there are all sorts of unknown insects here which bite
+and sting and stab, but we are safely raised on stones and are wearing
+thick boots. Examine that slab of granite there beside you; do you see
+that it has a most wonderfully carved snake upon it&mdash;a cobra with seven
+heads? It is so clear-cut it might have been done yesterday, yet it is
+part of the ruins of a mighty city, a city as large as London, which
+once stretched its busy streets over this quiet glade. The cobra was a
+sacred beast to the Hindus, and a seven-headed one was peculiarly so,
+seven being a mystic number.</p>
+
+<p>What a glorious butterfly! Its body is as big as a small bird, and its
+great velvety wings are the sharpest black and white. No, I don't for a
+moment suppose you'll catch it, so it is no use getting hot! I'm glad
+you can't, for we have no proper apparatus here, and it would only be a
+crushed mass to take home. Don't go headlong into the tank, though, in
+your frantic efforts; it might be awkward. No, I don't think there are
+any crocodiles, only a few sacred tortoises perhaps. Look! there is a
+tiny one&mdash;that small yellow thing that is walking away with the
+melancholy dignity of a retired general. Pick it up if you like
+certainly, see it wag its head and legs helplessly. I wish we could take
+it home. As you replace it, it continues its grave walk in the same
+direction as if it had never been rudely interrupted. At that instant a
+hare darts across an open glade and disappears in the thick undergrowth.
+What a country! &AElig;sop's Fables in real life, where hares and tortoises
+live together!</p>
+
+<p>"Was this city here at the same time as Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span> was living?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No. Egypt was past its best days before this city, which was called
+Anuradhapura (Anarajapura), was built, and you must remember Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span>
+was by no means one of the earliest kings of Egypt, he came quite late
+on in his country's history. His date was about thirteen hundred years
+before Christ, and it must have been about eight hundred years after
+that, though still you notice, 500 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, that this city was founded by
+some Cingalese who are supposed to have come over from India. That makes
+it between two thousand and three thousand years old, which we should
+think ancient enough if we hadn't visited Egypt first. Anuradhapura
+flourished for centuries as the capital of the Cingalese kings, who
+often carried on savage battles with the Tamils when they came over from
+India also.</p>
+
+<p>Turn round now and examine that hill you wanted to climb a little while
+ago and tell me if you can see anything peculiar about it. No, I don't
+mean that large grey monkey who has just peeped at us in an impudent way
+and then swung himself into hiding, though I admit he is very
+interesting. I mean something odd about the hill itself. It is covered
+with trees and jungle scrub certainly, as any ordinary hill might be,
+but it is oddly steep and the sides rise very sharply from the ground.
+It is an even shape too, more like an inverted bowl than a hill; or,
+better still, just try to imagine some giant cutting off the dome of St.
+Paul's and setting it down here in the jungle, wouldn't it look
+something like that?</p>
+
+<p>You don't quite agree, for you say that this has trees and bushes
+growing on it and St. Paul's dome would be bare. That is so, but if St.
+Paul's dome had been left for many hundreds of years in a country where
+vegetation grows as fast as it does here, wouldn't it probably be grown
+over too?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I <i>do</i> mean it. That isn't a hill at all, but a huge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> brick
+building called a dagoba, made by the same race of men who dug out this
+tank, and whose descendants to-day, with tortoise-shell combs in their
+hair, wait on us in the Colombo hotels.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus211.jpg" width="450" height="481" alt="LARGE GREY MONKEY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">LARGE GREY MONKEY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We will go back now to the place where we left that native cart and
+driver and we'll find a dagoba which has been stripped of its trees, so
+that we can see what it really looks like.</p>
+
+<p>Hush! Do you hear that curious singing like a chant? Wait; there is a
+procession of pilgrims. They come swinging round the corner of the road
+in their picturesque flowing garments, and just at the turn they stop
+and kneel with their hands held palms together before their faces,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> and
+they bow repeatedly before marching on again. Let us go and find out
+what it was that stopped them. We soon come to it and find that it is
+the seated figure of a man with one hand falling over his knee and the
+other on his lap, while his legs are crossed tailor-wise. It is painted
+white and it is not very much larger than life. This is Buddha, of whom
+you heard in Kandy, and all over here, and in Burma, and in a less
+degree in India, you will find images of him set up to remind his
+followers of the precepts he left for them to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Our driver is dead asleep under a tree, but we manage to wake him and
+soon we are rattling along a tree-shaded road in the queer little cart
+to Ruanveli, the best known of all the dagobas. When we arrive in full
+view of it we dismiss the driver and climb on to a slab of stone that is
+raised from the ground and tilted slightly like a table with two legs
+higher than the others. Here we can gaze upon this extraordinary
+monument which rises about one hundred and fifty feet into the air, and
+is about two and a half times as much across, just the shape of a
+pudding basin, you see. It is not a temple, not even a tomb, as the
+Pyramids are, but a solid block built of millions and millions of bricks
+with a tiny chamber inside containing an infinitely precious relic,
+nothing less than a few of Buddha's hairs. So they say! Only the priests
+were allowed to go into this sacred chamber, with the exception of one
+king, who had this priceless privilege granted to him. It is not very
+many years since mighty monuments were rediscovered, because the jungle
+had grown up all around them and no one knew even where Anuradhapura had
+stood; but now there are men who spend their whole time uncovering and
+preserving them, just as many men are working at the excavations in
+Egypt; and the trees and overgrowth have been stripped from Ruanveli,
+which stands forth sharp and clear-cut against this beautiful sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Men are very much alike all the world over! This great dagoba was put up
+by one of the Cingalese kings, Dutugemunu, to celebrate his great
+victory over the Tamils, just as Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span> put up the inimitable
+temple of Abu Simbel to celebrate his victory over the Syrians. Before
+Dutugemunu came to the throne the Tamils had usurped all power and made
+one of their own men, called Elala, king, and the young prince, exiled
+from his capital city, met them in battle outside the walls. He fought
+with great bravery, and in the end the issue of the day was decided by a
+single combat between him and Elala, both mounted on huge elephants.
+That must have been a fight indeed! Dutugemunu killed Elala and regained
+the throne of his fathers, but he must have been a singularly
+enlightened prince for his age, for he not only buried his fallen foe
+with great honour but he gave orders that henceforth all music should
+cease when bands were marching past his tomb, and that royalties were to
+alight from their horses or palanquins and walk past on foot to do
+honour to the mighty dead. Even in the nineteenth century one of the
+princes from Kandy, who was flying from capture, obeyed the order and
+would not allow himself to be carried past the spot! So the memory of
+Elala and the great fight he made were kept alive as Dutugemunu had
+intended they should be.</p>
+
+<p>On this very slab where we are now sitting it is said that Dutugemunu
+died. If not the actual stone, it is probably the spot. It was about 140
+<span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, and when he knew he was dying he gave orders that he should be
+carried out here, that his fast failing eyes might look their last on
+the greatest monument of his reign. In the midst of his great city, with
+its fine buildings and the great tanks he had caused to be made to give
+the people water, he thought most of all of Ruanveli, partly because of
+the sacred relic enclosed, but partly also because he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> done a
+wonderful thing in paying for all the labour that was used in its
+building, instead of forcing his subjects to work for nothing, as was
+the custom in his time.</p>
+
+<p>There is much to examine in Ruanveli; we can see the casing of granite
+running up the sides, we can examine a statue of the king himself and
+many wonderful carvings; around the dagoba runs a magnificent granite
+platform wide enough for six elephants to walk abreast, as no doubt they
+did many times in the gay processions on festival days.</p>
+
+<p>Behind the dagoba, not far off, is an immense lake, or tank, much larger
+than that we saw this morning. It was considered a peculiar work of
+merit for kings to make these tanks so that water could be stored up for
+the use of the people, and they are found all over Ceylon; there is one
+twenty miles in length!</p>
+
+<p>The sun has fallen low by the time we pass on to the Brazen Palace. At
+first, when we near it, we see merely a forest of columns with nothing
+brazen about them; they are not very high, about twice the height of a
+man perhaps, and they are set in rows very near together. Altogether
+there are one thousand six hundred of them! There is no roof now, but in
+the days of its glory this great house, which was built for the priest,
+had nine, and was finished by a sheet of burnished copper which caught
+the sun's rays and flashed far and wide beneath the clear blue sky. The
+walls were decorated with glittering stones and the fittings were of the
+most costly and beautiful kind. The wonder is how the priests found room
+to walk about between those multitudinous columns which so filled the
+space in their halls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus215.jpg" width="450" height="378" alt="THE BRAZEN PALACE, CEYLON." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE BRAZEN PALACE, CEYLON.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One more sight in this city of ancient glory. Do you see across that
+park-like space of short grass some fires glimmering weirdly in the dusk
+which has now fallen round the most sacred object in Anuradhapura; I
+won't say what it is. Come nearer. A heavy scent, like that of
+tuberoses, greets us as we approach; it comes from the white waxy
+blossoms of the frangipani lying in that cardboard saucer with all the
+heads put outwards like the spokes of a wheel. In the centre is a pink
+blossom. Those flowers are sold as offerings in this sacred place. Don't
+stumble over that dark bundle, it is a sleeping child. Step cautiously
+between the bright-eyed people who watch, furtively alert, like shy
+woodland creatures, as they crouch low over their fires, for the evening
+has suddenly become chilly with the loss of the sun. These are pilgrims
+come from afar, and they will lie down to sleep just as they are in the
+open. There are very few at this time of the year;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> but in June and
+July, which are the principal months, thousands and thousands arrive
+here, having crossed weary leagues to come. It is strange how the world
+is linked up by its pilgrimages. We saw the pilgrims in the Holy Land
+coming from afar to the Christian shrines, humble and devout, believing
+all that was told them and carrying out in their poor lives much of
+Christ's teaching; we saw them in crowded and uncomfortable ships
+journeying from Mecca, the shrine of Mohammedanism; and now we see them
+here reverently drawn to the only sacred place they know, there to pray
+to something unseen and unknown, that they may be helped by a power
+stronger than themselves. In all ages and all races man yearns for a
+god, and if he knows not God he still worships dimly any strange god he
+hears of.</p>
+
+<p>We cross some brick pavement, and climb up a few worn steps on to a
+platform surrounded by a railing. Out of the middle of it there grows a
+gnarled and ancient tree with crooked boughs splitting asunder with
+hardly any leaves on them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Now</i> do you see?</p>
+
+<p>You only see monkeys looking like little black demons against the
+afterglow still lingering in the sky as they leap from the tall palm
+trees near, but this tree is not a palm.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a leaf, shaped like that of a poplar, but much larger, floats
+down, and in an instant a slight dark figure, tied up in a bundle of
+loose clothes, falls upon it, and holding it between the palms of the
+hands bows again and again. That leaf is a precious relic, for this is
+the sacred Bo tree, said to be at least two thousand years old!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;">
+<img src="images/illus217.jpg" width="418" height="600" alt="SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH
+THE TUNE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH
+THE TUNE.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the Cingalese had come over from India and settled here, a monk
+came and converted them to Buddhism; he was followed by his sister, a
+princess, as he was a prince, and she brought with her, so it is said, a
+branch of the actual tree under which Buddha sat when he considered all
+the problems of life and found an answer to them, which he left to his
+people. This branch, being planted, became a tree itself. So the story
+goes; and that there has been a tree here worshipped for untold ages is
+true, and if that is so, whatever its origin, this also to us is a
+sacred spot, hallowed by the thousands of poor souls who, knowing not
+the light, yet have come here with yearnings towards the light and to
+the "unknown god."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner we wander out again into the tree-shaded road near, and a
+sight of extraordinary splendour startles us. Every tree is brilliantly
+illuminated as if by a million points of electric light. You have seen
+an arc-light which seems to scintillate rays? These lights might be very
+tiny arc-lights, for each one vibrates in the intensity of its
+luminousness. We can see the outlines of the trees clearly. It is a
+wonderful evening for fire-flies. No one knows why on some nights they
+appear like this in countless thousands, and on other nights, apparently
+the same, there is not one to be seen. It looks almost as if they had
+parties and agreed to do their best on certain occasions. They have
+evidently done their best for us to-night, for the other people
+following us out of the hotel, who have been here longer than us, are
+entranced.</p>
+
+<p>"Never saw anything like it, not even in the West Indies," says one man.</p>
+
+<p>"Puts a Christmas tree in the shade," remarks another.</p>
+
+<p>Catch one, he doesn't burn; don't grab him so as to hurt him, just take
+him gently; that is right; bring him into the light and open your hand a
+little. You see he is a flat, greenish beetle, with head set on a funny
+hinge so that he could nod it violently if he liked. Half shut your hand
+and turn away from the light; now you see two round green eyes glowing
+like emeralds. He doesn't seem embarrassed by all this attention, but
+you might let him go back to his party!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When we have let him go we will walk down the avenue of living light,
+where is one thing more to see to-night. It is only ten minutes' walk
+and as we near it it gleams in the dim light of the brilliant stars, a
+ghostly white object. As our eyes grow accustomed to the light we see a
+building like a snow-white bell. It is small compared with the gigantic
+dagobas we have examined already to-day, for the very tip of the
+pinnacle, rising above the bell-shaped part, is only sixty-three feet,
+but it is very graceful and is considered the most sacred of all the
+dagobas, for it was built to enshrine Buddha's collar-bone!</p>
+
+<p>We haven't seen the half of Anuradhapura yet, and there are numbers of
+other ancient cities in Ceylon to explore, to say nothing of
+rock-temples with strange paintings and carvings; but we mustn't be here
+too long or we shan't get through India and Burma before the hot weather
+comes, which no European can endure.</p>
+
+<p>The white coating of this dagoba is a stuff called chunam, a kind of
+lime. It is startlingly white and looks beautiful at night, but
+otherwise it is just a sort of whitewash, clean enough but not
+particularly attractive. There are numbers of the same square-cut
+granite columns that we saw at the Brazen Temple falling about near the
+dagoba, some this way and some that. A good place for snakes, that is
+why we came round by the road and walked so carefully.</p>
+
+<p>Hullo! There is one! Keep still! Did you see him wriggle across among
+the interlacing shadows of the trees? A large one too! Thank goodness he
+has gone harmlessly! I wonder what sort he was? We ought not to have
+come out, let us get back as quickly as we can.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus221.jpg" width="450" height="332" alt="A BULLOCK CART." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A BULLOCK CART.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>UNWELCOME INTRUDERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>India at last!</p>
+
+<p>We have come up the west coast from Ceylon and are now approaching
+Bombay. It is night-time, and far ahead we see a great yellow light
+which appears and disappears, and is visible for twenty miles out at
+sea. It seems to blink at us in greeting, peeping every few seconds to
+see if we are still there. Then at last we ride into the harbour, and
+such a harbour! We cannot see it now at all, and even if it were
+daylight we couldn't see more than a very small part of it, for it is
+fifteen miles one way by four or five the other, and a harbour that size
+cannot be taken in at one glance.</p>
+
+<p>We have to sleep on board, for there are some formalities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> to be
+observed before we go ashore. There is our heavy baggage to get out of
+the hold, for instance, and to pass through the Customs. That can wait
+until to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Our first impression of Bombay is therefore a city of lights. There are
+lights sprinkled about anyhow and anywhere; some in chains, some
+separate, some low, and some apparently slung high up in mid-air. These
+are on the hill above the town, which itself stands on an island.</p>
+
+<p>The very first incident we notice is a ludicrous one, and I am sure we
+shan't forget it. A rather stout Englishman who is landing to-night
+steps on to the launch, and in an instant is garlanded with marigolds
+hung in wreaths round his neck. A crowd of native friends surrounds him.
+Some are in European dress, and talk a queer sort of English very fast
+and fluently, as if it were being pumped out of their mouths by the
+yard; others wear the flowing drapery of the East. Many of them carry
+bunches of flowers, which look more like balls, because the native habit
+is to strip off every atom of leaf and then pack the blossoms with all
+their heads together as tight as they will go. Many such balls are being
+pressed upon the embarrassed Englishman, and the scent of crushed
+marigolds fills the air. This is all by way of welcome, and it is
+evident that the newcomer is a prime favourite with the people. He looks
+sheepish, but his round rosy face rises good-humouredly above the absurd
+garlands.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we are up in good time, and as soon as ever we get our
+baggage clear of the Customs we go sight-seeing. In our nostrils is the
+subtle scent of India; it has something of dust in it, but is not
+chiefly dust, as in Egypt; there is a waft of wood-smoke, and a strong
+flavour of mixed spices, and some hint of sweet flowers, and many other
+things not so agreeable. It is a blend that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> any Anglo-Indian knows, and
+if he smelt it suddenly when he was thousands of miles away, with the
+daisied grass beneath his feet, and the swallows wheeling overhead, it
+would carry him back with a jump to a land of dark faces and burning sun
+and red dust, and all the vivid sights of the East.</p>
+
+<p>We are not starting on our great journey across India until the evening,
+so we can wander at will through the broad clean streets, looking into
+the magnificent shops that might be in any European town, and then we
+can plunge into the native part, where we find narrow, busy bazaars that
+might belong to the <i>Arabian Nights</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Bombay was one of the first bits of India to belong to the English. The
+Portuguese held it before then, and gave it to our nation as part of the
+dower of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married
+Charles II. You know the old saying, "trade follows the flag," and it
+certainly did in Bombay, for the East India Company rented the city from
+the king at &pound;10 a year. The Company pushed forward all over the rest of
+India year by year, and it was through their steady and persistent
+advance in the country that the British finally occupied India&mdash;so later
+on the saying was reversed, and "the flag followed trade," as it more
+often does. But you know that story, every British boy does, the story
+of Clive and Hastings, and later on of the Mutiny; it is a part of
+English history and one of the most thrilling parts too.</p>
+
+<p>Bombay is a city of trade; her immense docks receive ships of all sizes,
+her wharves are laden with the produce of the world, her wide streets
+are open to traffic of all descriptions, her public buildings are
+splendid, her clubs and hotels palatial. Her merchants prosper and grow
+rich, and build for themselves houses on Malabar Hill, the long ridge
+above the town, which catches the sea-breezes. At one time that ridge
+was looked upon as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> sacred to Europeans, but now the wealthy natives
+settle there, and there is not room for all the poorer Europeans, who
+have to be content with lower levels.</p>
+
+<p>Stand still for a moment in this street, and look around. Here comes a
+motor-car, and in it lolls a hugely fat man with a yellow skin, and that
+crafty insolent look which marks the successful native trader; his thick
+neck rolls in creases above his purple brocade coat. But they are not
+all like this; some are thoughtful men who have given lakhs of rupees
+for the public good.</p>
+
+<p>What a contrast! Here is one of the poorest of the poor. A bullock-cart
+comes along, drawn by two lean animals with their ribs sticking out. A
+heavy yoke passes across their necks, but otherwise they have not a
+scrap of harness on them. That lean man huddled up on the pole between
+them, clad in a few yards of rag, prods them with a pointed stick when
+he wants them to go this way and that. He dares not now twist their
+tails till he breaks them, or keep open running sores so that he may
+prick them in a sensitive part, as he would have done at one time, for
+if he did the police would be down on him.</p>
+
+<p>On the side-walk there is a lady, yes, it <i>is</i> a lady&mdash;in very baggy
+green and gold trousers, with gold anklets tinkling as she walks. Her
+head and face are swathed in a "sari" or shawl of shot gold and purple,
+which only allows her heavy black eyes to appear above its folds. The
+street is alive with men in white; some wear long white coats buttoned
+down over the kind of white petticoat called a <i>dhoti</i>, others have the
+curious habit of wearing their shirts outside their trousers like a
+kilt, but you soon get used to this, and cease to notice it. That fellow
+in a tall extinguisher cap made of lamb's wool is a Persian.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of all this queer crowd, which looks like a fancy-dress
+ball let loose in broad daylight, run the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> curving steel tram-lines.
+There are shades of every complexion to be seen. That very fresh,
+pink-faced lady, who has just gone dashing by in her smart "tum-tum" or
+pony-cart, is at one end of the scale&mdash;she is probably newly out from
+home,&mdash;and that ebony-black native woman of so low a caste that she goes
+uncovered in the public street is at the other, but even she, poor
+thing, cares enough about her personal appearance to wear a gold ring
+through one of her nostrils!</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 204px;">
+<img src="images/illus225.jpg" width="204" height="400" alt="A PERSIAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A PERSIAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now we can see the long outline of Malabar Hill quite clearly, and below
+all its trees and gardens and the great houses rising among them, but at
+one part, the highest, the hill is kept for other uses. Look up into the
+clear blue sky overhead, do you see a black speck? Not got it yet? Wait
+a moment and try again. There! That is right, and there is another and
+another; you can't help seeing them now. Their flight is the slow heavy
+flight of clumsy birds. What do you suppose they are? Vultures. They
+live, as you know, on carrion, which is dead flesh, and the vultures of
+Bombay are peculiarly favoured, for they banquet on human bodies.</p>
+
+<p>In this district there are a large number of Parsees or
+fire-worshippers, and these people have their peculiar ceremonies. Under
+the British Crown every man is free to carry out his own religion in his
+own way; persecution is unknown. The Parsees have their cemetery on the
+top<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> of that high hill; it is a beautiful place, laid out in gardens,
+and reached by flights of steps. Only at one end are five grim towers
+shut in by a wall and called the Towers of Silence. Their parapets are
+high, and none may climb to the top except certain men set apart and
+dedicated for this terrible work. When a Parsee dies, his body is borne
+reverently and with care to the gardens on the hill, but instead of
+burying it in the earth, these men take it up the winding stairs of one
+of the towers and lay it on the roof, and then retire. The vultures do
+the rest! No human being has ever seen that dread spectacle, for when
+the men come back again about a fortnight later there are only the clean
+bleached bones of the skeleton to take away and lay in quicklime to be
+absorbed.</p>
+
+<p>So the vultures hover over Bombay and sit like great images around the
+parapets on the Towers of Silence, knowing that they will never lack a
+meal!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We have seen many and bewildering things in this great city, and when at
+last we arrive at the station between five and six in the evening, for
+our first journey across this vast land, we are glad to rest. We engaged
+our places directly we arrived, for here, where a journey takes often
+nights and days, it is no use wandering in casually a few minutes before
+the train starts. We also engaged the whole of a compartment to
+ourselves, as we want a good night's sleep. It has been cleaned and
+prepared, and looks very comfortable when we come to claim it. There are
+two seats running lengthwise, the opposite way to that which they do in
+an English train. Above them are two more which can be let down as bunks
+if required, so that the carriage can accommodate four, but as we have
+paid extra to get it to ourselves we ought not to be disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>By the way, you haven't seen any Indian money yet. This is a rupee, a
+large and substantial coin you see, about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> as big as a two-shilling
+piece, but it is only worth one and fourpence; fifteen of them go to the
+pound. An anna is a penny, and that little coin like a threepenny bit is
+a two-anna bit.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus227.jpg" width="450" height="480" alt="SIT LIKE IMAGES ROUND THE PARAPET." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SIT LIKE IMAGES ROUND THE PARAPET.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have had to hire a native boy to travel with us and look after the
+luggage, as it is difficult to do without one in India. All servants are
+called "boys" here, even if they are grey-headed; our man is probably
+about five-and-twenty. He is called Ramaswamy, and has a
+chocolate-coloured moon-face with big round eyes; I think he is
+intelligent though he looks stupid. He is dressed in spotless white, his
+garments consisting of a short jacket and a dhoti, and he wears a large
+round turban on his head, and a pair of neat little gold ear-rings in
+his ears. It is a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> difficult thing to get a really trustworthy boy,
+but the Madrassees are the best, and Ramaswamy comes from the Madras
+country far south; he has been in service with a man I know for two
+years, and as he is only lent to us for this trip he will probably
+behave himself. He is piling up our bedding in a corner of the carriage,
+and later on when the train stops at a station for a few minutes he will
+come to spread it out. It seems funny to have to carry bedding with us
+on a journey, but it is very necessary here. We have pillows and rugs
+and a couple of <i>rezai</i> each. These are rather like eider-down quilts,
+but are stuffed with cotton instead of down, so they are heavier, and
+very comfortable they are to lie upon when doubled up.</p>
+
+<p>You remarked on the amount of luggage we seem to be taking in the
+carriage, it is a simple nothing to what is the custom here; look at all
+that being piled into the next compartment! Besides masses of bedding
+there is a deck-chair, a typewriter, a case for a topee, or helmet, a
+gun-case, two portmanteaus, and a box of books, as well as a
+lunch-basket. The owner, a pleasant-looking, sun-browned Englishman,
+stands by giving orders to his native servants in Hindustanee, which is
+a language spoken by the English people to the natives and understood
+pretty nearly everywhere. That man is almost certainly what is here
+known as a "civilian," that is to say, one of the men in the Indian
+Civil Service who govern India. They have to pass stiff examinations at
+home, and then come out here for a number of years to do all the work of
+government, being magistrates, judges, rulers, and general protectors of
+the native, giving up their lives to the country, and dealing out
+justice to all men. Some men have not the habit of command, but if it is
+in them at all it comes out here, where one white man alone in a
+district running to hundreds of miles often has everything in his own
+hands; he has to make decisions in an instant of emergency, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> stand
+by them, compel evildoers to behave, save the miserable low-caste
+natives, ground down by those above them, and often to hold his life in
+his hand for fear of the knife or bullet of a fanatic.</p>
+
+<p>A little farther up the platform there is a gorgeous group, of which the
+central figure is a fine tall man, slenderly built, with a clear proud
+face. He is dressed in marvellous silks which shimmer and flash in the
+late afternoon sunlight. His upper garment is deep rich rose, and the
+lower one a medley of greens and gold. Watch the flashing of that great
+jewel which fastens the aigrette in his turban; it is probably worth
+anywhere about three thousand pounds. That man is a native prince, and
+those very splendid gentlemen in purple and yellow silk are seeing him
+off. There are many of these native rulers or maharajahs in India, and
+they keep up the state of royalty and are treated with respect. So long
+as they rule their people wisely the British Government does not
+interfere with them.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 184px;">
+<img src="images/illus229.jpg" width="184" height="400" alt="A RAJAH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A RAJAH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes one thinks of India as one whole country, as England is or
+France, but that is not true. It is not, and never was. The state held
+by a native prince may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> only the size of a gentleman's country
+estate, but it may be as large as the United Kingdom. In the old days
+the rulers of these kingdoms were for ever fighting against each other,
+and though one of them sometimes got the better of his neighbours for a
+while, India was never ruled from end to end by one sovereign until it
+passed into the possession of Great Britain. The nations and races who
+make up this vast land are as different from each other as the races of
+Europe; to think of them as being one people would be as foolish as to
+imagine that you, say, and an Italian, were one people.</p>
+
+<p>The size of India is a thing almost impossible to conceive. In
+old-fashioned atlases the whole of this mighty land was often given one
+page to itself, and little England was put on another just the same
+size, that is to say, they were drawn on quite different scales, a mile
+in England being given about as much space as forty miles in India! The
+best way to judge is this&mdash;picture India set down on the map of Europe,
+and you will find it would cover about half of it!</p>
+
+<p>At the other end of the train, the third-class end, what a contrast to
+His Highness! Here a crowd of natives of all kinds have been crammed
+into what look like covered-in trucks, and they are squatting on the
+floor. There is no hardship in that, they prefer it; to sit on chairs is
+an art only acquired by the Europeanised. There are women here as well
+as men; look at that handsome creature whose crimson scarf has slipped
+off her sheeny black hair, showing the gold ring in her nose and the
+huge decorative ear-rings! She is hugging a tiny boy with one blue bead
+slung round his neck as a charm, just as it was round the donkey's neck
+in Egypt,&mdash;people are very much alike all the world over! This little
+chap has silver bangles on his podgy ankles but not a rag of any sort of
+clothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus231.jpg" width="450" height="413" alt="NATIVES AT THE RAILWAY STATION." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NATIVES AT THE RAILWAY STATION.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>These people are packed so tightly you could hardly get a foot in
+between them, but they are very happy, because they love travelling.
+Natives have no idea of time, and when they are going to start on a
+journey as likely as not they arrive at the station the evening before,
+sleep rolled round in their garments where they may happen to be, and
+next day eat a handful of something or other they carry with them,
+waiting patiently till that marvellous object, the train, condescends to
+start. Most of these here are munching sweetmeats; they love them as
+children do, and the sweetmeat-seller never lacks trade. There he is,
+with a tray on his shoulder! A man with a water-pot stops by the third
+classes and pours some of the precious fluid into the cups held out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> to
+him, and even into one man's hands. You notice that he is careful not to
+touch either hand or cup. In India there is an extraordinary custom
+called caste, deep-rooted in the natives. They are all divided into
+higher and lower castes, according to their birth, and those of a higher
+caste will not allow those of a lower caste to touch them or prepare
+their food and drink, for they fancy they would be defiled! Only the
+lowest castes of all will do dirty work, such as scavenging and carrying
+away refuse, and you can imagine what difficulties all this leads to.
+The Brahman, who is the highest caste, will not touch food which has
+been defiled even by having the shadow of another fall on it, he would
+throw it away and remain hungry sooner.</p>
+
+<p>As we stroll back to our places we pass various men with marks on their
+foreheads; these are caste-marks and to those who understand they tell a
+great deal. Standing beside the second classes we see a short-sighted
+gentleman in glasses, wearing an alpaca suit; he has with him a lady,
+who, like himself, is coffee-coloured. She is wearing a full petticoat
+of brocaded silk, and has a very lovely shawl edged with sequins thrown
+round her head in place of a hat, but, alas, all this magnificence is
+spoilt by the pair of tight and obviously most uncomfortable yellow
+leather European shoes, which she has put on to show how fashionable she
+is. When she climbs into the carriage she immediately takes them off,
+putting them on the seat beside her, and shows a pair of bare brown feet
+without shame. The shoes were only meant for show, and she has endured
+them to the utmost!</p>
+
+<p>Well, we are off! And as it is dark we can't, unfortunately, see much of
+the country, which at first is quite pretty. Presently we cross the sea
+by a long bridge and notice the lights reflected sparkling in the water,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> then we begin to climb up into the hills and it quickly grows
+colder.</p>
+
+<p>While we go along to the restaurant-car for dinner Ramaswamy takes
+advantage of the stoppage of the train to hasten along, settling his
+turban as he comes. He must never appear before us without it; we are
+supposed to think it a fixture on his round cropped head, and also he
+must not come into a room where we are with his shoes on! Odd how
+fashion differs! With us men remove the head-covering on entering a
+room, but would not dream of being so rude as to take off their shoes!</p>
+
+<p>When we come back after dinner we find our bedding neatly spread out and
+looking very inviting. As there is nothing else to do it is not long
+before we turn in and fall asleep, lulled by the rumbling of the train.</p>
+
+<p>I am deep in dreamland when I am woke unpleasantly by a draught of icy
+air as the door at the end of the compartment is pushed open, and I
+realise the train has stopped at a station. The native guard stands in
+the doorway apologetically fumbling with the key which he has just used
+in undoing the door. "Mem-sahib coming in," says he hopelessly, and a
+very disagreeable high-pitched voice makes itself heard behind him.
+Pushing rudely past come a man and woman so much alike they must be
+brother and sister; they have both coarse features and clumsy squat
+figures; they speak English but with a strong Colonial accent of some
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't have it <i>all</i> their own way," says Madam viciously. "I'm
+coming in here, and that's flat."</p>
+
+<p>An overloaded coolie follows, and dumps down masses of rolled-up bedding
+and trunks into the small space between our bunks and departs.</p>
+
+<p>"This compartment is engaged," I say as politely as I can, conscious
+that I don't look dignified in shirt-sleeves, but thankful I have only
+taken off my coat and boots.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Can't help that," snaps the lady.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't there any other&mdash;&mdash;" I begin patiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I telling the Mem-sahib," begins the guard plaintively, "that there is
+one with only&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care if there is! Horace, undo that bundle. I'm going to bed at
+once," and the newcomer proceeds to remove her coat and hat.</p>
+
+<p>The guard hastily lets down the two upper bunks and disappears as the
+train gets under way again.</p>
+
+<p>Appalled at the idea of how much she may think it necessary to remove,
+and thankful that you are sleeping peacefully through all the turmoil, I
+get up and grope for my shoes.</p>
+
+<p>"If you prefer the lower bunk it is at your service," I say, making the
+best of a bad job and gathering up my coverlets. She deigns to snap out
+"Thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will go outside until you're ready," I say, retreating to the small
+platform between the carriages; there is nothing else for it, as there
+isn't room to turn inside. Just as I leave I add to the man, "Don't wake
+the boy if you can help it, he has had a hard day."</p>
+
+<p>It is intensely cold outside, and after having smoked two cigarettes I
+think I may venture in again as I hear no sounds, so I knock, and
+getting no answer enter. By the dim light I make out the form of the
+lady in my bunk; but that is surely not the brother in the one opposite?
+It <i>is</i>! The impudence of it! They have turned you out and made you go
+into the upper one. As I climb to my own perch, internally wrathful and
+debating whether I shall not poke the man up and make him restore you to
+your place, I hear your sleepy voice in a stage whisper&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He made me come up here." Then deliberately, leaning over and with
+mischief in your voice, you add: "I suppose when you are fat like that
+it would be very difficult to climb."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I think you got your own back! I saw the fellow squirm!</p>
+
+<p>Bad as they were at night our fellow-travellers are worse in the
+daytime. They won't get up until ten o'clock, and we have to stay
+outside until they do, as there is nowhere to sit down. Ramaswamy brings
+us <i>chota hazri</i>, consisting of tea and toast and plantains, and we eat
+it outside. The Englishman in the next compartment looks out presently
+and invites us in. He laughs when he hears of our adventure. "Brutes!"
+he says tersely; "people like that should be hanged at sight. The worst
+is you meet them travelling more often than elsewhere; they have come
+into some money probably, and are so proud of it they think themselves
+little gods."</p>
+
+<p>I think he was right, for when we pull up at the station, where we are
+at last to get rid of our tormentors, I happen to remark to you that I
+thought some restaurant we had been to in Bombay was rather expensive.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you indeed!" says the lady, taking the remark as if addressed to
+herself. "'Grace and I dined there and paid double that, and we did not
+think anything of it."</p>
+
+<p>She then immediately turns, and seeing Ramaswamy standing outside
+mistakes him for a station-attendant, and orders him to tie up their
+bedding. He looks to me for orders. I nod to him to do it, and, hat in
+hand, make a sweeping bow&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Only too glad if my boy can be of any service to you, Madam."</p>
+
+<p>I think I also got my own back!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus236.jpg" width="450" height="290" alt="A BRASS WORKER, DELHI." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A BRASS WORKER, DELHI.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAPITAL OF INDIA</h3>
+
+
+<p>Delhi!</p>
+
+<p>If you draw a line across the map of India from the north to the south
+at the greatest length, and another from east to west at the greatest
+breadth, the two will form a cross of the usual shape, with the
+cross-bar high up. Just at the point where they intersect stands Delhi,
+the chief city in India since the King-Emperor's proclamation in 1911.
+Before that Calcutta was the capital, but Calcutta, like Bombay, is a
+city of trade, and has practically no historic memories. Delhi is full
+of the romance of history. In the Mutiny the question as to who should
+hold it was of the greatest importance, and if the British then had let
+it slip from their grip, without an effort to retake it, their power in
+India would have been gone for ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now, on the first morning that we are here, let us drive round and see
+what we can of this splendid city. First we will go down the Chandni
+Chauk, the main street which cuts Delhi into two parts. It is immensely
+wide and lined with trees of a good size. These stand on each side of a
+broad walk for foot-passengers, which runs down the middle of the
+street, foreign fashion, and makes a popular promenade. The gay colours
+of the natives' clothes flash in and out of the shadows of the trees as
+the people pass along, each on his own errand. On one side are the
+tram-lines and on the other you can see a fast bullock-cart with pretty
+little white trotting bullocks as dainty in their own way as antelopes,
+and as different from the slow yellow ones as carriage-horses are from
+cart-horses. There are on both sides shops for jewels, for sweetmeats,
+for the richest and most beautiful silks and ivory, and mingled with
+them grocers' shops filled with tinned stuffs from England, and others
+with every kind of modern utensil for a house. Such a mixture! They are
+all heavily protected against the sun by awnings, for even at this early
+hour of the morning it is strong. At the end of the street is a tall red
+sandstone tower with a clock in it. In the distance we see the spire of
+an English church, and down that opening we catch sight of a Mohammedan
+mosque. The shop here beside us is a blaze of colour with Eastern
+carpets hung out like banners; the native owner squats on a thing like a
+wooden bedstead by his door and chews betel-nut, which makes his tongue
+and lips a deep red. Next door is a vigorous agency for the sale of
+sewing-machines! A Hindu religious fanatic, smeared with ashes and with
+hardly any clothes to cover his lean body, walks ahead with eyes
+unseeing, and at the same moment a smart motor-car stops beside us and
+the voice of a high-bred English-woman says, "I will meet you at the
+Effinghams in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> hour," as she waves a greeting to her companions and
+steps out.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus238.jpg" width="450" height="419" alt="A SHOP IN DELHI." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A SHOP IN DELHI.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Hullo! There is a band. Round the corner swings a company of Ghurkas,
+the sturdy little men who helped England to overcome the mutineers. They
+look very soldier-like in their neat holly-green uniforms, with small
+round caps set at a jaunty angle on their cropped heads. They are hill
+tribes from the north, and in appearance not unlike the Japanese. They
+are all so much of one size you could run a ruler along their heads.
+Their swinging stride would delight a soldier's heart, for it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> like
+clockwork in its precision. They are born soldiers, brave and easily
+disciplined, devoted to their officers and without the knowledge of
+fear. They have faults, of course. The Ghurka is apt to be rather a gay
+dog; he gets drunk, and the girls he loves are many, but he is of the
+right stuff, and his officers are proud of him.</p>
+
+<p>I was talking to one of them as we came up the coast on the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing like them anywhere else in the world," he said. "They take to
+drill like their mother's milk, they thrive on it and discipline&mdash;the
+slightest fault that might be overlooked elsewhere we punish severely.
+They like it and live up to it. You could lead a Ghurka regiment
+anywhere; fighting is their pastime. They have nothing in common with
+the slothful races of Lower India; they are alert and vigorous and
+active as cats. The funniest thing is their love for the Highlanders; if
+a Highland regiment comes up the two meet and mingle as if they were
+brothers. You'll see a great Highlander in his kilt and feather bonnet
+arm in arm with one of these little chaps, hobnobbing as if they had
+known each other all their lives. And the Ghurkas won't have anything to
+say to the other Indian regiments; they despise them all except the
+Sikhs&mdash;they get on with them all right."</p>
+
+<p>We are lucky, for the Ghurkas are followed by a company of Sikhs, and
+anything less like the Ghurkas you could hardly imagine. The Sikhs are
+big men with stern bearded faces, they look like veterans and are a
+pleasant sight in their scarlet tunics with neat gaitered feet. There
+were many Sikh regiments belonging to our army in the black days of the
+Mutiny, and some wavered, but some held firm. Had it not been for the
+Sikhs things would have gone badly with us.</p>
+
+<p>Now we are nearing the Lahore Gate and you can see that Delhi is a
+walled city. The walls run all round for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> six miles, and are backed up
+by a twenty-five feet ditch, so that it is a tough city for any army to
+take. The gate itself is a fine building. When the British troops, who
+varied at times from 5000 to 10,000 men, set to work to attack this
+strong city, held by 40,000 to 100,000 natives, many of them trained and
+disciplined soldiers, taught by the very men against whom they were
+fighting, it seemed an impossible task. The audacity of it! This gate
+was one of the hardest of all to break through. Four attacking parties
+had been sent against the walls, the other three got in, but the one
+that came here failed. Then the others tried to work their way through,
+inside the city, to capture this gate. They crept along the narrow lane
+running inside the wall, but it was commanded everywhere from the
+heights of the houses by the enemy, who poured down a murderous fire
+into it. Again and again the reckless men, who determined to take the
+gate, started off on the deadly errand, again and again they were wiped
+off, and alas! one of those mortally wounded was General John Nicholson,
+whose utter disregard of danger and marvellous understanding of the
+native character had made many of the natives look on him as a god!</p>
+
+<p>Now we are outside and driving up to the ridge. Every British boy and
+girl has heard of the ridge. It played a great part in the Mutiny. It is
+a long backbone of hill which runs close up to the city at one end. We
+will leave our carriage to go slowly along to the far end, where the
+road winds up, and we ourselves will scramble up at this side till we
+gain the Mutiny Memorial, a Gothic tower rising in many stages like a
+church spire. We can mount the steps inside to see the view. It is worth
+it, for miles and miles of country lie spread before us from this
+height.</p>
+
+<p>I don't want to go into details of history, but if ever there is a place
+where history was made it is here. On this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> ridge for months was camped
+the British army, including some loyal native regiments, and all the
+time they never wavered in their determination to retake Delhi, then in
+the hands of the natives. Our men could not be said to besiege the city,
+because to besiege means to sit down all round a place and prevent the
+inhabitants from getting supplies from outside until they are compelled
+to give in or are too weak to resist the entrance of the besiegers; we
+never invested Delhi in this way. There were not enough men even to
+attempt it; the natives could always get supplies into the city, if they
+wanted, from the river Jumna, which runs past the other side. But the
+British sat steadily on their heights in grim determination, and never
+lost the chance of a move. They died in hundreds; remember it was during
+an Indian summer, and even under the best conditions, with ice and
+punkahs and shade, the European finds it hard to get through the hot
+weather. Here there were no conveniences and very few even of what might
+be considered necessaries. The men suffered from dysentery, fever,
+wounds, and sunstroke, and yet they carried through their forlorn hope
+triumphantly, and it was hardly a year later that the Queen of England
+was proclaimed Sovereign of India.</p>
+
+<p>In that great plain, which stretches far as eye can see on the other
+side of the ridge, some twenty years later another proclamation was
+made, and the Queen was further proclaimed under the title of Empress of
+India; while in 1911 her grandson, King George, himself proclaimed Delhi
+as the capital of India in place of Calcutta.</p>
+
+<p>Over the screen of trees you can see beautiful Delhi lying within its
+hoary walls. You can see the towers and steeples and minarets and domes
+of the city. Now look the other way, along the ridge. That great pillar
+close to us is very old; it was made by one of the Hindu kings, but it
+was only put up here ten years after the Mutiny,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> and is not
+interesting. That white house farther on is now a hospital; it was once
+a private house, and in it General Nicholson died. Look on again, much
+farther, past trees and other houses, and you will see a rounded
+building with turrets&mdash;that is the Flagstaff Tower so fiercely held.</p>
+
+<p>Come down now to rejoin the carriage and we will go back to the city by
+the Kashmir Gate. Of all the gates this is the one with the most daring
+story of adventure attached to it.</p>
+
+<p>When the British had resolved to make an assault on the city they
+detailed four parties, as I said, to attack in four places. One of them
+was this gate. The other three places had been partially broken in by
+the guns, and there was a chance for those heroic madmen to get through,
+but this was entire. The assaulting party had first to break a way in
+and then get through.</p>
+
+<p>And they did it!</p>
+
+<p>The five told off to make the breach were Lieutenants Home and Salkeld,
+and Sergeants Carmichael, Burgess, and Smith. Some carried bags of
+gunpowder, and others, the fire to set them off. It was daylight when
+they ran towards the gate across a single plank spanning the ditch, so
+that they had to go one by one in full range of the enemy's fire from
+the walls. The marvel is that any lived to reach the gate alive. When
+one fell another leaped forward to carry on his task. The bags were
+flung down, and those who placed them tumbled back into the ditch, while
+their comrades set the powder alight and rolled down too. Out of the
+whole party only Home and Smith survived. The wicket of the gate was
+burst open by the explosion, and the storming party, also crossing that
+single plank, made for it, got inside, and beat back the foe, meeting
+their comrades, who had burst in at other points, inside.</p>
+
+<p>The tale of "how Horatius kept the bridge" pales before this amazing
+pluck.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">
+<img src="images/illus243.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="A CARPET SHOP, DELHI." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A CARPET SHOP, DELHI.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We must get out and look at the gate where this actually happened not
+sixty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>There are two wide arches in the shattered wall, and the coping above is
+half gone; it remains unrestored just as it was that day. On a slab is
+an inscription telling of this noble deed when men died for their
+country without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>Close by is the cemetery where General Nicholson is buried. You can see
+his statue in the city raised high on a pedestal. He stands with bared
+head and drawn sword. But Nicholson's is not the only name immortalised
+by the Mutiny&mdash;there are the two brothers, John and Henry Lawrence,
+Outram and Havelock, Hodson, Sir Colin Campbell, and many another name
+which is a household word in England. These men, in those days of fierce
+fighting and desperate stress, made history and wrote themselves in its
+pages by deeds that still cause every British boy's heart to ring within
+him. We have passed through the Kashmir Gate, and here, on one side of
+the street, is a battered bit of arcade, another Mutiny memorial. In the
+early days, just at the first outbreak, when no one realised what was
+going to happen, the mutineers marched on Delhi. This bit of wall was
+part of the powder magazine, then in charge of nine men. They defended
+it against a swarming army of Sepoys, as the native soldiers were
+called, and when they found that they could not hold it in spite of
+their desperate defence, they calmly blew up the powder magazine, and
+themselves with it, to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+mutineers and being used against their kinsmen. The most incredible part
+of the whole story is that three of those who blew up the magazine
+actually escaped with their lives!</p>
+
+<p>We are now approaching the fort and palace, the kernel of the city,
+which it is best to see after the ridge.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fine building that faces us, with an ornamental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> arcade running
+along the upper part. We pass in on foot under the gateway and see
+another, a Hall of Public Audience, with red sandstone pillars. Inside
+is a great throne of white marble, inlaid with mosaic work, where the
+old kings of Delhi used to sit and listen to their ministers. The last
+of this line was still living in the palace when the Mutiny broke out.
+He was a poor specimen, given up to indulgence and sloth; but the
+British had left him the state of royalty and all his wealth until the
+rising made it impossible any more. His sons and grandson, who, when the
+Mutiny broke out, themselves actually murdered and tortured helpless
+English women and children, and watched their agonies as "sport," were
+rightly shot out of hand, and the old king became a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Coming out of this hall our eyes are caught by a gleam of something
+lustrously white against a sky which is now burning blue. This is
+another Hall of Audience, the Diwan-i-Khas, more beautiful than the
+first. It is of white marble, which, in this clear atmosphere, remains
+white, and it is richly ornamented with gilt. It is in the form of a
+square cloister or arcade, with a little dome at each corner, and if we
+stand inside and look out between the white pillars to see the lawns and
+the trees in the old palace gardens, we shall find it difficult to
+realise that this place of beauty and peace was ever a scene of fierce
+revolt. The rest of the palace is now used partly as a barracks.</p>
+
+<p>When the British, having beaten their way through the narrow streets,
+and swept them clear of the foe, arrived here on that fateful day, the
+14th September 1857, they found the palace deserted, except for a stray
+sentry, holding his position with sublime courage. The rest had
+fled,&mdash;thousands flying from hundreds,&mdash;and well they might, for the
+British troops were wrought up by the cruelties of the Sepoys to a
+sublime and just fury that made them seem like avenging angels. It is
+said in one place that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> the sternness of the expression of the Sikhs'
+faces made the wretched Sepoys fly without a shot being fired. The
+palace area is full of beautiful buildings, and we shall see many more
+specimens of this kind of Oriental architecture when we visit the
+mosques in the town this afternoon.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus247.jpg" width="450" height="467" alt="THE KUTAB MINAR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE KUTAB MINAR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So much is there to see, indeed, that it is not until the next day we
+can ride out for a sight beyond the walls.</p>
+
+<p>Pull up your horse and look ahead. Do you see that huge column rising
+skyward from the plain? It is called the Kutab Minar and is two hundred
+and forty feet high. As we get under it and gaze up at it it seems to
+tower into the very sky. It is forty-seven feet across the base and
+narrows to the top, it is fluted all the way down, and has frills in
+stone around it here and there&mdash;truly a curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> sight! There are three
+hundred and seventy-nine steps to climb to the top; do you want to try
+them? If so, I will wait here and hold your horse. You shake your head.
+Wise boy!</p>
+
+<p>There are other buildings around, parts of a mosque, and inside is an
+iron pillar said to be one of the oldest things in India. The Kutab
+Minar is supposed to have been built about the reign of our King John,
+though there are some who put it further back; the pillar is
+considerably older than that, but it cannot compare in antiquity with
+many things we have seen in Egypt. After the Hindu kings came a line of
+Moghul or Mohammedan kings who swept the others away; of these the old
+king of Delhi, living at the time of the Mutiny, was the last, and it is
+supposed that it was at the beginning of the rule of the Moghul kings
+that the Kutab Minar was erected.</p>
+
+<p>Notice that brown-faced, scantily clad boy, who keeps beckoning and
+shouting "Sahib." We follow him as he leads us to a well, and almost
+before we realise what he is doing he goes down head first, a drop of at
+least eighty feet, into the black water below. There is a tradition that
+the water of this well cannot drown anyone. At anyrate it hasn't rid the
+world of this rascal, for here he comes shaking the water off his oily
+body and grinning. He has earned his bakshish!</p>
+
+<p>As we are in Delhi for several days more we can go at our leisure
+through the bazaars, which really are well worth seeing. We choose a
+late afternoon, when there is no hurry and we can watch the people in
+their daily life and get a glimpse into the real India.</p>
+
+<p>The streets are narrow, mere passages mostly, and lined by the open-air
+stalls or wooden sheds which are what the native understands by shops. A
+marvellous array of slippers greets us first, for all of one trade tend
+to congregate together, a curious custom and one which you would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> think
+was not very good for trade, though convenient to the customer. There
+are slippers of all colours from scarlet to brown; you would never have
+thought they could be so decorative. They hang in bunches, festoons, and
+chains. Every man here wears slippers when he puts anything at all on
+his feet. Boots would be of no use to him, for he has so often to
+shuffle off his foot-gear in a hurry. Modern streets, with their stones
+and liability to nails and broken glass and other sharp things, has led
+to the native taking to strong soled slippers when he walks about his
+business.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus249.jpg" width="450" height="554" alt="HE GOES HEAD FOREMOST INTO THE BLACK WATER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">HE GOES HEAD FOREMOST INTO THE BLACK WATER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is a sizzling and a delicious smell from the next shop, and
+peeping in we see a huddled form crouched over a pot placed on a few red
+embers; it might be a witch stirring potions and muttering incantations.
+But it is only a native looking after a pan full of Indian corn popping
+out in the most fluffy and tempting way. I have often popped it on a
+shovel over the school fire. A native soldier, who is passing, stops and
+bargains for a handful, and carries it off, eating it as he goes; when
+he has had enough he will stow the rest in his turban, which serves as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+his pocket, his private trunk, and play-box all in one. This is the food
+he best thrives on, so his wants are easily supplied. A tailor sitting
+cross-legged on his board attracts us next; he is a good-looking old man
+with a grey beard and kindly eyes blinking behind horn spectacles. His
+garments are of the dark red colour seen sometimes in certain parts of
+the country when the earth is ploughed. His turban is a mighty erection
+of green arranged with much dignity. You would think it hot and heavy to
+carry all those yards of stuff on your head, but the habit has probably
+arisen to protect the head from sunstroke.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a <i>dhurzi</i>, Sahib," says Ramaswamy, who has followed us to
+interpret if we want. "He making all clothes for mem-sahibs. Very clever
+man and not asking too much money."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, a <i>dhurzi</i> will come and sit outside on a verandah and work by the
+day and copy any garment you give him; sewing is a man's job here, and
+not a woman's.</p>
+
+<p>Then we see a sweetmeat shop with a crowd outside and a cloud of flies
+bearing them company. While we look, many of the flies crawl slowly over
+the sticky, syrupy stuff which has just come from the pan, and get their
+legs entangled in it, but it doesn't seem to hinder the sale, which goes
+on cheerfully. There are sweets in rings and coils and fantastic shapes.
+A child gets a large pink slab for two pice, and ten pice go to the
+penny, that is to say, the anna, so it is not dear. The buyer tucks the
+sticky stuff up in the corner of her garment and ties it carefully into
+a knot before starting homeward.</p>
+
+<p>Standing a little aloof from the crowd and looking at them disdainfully
+is a small boy with a twisted cord slung across his left shoulder. "He
+be Brahman, Sahib," says Ramaswamy timidly. "Very proud and not eating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+anything dirty peoples touch, just having had cord." Standing where he
+is, so as not to approach nearer to the lad, he asks a few questions,
+which are answered curtly and proudly, with a glance thrown across at us
+as much as if to say they wouldn't have been answered at all except for
+our presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Just two, three days he been made Brahman," explains Ramaswamy.</p>
+
+<p>But he was born a Brahman, of course, and what Ramaswamy means is that
+up till then he was counted a child and could play and run about with
+other children without responsibilities; now that he has been invested
+with the cord he has taken up his birthright and is of the highest
+caste, the caste from which the priests come; he may not eat anything
+prepared by a lower caste, or even let others touch him, for he is set
+apart, and very proud of his new dignity in spite of the many
+difficulties it carries with it.</p>
+
+<p>The child who stands staring at us with her shawl over her head is a
+little girl about the same age as the boy. She has been grinding corn
+between two stones and is a very thin and miserable little wretch. Her
+clothes are rags and there are no bangles on her little brown ankles.
+Ramaswamy tells us she is a widow! That child? She has probably never
+even seen the boy-husband who was so unlucky as to die; but because he
+did she is scorned by everyone. The worst life in all India is that of a
+widow. She has no ornaments, no amusements, and is treated worse than a
+slavey in a boarding-house, and for her there is no escape.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus252.jpg" width="450" height="458" alt="A POTTER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A POTTER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Right out in the street sits a man weaving a web of wonderful colours;
+he throws the shuttles, carrying different coloured threads, across and
+across, without seeming to look at them, and all the time the web is
+growing into an intricate pattern under his fingers. So his father wove,
+and his grandfather and great-grandfather. All these crafts run in
+families. A little farther on is a potter spinning a wheel with his
+feet, while the soft lump of dull-coloured clay takes shape beneath his
+clever thumb as it races round. It seems to grow and swell and curve
+exquisitely as if it were a living thing. There are few sights more
+fascinating than a potter at work. You have often heard of the "potter's
+thumb," I expect? The thumb grows broad and flat and capable, because it
+is the chief instrument with which the potter works. On the floor beside
+him lie many of the clay jars of different sizes and shapes ready for
+the baking, others are being baked. There is always a good sale for
+them, and a potter in India flourishes exceedingly. Even now there is a
+woman passing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> us with a pot balanced on her head and a child on her
+hip. She swings along in the dust with a graceful gliding step, for she
+has been used to carrying things on her head almost from babyhood. These
+pots are brittle enough and frequently get broken, and even the poorest
+households must have a supply of them. But what helps the potter to make
+a living more than anything else is the custom that when a death occurs
+in a family, or a new life arrives in it, all the pots must be broken
+and new ones bought! It is a symbol of the life that has gone out and
+the new life beginning.</p>
+
+<p>In church you must have heard those grandly poetic lines&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the
+pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.</p>
+
+<p>"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
+return unto God who gave it."</p>
+
+<p>Pass on to the silversmiths' quarter. Any of these men can do fine and
+beautiful work with very few tools. If you want anything made you pay
+them in a queer way. For the finished article is put in the scales and
+weighed against rupees thrown into the other balance, and when the
+rupees equal it then you give them to the workman, together with so many
+annas in each rupee for his work.</p>
+
+<p>How can we ever take in all this varied life, so different from the life
+we are used to? The women sitting on the balconies above, the pariah
+dogs prowling for scraps below, the druggists and spice-sellers, the
+fruit and vegetable stalls? Over it all is that peculiar, scented, musty
+bazaar smell, made up of saffron and wood and dirt, with which we are
+already so familiar.</p>
+
+<p>Wonderful Delhi! A city teeming with myriads of men of many races and
+customs, living side by side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> Successor of seven cities which have
+stood here or hereabout in successive ages. From the earliest days a
+place of consequence, a place to be reckoned with, and now, by the
+proclamation of the King-Emperor, the first city in the land, as it is
+already the centre!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus255.jpg" width="450" height="240" alt="CLUMSY BOATS WITH THATCHED ROOFS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">CLUMSY BOATS WITH THATCHED ROOFS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>TO THE DEATH!</h3>
+
+
+<p>A curious building, isn't it? I mean that one right in front of us. It
+is something like a very large and many-sided crown, built of stone and
+set upon the ground. The sides are pierced with windows of the same sort
+as those seen in churches, and on each of the angles there is a little
+pinnacle. It rises up serenely against the soft blue sky of this early
+morning. We are far from Delhi now, having arrived at Cawnpore late last
+night, and we have come out here first thing this morning. It is only
+seven now.</p>
+
+<p>Cawnpore! The Mutiny! Those two things rush simultaneously into the
+mind, for Cawnpore is associated with the most awful scenes of the
+Mutiny, and no Briton can ever think of it without those scenes flashing
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>Come nearer and pass inside the crown and you will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> see in the centre a
+great angel of the usual sort, with high sweeping wings, holding palm
+branches folded across its breast. It marks the Well of Cawnpore.</p>
+
+<p>You know that story, of course, and yet, as we sit here, on the very
+spot where it all happened, with the Indian sky above us, we cannot help
+recalling it once more. In telling it I shall not dwell on the agonies
+and bloodshed which have hallowed this place for ever; they are done
+with, and those who suffered have been at rest for nearly sixty years.
+The deep peace around us overlies their torments and forbids us to think
+too much of the darker side of the picture. But the heroism, the
+courage, the indomitable spirit that animated these men and women, these
+things live for ever, rising up from the earth in a flood of inspiration
+for all who pass over the place.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 243px;">
+<img src="images/illus256.jpg" width="243" height="400" alt="THE WELL OF CAWNPORE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE WELL OF CAWNPORE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are certain little animals called Tasmanian devils, who do not
+know what it is to give in; they die fighting and attack their
+persecutors as long as one limb hangs on to another; of such stuff were
+the people besieged at Cawnpore. They were encamped here on a wretched
+piece of flat ground, quite open except for a low mud wall, which anyone
+could have jumped over easily. There were about nine hundred and fifty
+of them altogether, some soldiers, some civilians, some women and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+children and a few native soldiers who remained loyal. Outside were
+unending hordes of natives well armed and well trained, because the
+greater part were the men of the native regiments who had mutinied,
+known by the name of Sepoys. A few huts built of thin brick were all the
+shelter the beleaguered people had; they were constantly under a
+shrieking storm of bullets and shells, and were ringed around by steel.
+You would have said two days at the outside would see the end of it, and
+that then the black hordes would sweep clean over that field, having
+wiped out the garrison completely; but so amazing is the power of pluck
+that those within held the hordes at bay for twenty-three days! They not
+only prevented any single Sepoy from getting inside alive, but they
+constantly sallied out and acted on the defensive, burning their
+enemies' defences and killing scores of them, while thousands fled in
+confusion before them! The sublime impudence of it! And all the time
+they were short of food; women and children were laid in holes in the
+earth covered with planks to protect them from the bullets. And
+water&mdash;ah, that was the worst&mdash;water had to be fetched from a well which
+was quite exposed in the midst of the encampment, and the Sepoys kept up
+an incessant fire on it. We are now beside it, this well where water was
+drawn at the price of blood, and yet volunteers were never lacking. The
+very ground our feet now rest upon was ringed around with the bodies of
+those who laid down their lives for the women and children. There was
+another well, a little distance off, now marked by an Iona cross, and to
+this, under cover of night, the British conveyed their dead for burial.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/illus257.jpg" width="150" height="400" alt="AN INDIAN OFFICER OF THE CAMEL CORPS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN INDIAN OFFICER OF THE CAMEL CORPS.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Read the inscription that circles round the wall of the well now in
+front of us:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian
+people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were
+cruelly murdered by the followers of the rebel, Nana Dhundu
+Pant of Bithur, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the
+well below, on the fifteenth day of July 1857."</p></div>
+
+<p>Yes, we have not come to the end yet!</p>
+
+<p>When the bloodthirsty tyrant, better known as Nana Sahib, found he could
+not crack this nut, when he realised that his whole army was held at bay
+by a few hundreds of determined spirits&mdash;there were only three hundred
+fighting men to begin with, and they were daily killed&mdash;he made terms
+with them, promising to send the survivors safely in boats down the
+river if they would give in. Desperate as they were, without food or
+water, without shade from the killing glare of the Indian summer sun,
+the brave men held their heads high and only accepted on condition they
+marched out under arms with so many rounds of ammunition to each man.</p>
+
+<p>This was granted.</p>
+
+<p>Now leave the well and follow that heroic band who went down to the
+river on that blazing day some sixty years ago. It is about a mile away.
+The little garrison now numbered some four hundred and fifty all told,
+the half of what they had been three weeks before. Blackened with the
+sun and smoke and gunpowder, so as to rival the Sepoys in complexion,
+tattered and worn and wounded, but yet with courage undaunted, they went
+down to the river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 219px;">
+<img src="images/illus259.jpg" width="219" height="400" alt="NANA SAHIB." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NANA SAHIB.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is another building here, an arcade on the banks facing the placid
+stream; it has a tower behind and a broad flight of stairs, a ghaut, as
+it is called, flanked by walls running down to the margin. But on that
+day long ago there was nothing of this, nothing but a number of clumsy
+boats with thatched roofs to keep the sun off, native fashion. As the
+English took their places in them, suddenly a bugle rang out, and at
+that signal the native boatmen sprang from their places and splashed
+ashore; up rose an army of Sepoys from the scrub on the banks, and death
+was rained on the victims of the blackest deed of treachery ever written
+in the annals of the world. Standing here on these smooth steps which
+mark the place it is difficult even to picture that scene of horror.
+Many were killed outright, many mortally wounded and torn, one hundred
+and twenty-five were dragged ashore and brutally killed afterwards; it
+was they who were thrown into the well; but three boats got away down
+the stream. Two went ashore and all the occupants were killed by the
+merciless brutes who lined the banks. The other had men in it, men who
+were filled with a madness of wrath that knew no bounds. In spite of
+their own condition, in spite of the odds against them, they leaped like
+tigers on the foe whenever they got the chance. They were followed by
+the natives, who fired on them repeatedly from a safe distance, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+again and again the dead had to be east into the stream. Yet when a
+Sepoy boat ran against a sandbank, twenty or so of the powder-blackened
+Englishmen sprang out into the water and raced with fury to kill them,
+though the boat contained three times their own number. It is good to
+read how they wiped out all but those who escaped in terror by swimming!
+At last only fourteen of the English were left alive and they got
+hopelessly penned in a backwater. These men charged the army of Sepoys
+on the banks and made them keep their distance. They secured themselves
+in a tiny temple on the margin of the river and killed all who
+approached. At length, seeing preparations made for blowing them up with
+gunpowder, they charged out; seven who could swim made for the river,
+the other six (one was dead) rushed straight at the mass of Sepoys and
+dealt death on every side before they fell.</p>
+
+<p>Four of the seven eventually outdistanced their persecutors and reached
+safety, and then, alas! one died.</p>
+
+<p>It is good to hear that an avenging army descended on Cawnpore, though
+too late to save the remnant of the captives. The Sepoys were smitten
+hip and thigh, and thousands paid with their lives for those other lives
+they had spared not. Nana Sahib fled and was never heard of again.
+Stripped of all his wealth and luxury he must have skulked from place to
+place like a plague-tainted rat, till death took him and he went to meet
+the souls of the hundreds he had treacherously and brutally massacred.</p>
+
+<p>It is finished! The price has been paid; the native has learnt that it
+is not well to meddle with white men. And we must not forget that
+hundreds of natives remained faithful, and gave their lives to save
+those of our fellow-countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>As we wander back through the park in the sunshine, now growing fierce
+and strong, toward the Memorial Church showing above the trees, the
+chief feeling is not of bitterness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> but of pride. That little band,
+whose courage was unquenchable and untamable, were not picked men and
+women, but just an ordinary crowd made up of soldiers and civilians and
+their wives and children, yet not one act of selfishness or cowardice
+remains to stain their record. When the last extremity came, sloth and
+indifference and selfishness dropped off like sloughs and only devotion
+and bravery shone out. It is grand to belong to a race which holds these
+qualities as the highest good.</p>
+
+<p>One incident more. When the tyrant had brought his handful of captives
+up from the river he found there were a few men among them. So before he
+started to massacre the women and babies he sent for the men to come
+forth to instant death; he dared not leave even half a dozen men of the
+untamable breed, who are "little used to lie down at the bidding of any
+man," among them, even unarmed.</p>
+
+<p>The men came forth, and among them was a lad of fourteen; he was only a
+year older than you, but he preferred to be reckoned among the men
+rather than to hide behind the women's petticoats. He chose a soldier's
+death and he had it, for he fell pierced by bullets with the rest.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus262.jpg" width="450" height="248" alt="BATHING IN THE GANGES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BATHING IN THE GANGES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>A CITY OF PRIESTS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Surely you have never before seen anything like this, there is nothing
+to be seen like it anywhere else!</p>
+
+<p>We are at Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, which stands on their
+sacred river, the Ganges. We have taken a boat and have floated out into
+the current, and are looking up with amazement at the spectacle before
+us. The city rises high on the banks, and towers and minarets and domes
+of a curious long-drawn-out shape, glittering in the sun like gold,
+arise out of the flat roofs. Down to the river at every opening between
+the houses stretch stairways, as you know called <i>ghauts</i>, some broad
+and some narrow. We judge that they are there, though we cannot see the
+steps, for every inch is covered by a moving mass of people, clothed in
+the colours of the rainbow. You have often turned a kaleidoscope over
+and over, and watched the bits of coloured glass falling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> into strange
+patterns. Half shut your eyes and make a tube of your hands and see if
+this doesn't remind you of a kaleidoscope.</p>
+
+<p>Thousands and thousands of people are passing and repassing up and down,
+or sitting on every scrap of available building. They flow out over the
+steps and down into the water itself. They are standing there knee-deep,
+waist-deep, shoulder-deep, with hardly any clothes on their glistening
+brown and yellow bodies, diligently throwing the water over themselves,
+washing their long, straight, black hair in it, or even drinking it!</p>
+
+<p>Ah, what is that gruesome object? Take care, don't touch it as it floats
+by; it looks like a bit of charred stick, but indeed it is half-burnt
+human bones!</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen a few sacred rivers in our wanderings&mdash;the gigantic
+Nile, the tiny Jordan, and now we see the Ganges, which in size comes
+between the two, being one thousand four hundred and fifty-five miles in
+length. Quite a respectable-sized river that! The Hindus regard it with
+such reverence that they count bathing in it a religious act, and when
+they die their one desire is to be burned beside it so that their bones
+may be cast into its waters. If we row a little way up we shall see this
+ceremony at the Burning Ghauts. There are funeral pyres of wood where
+the relatives are carrying out the last offices for the dead. Some
+prowling pariah dogs, of the lean yellow breed, and a few impertinent
+crows are hovering about, hoping that some scraps may fall to their
+share. The dead bodies are rolled up in white and red cloth and lie with
+their feet in the blessed water awaiting their burning.</p>
+
+<p>Men are bringing logs of wood to pile upon the pyres, others are poking
+about in the ashes of the last burned to see if maybe an anklet or
+ear-ring has fallen off and may be scavenged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The red flames rise and lick up the sides, while the enveloping smoke
+wreathes around the corpse. Remember that at one time the miserable
+widow of the dead man would have mounted that gruesome throne and be
+sitting there to be burnt alive. This is forbidden by law now, as indeed
+it was forbidden by some of the wisest of the Indian kings too, only
+until the British came there never was any power strong enough to
+enforce it.</p>
+
+<p>Benares is the religious capital of India; it takes the place that
+Canterbury does with us, and it has been the place of pilgrimage for
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>We have met with Buddhists in Ceylon and Mohammedans in Egypt. There are
+Buddhists among the natives of India too, though not many, considering
+the population; there are many more Mohammedans, but by far the largest
+number of the people, outnumbering the Mohammedans by three to one, are
+the Hindus, and it is as a Hindu capital that Benares mainly exists.
+British rule throws protection alike over all races and all religions;
+never was there a broader based dominion; be a man a Hindu, Sikh,
+Mohammedan, Parsee, Buddhist, or Christian, the law protects him in the
+exercise of his faith so long as it does not lead to cruelty such as in
+the burning of widows, or so long as it does not encroach upon the
+rights of others.</p>
+
+<p>The Hindu religion is an extraordinary one. At first sight, seeing the
+jumble up of strange gods,&mdash;the cow-goddess, the monkey-god,
+elephant-god, and others,&mdash;it seems rather to resemble the religion of
+the ancient Egyptians, but it is not a real resemblance. The highest
+idea of the Hindu, as of the Buddhist, is to pass out into a sort of
+painless existence of nothingness. And to overcome the flesh and to
+arrive at a placid state, where nothing matters, is attempted here on
+earth by some. Some of the old men, fakirs as they are called, like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+one we met in Delhi, do astonishing things merely by force of an iron
+determination. They will sit so long holding an arm in one position that
+it shrivels. Others will lie for years on a bed of spikes. They eat very
+little, live on charity, and are often lost in a state of trance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 396px;">
+<img src="images/illus265.jpg" width="396" height="450" alt="A FAKIR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A FAKIR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As we row slowly back along the river we see countless flat umbrellas,
+like those known as Japanese umbrellas, studding the gay crowd; under
+each one of these there is a "holy man," and there are thousands of them
+altogether in this city, living on the offerings of the pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>Look at that fellow seated cross-legged on a plank running out into the
+river. He pours water over his feet every now and again out of a little
+copper bowl, and mutters something. He is so much absorbed in what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
+is doing that he never looks up or turns his head. Another, close by,
+has hung his gaily-coloured turban on a post and proceeds to unwind his
+garment and cast it from him before he steps into the water with hardly
+a rag upon him. This lady in an orange scarf, dripping wet, seats
+herself on the end of the board, and winds a dry scarf round herself so
+adroitly that it is like a conjuring trick; she stands up and the wet
+one falls from her. She would get well paid as a quick-change artiste at
+a music hall, and such a gift would be invaluable for bathing on the
+Cornish coast!</p>
+
+<p>The men along the edge are very jolly, they chatter all the time and
+splash and wash and enjoy themselves. No English seaside place on a
+trip-day can beat this crowd. The fact that dead bones and skulls are
+constantly thrown into the water, and that the ashes of dead people, and
+much else that is indescribably filthy, mingles with it, doesn't seem to
+disturb them at all.</p>
+
+<p>When you have wearied of watching them we will go and visit one of the
+innumerable temples in the city, but we shall need a guide for that, as
+it is not safe to wander in these streets alone.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner have we landed and fought our way into one of the narrow
+alleys, than the road is blocked by an enormous bull who stands placidly
+before a greengrocer's stall sampling his wares. The man makes no
+attempt to drive him away, but tries to tempt him by holding a choice
+bunch of his best stuff. The beast has slavered over much that will be
+sold for human food afterwards. What? A good smack on the flank! For
+goodness' sake take care! The animal is supposed to be sacred; to touch
+him would be to bring out all the inhabitants of these houses on to us
+like a swarm of hornets. Luckily the beast is so well fed that he soon
+moves on and we can get past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now we have reached the most important temple of all, known as the
+Golden Temple, and as we pass into the cloisters we see a couple more
+animals standing inside, as much at home as if they were in a byre,
+which, indeed, the place smells like, with a strange scent of sweet
+flowers on the top of it. It is a wonderful place, but oh, so dirty! It
+is dedicated, of all things, to the poison-god, Shiva! It stands in a
+quadrangle, roofed in, and above rise some of those curious elongated
+domes we saw from the boat. If we climb up through that flower-stall
+where blossoms are being sold for offerings, we can see these domes,
+which really have cost a lot of money, as two of them are gilt all over;
+the gilding keeps its glitter here and rises dazzlingly against the hot
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>There are other temples by the dozen and mosques too for the
+Mohammedans. If we wander round we shall see many strange sights; in one
+shrine is the image of the god Saturn, a silver disc, in another that of
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, surely the most hideous of all! Look at him! A
+squatting dwarf with an elephant's trunk! At another place is the image
+of Shiva himself; it has a silver face, though made of stone, and
+possesses four hands; it is guarded by a dog, and you can buy little
+imitation dogs made of sugar anywhere near. There is even an image of
+the goddess of smallpox, and if you ask why the Hindu chooses such
+repulsive and revolting things to worship, the answer is, because he is
+afraid. He says, "If the gods are good they will not injure me, but if
+they are evil I must propitiate them!"</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere we go we have copper bowls or even the half of coco-nut
+shells thrust at us for offerings; the priests tolerate the strangers
+entering their temples only because they hope to get something out of
+them.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We are now far from Benares; we have left behind the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> narrow crowded
+alleys, the violent smells, and the gay colours, and are in the train
+speeding toward Calcutta, whence we will take a steamer to Burma. The
+train has just stopped at a wayside station and there is a chance to
+stretch our legs. Ramaswamy appears and tells us they are going to stop
+here for a time. He doesn't seem to know why,&mdash;something about a sahib
+is all we can gather,&mdash;so we get out and wander along the village
+street. We have only gone a short way when we see a kind of litter
+coming along slung on bearers' shoulders. It is screened by curtains,
+and beside it rides a white man in a helmet, followed by natives. Why,
+that is the very man who came up in the train from Delhi with us! I
+wonder what he is doing here. That must be a sick woman in the litter.
+This is evidently what the train was waiting for, so we might as well go
+back.</p>
+
+<p>We get to the station just in time to see the curtains pushed aside by
+the sahib, who very tenderly and skilfully raises in his arms the sick
+person inside, and supports him into the station. It is a gaunt
+scarecrow of a man, a skeleton of a creature, whose big pathetic eyes
+look dark in his hollow face. He is evidently very ill. He is
+half-carried across to a carriage next to ours that has been prepared
+for him, and is laid down on a couch on the seat, and it is not long
+before we get under way again. Going out a little later on to the
+platform between the two compartments we find our friend, the tall
+Englishman, standing there smoking. He recognises us at once and asks us
+about our experiences; it is not difficult to find out about the
+invalid.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the best chaps going," he says shortly. "Simply broken up by the
+work he's been doing in the plague-camp up there. He is a doctor, so am
+I, and I've just got back from leave. I went up-country to relieve
+Jordan, but the work is nearly over, and I found him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> played out. He has
+hardly had his clothes off for weeks. The difficulty is to persuade
+these people to get out of their infected houses into a camp until the
+place is made sanitary and the plague stayed. He was single-handed at
+first, now there are two other men up there, so I can be spared to take
+him down to the coast. He'll get over it; oh yes, he's got the turn now,
+though he was nearly gone once or twice, but he'll never be the same man
+again. He is invalided home for a bit, and the voyage will pull him up,
+but even as he is he's sore at leaving it. He wants to finish his job."</p>
+
+<p>"Then when you've left him at Calcutta you'll go back to the infected
+district?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course, why not? It's all in the day's work, and you know we've
+actually had only thirty deaths in a month since the beggars were got
+out into camp, and they were dying at the rate of hundreds a week
+before. Grand, isn't it?" His face lights up with enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>India is full of such men; they don't play for safety, they take their
+lives in their hands at a moment's notice, and go blithely to grapple
+with death.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus270.jpg" width="450" height="461" alt="BURMESE VILLAGE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BURMESE VILLAGE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GOLDEN PAGODA</h3>
+
+
+<p>It is hot and still, we have passed across a place of broken tangled
+undergrowth and come out into a rather untidy courtyard, where some
+sneaking yellow pariah dogs barked at us until I cut at them with my
+stick, when they ran away and barked again from a safe distance. There
+seems to be no one else here but ourselves. A great tree covered with
+glorious magenta flowers stands on one side. It is our old friend the
+bougainvillea, but here it grows into a great tree instead of a creeper.
+It is backed up by the dark foliage of many mango trees. In front of us
+is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> large house which seems to rise in many storeys, and the roof of
+each storey is carved and decorated, so that it shows up like lacework
+against the sky. The house stands on legs, so that the under part is
+quite open, and a broad flight of wooden steps leads up to a verandah on
+the first floor. Stop to examine the carving on the balustrade. It is
+wonderful! Figures of tigers, dragons, peacocks, monkeys, and elephants
+are all set among foliage and cut out very deeply.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived in Burma yesterday we came up the river Irrawaddy, which
+at its mouth is called the Rangoon River. What seemed like low green
+banks are really swamps filled with rushes growing high and strong; as
+we passed between them suddenly we saw afar off a gleam of gold, and by
+staring hard we made out a great tower against the sky. We are going to
+visit it presently, but just now I want you to see something else quite
+funny. Step softly on the broad wooden verandah and peep round that
+corner.</p>
+
+<p>There squats an old man with a perfectly bald head, smooth as a billiard
+ball; he wears a loose garment of dull yellow stuff which forms a sort
+of skirt and is draped across one shoulder as well, falling over his
+honey-coloured chest. He is all yellow, except for his round, shining
+black eyes, very like glistening balls of jet. On the ground in front of
+him, lying full length on their little stomachs, are about a dozen small
+boys. You thought they were girls? I don't wonder! Each one has a
+feathery tuft of hair in the middle of his head standing up like carrot
+tops, except for this the little skull is closely shaven all round. They
+all have skimpy white jackets and skirts from which their skinny little
+yellow legs stick out kicking in the effort to master their tasks. In a
+loud sing-song jabber they are repeating something which they read off
+the slates they hold in front of them. It would be funny to learn
+lessons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> lying flat on the floor, wouldn't it? But these boys have never
+sat on chairs in their lives; they will have to learn that as an
+accomplishment if they go into business offices when they are older.</p>
+
+<p>The old <i>poongyi</i>, or monk, is the teacher. This beautiful carved wooden
+building is the house where the monks live, and it is called a <i>choung</i>.
+In the morning, very early, the monks wander forth, dressed in yellow
+robes and carrying begging-bowls and fans. They do not beg, however,
+they are much too proud; they merely stop and stand about where there
+are houses, and the people rush to pour food into their bowls. It is a
+privilege for them to be allowed to do this, as they are supposed to
+"gain merit" by so doing. Nearly all the Burmese are Buddhists, and
+these men are Buddhist monks.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 211px;">
+<img src="images/illus272.jpg" width="211" height="400" alt="A POONGYI, OR MONK." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A POONGYI, OR MONK.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>You would never guess what the fans are for; they are to put up as
+screens to shield the faces of the monks when they pass a woman, for
+they are not supposed ever to look at a woman, it is too frivolous! When
+the begging-bowls are full they generally contain a strange mixture, for
+everyone pours in anything he or she happens to have; there will
+certainly be rice, both cooked and raw, peas, perhaps fish, and this may
+be wrapped up in a leaf to keep it separate, which is necessary when it
+is curried; then there will be some cakes or cucumbers; possibly, in the
+season, mangoes and plantains. One of the greatest delicacies of the
+Burmese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> is a horribly smelly stuff called <i>ngap&eacute;</i>, made of rotten fish
+laid in salt; no feast is complete without it.</p>
+
+<p>The monks are supposed to live on what they get in their begging-bowls,
+but, as a matter of fact, in wealthy monasteries they don't; they empty
+it out for the pariah dogs, which explains why so many dogs always hang
+around the monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>The Burmese have some funny notions; one is that they do not like anyone
+else's feet to be above their heads, so they build their houses on posts
+and do not use the ground floor. It looks as if there were many more
+storeys rising above the first floor where they live, but that is a
+sham; the roof is only built to look like that, and is hollow inside. In
+most of the monasteries there are schools, and the little boys are
+taught in them, as you see here. Besides this, every boy, when he gets
+to a certain age, must spend a time, longer or shorter, in the
+monastery. It may be only a few days or weeks and it may be years,
+according to the ideas of his parents, but while he is there he has to
+wear the yellow robe and carry the begging-bowl, and what to a growing
+boy must be most trying of all, he is not allowed to eat anything after
+midday!</p>
+
+<p>That old fellow has caught sight of us; he is getting up and seems quite
+pleased to welcome us. It is a good thing we brought Ramaswamy with us,
+for he can speak Burmese and interpret for us; the monk knows no
+English. The little boys spring to their feet and stand gazing at us
+with wide eyes, delighted, as any boys would be, at getting an
+interruption to their lessons. They gradually come round us and begin to
+laugh and even to touch our clothes, but the old monk sends them all
+away and leads us into the wooden rooms of the monastery that open off
+the verandah. Several monks here are lying lazily about on mats
+half-asleep, but in a moment they all surround us, and for the first few
+minutes we experience rather an eerie sensation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> Coming in from the
+bright sunshine outside everything seems very dim, and these curious men
+with their shaven heads and beetle eyes come close up to us and press
+upon us, pawing us and pointing to a great image of Buddha shining out
+in a ghostly way from a shrine at the end of the hall.</p>
+
+<p>There are many little candles burning before it, most of them sticking
+to the ground by their own grease. One of the monks takes one up and
+holds it so that we can see the image, about twice life-size, seated in
+that calm attitude of the sitting Buddha, with crossed legs and one hand
+on the lap, while the other hangs loosely down. There is a serene
+self-satisfied smirk on the marble face, which looks more like that of a
+woman than a man. Ramaswamy explains to us that this is a very specially
+holy Buddha, and that the little dabs of gold splashed here and there
+about him are the offerings of the faithful; they are simply bits of
+gold-leaf stuck on. Gold-leaf is expensive, for it is real gold beaten
+very thin, and these little bits represent much self-denial on the part
+of many poor people. A Burman's great object in life is to "gain merit"
+for a future existence, for he thinks that he will live again and again
+many times in different forms, and that as he behaves in this life so he
+will be born again into a better or worse state in the next; if he is
+very bad he runs the risk of becoming a snake or some other repulsive
+reptile. He is not afraid of overdoing the merit, as the ancient
+Egyptian was; the more he can pile up for himself the better, and the
+way in which he does this is to feed the poongyis, build choungs and
+pagodas, and set up or adorn figures of Buddha.</p>
+
+<p>The priests at this choung own a priceless relic; it is no less than a
+hair of Buddha! After some persuasion they are induced to show it to us.
+They bring a great casket, which is solemnly unlocked, showing another
+inside, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> again another, and at last we get down to a little glass
+box with an artificial white flower in it, round which is wound a long
+and very wiry white hair. I should say many of the same sort could be
+got from any long-tailed white horse!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus275.jpg" width="450" height="508" alt="BUDDHA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BUDDHA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On a table near are various offerings, and among them we see a rather
+greasy pack of ordinary playing-cards and a soda-water bottle, besides
+several saucers of waxy white blossoms of the frangipani flower, such as
+we saw in Ceylon, emitting a very strong scent. The soda-water bottle
+and playing-cards look rather dissipated, but they are quite serious
+offerings, given by somebody who thinks them rare and interesting. Our
+ears for some time past have told us that an extraordinary amount of
+ticking is going on, and now that our eyes have become accustomed to
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> light, we can see numerous clocks on brackets and tables; these are
+of all sorts and sizes, including a 2s. 11d. "Bee" clock, cuckoo clocks,
+and even one large "grandfather." In between and about them, on the
+floor and on the shelves, are lamps large and lamps small, some brass,
+some china, and some glass!</p>
+
+<p>The clocks are all going hard, ticking away as if they were running a
+race to see which could get ahead of the other. It is a funny medley!
+The monks are lazy enough and pass half their days asleep, but if they
+keep all these clocks wound up someone must have something to do. These
+are all offerings, and the more the better; no monk can ever get enough
+lamps or clocks to satisfy him!</p>
+
+<p>We pass down and out into the courtyard, and all the monks follow us in
+a body and gently edge us toward some ponds or tanks where fat tortoises
+lie on the banks or float lazily in the stagnant water.</p>
+
+<p>There is a man sitting on the side selling balls of rice and bits of
+bread. Just as we come up a graceful Burmese woman buys a ball and
+throws it into the water. In an instant what looks like a voracious army
+of huge spiders floats up from below and attacks it, and as the ball of
+rice dissolves and falls apart every grain disappears. Looking more
+closely we see that they are not spiders at all, but a curious kind of
+fish with long feelers growing out all round his mouth and nose. As he
+thrusts up his mouth to the surface, with all the feelers wriggling, the
+rest of his body is unseen, and the appearance is exactly that of a
+round spider with wriggling legs. Buy a bit of crust and see the fish
+dart at it and simply tear it to pieces; they scramble at it from all
+sides, pushing and nibbling, and in less time than you could imagine
+every crumb is gone!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;">
+<img src="images/illus277.jpg" width="418" height="600" alt="THE GOLDEN PAGODA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE GOLDEN PAGODA.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The woman is laughing, and we laugh back at her. She is short and very
+neat, with her shining black hair coiled round her head and secured by
+two big pins, while a dainty spray of flower falls down on one side. Her
+face looks quite light coloured, for it is thickly covered with a kind
+of soft yellow powder, and she has a brilliant gauzy scarf across her
+little white jacket and falling down over her tight rose-pink silk
+skirt. As she walks away with a curious shuffle we see that she has on
+the quaintest shoes, with red velvet caps and no heels; but the caps are
+so much too small for her feet that she has had to leave the little toe
+outside! This is a fine dodge, and Mah Shwe can say she takes twos or
+threes in shoes with truth, even if her feet are much larger!</p>
+
+<p>The monks are standing in a solemn group near their staircase when we go
+back, and when I suggest to Ramaswamy we should give them something he
+disagrees vigorously. "Not touching money, Master, only food and rice,
+no money." All right, we won't tempt them, and I put back the rupee I
+had taken out. You must have noticed already that the money here is the
+same as in India. Then we climb into the miserable little box on wheels
+which is waiting for us; it is the only cab we can get here, and calls
+itself a ticca-gharry. The little rat of a pony seems a very long way
+off; it is a tight squeeze for us inside, and there is certainly no room
+on the box beside the hairy-legged native for Ramaswamy, but he hops up
+on a board there is behind for the purpose, and hangs on as we jolt away
+to the Golden Pagoda.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing we see when we arrive at it are two enormous monsters,
+not like any animal in existence, made of white plaster with glaring red
+eyes. They have dragons' heads and tigers' bodies and are most terribly
+ferocious. These guard the entrance to the pagoda and are called
+leogryphs. Between them there is a long ascent rising to the pagoda
+platform. The place is like a bazaar with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> people in their gay clothes
+coming and going, and the sun glinting through between the pillars at
+the open spaces. It is difficult to tell the difference between men and
+women, for all alike wear skirts and jackets, and you never see a man
+with a beard, hardly ever with a moustache. But the true distinction is
+that the men have a gay handkerchief called a <i>goungbaung</i> wound round
+their heads, and the women wear no head covering, and, as you have seen,
+they never think of veiling their faces, like the Mohammedan women. The
+men's head-gear is very different from that we saw in India; it is not a
+huge and heavy erection, but just a silk or cotton scarf twisted up and
+tucked in, and very often there is a "bird's nest" of dark hair sticking
+out in the middle of it, for the men's hair is long as well as the
+women's, but they roll it up so that it is not seen.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">
+<img src="images/illus280.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="THE LEOGRYPH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE LEOGRYPH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Everyone is very bright and friendly, and the girls who are selling all
+sorts of little tawdry things on the stalls by the stairs call out to us
+persuasively to buy from them. On the whole the place is clean, and
+there is no bazaar smell, only a certain sharp wood-smoke flavour and
+the scent of many flowers. But at the foot of every white column are
+horrible deep-red stains that look as if some little animal had been
+slaughtered there. It is not so bad as that. You remember we saw a man
+whose mouth was stained red with chewing betel-nut, which he did in the
+same way that some of the roughest men in England chew tobacco? These
+are the stains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> of that betel-nut, for nearly everyone here has the
+nasty habit.</p>
+
+<p>Up the steps we pass, higher and higher, and come out on to a great
+platform which looks like a street, for it is lined with buildings on
+all four sides and in the middle too; but rising above those in the
+middle is the great pagoda, the Shwe Dagon,&mdash;<i>shwe</i> means golden,&mdash;and
+this is the most wonderful thing in Burma.</p>
+
+<p>It is so wide at the base that it takes quite a long time to walk round
+it, and then it goes up in a bell-like curve, tapering to a steeple
+little less than the height of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the very top of
+all, so high that we can only see it by cricking our necks, is an iron
+cage called a <i>htee</i>, meaning "umbrella," decorated with swinging bells.
+Listen for a moment and perhaps you can hear them as the wind sways them
+about. No, the air is too still to-day. Deep in the innermost chamber of
+the pagoda are no less than eight hairs of Buddha, besides other relics
+of other Buddhas who lived before the last.</p>
+
+<p>The marvel of it is that this great monument is pure gold from top to
+bottom. Much of it is covered with thin plates of real gold, and the
+rest, yards and yards of it, is plastered with gold-leaf.</p>
+
+<p>Did you see that red glint from the top as the sun caught the htee at an
+angle? That was probably a real ruby, for it flashed out like a sword
+blade. There are many real stones set up there, and the htee alone cost
+&pound;50,000!</p>
+
+<p>Coming back to earth, look at the glitter on all these shrines that line
+the platform on both sides. Though it looks like a street it isn't
+really, for there are no houses, only shrines and temples. That one
+close to us is dazzling to look at. No, those blue and red flashes are
+not from real jewels; examine them and see. The shrine is encased with
+little pieces of looking-glass, some red and some blue and some plain,
+all fitted in together like mosaic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next is made of the wonderful carved woodwork the Burmans do so
+well, and it is gilded all over; for my own part I prefer the dark teak
+ungilded, but still this looks very handsome among the rest. That tall
+post like a flagstaff, with streamers flying from it, is a praying-post;
+can you make out the figure like a weather-cock at the top? It is a
+goose instead of a cock, and doesn't tell the direction of the wind. It
+is the sacred goose. The brilliance of all this detail takes one's
+breath away. On every side we see the people worshipping, and yet it is
+not a festival day, for then we should hardly be able to move for the
+crowds on the platform&mdash;where there are tens now there would then be
+thousands. The worshippers drop down quite simply on the pavement before
+a favourite shrine and hold up their hands toward it, sometimes with an
+offering of flowers in them, or even a big taper. There is a woman
+passing smoking a monstrous "green" cigar. It is a huge thick roll of
+light-coloured stuff like shavings, about as long as your arm from elbow
+to wrist, and as thick as a man's finger. She has to open her little
+round mouth wide to get the end in. It is not filled with pure tobacco,
+but a chopped mixture of all sorts; even you could smoke it without any
+harm. Why yes, women smoke here almost all day, and children too. They
+do say the mothers give the babies-in-arms a whiff, but I haven't seen
+that myself!</p>
+
+<p>Set up everywhere are coloured umbrellas with fringes of coloured beads,
+as large as those used for tents on lawns sometimes. We peer into
+numberless shrines as we pass and see Buddhas of every sort peeping at
+us out of the dim interiors; there are Buddhas of brass, Buddhas of
+marble, Buddhas of alabaster, Buddhas coated with white paint, and
+Buddhas covered with gold. Most of them are seated, always exactly in
+the same position as the one we saw far away in Ceylon. This is
+supposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> to signify Buddha as he sat under the Bo tree meditating.
+Others show him standing with one hand upraised, and this is to show
+Buddha as he was when teaching, and others are lying down, but these are
+the least common. They are supposed to show Buddha when he passed into
+eternal calm.</p>
+
+<p>Pink is by far the favourite colour for the people's clothes, and it is
+very vivid, like the colour seen in striped coco-nut cream, but white is
+also much worn, and there is some yellow in orange shades. Many of the
+Burmese wear a shirt of maroon check, just like a check duster; these
+are their workaday clothes, on festivals they generally manage to come
+out in silks.</p>
+
+<p>Come round now to the back of the shrines that line the platform on the
+outer side, here there is another open space, and on it are bells as
+large as church bells; they hang between two posts. Take up one of those
+deer's horns lying beside that one and stroke it hard. It gives out a
+clear musical note. Try now the piece of wood, that sounds different.
+Everyone who passes stops to strike one or the other of the bells, they
+want to call the attention of the "good nats," or spirits, to the fact
+that they are at the pagoda! In this shed is an enormous bell large
+enough to hold half a dozen men. I don't think you'll be able to make
+much effect with a deer's horn on that. It is the third largest in the
+world, and once was in the bottom of the Rangoon River, for the English
+were carrying it away when it toppled over and sank. Engineers tried to
+raise it, but failed, because of its enormous weight; but the Burmans,
+after some time, were allowed to try, and somehow managed to succeed,
+and not only so, but they hauled it right up here! It does look as
+though there were something weird about its positive refusal to be
+carried away!</p>
+
+<p>Along the edge of this part of the pagoda are a number<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> of wooden
+platforms raised a foot or two from the ground, for the use of those who
+come from long distances, and on them many families are lying or
+sitting. On one sits a tiny boy with a quizzical intelligent little
+face. His top-knot sticks up like an out-of-curl feather. Beside him is
+a still smaller mite who cannot be more than two; he has little silver
+bangles on his fat wrists and ankles, and a strip of cotton rolled round
+his dumpy body, while papa and mamma and numerous aunts are seated on
+the platform behind gravely smoking.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus284.jpg" width="450" height="441" alt="ON THE PLATFORM OF A PAGODA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ON THE PLATFORM OF A PAGODA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I stop to light a cigarette close to this family, and in an instant the
+elder lad holds out his hand timidly. Just to see what he will do I give
+him a cigarette; he takes it with a self-possessed courtesy and looks at
+me, politely waiting for a light. I hand him the box and he strikes a
+match and bows a little as he returns it; even the children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> have
+excellent manners. Drawing in a great whiff of smoke he sends it out
+through his little round nose in keen enjoyment. But the fat baby has
+suddenly become alive to what is going on, and crawling on the top of
+his brother clamorously demands a smoke more loudly than if he were
+asking for sweets. The bigger boy hands him the cigarette. He knows
+quite enough not to put the lighted end in his mouth, and in a second is
+puffing so vigorously that the cigarette burns away like a furnace; when
+his brother sees this he makes a desperate effort to recover it, but the
+fat baby pushes him off with one hand, while he clings to the cigarette
+with the other, and, turning away his head, smokes harder than ever.</p>
+
+<p>We are both reduced to fits of laughter by this time, and the family on
+the platform are enjoying the joke too. Seeing that there are likely to
+be difficulties, I solve them by producing another cigarette for the
+elder boy, and the fat baby is left in full possession of the first one.
+The last sight we have of him is as he violently resists a grown-up
+sister who is trying to take away the stub!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE</h3>
+
+<p>We are lucky! No sooner have we returned to the hotel than a gorgeous
+man, over six feet high, dressed in white, with a red sash, in which is
+stuck a tasselled dagger, greets us. He is a <i>chuprassie</i>, or messenger,
+and has come from Government House with a note inviting us to a
+garden-party there this afternoon. What a day of it! This is the result
+of my having been up there yesterday to write our names in the book kept
+for the purpose, while I left you to rest. That is the way people do
+here instead of leaving cards, so that His Excellency the
+Lieutenant-Governor may know who has come to the country. I thought
+perhaps he would take some notice of us, because his younger brother was
+my great friend at the 'Varsity, but this is very prompt. I am glad you
+will have a chance of seeing something of Government House, as most
+people in England have not an idea how things are run here. Burma is
+counted as one of the provinces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> of India, and is under the Viceroy of
+all India, but within his own borders the Lieutenant-Governor is the
+ruler and representative of the King.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 207px;">
+<img src="images/illus286.jpg" width="207" height="400" alt="THE GOVERNMENT SERVANT." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE GOVERNMENT SERVANT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is about four o'clock, when, having had a rest and made ourselves as
+smart as we can, we crawl up the long drive leading to Government House
+in one of the ridiculous small ticca-gharries which are the only
+conveyances one can get.</p>
+
+<p>We are one of a long procession of vehicles going at a foot's pace,
+stopping and starting again. Some are private carriages, there are a few
+motors, a few dog-carts, and ours is not the only little box on wheels.
+Lean out a little and you will see a flash of jewels and satiny silk in
+that one in front of us; evidently some wealthy natives are among the
+guests. The long line of vehicles comes up to the door, and when the
+occupants have alighted the drivers curve on round the lawn and go away.
+At last our turn comes. A pleasant-looking man, all in white, with a red
+sash and sword, and a wonderful bunch of tassels and plaits in gold,
+called an aiguillette, on his breast, greets us as cordially as if we
+were old friends. Notice the plume of rose-pink feathers on his helmet!
+He seems to know all about us without our saying a word, and as he leads
+the way across the short grass lawn to where our host and hostess stand
+ready to greet their guests, he tells me that His Excellency's brother,
+my old friend, is actually staying here now.</p>
+
+<p>His Excellency is in English costume, with a star on his breast; he
+shakes hands kindly and calls out to summon his brother, who is not far
+off, and we pass on to make way for the stream of newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>We could not be in better hands. Claude and I have not met for years,
+but that makes no difference; we greet each other as if we had parted
+only yesterday. He takes us over to the tables for tea and fruit. And
+when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> hears this is your first visit he insists on your eating a
+mango, which is the most famous fruit in the country and just ripe.
+These are a specially good sort, not very large, with pink "cheeks";
+when you have stripped off the tough skin you find you get down to the
+big stone very soon, and there isn't much room for the fruity part
+between, still, what there is of it is excellent, and I see you
+furtively using your handkerchief to get rid of the stickiness
+afterwards!</p>
+
+<p>Then we sit in basket-chairs, not too near the band, and Claude tells us
+"all about it." It is a much more brilliant scene than an ordinary
+garden-party at home, because in addition to the Europeans there are a
+number of high-class Burmese. Those little ladies near us standing in a
+group are most gorgeously attired in much-embroidered fussy little
+jackets with short wings, or lappets, sticking out behind, and their
+skirts, or tameins, are woven of the richest silk. As that one turns you
+see that beside the flowers in her hair she has two big pins with heads
+the size of small walnuts; those are real diamonds, not perhaps of the
+first water, but still of great value. The ladies' faces are smooth with
+yellow powder, and there is something very neat about their movements. A
+little way off is a Burman with a pink goungbaum and very rich silk
+skirt. The grass, kept green by plentiful early morning watering, is
+quite vivid in colour, and the clear cloudless sky is of a thrilling
+blue. Government House itself is a great palace, not beautiful, as it is
+built of yellow brick and pink terra-cotta, but imposing and dignified.
+Burman attendants wearing turbans and skirts, called <i>lyungis</i>, of
+purest mauve, and dainty white jackets, glide about with the
+refreshments. Burmans will seldom take service with anyone, generally
+they leave that to the natives of India, but they make a distinction in
+the case of anyone so important as the Lieutenant-Governor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's all rather overwhelming to me," says my friend. "You know I am a
+quiet man; a well-seasoned pipe and a den full of books are about my
+mark. I had no idea till I came out here that my brother was such a
+boss; it makes me want to run away."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us about some of the guests," I suggest. "Why does that man in the
+saffron-coloured robe have yards too much of it?"</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 244px;">
+<img src="images/illus289.jpg" width="244" height="400" alt="A LITTLE BURMESE LADY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A LITTLE BURMESE LADY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"That's his best garment, called a <i>putso</i>, I understand. The more stuff
+the better, all bunched up; to show he can afford it, I suppose. Doesn't
+leave much room for the tailor to display his cut. He's a prominent
+Government man. I don't know him personally. Those two ladies in the
+fussy little jackets are royalties; they wear that sort of thing because
+they're of the old royal blood, though otherwise you only see it in the
+<i>pw&eacute;s</i>, or plays. They are of the house of Theebaw, the king we
+dethroned in 1885 when we took over Upper Burma. He's living still in
+India, where he was sent into exile. I don't know what relation these
+two are to him, but when every king had at least thirty sons, there was
+no scarcity of relations! It was the custom for the son who mounted the
+throne in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> the old days to kill off all his brothers if he could lay
+hands on them, as a precaution in case of accidents. I take it some of
+the ladies were spared, which would make for the inequality of the
+sexes."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose your brother is like a king out here?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is the representative of the King. You should see him driving in
+state with outriders in scarlet liveries. People in England don't
+realise it. I always say how he will suffer when he retires and goes to
+England, where no one will shiko to him!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment he springs to his feet to shake hands with a dignified
+short Burman in beautiful native dress, to whom he introduces us. This
+is the Sawbwa, or chief, of Hsipaw, one of the native states. The Sawbwa
+has been educated in England and speaks perfectly correct English. He
+has a passion for travel and wants to go round the world, he says, but
+he has to get permission from the Viceroy before leaving the country, as
+the English Government doesn't like the native princes leaving their
+territory. So long as he stays at home and governs his people well he is
+not interfered with, but when he wants to go away he feels the hand of
+Britain over him!</p>
+
+<p>After talking a little while he asks us if we have seen the football&mdash;he
+calls it football, but, as he explains, it is a native game called
+<i>chin-lon</i>, which is not quite the same.</p>
+
+<p>We saunter across the lawn and find that a sort of exhibition game for
+the amusement of the guests is going on. The ball is made of wicker-work
+and is kept in the air by the knees or feet of the players very
+cleverly, in fact, so cleverly that it looks quite easy to do. The young
+men who are playing turn and twist and always catch it just right,
+sending it spinning upwards very neatly. This is a game played by every
+village lad, but if you tried it you'd find it uncommonly difficult.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus291.jpg" width="450" height="396" alt="&quot;BOXING.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;BOXING.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A little farther on two men are boxing with their feet, raising their
+legs in the high kick and sometimes smacking each other's faces with the
+soles; the way they balance is extraordinary, there are roars of
+laughter when one nearly goes over but just recovers himself. He is a
+bit of a clown, that fellow, and does it on purpose now and again,
+though really he is perfectly balanced. Then we walk on with Claude
+toward the house, where the marble steps are lined by chuprassies, like
+the one who brought us our invitation this morning; we pass into the
+hall, with its high white columns and airy spaciousness, and then we see
+masses of wood-carving like that at the choung, deeply undercut, and a
+huge pair of elephant tusks. Everywhere are tall vases with great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+orange and red flags, something of the same kind as those that grow by
+riversides, only much larger.</p>
+
+<p>The passages are in the form of great arcades, and the ballroom behind
+is vast. It is indeed a palace fit for a king!</p>
+
+<p>His Excellency is very gracious, and when he is free for a few minutes
+he talks to us and asks us to stay with him and his wife on our way back
+from up-country, an invitation we gladly accept. He also promises to
+make everything easy for us on our tour. As we go away, after having
+taken our leave, I hear you say thoughtfully&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'd like to be a Lieutenant-Governor when I grow up!"</p>
+
+<p>It is a good ambition, but you will have to be clever and very hard
+working to achieve it, and even then you will want a bit of luck. You
+must go into the Indian Civil Service first, and after all, of course,
+you may never get there, but with a bit of luck&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus293.jpg" width="450" height="299" alt="THE PALACE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PALACE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"This butter is uneatable, Ramaswamy."</p>
+
+<p>"I wash him, Master."</p>
+
+<p>He takes away the dish of nasty, yellow, tinned butter and presently
+returns with it fresh and white, with much of the disagreeable taste and
+smell gone. Good! Now we know.</p>
+
+<p>We are sitting on a broad verandah of dark wood with a roof overhead. It
+is so wide that it is just like a room, only the outer sides are open.
+We look out over a moat filled with water and covered with leaves and
+pink flowers. These are the celebrated lotus flowers, or lilies. Behind
+rise red walls, with here and there quaint little maroon-coloured
+towers, all pinnacles and angles, showing up like fretwork against the
+sky. The moat is crossed by bridges of dazzling white. It is nearly
+midday, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> hottest and stillest time of all the day, and we are
+lunching in the Circuit House at Mandalay, the old capital of the kings
+of Burma.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone knows Mandalay by name from Kipling's poem, even if they know
+nothing of the rest of Burma. We came up here from Rangoon by train,&mdash;it
+took a night,&mdash;and by special permission of His Excellency were allowed
+to stay in this house, which is usually reserved for Government
+officials, instead of going to the rest-house intended for visitors, and
+not nearly so nice.</p>
+
+<p>From where we sit we can look through into the wooden unpapered bedrooms
+behind, with the little string beds on which our own bedding lies in
+heaps. Ramaswamy has not had time to put it out yet, for he has been
+busy cooking our tiffin. In these houses the keeper, or <i>derwan</i>, will
+do everything for you if you like, and you pay him so much for his
+trouble, but if you prefer your own servant to do it you can make that
+arrangement and borrow the pots and pans. Ramaswamy has given us already
+buttered eggs, some cutlets which tasted goaty, with some excellent
+little vegetables called bringals, as well as a dish of mixed curry, and
+he has now put some fruit on the table, and is bringing in coffee. He
+cooks out there behind in the compound. I saw him just now bending over
+a handful of sticks. However he manages to get the things hot I don't
+know. These natives have marvellous ways.</p>
+
+<p>We must rest a while this afternoon and have an early tea before
+starting out to see the palace which lies inside that brick wall.</p>
+
+<p>The tea is decent, the toast smoky, and the milk very poor. Ramaswamy
+says that it is almost impossible to get milk; the Burmans don't drink
+it themselves, and he thinks we shall have to fall back upon that
+condensed stuff. However, there is excellent jam, and that is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> good
+thing. Look round this bare wooden room and notice how little furniture
+one needs for perfect comfort. A couple of deck-chairs, a couple of
+small chairs, a table, a lamp, and a waste-paper basket! What a lot of
+superfluous furniture one does accumulate in England!</p>
+
+<p>What are you smiling at? The recollection of the bath? It's a very good
+way of bathing, I think. A wooden tub in the middle of a tiny room
+without anything else in it. You can splash as much as ever you like,
+and even if you spilt the whole bath it wouldn't matter much, because
+the water would simply run down through the cracks in the plank floor,
+and any one who knows anything here knows enough not to stand underneath
+a bathroom which is built out on wooden legs.</p>
+
+<p>We'll start now if you're ready! Hullo! Did you ever see anything so
+impudent? A great crow on the tea-table! Frighten him away, he's after
+those chocolates wrapped in silver paper that you brought up from
+Rangoon. The cheek of it!</p>
+
+<p>When we have passed over the white bridge and got inside the wall of the
+palace we see a wide space of green with a few houses scattered here and
+there, and in the middle a group of buildings, one of which has a very
+tall spire. Inside this wall at one time, the Burman time, was crammed
+the whole of Mandalay&mdash;six thousand houses, more or less. It <i>was</i> the
+town. The British cleared out all the houses, and the town is now
+outside in wide streets,&mdash;we saw it this morning as we drove up from the
+station,&mdash;and the palace is left here alone in its glory.</p>
+
+<p>That tall, many-roofed spire is the King's house. Only the King was
+allowed to rival the poongyis in the number of his roofs, no other
+Burman might do such a thing. It is an empty distinction in two senses,
+for, as you know, the roofs don't mean floors, they are hollow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> There
+is only one floor, for, of course, the King could never risk the
+frightful indignity of having anyone's feet above his head. At the top
+is a htee, or umbrella, as there is on the pagodas.</p>
+
+<p>The palace is not all one big building, but a number of buildings, or
+halls, each only one storey, grouped about with courtyards between. We
+wander in and out of them, treading on polished floors and seeing
+brilliant bits of colour framed in dark doorways. Some of the pillars
+glow a dull red, others are a wonderful gold; some of the doorways are
+set in frames of carved wood gilded all over. We see columns encrusted
+with little bits of many-coloured looking-glass, like those we saw in
+Rangoon. The halls are very dim in contrast with the brilliant light
+outside, and there is a kind of tawdriness in the decoration which makes
+one feel how different in nature these people must be from the ancient
+Egyptians who built so solidly. Here all is gay, but you feel it is
+gimcrack&mdash;it won't last. Look at that balustrade, gleaming deep green;
+examine it&mdash;do you see what it is? Nothing in the world but a row of
+green glass bottles turned upside down and embedded in cement! This
+place isn't old at all. It has not been built sixty years; before that
+the capital was elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>All at once Ramaswamy, who has been following noiselessly, pushes you
+aside with a cry of "Scorpion, Master." There, on the ground, difficult
+to see in this dim light, is a round black thing about as big as the
+palm of your hand, with a tail sticking out from it. It is the shape of
+a tadpole. In another minute you would have trodden on him, and if he
+had got in above your shoe, well&mdash;it would have been unpleasant in any
+case, and might have meant death!</p>
+
+<p>He lies quite still, not attempting to run away until Ramaswamy's shout
+brings one of the guardians, a tall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> man in a dark blue uniform and red
+sash. He rushes to find a big stone. We won't stop to see it. Poor
+beggar! Doubtless they'll "larn him to be a scorpion!"</p>
+
+<p>When King Theebaw reigned here he thought himself invincible; the
+many-roofed spire was "the centre of the universe." He imagined he could
+treat as he liked not only his own subjects but that white-faced race
+who had had the audacity to settle down in southern Burma. He soon
+learnt his mistake.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the palace we go on to see a very curious thing not far off
+outside the walls, this is the Kutho-daw, the Royal Merit-House. We
+enter by an elaborate white gateway and find ourselves in a perfect
+forest of pagodas. They are planted in rows and are all exactly alike
+and not very large. They are glittering white, and each one has a slate
+slab inside. The Kutho-daw was built by Theebaw's uncle, who acquired
+much merit thereby, and he deserved it, for there are no less than seven
+hundred and twenty-nine pagodas. On the slate inside each is inscribed
+some part of the Buddhist Scriptures. It was a grand idea thus to
+preserve indelibly on stone the whole Burmese Bible. Here it is for all
+time. Peep inside one and you will see the funny-looking Burmese
+writing, which all runs on without being divided up into words, and
+looks consequently so incomprehensible to us.</p>
+
+<p>What? How you jump! What is it? Another beast? Yes, I see him, that is a
+tarantula crouching in the darkest corner and looking at us out of
+wicked little eyes that shine like diamond points. He is a monster
+spider, isn't he? All hairy too, and his body striped with yellow bands
+like a wasp's. He sits still, but he is very much alive and ready to
+jump at a minute's notice. They are venomous brutes. Not quite so bad as
+a scorpion, but still the bite from one of these fellows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> is a very
+unpleasant thing. We will leave him, he can't do much harm here.</p>
+
+<p>Now we will drive round the town and see how the people live.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a happy family seated on a wooden platform stretching out in
+front of their house. The dust around and over them and in the roadway
+is almost as bad as Egypt, but here there is nearly always a tree or
+shrub of some sort to bring in a flash of green. The huts too are built
+of wood and mats and are raised several feet from the ground; they do
+not look so hopelessly crooked as the Egyptian mud houses. In the space
+underneath huge black pigs, like great boars, wander, and there are
+black goats too, and skinny hens and pariah dogs. Do you see that
+mother-dog lying in the roadway, too lazy to move, with six yellow
+puppies sprawling over her? Poor brute, she is a mass of mange and so
+skinny that her ribs stick out! The people here are taught by their
+religion not to take life of any kind; some of the priests strain their
+water through a sieve lest they should inadvertently swallow an insect!
+So no one kills, even in mercy. All these miserable puppies are allowed
+to grow up to a starved wretched existence, a misery to themselves and
+everyone else.</p>
+
+<p>Look at those two elephants stalking down the road; they move
+majestically, and when they reach the pariah dog the driver, or <i>oozie</i>,
+seated on the first one's neck, pricks him with a point to make him look
+where he is going, so that he avoids the dog. You will see plenty of
+elephants here, for elephants are to Burma what camels are to Egypt, the
+regular beasts of burden. They carry the kit and camp paraphernalia for
+the men who go into the jungle sometimes for months. They move the logs
+and trunks of the timber which is cut in the forests in large
+quantities. You remember the dark wood of the Circuit House and the
+poongyi choung? That is all teak,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> the best known wood in the country,
+corresponding to our oak. There are forests of it, and large companies
+exist simply for getting it out. There are still herds of wild elephants
+in the little disturbed parts of Burma, and every now and again
+Government catches them in <i>keddahs</i> in great quantities. I wish we had
+the luck to go with a hunting-party.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus299.jpg" width="450" height="289" alt="ELEPHANTS, BURMA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ELEPHANTS, BURMA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The family which owns that hut is seated on the edge of the platform and
+are watching us with as much interest as we watch them. Two bright-eyed
+little girls in jackets play beside a smiling woman. You will notice
+here the girls and women have quite as good a time as the boys and men;
+no veiling of faces or hiding away for them. The Burman knows better,
+and he would get on badly without the active help and advice of his
+comrade and wife.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>ON A CARGO BOAT</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 198px;">
+<img src="images/illus300.jpg" width="198" height="400" alt="DANCING GIRL, BURMA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">DANCING GIRL, BURMA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Did you ever see anything like it in your life? I never did.</p>
+
+<p>We are on a steamer coming down the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay, and
+it is our first evening on board. We are not the only passengers, there
+are also a widow lady and her daughter, a girl a few years older than
+you, but still in pigtails, whose name is Joyce. We were all four
+sitting very comfortably after dinner on the deck, which is roofed in,
+making a fine open room like a verandah, when a few large,
+light-coloured moths appeared; then, as if by magic, the whole deck was
+suddenly alive with them. They banged against the glass of the lights,
+thumped into our faces, and whirled around exactly like a thick
+snowstorm with very large flakes.</p>
+
+<p>"It's one of the plagues of Egypt," you yell.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce screams, pulls her long plaits round her face to prevent the moths
+catching in them, and dives for her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> cabin. Everyone follows suit, and
+soon anxious voices can be heard asking, "How many got in with you?"</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to shut the port-hole, and in less time than I can tear
+off my clothes my tiny room is as bad as the deck.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily there are mosquito-curtains, and glad of them we are, as we can
+hear the loathsome soft-bodied creatures blundering about outside them.</p>
+
+<p>Lo! in the morning they are all gone, and when I get on deck, and ask
+the captain, a stern soul from Aberdeen, where they have disappeared to,
+he points to the river. "Where would they be? Overboard, of course.
+Dead, every one of them. They live but a day."</p>
+
+<p>Leaning over the vessel's side I see some of the gummy bodies, mere
+hollow shells now, transparent and fragile, sticking on to the black
+paint about the bows. The creatures are white ants who come out of holes
+in the ground at this time of year. Our lights attracted a new-born
+swarm. At least that must have been it, because we weren't plagued with
+them again in the same way, though the captain says that in the wet
+season it is impossible to sit on the deck at all in the evenings
+because of the multitude of winged things.</p>
+
+<p>"But then you haven't got any hair," I hear Joyce's cheerful voice
+saying on the deck. You evidently reply something, for she rejoins at
+once, "Oh yes, it's in plaits, but they might stick in them! I've always
+had a creepy horror of crawly things sticking in my hair."</p>
+
+<p>"Cut it off," you suggest brutally.</p>
+
+<p>This is a cargo boat. We had much to see at Mandalay; we visited the
+Aracan Pagoda and Golden Temple, we went up to the hill-station, Maymyo,
+and on to the Gokteik Gorge, spanned by one of the highest trestle
+bridges in the world, and when we arrived back at Mandalay we found that
+the passenger boat had just left, so we came on by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> this one, the
+<i>China</i>, which is really just as comfortable and not so crowded. She is
+fitted with bathrooms and comfortable cabins with little beds in them,
+and on the spacious upper deck are two immense mirrors so placed that
+all the sights on the shore are reflected in them. You can sit in a
+lounge-chair and watch them flash past like a continuous cinematograph.</p>
+
+<p>The Irrawaddy flows right through Burma, cutting it in half, as the Nile
+does Egypt; and it is rather like the Nile, but, of course, not nearly
+so long, not so long even as the Ganges, though steamers can go up it
+for nine hundred miles, equal to the length of England and Scotland put
+together! The river is wide and shallow in places, sometimes as much as
+two miles across, and at these places great care has to be taken not to
+run on sandbanks; there is much poling and shouting out of soundings,
+and when we do stick, a boat rows out with an anchor and drops it, and
+after a while we ride up to the anchor and there we are!</p>
+
+<p>There is far more vegetation to be seen on the banks than in Egypt, and
+the life in the villages is much more attractive. The houses are
+perfectly beautiful&mdash;at a distance. They are built of dark wood, and
+stand on posts, with wide verandahs and thatched roofs, are nearly
+always embowered in great trees, and have a luxuriant growth of
+plantains and trees around. The spires of the pagodas and the pinnacles
+and roofs of the choungs generally rise up somewhere in the picture, and
+in the evening, when the whole village comes down to the water, the
+scene is charming. The cattle stand knee-deep and the people bathe and
+wash their clothes and drink heartily of the muddy stream, and then slip
+on dry garments, after which the women and girls stream up the steep
+banks, carrying red chatties of water on their heads. All are lively,
+full of play and chaff. Their life is a happy one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> because perfectly
+simple and natural; no one need starve and no one wants to be rich.</p>
+
+<p>All day the steamer floats along, generally winding slowly across and
+across the river wherever a little red flag stuck up on the banks tells
+that there are a few cases or barrels or packets to be taken down to the
+market. At one place it is <i>let-pet</i>, or pickled tea, though the plant
+from which the stuff is made is not really a tea-plant. Burmans love it,
+and no feast is complete without it, indeed a packet of let-pet is an
+invitation to something festive.</p>
+
+<p>It is early afternoon and quite hot and still as we circle toward the
+shore where the red flag hangs drooping; people in gay clothes are
+dabbed about like little splashes of colour on the whity-yellow sand.
+Suddenly there is a splash, and from our bows, which are high up in the
+air, one of the Lascars, dressed in blue dungaree trousers, drops feet
+first into the water like a stone; while he is in the air another
+follows and another, until there are half a dozen of them in the water,
+and they go across to the shore, paddling with each hand alternately as
+a dog does with his paws. They are carrying a line ashore. They always
+jump off like this at every landing-place. They shake themselves like
+dogs as they land, and the sun soon dries their one and only garment.
+But it takes a good while before the line is fixed up to the captain's
+liking!</p>
+
+<p>Then the people swarm across the plank into the great barge, or flat,
+tied alongside of us, and a shouting sing-song begins as men and girls
+alike hurry up and down carrying on board sacks of monkey-nuts. They
+work hard and untiringly and always good-humouredly; the popular notion
+that the Burman is a lazy fellow is based on the fact that he won't work
+if he can help it, but when he has to he does it with goodwill. A funny
+little incident occurs. The captain, walking down his own gangway, is
+run into by a coolie who is heading up the plank with a sack on his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
+shoulders; wrathfully the captain sends him and his sack flying, and
+they both land in deep water. That is nothing, however, for every Burman
+can swim, and no one bears any ill-feeling about it.</p>
+
+<p>Crowds of little boys and girls are dancing and splashing about on the
+edge of the water with infinite glee. A mother comes down with her baby
+and goes into deep water with the tiny thing clinging to her; suddenly
+she lets it go, and swimming with one hand holds it up with the other
+while it kicks spasmodically like a little frog. The babies learn to
+swim before they can walk.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce is seized with a brilliant idea. "Mother," she cries, "those toys
+we bought in the bazaar! Mayn't I give them to the children?"</p>
+
+<p>Taking leave for granted she flies into her cabin and returns with two
+gaily painted wooden animals whose legs move on strings; there is a
+yellow tiger with a red mouth, and a purple monkey. Joyce stands as high
+as she can on the rail and makes the tiger jump its legs up and down. A
+yell of delight from the children on the shore shows that she is
+understood. They plunge into the water like porpoises, and after a
+minute Joyce drops the tiger straight down. It is a good distance to
+swim, some fifty yards, perhaps, and the little black heads bob up and
+down frantically as the youngsters make desperate attempts to get
+through the water.</p>
+
+<p>Good! Go it! Two little boys about equal size are well ahead of the
+others and rapidly nearing the prize. It is just a toss-up which gets
+it; they grab simultaneously, but their fingers close on empty water.
+The tiger has disappeared, sucked down by something into the depths! Has
+it been eaten by a fish?</p>
+
+<p>No, there it is, having risen to the surface again some yards distant,
+grasped by a thin little arm. The owner of the arm emerges the next
+instant, shaking back her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> long black hair. It is a small girl, who
+actually dived under the boys and snatched the prize away! She deserves
+it, and holding it on high lies on her back and kicks her way back to
+land with her legs. She is a magnificent swimmer. They all follow her
+and crowd around her on the shore while she dangles the treasure in the
+sun, but no one attempts to take it from her.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 264px;">
+<img src="images/illus305.jpg" width="264" height="400" alt="BURMESE BOYS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BURMESE BOYS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the moment everyone has forgotten that there may be more forthcoming,
+and when Joyce holds up the purple monkey only one tiny podgy fellow
+sees it, and slipping silently into the water exerts himself
+tremendously to get well out before the others discover him. He swims
+slowly, for he is very small, and when he is half-way across the others
+are after him like a pack of hounds; but he gets the monkey, and turns
+his bright eager face up to us radiant with delight. One of the elder
+boys carries his treasure back for him, and by the way the little fellow
+yields it up readily it is quite evident that he is not in the least
+afraid of its being taken from him. His faith is justified, for he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> gets
+it back directly he lands, and then the children dance round the two
+lucky ones, singing and making such a noise that a troop of anxious
+parents hurry down to find out what is the matter. Those toys will be
+treasures for many a long day.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer screeches and we are off once more. Soon we see a great
+sugar-loaf hill in the distance, also a perfect forest of pagodas of all
+shapes and sizes along the river bank. This is Pagahn, a celebrated
+place, now deserted and melancholy. Imagine a strip of ground eight
+miles long and two broad, covered by hundreds of pagodas; it is said
+there are nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, but no one could
+count them, for half of them are mere heaps of stones, so possibly there
+may be one more to make a round number! Pagahn was once a capital city,
+and the then Burman king pulled down some of the pagodas to build up the
+defences of his walls when he heard that a Chinese king was coming to
+attack him; but of course he got the worst of it after such an impious
+act, as anyone would guess, and since then the place has been deserted.
+Some of the largest pagodas have been restored, which is rather a wonder
+in Burma as restoration does not make for "merit." You can see the
+snow-white outlines rising gracefully in the middle of the rough line of
+uneven buildings. Unluckily, instead of stopping here we go across the
+river and anchor at Yenangyaung, where there is a very strong smell of
+something. "I know," Joyce declares, wrinkling up her smooth little
+nose. "It's lamp oil."</p>
+
+<p>She is right, it is petroleum; there are here wells of it, from which it
+bursts up with great force sometimes, like a geyser.</p>
+
+<p>If we had been on a tourist steamer we should have visited Pagahn, but
+then we should have missed seeing much human life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An evening later the captain comes up to say that there is a pw&eacute;, or
+play, going on in the village near which we have anchored for the night,
+and wouldn't we like to go to see it? This is a grand chance, because
+Burmese pw&eacute;s are very funny things indeed. The people have them at every
+chance,&mdash;births, weddings, deaths, and festivals, none are ever complete
+without a play!</p>
+
+<p>We dine early, and, accompanied by the captain, set out afterwards, all
+four of us, for the village. The moon is getting up but is not bright
+yet, and we can see the trees standing up against a deep blue night sky,
+with the big bright stars winking at us through the palm fronds. The
+village street is deserted, and long before we reach the end of it where
+the pw&eacute; is going on we hear an exciting clash of cymbals and bang of
+drums which sets you and Joyce dancing.</p>
+
+<p>At last, right in the roadway, between the thatched houses, we see a big
+crowd, and coming up to it find every man, woman, child, and baby
+belonging to the village seated on the ground or lying in front of a
+small platform. The platform is simply a few loose boards standing on
+some boxes, and when anyone walks across it the boards jump up and down.
+In front are the footlights, a row of earthenware bowls filled with oil,
+with a lighted wick floating in each one.</p>
+
+<p>The Burman who is giving the pw&eacute; and has sent us the message about it
+comes forward and leads us to the front courteously. He is a portly man
+with a dress of rich silk so stiff it would stand by itself, and a large
+fur cape, like those worn by coachmen in England, over his shoulders,
+for the evenings are sharp. In following him through the crowd we find
+great difficulty in avoiding stepping on arms and legs which seem to be
+strewn haphazard on the bare earth, the owners being partly covered up
+with mats or rugs. Most of the men are squatting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> gravely with
+bath-towels over their shoulders&mdash;they make convenient wraps. Men and
+women alike are smoking either huge green cheroots or small brown ones.
+Our seats are right in front of the stage and consist of a row of
+soap-boxes. Joyce's mother clutches me in horror. "I can't sit down
+there," she says with a gasp; "I shall fall over." The captain
+misunderstands her and gallantly tries one himself, saying, "It holds
+me, Madam." As he is at least sixteen stone in weight this sends Joyce
+off into fits of irrepressible giggles, luckily drowned by the band,
+which is making an ear-splitting noise&mdash;"La-la-la, la-la-la!" One man
+bangs an instrument like those called harmonicons, with slats of metal
+set across it all the way up. Another is seated inside a tub, the rim of
+which is entirely composed of small drums; another cracks bamboo
+clappers together in an agonising way, while clarionets do their best,
+and a pipe fills in all the intervals it can find.</p>
+
+<p>A girl with a very coquettish gold-embroidered jacket, which stands out
+behind like two pert wings in the same way as those worn by the
+princesses at the garden-party, is rouging her face close to us; she
+gets it to her liking by leaning over the footlights and gazing in a
+little hand-mirror, then she takes up an enormous cigar which lies
+smoking beside her and puffs away contentedly till her turn comes.</p>
+
+<p>Two clowns are taking their part; we can't understand a word they say,
+but their humorous faces and comic gestures are irresistibly funny.
+Suddenly Golden-Jacket puts down her cigar, springs to her feet, and
+gets across the shaking boards with marvellous serpentine movements in a
+skirt tighter even than a modern one, literally a tube wound around her
+legs. Then, waving her long thin hands and arms so that ripples seem to
+run up and down them, she sings in a thin shrill voice a long song,
+while one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> of the clowns breaks in with "Yes, yes" and "Come on," meant
+for us and greatly appreciated by the audience. As the song wends toward
+its end, Golden-Jacket looks behind her more than once, and at last
+stops and says something out loud.</p>
+
+<p>"She's telling the villain to hurry up or she won't wait for him,"
+explains the captain, who understands Burmese. "She is in a forest. You
+see the branch of a tree stuck between the boards there? That's the
+forest. She went to meet her lover, the prince, for she is a princess,
+of course, but the villain has done his job, and now he's going to catch
+her."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus309.jpg" width="450" height="570" alt="IN THE PLAYHOUSE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">IN THE PLAYHOUSE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The princess trills out some more lines, and the villain, who has
+apparently been having great difficulties with his costume at the back
+of the stage, in full view of the audience, steps heavily forward,
+making the boards bounce right up. When she sees him she shrieks and
+faints in his arms. He makes a long speech holding her. The clowns
+appear again. The heroine shakes herself free, and with great
+self-possession squats down once more on the edge of the stage and
+resumes her cigar until her turn comes again. The branch of the tree is
+pulled up,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> and in its place is put a box with a piece of pink muslin
+over it, while three men in long robes come in and sit down, one on the
+box and the other two on the boards beside him, and they all talk
+interminably. The band, which has only stopped impatiently while the
+actual speaking was going on, clashes in wildly at every possible
+interval and now drowns the voices altogether for a few minutes, just to
+remind us it is there. The men on the stage continue repeating their
+parts, whether it plays or not, and apparently they are so long winded
+that the plot does not suffer at all from the sentences which are lost
+in the noise.</p>
+
+<p>"That's her father, the king," explains the captain. "He is taking
+counsel from his ministers how to recover his daughter and punish the
+villain. She's a boy, of course&mdash;they all are."</p>
+
+<p>We can hardly believe it! The slender form, the graceful movements, the
+long thin fingers, the wonderful management of that terrible skirt, the
+coquettish movements! You can hardly imagine any British boy doing it,
+can you?</p>
+
+<p>We are beginning to have about enough of it after a couple of hours,
+though the Burmans themselves comfortably settle down all night, and
+there are pw&eacute;s that go on for days. What with the clashing music, the
+thick smoke in the air, the strange language, and a kind of dreaminess
+over everything, it is too much for Joyce, and she suddenly flops her
+head down on my shoulder in a profound slumber, hugely to your delight.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother's cry of "Joyce!" brings her to herself with a crimson face,
+and I see you get a surreptitious kick for giggling, which you richly
+deserve!</p>
+
+<p>We make a move, thank the Burmese entertainer, explain we have to be off
+early in the morning, and try to get out without setting our feet on
+anyone's head!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;">
+<img src="images/illus311.jpg" width="407" height="573" alt="A BURMESE PLAY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A BURMESE PLAY.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, it has been snowing!" you cry in amazement as we get clear. It
+does look like it. The moon is full and white, high in the heavens, and
+shows up the dust which lies thickly over the village in a mantle of
+white.</p>
+
+<p>I think Joyce is asleep most of the way back. "I feel as if I were
+drugged," she says as we haul her up the gangway.</p>
+
+<p>Next day at sunrise we are off.</p>
+
+<p>After golden hours of placid slipping down the shining waterway we pull
+up at about five for the night, and having finished tea we four sally
+forth for a walk, little dreaming what is going to happen.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce's mother is a most attractive woman. She is well read, very keenly
+alive, and has travelled a great deal. She and I have much in common,
+and, I must say, as I help her across the paddy fields I forget all
+about you two.</p>
+
+<p>It is not until we turn to go home that I miss you.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't be far," I say reassuringly, and give a loud cooee, but
+there is no response.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't possibly come to harm here," I say. "There is nothing to
+hurt them," and I shout again.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps they have circled round and gone back to the ship another way,"
+Joyce's mother suggests, and we turn. Darkness falls very quickly here,
+and it is dark before we get on board, but in answer to our anxious
+questions we find no one has seen anything of you.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce's mother is very brave and sensible, but I can see that her heart
+is torn with anxiety. I try to comfort her by telling her that you are
+as good as a man, and have been brought up to look after yourself, but
+it makes little difference. She agrees, however, to remain on the
+steamer while the captain and I and a couple of Lascars with lanterns go
+forth again.</p>
+
+<p>What a night we have of it! We wander far and wide,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> calling and waving
+the lights with no result, and when we come back in the grey dawn, with
+troubled hearts, there is still no news.</p>
+
+<p>"Someone has taken them in," says the captain. "They're queer fellows,
+these Burmans; they daren't go out at nights for fear of spooks. You'll
+see they'll bring them safely back in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>And he is right, for, as the sky flashes rosy red, we see you afar off
+coming across the fields. A sight you are, indeed, as you come nearer,
+with your torn clothes and scratched faces! But Joyce's mother gives a
+cry of joy and precipitates herself across the flat and along the
+gangway, hatless, and clasps her daughter in her arms as if she would
+never let her go again. You and I are not so emotional, but I'm jolly
+glad to see you again!</p>
+
+<p>You shall tell your story in your own words. I wrote it down exactly as
+you told it to me, so that your people might have it.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus315.jpg" width="450" height="352" alt="THE FIRST THING WE SAW WERE TWO HUGE ELEPHANTS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE FIRST THING WE SAW WERE TWO HUGE ELEPHANTS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>JIM'S STORY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Joyce's a brick. She can do most things boys can, and we soon began
+racing each other along those little raised bits of earth between the
+beds in the paddy fields. I splashed right in once or twice and we
+shrieked with laughter. By and by we found ourselves through that and
+out on a flat place covered with thorns. They weren't very high mostly,
+and we didn't feel them through our shoes, but now and again one caught
+us on the ankles and then didn't we hop! By the time we had reached the
+road I suppose we had lost sight of you altogether. I didn't think about
+it. I just had a feeling we must scramble on in that fizzing red sunset
+light, and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> when we got tired turn plump round and go straight back
+to the ship the same way. I didn't really think about it, though.</p>
+
+<p>The road? Yes, it was a sort of a road, at least it was a clear space
+marked all over with deep ruts and lined by little trees, and it ran
+ever so far both ways, as Euclid says a line does. The first thing we
+saw were two huge elephants, striding along with a wooden thing on the
+neck of one, banging and rattling as his head went up and down. A man
+was sitting on his neck and he took no notice of us at all, but
+they&mdash;the elephants, I mean&mdash;just loped along in that swinging way they
+do; I think it must make anyone sea-sick to be on their backs. We stared
+at them till they got far away. Then I discovered that the little trees
+were mimosa, which shrivel up when you touch them. They had dropped
+seeds on the ground, I suppose, for under them were tiny little mimosas,
+not trees but scrub stuff. Joyce had never seen any, and when I rubbed
+my hand across them and she saw them wither up, she cried out, "What a
+shame! Dear little things, don't be afraid of me!" and plumped herself
+down beside them to cuddle them, but they withered more than ever. How
+we laughed! The ones I had withered first were just beginning to come
+right again, and I was going to make them shut up once more, and she had
+caught my hand to stop me, when we heard a noise and looked up, and
+there was a great buffalo coming right at us with his nose stuck up
+straight in the air as if he smelt something nasty. You never saw
+anything so comic! Joyce cried out, "Oh, what a darling!" But into my
+head, quick as lightning, came what you told me about buffaloes, who
+hate Europeans savagely, though a Burmese child of four can drive them
+with a twig. I grabbed Joyce's hand and pulled her up, and then I saw he
+was coming for us and no mistake, with his nose up in that absurd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+fashion, and his great horns sticking out. We made a bolt for the
+nearest tree just as the buffalo plunged across the place we had been,
+like a runaway motor-car. Then he stopped and looked funny. All at once
+he caught sight of my topee, which had fallen off and rolled away a bit,
+and up went his nose again, and when he reached it down went his head
+and into it like a battering-ram; and didn't he make the clods fly as he
+spiked his horns into it. The trees were not very high, and had smooth
+stems so far up, and then a lot of branches. If we could get up there
+we'd be all right.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus317.jpg" width="450" height="348" alt="ALL AT ONCE HE CAUGHT SIGHT OF MY TOPEE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ALL AT ONCE HE CAUGHT SIGHT OF MY TOPEE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Get up the tree, Joyce," I whispered. "I'll boost you."</p>
+
+<p>So I did, shoving her up for all I was worth, and she hung on as high as
+she could reach, and there she stuck; even the best girls aren't quite
+like boys.</p>
+
+<p>"Swarm up it," I urged.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't," she said in an agonised voice, and I saw it was true, her
+petticoats were to blame, of course;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> any boy would have been up before
+you could say "knife."</p>
+
+<p>Down she came again with a thud, and old Mr. Buffalo heard it and made
+for us like a fiend. We ran for the next tree and dodged him round it;
+it was a bit too exciting! He made rushes at us dead straight, and we
+tried always to keep the trunk of the tree between us and him as if it
+were the leader in Fox and Geese. When he came past like a bolt we ran
+the other side, but once or twice he nearly spiked us, and if he had
+knocked one of us down, or we had stumbled, it would have been all up
+with us. It was exhausting too. I was fearfully out of breath myself;
+being on a steamer a fellow can't keep in training, and as for Joyce,
+she was panting so that she couldn't speak.</p>
+
+<p>Then I noticed that across the road was a jungly thicket; it was not
+open ground, as it was on the side we had come from, and I thought if we
+could reach that we might perhaps lose the gentleman, or he would lose
+us.</p>
+
+<p>So I explained to Joyce in gasps that the next time he charged we must
+run behind his back and bolt across the road; she nodded and clutched my
+hand tighter than ever.</p>
+
+<p>So we did it and were half-way over the road&mdash;it was very wide&mdash;before
+he found it out.</p>
+
+<p>All the time, I must tell you, he had been making a funny little noise,
+a bit between a grunt and squeak, quite ridiculous for a huge black
+hairy beast like him; if I had had any breath to waste it would have
+made me laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Now we heard that funny little noise&mdash;Uweekuweekuweek&mdash;just like that,
+coming over the road; we hadn't time to look. Never did any road I ever
+crossed seem so long; it was like a bad dream. We slipped and stumbled
+and didn't seem to make any headway, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> every moment I expected to
+feel that great head in the flat of my back sending me sprawling ready
+to be spiked. At last we reached the line of bushes, and I gave Joyce a
+great pull with all my strength to pitch her to one side, for he was
+close on us then, and she went headlong and fell full length into the
+bushes, and I dropped on the top of her just as his majesty thundered
+past.</p>
+
+<p>We lay there quiet as mice, though it was awfully uncomfortable; I was
+squashing Joyce to bits, and great thorns seemed running into me all
+over. Then a dreadful thought occurred to me&mdash;there were probably snakes
+there! Which was worst, snakes or the buffalo? And I asked cautiously&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been stung, Joyce?" and she answered so gravely, "Not yet,"
+that I exploded, and, would you believe it, that old animal that had
+been rootling about in the bushes to find us, heard it and came at us
+again. We scrambled up and ran, tripping and tearing and crashing on
+into that wood, and I think he found some difficulty in following us,
+for after a while we couldn't hear him any more.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped and listened with all our ears, but it seemed as if we were
+safe, for he wasn't a crafty animal and didn't know enough to come along
+quietly and surprise us. It was very dark there in that jungle, and for
+the first time I thought of you and how anxious you and Joyce's mother
+would be. So I said, "Come along home now," and pulled hold of Joyce.
+But she resisted and said, "It's not that way, silly; it's just the
+opposite."</p>
+
+<p>I was positive and so was she.</p>
+
+<p>I tried to think of all the things one tells by: the stars, but there
+weren't any, and I couldn't have done much with them if there had been;
+the moss on the north side of the trees, but there didn't seem to be
+any. I guess it's different in Burma. However, there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> was just a
+yellowish glow still, and I knew that must be in the west, and as the
+river runs north and south, and we were on the left bank, I guessed the
+way I wanted to go was about right. When I had proved it to Joyce she
+gave in and said she had said it all the time, just as women always do!</p>
+
+<p>So we walked and walked, but we never came to that old road again. Once
+I thought I'd found it, but it was only some open, flat, thorny ground.
+It was very dark then, the dark comes on so fast here. Suddenly we both
+began to run as hard as we could, hand in hand; I don't know why,
+something set us off and I felt just as if I must, and I suppose Joyce
+did too, and then&mdash;crash!&mdash;before we knew where we were&mdash;smash!&mdash;we were
+flying, slipping, tobogganing down through some bushes, with our feet
+shooting out under us, and at last we reached the bottom. It was a steep
+gully, a kind of nullah. When we did get down we arrived separately, for
+we had had to let go to save ourselves. I was awfully sore, I know, and
+I wondered what had happened to her, being a girl and so much softer.
+But she didn't seem to mind much, for when I sang out, she answered
+quite cheerfully, "I'm sitting in the middle of a bramble bush like a
+bumble-bee. Do they sit in bushes, though? I think I'm getting a little
+mixed!"</p>
+
+<p>A girl like that is a jolly good pal, I can tell you!</p>
+
+<p>It was a snaky place and that is what I was afraid of. We trod carefully
+along the bottom and made noises to scare them off. Then I had a happy
+thought; I had a box of matches with me, and I kept on striking them
+till we found a handful of dry twigs which burnt up finely. It was so
+still there that they blazed straight and steady, and I used them as a
+torch and flourished them about low down as we walked.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know if we really did see any snakes. Joyce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> is quite positive
+she counted fourteen, sliding away in front of the light at different
+times; but then she sees things much quicker than I do.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 451px;">
+<img src="images/illus321.jpg" width="451" height="352" alt="WE HAD TO PLUNGE THROUGH MARSHY GROUND." title="" />
+<span class="caption">WE HAD TO PLUNGE THROUGH MARSHY GROUND.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It took us a long time to get out of that nullah, and we tried all sorts
+of different ways, but the sides were too steep. Often we had to stop to
+get more twigs, and once, just as I had got a handful, Joyce said, "Why,
+there are little plums growing on them." We ate quite a lot, and they
+were refreshing and bitter, but it didn't mean much, for they were all
+skin and stone.</p>
+
+<p>The nullah sloped up at the end, and after a good deal of hard work I
+hauled her up. It was jolly cold, I can tell you, and when we saw a
+light moving about ahead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> we made a bee-line for it. Joyce thought it
+was a will-o'-the-wisp; she had never seen one, but she had read of
+them, and she said they moved up and down just like that. We had to
+plunge through a lot of very marshy ground before we got to it, and
+sometimes we lost sight of it altogether; but it came again, and then it
+went out for good. We arrived at a high thorny hedge and I shouted, and
+then there was such a noise you would have thought the world was coming
+to an end,&mdash;dogs barking, cocks crowing, people chattering, and at last
+a man with a lantern crept out from the hedge&mdash;it must have been his
+light we had seen&mdash;and he was followed by heaps of others, all Burmans,
+and they waved the light about; and when they saw who we were, and that
+we were alone, they were very kind and took us in through an opening in
+the hedge, and kicked the dogs away. We couldn't see much inside, for
+the moon wasn't up then, but they led us to a house, and made us go up a
+ladder on to a verandah and into a nice wooden room, where there was a
+civilised oil lamp on a bracket, and several women and children sitting
+and lying about on mats on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce looked at me and I at her and we both knew what sights we were,
+all scratched and torn and muddy. Her dress had been white when we
+started, but you could hardly tell that now. I don't know how she felt,
+but I was glad to drop down on to a mat they gave us. We tried to
+explain who we were, but no one understood any English. Then they
+brought us some water from a great jar in the corner; they handed it to
+us in half a coco-nut, but it smelt so that we couldn't touch it, though
+we were awfully thirsty. So one of the men who had followed us in took
+up a round green thing with a smooth shell outside (I never knew
+coco-nuts looked like that before), and with his great knife made four
+cuts across the top in a neat square, and took out the piece as if it
+were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> a lid, and offered us the nut, making signs we were to drink it.
+Joyce tried first and nodded with pleasure. "It's good," she said, and
+it was! A sort of sickly sweet stuff came out like sugary water, and
+when you drank a lot of it it made you feel very full inside suddenly.
+When I read about coco-nut milk in <i>Swiss Family Robinson</i> I always
+thought it was really like milk.</p>
+
+<p>Then they opened a great tubful of cooked rice and put some on two
+plates and gave it to us, and they put beside us two little bowls filled
+with smashed-up sardines, at least I thought it was that, but oh&mdash;&mdash;You
+would have known it was there a mile off! I would have stood it, because
+I didn't want to hurt their feelings, as they meant to be polite, but
+Joyce stuffed her skirt into her mouth and held her nose, and they all
+laughed and took it away quite easily. There were no forks or spoons,
+but we were very hungry, so we just fell to with our fingers on the rice
+and it wasn't at all bad, I can tell you. When we had done they gave us
+some very good bananas&mdash;I could have done with more of them&mdash;and then
+they tried us with a lump of stuff that was simply a bit of wood; it
+came from the Jack-fruit tree. I saw one growing right out of the trunk
+on a little stalk by itself next day, but how anyone ever eats it I
+can't imagine.</p>
+
+<p>When we had finished they poured water over our fingers to clean them, a
+very unsatisfactory sort of wash it was, and the water ran away between
+the boards, quite convenient that!</p>
+
+<p>When we were satisfied we began to take more notice of what the house
+was like. The walls were made of very coarse mats, and there were no
+tables or chairs. There were a number of people; the father of the
+house, who had brought us in, had a kind shrewd face, so that you
+couldn't help liking him, and the mother was a very thin, plain, little
+old woman, with twinkling eyes. Joyce thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> first she was the cook,
+for she had no jewellery on at all and no fine clothes, while the two
+girls, the daughters, were quite smart. They were all ready to laugh and
+smile, but the two girls were the most friendly; they sat down by Joyce
+and fingered her skirt and examined her very dilapidated shoes. "I wish
+they wouldn't, Jim," she said, trying to pull them up under her very
+short skirt, which was no use at all. At last she took them off because
+they were so wet, and one of the girls put her little brown toes into
+them, and then they all shrieked with laughter again. You couldn't help
+laughing too, they were so jolly nice.</p>
+
+<p>I put my finger on Joyce and said "Joyce," then on me and said "Jim,"
+and then pointed at the two girls; they understood at once and said Mah
+Kway Yoh (Miss Dog's Bone) and Mee Meht (Miss Affection). Then they
+pointed to a young man at the back and said Moung Poh Sin (Mr.
+Grandfather Elephant).</p>
+
+<p>I tried to make them understand we wanted to get back to the ship, but
+nothing would do it. "Draw it," suggested Joyce. She had a wee gold
+pencil on her gold bangle, but we had no paper and there was none
+there&mdash;there wasn't anything, in fact, except a box. "On your cuff,"
+Joyce suggested, but I hadn't any cuffs, only a soft shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"On the floor," she said then.</p>
+
+<p>I tried, but of course the lead broke. They all gathered round, much
+interested, pushing their shiny black heads close together. It's funny
+that they all have just the same sort of hair, isn't it? They followed
+everything I did with the deepest interest, and then went into fits of
+laughter, and so did we.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a boy came in, not much older than me. He had on very few
+clothes, and his legs looked as if they were stained dark blue. When he
+came near to me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> and saw me looking at them with very much interest he
+showed them to us. They were tattooed all over like a pair of breeches,
+and the pictures on them were very well done; there were tigers and a
+kind of dragon, like those we saw at the pagoda steps, and many other
+animals, and each one was in a kind of scrollwork which made a little
+frame. He spoke a few words of English and pointed at the two men and
+said, "Them too," then, "All Burmans." It is odd they should go through
+all that pain; what's the use of it?</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 231px;">
+<img src="images/illus325.jpg" width="231" height="400" alt="THEY WERE TATTOOED ALL OVER LIKE A PAIR OF BREECHES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THEY WERE TATTOOED ALL OVER LIKE A PAIR OF BREECHES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I tried to explain to him about the ship. I called it "ship," "steamer,"
+"vessel," "craft," and everything else I could think of, but he shook
+his head. At last Joyce suggested "big boat," and then he understood,
+and got quite excited and told the others. Partly by gestures he made us
+understand that we were a very long way off, and that no one could take
+us back that night, but that we could go early in the morning. I wanted
+to know why not now, but he waved his arms and said, "Nats, beloos," and
+looked quickly over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Nats are spirits," said Joyce. "I know all about it. The Burmese are
+frightened of them, and put little bits of rag at the top of the posts
+in the houses for them to live in, so that they won't come inside.
+Mother read that to me out of a book."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We looked for the little rags, but couldn't see them, though I expect
+they were there. Joyce knows a lot for a girl.</p>
+
+<p>Well, we couldn't go home by ourselves, so presently we lay down on our
+mats and went fast asleep, and I suppose everyone else did too. Anyway,
+it was morning when I woke. Perfectly glorious it was! I shall never
+forget that morning. Joyce was out on the verandah already, and I went
+and stood beside her. The moon was there still, but every moment growing
+paler and paler. The air was full of that burnt-wood smell which is
+clean and rather nice. The sun seemed simply to rush up, and in five
+minutes from a world of black shadows and no colours it turned to a
+world of green and blue and yellow. The houses were all like ours, built
+on legs with thatched roofs, and there were great shady mango trees and
+plantains growing beside them. The dogs were everywhere, and the people
+were squatting in the sun to warm their backs. We ate more rice and
+drank more coco-nut milk, and then we shook hands all round and thanked
+the people, and went away with the boy to guide us. His name was Moung
+Ohn (Mr. Coco-Nut) he told us. We made him write down his own and his
+sisters' names on a piece of paper in Burmese on the ship afterwards, so
+that we could always keep them.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite a long way, as he had said, but it was so beautiful we
+wanted to dance and jump all the time. Moung Ohn scolded off the beastly
+pariah dogs and led us out of the hole in the great stockade and through
+a grove of palms. He pointed to two different sorts, one was the usual
+kind, feathery, and coco-nuts grew on that. He pointed to himself and
+grinned, but we didn't understand till afterwards that his name was
+"Coco-Nut." The other sort of palm had leaves like the great fans people
+sometimes have in drawing-rooms, at least Joyce said they were. A man
+was walking down the long,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> straight stem of one, and I could see, as
+Moung Ohn had said, that his legs were tattooed too. He just walked
+down. He had a band round his waist and round the tree, so he leaned
+against it and pressed the soles of his feet against the tree. I longed
+to try, but Joyce was wanting to get back to her mother. When the man
+came down he had a little iron pot filled with juice, and he offered it
+to me to drink, but when I looked in and saw dead flies and insects by
+the dozen I declined politely. He had hung up other little pots on the
+tree near the stalks of the great leaves in which he had cut gashes, so
+the juice dripped out into them. I found out this makes a strong drink
+called toddy.</p>
+
+<p>We passed over rice fields, where many of the people were at work
+already, and then, after going a good distance, we got on to the road,
+but it was not the same part where we were the day before. I'm beginning
+now not to be quite so sure that my direction was right after all, but
+don't say so before Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>Just then we heard a most awful noise like a hundred demons groaning and
+shrieking together.</p>
+
+<p>"Nats!" exclaimed Joyce, standing stockstill. Moung Ohn laughed and
+shook his head. Then there came into sight a slow lumbering bullock-cart
+with the wheels screaming enough to give you toothache. Why on earth
+don't they grease them?</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps they prefer them like that," said Joyce, and I expect she is
+right.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't long before we reached the steamer, and then what a scene!
+When I saw how Joyce was smothered I was glad men don't kiss. You just
+shook hands with me and told me I was an object to scare crows with!</p>
+
+<p>When we offered Moung Ohn some money for his trouble he refused to take
+it, and went away saying good-bye so gracefully, bowing and touching his
+forehead with his hand.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus328.jpg" width="450" height="329" alt="SAMPANS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SAMPANS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>In every long journey there comes a time when one feels a little dreary.
+So many new things have been seen that the mind and eye are tired. Then
+maybe there is just a touch of home-sickness mingled with it, and when
+one gets to a part less beautiful than what has gone before all at once
+there is a longing to turn and fly back to all that we are accustomed
+to. It seems to me that you and I are suffering from that now. We have
+left Burma behind, and for two days have ploughed down the Gulf of
+Martaban toward Penang in the Straits Settlements. We did not want to
+make friends with anyone on board, and were just a trifle grumpy even
+toward each other. We felt the parting from Joyce and her mother, who
+had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> made Burma so enjoyable, and we weren't ready to begin making new
+friends all at once.</p>
+
+<p>Burma forms the western part of a great peninsula, and stretching out
+southward from it is a long arm, the shape of an Indian club, narrower
+in the neck and broadening out, to run up finally to a point. Alongside
+of the broadest part is the great island of Sumatra, belonging to the
+Dutch, who are our principal rivals in this region of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"The captain's compliments, and we're going to set off some rockets to
+scare the sea-birds," says one of the officers, suddenly appearing
+beside us. "We're passing close by that little island there&mdash;Pulo Pera."</p>
+
+<p>Now there is something to see we wake up at once. Sure enough there it
+is ahead, a little island rising like a cliff out of the water. It is
+evidently deep close in, for we go quite near to it. Just as we are
+abreast off goes rocket after rocket, and in a moment the scene is
+transformed as if by magic. A dense mass of shrieking, screaming birds
+springs to life. The moment before the sun was shining in a clear sky,
+now in an instant it is obscured as by a thick cloud. You never saw
+anything like it! The birds on the Bass Rock are fairly thick, but
+here&mdash;day is turned to night and the commotion and uproar are wildly
+exciting, like the clash of legions in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Long after we are past we can see them thinning down gradually as some
+keep dropping back on to their island home, while the more restless,
+nervous spirits still circle and swoop in loops and curves.</p>
+
+<p>A marvellous sight!</p>
+
+<p>Penang itself is an island, and as we swing round to the capital town,
+Georgetown, on the inner or land side, we see an astonishing mass of
+green, with a great hill clothed almost to the summit rising behind the
+town. We can go up there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> to-morrow if you like, as we have a day to
+spend here owing to a change of steamers.</p>
+
+<p>As we come to anchor in the bay a perfect swarm of small boats, called
+sampans, dance round the ship, and the owners offer their wares with
+astonishing noise. Looking down you can see the yellow faces of the men
+who have narrow eyes and pigtails coiled round their heads under
+enormous hats. It looks as if we had tumbled into China by mistake, for
+these are nearly all Chinamen, and yet the inhabitants of this country
+are Malays. The Malay, however, is like the Burman in that he does not
+care to exert himself if he can help it, so he lets the Chink, as the
+Chinamen are familiarly called, do all the business. The rich earth
+yields a hundredfold, and the Malay has only to scratch a very little of
+it very gently, and plant or sow a small quantity of something, and he
+is provided for for a year! The Chinaman is an industrious soul and an
+uncommonly good market-gardener, so he grows vegetables for sale and
+makes a good thing out of it; half these boats are full of vegetables
+grown by the very men who are selling them.</p>
+
+<p>Soon we are in a sampan, being rapidly rowed shore-wards. The man works
+the boat standing up and faces the way he is going; he does it very
+easily, with the ends of his long oars crossed over and worked almost
+entirely by wrist play. We are right under a high, old-fashioned-looking
+trading ship now; do you see that great eye painted on the bows? There
+is another on the other side. That shows it is a Chinese ship; the men
+have a superstition that the ship cannot see without these eyes. They
+say, "No got eye, no can see; no can see, no can savee."</p>
+
+<p>Great rocks stick out from the foliage on the hillside, and nearer is
+the town, with its pretty thatched houses and palatial mansions and
+avenues of greenery. It is all slightly different from the countries we
+have seen already,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> and yet it is difficult to say quite where the
+difference lies. Here is our old friend the rickshaw man, only he is a
+Chinaman, of course, and some of these rickshaws are two-seated, so we
+can both get into one; the man who pulls starts off gently as if it were
+no trouble. He wears nothing above the waist, and we can see the
+well-developed muscles moving under his sun-browned skin. On the road we
+meet many Chinese women dressed in trousers; you must have seen some in
+Hyde Park, I think, for people often bring them over to England as
+nurses for their children, they are so clean and reliable. They all wear
+trousers like that, just plain, straight down, shapeless trousers, with
+a tunic falling over them; it is a neat and effective dress.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 233px;">
+<img src="images/illus331.jpg" width="233" height="400" alt="CHINESE LADY IN TROUSERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">CHINESE LADY IN TROUSERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Whew! It's hot! I don't feel inclined to move a limb; this steamy heat
+is so much more trying than the heat we had in the dry zone of Burma,
+where you and Joyce got lost; there the nights were always cool, almost
+sharp sometimes. That building you are pointing at, with the dragons
+over the doorway, is a Chinese temple, and I don't suppose they would
+mind our going in at all. It looks nice and cool, anyway. We stop the
+rickshaw man and pass through several courtyards enclosed by high walls.
+In one is an open upper storey like a first-floor room with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> a wall
+knocked out; this is a stage. You may well ask how anyone in the
+courtyard can see the play&mdash;they can't! Only the favoured few who sit in
+the galleries get a good view!</p>
+
+<p>In all the courts a few Chinamen lounge about on the steps; they are
+probably half-stupid with opium, for they are not naturally lazy.
+Passing on to the inner shrine we see a much-decorated screen, behind
+which an image is hidden, but we are not allowed to pull it aside. The
+room in which it stands is crowded with hideous figures, squat devils,
+grinning dragons, and other disagreeable forms. Before them are empty
+tin biscuit-boxes full of sand, in which are stuck messy little tapers.
+There is a funny smell of incense mixed with tallow in the air. It is a
+creepy, uncomfortable place, and the Chinese religion is not one that
+would attract a stranger; I expect you would have to be brought up in it
+to understand it!</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately next day our expedition to the mountain is spoilt by
+torrents of rain which stream down unceasingly, and time hangs heavy on
+our hands.</p>
+
+<p>"It always rains here, all the year round, more or less," says a
+friendly Englishman in the hotel. "If you like I'll take you to see a
+well-to-do Chinaman who is a friend of mine. The Chinamen are all rich
+here, lots of them keep motors." We gladly accept and go off under
+borrowed umbrellas to the outskirts of the town. The house stands by
+itself in a clump of trees and is very imposing with its great white
+marble pillars; as we get near we see huge gold letters in weird
+characters all across the front. Then before we have time to notice any
+more we are in the hall looking at a great bowl of gold-fish, and in
+another minute our host is bowing before us. He is wearing a very
+magnificent embroidered coat of red silk with great wing-like sleeves;
+the embroidery is a marvel, dragons in blue and gold, and fishes of
+rainbow hues disport themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> all over it. Under it is a short black
+satin petticoat, rather like a kilt, and black boots with thick white
+felt soles. The gentleman is tall and well made, a fine figure of a man,
+and on his head is a little round black cap, from which escapes his
+pigtail. He stands bowing before us and shaking hands with himself,
+which, as a method of greeting, is perhaps better than our own way. He
+takes us into a dark gloomy room full of cabinets of black lacquer
+richly decorated with gold and mother-of-pearl. There are sombre carved
+wood chairs set back against the wall. It is all very costly, but to us
+it seems uncomfortable and funereal. The chief things that attract us
+are rows of little red pieces of paper of odd lengths hanging over
+strings from the ceiling, as if they were drying after a washing-day.
+The Englishman explains that the Chinaman is very proud of these, for
+they are all New Year's greetings from his friends, and the number of
+them shows what a popular man he must be. As the Chinese New Year's Day
+is on April the first, and that was only a week ago, these are all new;
+but if we had arrived at any time of the year we should have seen them
+just the same, for they are left hanging all the year round till the
+next lot arrives.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 223px;">
+<img src="images/illus333.jpg" width="223" height="400" alt="A CHINESE GENTLEMAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A CHINESE GENTLEMAN.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus334.jpg" width="450" height="511" alt="INTERIOR OF CHINESE HOUSE AT SINGAPORE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">INTERIOR OF CHINESE HOUSE AT SINGAPORE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the whole we are not sorry to leave Penang; we have felt limp all the
+time, worse even than we did in the Red Sea. The steamer we board this
+time is the <i>Khyber</i> of the P. &amp; O. Company. She belongs to the
+Intermediate Line, which comes right out to Japan from England, taking
+about six weeks on the way. For anyone who wants change and rest and no
+worry that's a fine voyage, as the boats stop at many places. We shall
+go on with her to Japan. As we are starting on the steamer we hear
+various cracks and snaps from the boats near, where crackers are being
+exploded. The captain happens to pass on the way to the bridge and
+smiles as he hears them. "They're not firing salvos in our honour," he
+says; "they think the ship is full of devils, and in case a few have
+escaped and might land in their blameless boats, they're frightening
+them back again before it is too late."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> It makes a great difference to
+have a captain who takes an interest in his passengers and bothers to
+tell them incidents as they happen, though to him they may be dull as
+ditch water, as he has been through them all dozens of times already.
+The next time we meet the captain it is growing dusk, and he points
+ahead to what looks like a black rock looming up sheer from the sea.
+"Curious thing that," he says meditatively; "it's an island, Pulo
+Jarrak,&mdash;islands are all Pulo here,&mdash;and owing to the quantity of rain
+which falls here the vegetation grows so thickly it makes the island
+stand right out; even on a dark night you can see it ten to twenty miles
+off. It looks quite black."</p>
+
+<p>We have only one stop on the way to Singapore, exactly midway between it
+and Penang, at Port Swettenham.</p>
+
+<p>As we pass southward the Straits narrow and we can see the hills of
+Sumatra on one side, and sometimes funny little villages built on piles
+out over the water on the other. Pretty good sport to be able to drop a
+fishing-line out of one's front door, isn't it?</p>
+
+<p>When the land gets very close on both sides we swing round suddenly, and
+behold! we are at Singapore, which, like Penang, is an island, and
+stands at the extreme south point of the long peninsula. It guards this
+useful passage where all the traffic between China and Japan on the one
+side comes to India on the other, just as Aden guards the Red Sea and
+Gibraltar the Mediterranean. Great Britain manages somehow to pick up
+all the lucky bits, and it is not by design either, it just happens that
+way. I can tell how this one happened; it was because there chanced to
+be a Man out here&mdash;a Man with a capital letter!</p>
+
+<p>We go ashore and get into rickshaws and start for the town, which is a
+long three miles off. We shan't have time to do more than look round.
+The road runs by the docks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> at Singapore, which are enormous and extend
+all along the coast up to the town. On the way we pass men of all
+nations. There are natives of India, companies of Sikhs, Madrassees like
+Ramaswamy,&mdash;who is well on his way back to his master now,&mdash;Cingalese,
+Tamils with frizzy heads, little Japanese ladies in rickshaws, plenty of
+Chinese, and many Malays. The Malays are yellow rather than brown; they
+have just that slight narrowing of the eyes which tells they are akin to
+the Chinese, and they are, as a rule, well-made neat men, wearing loose
+blue skirts, with orange or red sashes, and large hats; some of them
+have short white jackets which are the universal top garments out here,
+when there are any at all.</p>
+
+<p>The town itself is astonishingly well built; electric trams run
+everywhere, and there are splendid public buildings. As we trot along in
+our rickshaws we enter a large square. Do you see the name up there?
+Raffles Square. Sir Stamford Raffles was the man who made Singapore. In
+his time, the first part of the nineteenth century, Great Britain was
+very anxious to give away everything she had in the East to the first
+person who asked for it, as she did not want to fight about it, and
+could not see what use it could be, for the idea of Imperialism and
+Empire had not been developed. The Dutch asked largely and always got
+what they asked for, whether they had a right to it or not; this enraged
+Raffles, who happened to be out here, and so he looked around and
+noticed that the island of Singapore was placed in a wonderful position
+for trade, that it commanded the Straits, and that no one as yet had
+made any claim on it. He settled down here and put up the British flag.
+It was years before his country finally decided to acknowledge him and
+not give his territory up to the Dutch, who immediately asked for it;
+but in the end they did, and now here stands Singapore, a mighty city
+with miles of docks, a colossal trade, and a teeming population. There
+is a statue to Sir Stamford Raffles, as it is right there should be. The
+Botanical Gardens are worth seeing, and we can get tiffin in one of the
+palatial hotels, and then we must go back to the ship.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;">
+<img src="images/illus337.jpg" width="426" height="600" alt="A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA.
+
+LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY ABOUT AND FISH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA.
+
+LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY ABOUT AND FISH.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The scene in the bay as we depart is most lovely; ships of every nation
+are at anchor there, and as we pass out slowly we see island after
+island all covered with that rich green growth which is the result of
+the constant rain and warmth. Blue and green and gold is the world, and
+the little brown boys play about their water-built villages, tumbling in
+and out of the water, and living in the warm sea as much as on land day
+by day. Shoals of them come round us in their catamarans and dive for
+money, catching the silver bit as it twinkles down through the water,
+even though they make their spring from many yards off. As we get
+farther out we feel the difference in temperature at once, for now we
+are heading north, and the night is cold and rough&mdash;it is like passing
+into another climate.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 277px;">
+<img src="images/illus339.jpg" width="277" height="400" alt="PIGTAILS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PIGTAILS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>These are wonderful seas, and dearly should I like some day to bring you
+on a cruise in and about this group of great islands to the south, which
+is like nothing else in the world! There is Borneo, that gigantic
+island, twice as large as the British Isles, which belongs partly to the
+British and partly to the Dutch. The story of Sir Stamford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> Raffles is
+outdone by the story of the Rajah of Sarawak, which shows that even in
+our own times the blood of Drake and Cook runs in the veins of
+Englishmen.</p>
+
+<p>Hong-Kong is another island and also belongs to the British; it was
+given to them by treaty in 1841. As we sail in under the lee of the
+island by the narrow entrance to the bay between it and the mainland, we
+see what a splendid natural harbour this is. High above on the island
+rises what is called the Peak, and up and up and up it, in rows and
+terraces, are the houses of the people who live here. We can go up the
+Peak by a tram-line if we have time. The city is called Victoria, and is
+actually built on the rock or, rather, on terraces cut out of the face
+of it, one above the other. It is strange to find this little British
+colony isolated here on a bit of China, separated from the real China by
+half a mile of sea. As the steamer comes to rest on the mainland side at
+Kowloon Wharf we must take a ferry over to the city.</p>
+
+<p>Once we are there we find a well-built town with wide roads, tree lined
+and very clean; there are many quite English-looking buildings of stone,
+and in the shops a strange mixture of wares, European and Eastern. Some
+of the shops are piled with the rich Eastern silk embroideries, ivory
+and lacquer work, carvings and fans, silver and metal work, paintings
+and furniture.</p>
+
+<p>We have time to run up to the top by the tramway, and higher and higher
+as we go, houses still, houses all the way, and even at the very top
+there are some houses where the governor and other important people live
+in summer. It has been gloomy and cloudy all day, threatening rain, but
+just as we reach the summit the sun comes out in yellow glory, dropping
+to the West, and all the innumerable inlets and bays are turned to gold.
+The land between stands up in capes and cliffs and headlands, rather dim
+and misty, with the golden water flashing between.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We are off once more and up the coast to Shanghai, the last Chinese port
+we touch before going over to Japan.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we come up on deck to find a wet, clammy fog&mdash;we might be
+back in England again&mdash;how astonishing!</p>
+
+<p>Now and again appearing out of the folds of swathing mist we see little
+islands and gaily painted fishing-boats, the owners of which seem bent
+on committing suicide. The boats sometimes are junks, with the square
+brown sails that we have by this time seen so often, or they are tiny
+little boats; whichever it is, they seem as if they deliberately tried
+to get under our bows, as you have seen village children run across in
+front of motor-cars. Again and again we feel the steamer sheer off a
+little to clear them, and sometimes she just succeeds in doing so. I
+expect the captain's temper is being pretty severely tried up there on
+the bridge. He stays there while the fog lasts, but when it clears a
+little in the evening he comes down for a hasty dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Then we get at him and make fresh demands on his patience by questions.
+He seems to have a stock left, for he laughs good-humouredly when I
+speak of the native boats. "They <i>do</i> do it on purpose," he says; "they
+think it's good joss, as they say,&mdash;good luck that is, just to cross our
+bows. It means a never-ending look-out all along this coast, and nothing
+cures them. All the same they're some use when one gets fogged here, for
+you can generally tell where you are, to some extent, by the
+fishing-boats; they run in different colours and patterns at places
+along the coast, each part has its own special fashions in paint and
+rig."</p>
+
+<p>He has hardly time to swallow his dinner before he is back on the
+bridge. It's a ticklish bit of navigation here.</p>
+
+<p>We still thread our way close inshore through innumerable islands. One
+of them stands up stiff and straight,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> pointing like an obelisk to the
+sky. It is called the Finger Rock. We notice, too, very frequently, the
+white lighthouses, kept very clean. Then we go through a pass, two miles
+wide, called "Steep Island Pass," and are into the mouth of the
+Yangtsekiang River. Up this we go for a hundred miles before reaching
+Woosung, the Gravesend of Shanghai, which is still twelve or thirteen
+miles farther on. Then a turn and we are in sight of Shanghai with its
+factories and chimneys and great sheds called "godowns" with galvanised
+iron roofs. It is a disappointing place, but as we go farther on we see
+a public promenade and some clean, well-built stone houses. The
+Europeanised part of the city is, however, uninteresting, and we don't
+care to go into the native part by ourselves, so our chief amusement is
+watching the Chinese coolies loading and unloading the ship. Notice,
+they never push things on trollies, as our men do; they always carry
+everything slung on a bamboo. Even that great lump of iron, which must
+be part of some machinery, there it is, surrounded by a shouting horde
+of men, all slinging it up by their own little ropes, all giving a hand
+to carry the great mass along.</p>
+
+<p>We have gathered very little of China in our short time at the ports,
+but we shall be able to get a better idea of Japan. Our first idea of it
+is when we stop at the island of Rokwren two days later and take on the
+pilot who is going to run us through the far-famed Inland Sea. At the
+same time two or three smart little Japanese doctors in European dress
+come on board to inquire into the health of passengers and crew, and
+give us a permit, for the Japs are most particular about not letting any
+foreign germs be landed on their shores, and at every port doctors come
+on board to make quite sure everyone is free from illness.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing we know about Japan is her coal, for 1500 tons of it are
+brought on board, in little baskets,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> handed from one to another of long
+rows of men, women, and children, all working equally hard.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus343.jpg" width="450" height="459" alt="CHINESE PORTER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">CHINESE PORTER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The narrow strait that leads into the Inland Sea is only a quarter of a
+mile wide, and after passing through it we steam along quietly amid the
+most beautiful scenery we have passed since leaving England. Everywhere
+are little islands, well cultivated, woody, and rocky. Rocks and hills
+and capes break up the vistas, and every time we turn a corner we see
+something better than before. The ship stops at Kob&eacute;, but, unluckily,
+you have got a touch of the sun and the doctor strictly forbids you to
+go on shore. Never mind, we'll soon be at Yokohama, which is far better.</p>
+
+<p>By that time you are quite yourself again, and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> the captain calls
+us up on deck you are eager to go. He points to a solid triangle of
+rock, sticking up out of the sea not very far distant, and as we look at
+it a flash of red flame spurts out into the air and something red-hot
+rolls swiftly down the scored sides. What does it remind you of? It is
+another Stromboli, of course!</p>
+
+<p>"That," says the captain solemnly, "is the safety-valve of Japan. If it
+were blocked up there's no knowing what might happen." Then he swings
+round and points in another direction. Clear against the soft blue of
+the sky we see a sharp-pointed white cloud of a very curious shape, like
+an opened fan upside down. It seems quite detached from everything else,
+merely a curious snowy fan hanging in mid-air. "Why, it's Fujiyama, of
+course."</p>
+
+<p>So it is! The famous Japanese mountain seen in thousands of the
+country's drawings and paintings; in fact, it has come to be a sort of
+national signboard. Now that we know where to look we see that the white
+fan part is merely the snow-cap running in large streaks downward, and
+that this rests upon a base as blue as the sky. Henceforward we shall
+see Fujiyama at many hours of the day&mdash;never a wide-spreading view but
+Fujiyama will be there, never a long road but Fujiyama at the end of it,
+never a flat plain without it. So odd is the great mountain, and so much
+character has it, that we feel inclined to nod good-night or
+good-morning to it when it greets us.</p>
+
+<p>Then we enter the magnificent harbour of Yokohama with its hundreds of
+sampans, junks, tugs, ships, steamers, and every other craft. The
+smaller craft surround us clamorously, and looking down upon them we see
+that in almost every case there is a cat on board the junks, many of
+them tabby or tortoise-shell.</p>
+
+<p>"'Cat good joss,' as the Chinamen would say," remarks a man standing
+near us, "specially three-coloured cats.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> They wouldn't give a fig for
+our lucky black ones without a white hair."</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of coolies are now clamouring for jobs all round. They are
+almost all dressed in blue, and those that wear upper garments have huge
+hieroglyphics of gay colours on their backs&mdash;these are the signs of
+their trades, or trades unions, as we might say, and each man wears his
+with pride.</p>
+
+<p>So, with a fleet of attendant boats, gaily-dressed coolies, and
+complacent cats surrounding us, we come to our anchorage, say good-bye
+to the captain with great regret, and make our plunge into this new
+land.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus346.jpg" width="450" height="323" alt="GATEWAY, JAPAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">GATEWAY, JAPAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>We are standing in front of a mysterious gate which is yet not a gate.
+You must have seen pictures of Japan many a time, and in some of them
+there must have been one of these curious erections. Yet how can one
+describe it? The Greek letter &#928; is most like it. Imagine a
+giant &#928; with a second cross-bar below the top one. In Japan
+this is called a Torii. The one in front of us, rising like a great
+scaffolding far above our heads, is made of wood, but they are often of
+stone or metal too. They are always to be found before the entrance to a
+Shinto temple. There must have been some meaning in them once upon a
+time, but it is lost now, and they remain decorative but useless.</p>
+
+<p>We have left our rickshaw and are climbing up a long, long flight of
+steps to a Shinto temple not far from Tokyo,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> the capital town of Japan.
+Very many of the Japs are Buddhists, but it is a strange sort of
+Buddhism, not pure like that of the Burmans, and is mixed up with
+another religion called Shinto, and many of the people are Shintoists
+altogether. This religion is vague and mystical, with much worship of
+spirits, especially the spirits of the elements&mdash;earth, air, fire, and
+water. Everyone who is dead becomes in some degree an object of worship,
+and the Jap thinks more of his parents and ancestors than his
+children&mdash;his dead ancestors especially being much venerated.</p>
+
+<p>When we reach the top of the steps we find ourselves suddenly in a blaze
+of loveliness. To the right, to the left, and all around are cherry
+trees, covered thickly with blossom which hangs in wreaths and rosettes
+and festoons as if moulded in snow. The time for the best of the blossom
+is a little past, and the ground at our feet is as white as the trees,
+indeed whiter; for just here and there the fairy display on the trees is
+slightly browned. The scent is very sweet, and hangs in the air like
+delicate perfume. In the time of blossom there are many outings and
+festivities in Japan; people make up parties to go to the orchards, and
+thoroughly enjoy their beauty. Come right underneath the trees and look
+up, we can see the thick, heavily laden branches against the soft rich
+blue of a cloudless sky, and in our ears is the hum of a myriad bees. It
+is as if the freshness of early spring and the richness of full summer
+were mingled together.</p>
+
+<p>As we wander on over the scented ground we notice, a little way off, a
+rather pathetic-looking Japanese in the national costume, with a flat
+board or book in his hand. He is looking at us earnestly, and follows on
+at a respectful distance behind us.</p>
+
+<p>Next we come upon a quaint little garden on the lines of what we should
+call a landscape garden in England,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> but it is all on a tiny scale, as
+if made for dolls to walk in. There is a pond as big as a tea-tray,
+walks the breadth of one's foot, wee trees, gnarled with age and twisted
+and fully grown, but no higher than your knee. It is all so delicate and
+dainty and tiny that we are afraid to walk in it for fear we should
+spoil it; we feel thoroughly big and clumsy as Gulliver must have felt
+among the Lilliputians, and we expect every minute to see the rightful
+owners, wee men and women the size of a man's fingers, rushing out from
+the little summer-house with the curved roof at the end, and crying
+shrilly to us to go away!</p>
+
+<p>Treading carefully, a foot at a time, along the miniature paths, we pass
+through this and go on toward the temple which now appears amid a grove
+of deep dark pines. The steps are worn and hollowed, and on each side of
+them is an astonishing red figure of a man-monster in a very ferocious
+attitude, like that of the lions rampant seen on crests. These figures
+are a dark hot red and are dotted all over with white dabs; as we draw
+nearer to them we see that these dabs are doubled up bits of white paper
+sticking irregularly here and there without any arrangement. We cannot
+imagine what they are for, but as we stare we hear a foot crunch the
+gravel gently, and the little Jap with the board creeps up and salaams
+deeply, making at the same time a curious hissing noise as if he sucked
+in his breath. He must be very nervous.</p>
+
+<p>"If the honourable sirs will allow this humble servant to explain," he
+begins in fluent and perfect English.</p>
+
+<p>We are only too glad of his help, and not to be outdone in politeness we
+simultaneously raise our hats to him. He then tells us that all these
+paper pellets are prayers or wishes. People write down what they want on
+them and then moisten them in their mouths and spit them out against the
+images; if the paper sticks it shows the wish will be granted, if it
+falls to the ground then fate is against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> it. It is not a very beautiful
+custom, but perhaps not quite so bad as betel-nut chewing!</p>
+
+<p>Then the Jap coughs nervously, and with an overwhelming apology for
+daring to presume so far, explains that we ought to remove our
+"honourable shoes" before entering the temple. Of course we do it at
+once, though English shoes are not meant to take off and on at every
+turn, and while we struggle with our laces he knocks on the woodwork of
+the temple, and the sliding doors slip back along grooves, showing a
+very aged priest who smiles and beckons us in; so we pass on, feeling
+all the while conscious of the mystery of a country so utterly unlike
+our own. Inside, the floor is covered with thick mats, so we do not miss
+our shoes, though we step cautiously at first. It is very dim, but
+gradually our eyes grow accustomed to the want of light and we see
+lacquered screens, and little recesses, and bronze lamps, and curious
+images. Though it is spotlessly clean, very different from the Hindu
+temple, there is a strong smell of incense or burnt flowers or something
+rather odd. Our friendly Jap has gone down on his knees and is bowing
+his forehead to the ground, but we are not expected to do that
+evidently.</p>
+
+<p>Two weird figures in peaked caps, fastened under their chins by tapes,
+have drifted out silently from somewhere and follow us as the priest
+leads us round. There does not seem to be any one special shrine with a
+central figure for us to see; perhaps there is one, but it is not shown
+to foreigners. It is all vague and rather meaningless, and the carving
+and decoration are unsatisfying. After a while, as there does not seem
+to be anything more forthcoming, we drop a few coins into a bowl held
+out to us and prepare to go. Just as we reach the door another strange
+being in a peaked cap appears with tiny cups of clear amber-coloured tea
+on a tray, and holds them out to us. The little cups have no handles,
+and there is no milk in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> the tea, but on the tray are several rather
+nice-looking little cakes, only, unfortunately, they are all the colours
+of the rainbow&mdash;violet and green and scarlet. I utterly refuse to touch
+them, but the English-speaking Jap assures me they are "nice," so you,
+declaring that you are "jolly hungry," eat several and pronounce them
+"jolly good." We sip the tea, which tastes utterly different from that
+we have at home, and bowing all round again we put on our shoes and
+descend the steps. I'm sure if I lived here long I should be quite fit
+to take a position at court, my "honourable" manners would be so much
+improved. There is nothing brusque or rough or rude about these people,
+you couldn't imagine them scrambling or pushing to get in front of
+others even at a big show.</p>
+
+<p>A voice behind us says timidly, "Will the honourable sirs be pleased to
+employ this humble servant as interpreter?"</p>
+
+<p>We stop and look at him. It is not a bad idea. We have felt already this
+morning, even in coming straight from our very Western hotel here, how
+helpless we are in this land where the chair-men do not speak a word of
+English, and where even the street names are in Chinese characters. This
+little man is quite unassuming, he would certainly be no trouble and
+might be very useful. When we stop he deprecatingly opens his flat book
+and shows us drawings in freehand of scrolls and animals that he has
+made. He explains that he tries to get a living by offering such designs
+to the shops, but that he would like better to be interpreter to us, as
+he wishes to perfect his English. The terms he asks are absurdly
+moderate. Yes, we will have him.</p>
+
+<p>We engage him then and there, and he enters our service at once; there
+is no need for delay, for he is apparently not encumbered with anything
+beyond his drawing-book.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> He brightens up wonderfully when we say "yes."
+Poor little chap, I expect he is half starved. In most countries it
+would be rash indeed to engage a man at sight without any sort of
+written "character," but there is a simplicity and honesty about this
+one which gives us confidence in him. I am sure he would never cheat us
+deliberately, anyway, I am quite ready to risk it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus351.jpg" width="450" height="243" alt="RICKSHAW." title="" />
+<span class="caption">RICKSHAW.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We tell him that what we want is to see something of Tokyo to-day, and
+then to go off into the country and try to get a glimpse of the real
+Japanese life, un-Europeanised, in some small village where we could
+stay at a little country inn for a day or two. He enters into the scheme
+at once and says that he will have the plans all ready to suggest to us
+this evening. Meantime he takes command, and after seeing us into our
+waiting rickshaws, calls up another for himself, gives the three men
+directions, and off we go.</p>
+
+<p>As we run back to the town we notice the houses standing by themselves
+in the suburbs, quite good, large houses, some of them, surrounded by
+their own gardens, shut in by high walls so that only the sloping
+red-tiled roofs, curved up at the end, are visible. Some of these are
+two storeys high, but when we get into the town we see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> at first only
+rows and rows of one-storey houses. There are frequent earthquakes in
+Japan, and to build many-storeyed blocks would mean frightful disaster
+and loss of life. As it is, the people can rush quickly out of their
+little homes into the streets at the first signs of a shaking.</p>
+
+<p>What do you notice about the streets that strikes you most particularly?
+To me it is the colouring&mdash;blue. You remember that in Burma there was
+practically no blue; the people wore red and pink and magenta and
+orange, but they seemed one and all to avoid blue. I used to think it
+was because they knew that blue would not suit their sallow, yellowish
+complexions; but the Japanese are just as yellow, in fact more so, for
+the Burmese yellow is a kind of coffee colour, and theirs real saffron,
+and yet the Japs are very fond of blue. The coolies and work-men all
+dress in it, with those astonishing signs on their backs that we noticed
+first at Yokohama, and the shops have blue banners hanging out beside
+them. These are for their names&mdash;they are signboards, in fact. Instead
+of running across horizontally, as our writing does, the Japanese
+writing&mdash;which is the same as the Chinese, though the spoken language is
+different&mdash;runs vertically. A Jap does many things exactly the opposite
+way from what we do. He begins to read a book from what we should
+consider the end, backwards, and instead of going along, he goes up and
+down a line; and the long thin strips, with those mysterious cabalistic
+signs on them, are the shopkeepers' names and businesses. The shops are
+all open to the street, without glass, in this quarter; they are just
+what we should call stalls; most of them seem to be greengrocers' or
+fruiterers'. And in the first there are always prominently in front huge
+vegetables like gigantic radishes or elongated turnips; the people eat
+them largely, though to a European both the flavour and the smell are
+nasty. In the fish shops the funniest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> things to be seen are great black
+devil-fish, or octopuses, with their lumpy round bodies and black
+tentacles stretching out on all sides. They are loathsome to look at,
+but the Japs are not the only people who use them for food; in parts of
+Italy the peasants eat them as a staple dish whenever they can catch
+them.</p>
+
+<p>There are no pavements here, and the streets are very muddy after last
+night's heavy rain, but it doesn't seem to matter a bit to the numerous
+inhabitants. All those who can afford it go in rickshaws, which pass us
+every minute, and the others wear clogs which lift them high out of the
+dirt. These clogs are called <i>geta</i>, and they are the funniest footwear
+to be found anywhere. You would find it more difficult to get about on
+them than on roller-skates, but the Japs are so much used to them that
+they trip along morning, noon, and night in them without being the least
+tired. They are simply little stools of wood, one flat piece being
+supported by two smaller ones at the toe and heel, and they are held on
+by straps across the foot. Men, women, and children are thus raised
+inches out of the mud, and patter about, ting-tang, ting-tang, all day
+long. Some of the women have coarse white stockings made with a separate
+stall for the big toe, on the model of a baby's glove, so that the geta
+strap can go through.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 205px;">
+<img src="images/illus353.jpg" width="205" height="400" alt="GETA CLOGS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">GETA CLOGS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have now got into the middle of the town where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> the more populous
+streets are. You ought to notice how the colours of the clothes differ
+for the different ages of the people: the grandmothers and grandfathers
+wear dark purples and sombre hues; the middle-aged people have soft
+colouring, grey greens and palish shades; and the children are very gay,
+in every imaginable colour and often all mixed together. The girls have
+all a broad sash called an <i>obi</i>, humped up in a funny way behind their
+bodies; in the children this becomes a great bow like the wings of a
+butterfly. The people are small, and were it not for the clogs they
+would look smaller still; their country is not little, for Japan is
+larger than the United Kingdom, but the people are rarely tall, and they
+are slenderly built, with small bones, so that being among them makes an
+ordinary fair-sized Englishman feel clumsy and long-limbed. Now we are
+in the main street of all. Here comes a tram filled with Japanese, all
+smiling and chattering and looking happy; they take life with a smile.
+The houses here are larger than those we have passed, and some are just
+European buildings of stone, and the shop-windows are filled with glass,
+and show as fine a display as in the best London shops. There are many
+entirely for the sale of Western things, and others for the things of
+the country&mdash;the beautiful embroideries and silks, and silver-work and
+lacquer-work and carving, which you know so well by sight at home, for
+it is sent over in large quantities now, and anyone can buy it in London
+as cheaply as here.</p>
+
+<p>As we near our hotel we tell the interpreter, whose "honourable name" we
+have learned is Yosoji,&mdash;everything belonging to other people is
+"honourable" here,&mdash;that we would like to see the palace where the
+Emperor lives; so he gives an order to the rickshaw man, and we set out
+once more.</p>
+
+<p>On the way we see many open spaces and pass through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> a park, but when we
+get to the palace we find that no one is allowed to go in, and we can
+only drive round by the walls and moat. The Mikado, or Emperor, is
+worshipped by most of his people; he is in the position of a god, and it
+is no mere expression of speech to say that every schoolboy would be
+proud and glad to die for him. There is no country in the world whose
+people are more passionately devoted to their fatherland than the Japs.
+The idea of prominent Japanese going about in foreign countries trying
+to belittle their own, or undermine her power in the countries she has
+won by the sword, is unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the afternoon, coming out again from our hotel, we find Yosoji
+waiting for us, and we tell him we want to walk about on foot to look at
+some of the shops. He protests, and we can see he thinks us almost out
+of our minds to suggest going on foot. He pleads earnestly that
+rickshaws are very cheap. We have to explain that it is not the money we
+are thinking of, but that we really prefer to go on foot. He doesn't
+believe it&mdash;he can't, because no Japanese would prefer to go on foot
+when he could ride. So we take no further notice of him and just walk
+away, leaving him to follow humbly and despairingly. We have not taken
+many steps when a whole flight of rickshaw men swoop across the road and
+are on our heels, crying out, "Rickshaw, rickshaw, shaw, shaw, r'sha,"
+like our old friends the pests of Egypt. We pretend not to hear, and
+walk on with what dignity we can, but they follow persistently, almost
+trampling on our heels, and reiterating their cries all the time. They
+can only imagine we must be deaf and blind. The crowd grows greater, the
+street is getting blocked. We pass a Japanese policeman in a stiff and
+badly made uniform, and are seized with sudden hope that he will send
+the offenders flying, but he does nothing of the sort; he fumbles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> in
+his pocket, brings out a little text-book Of English, and laboriously
+reads out, "Please secure me a good rickshaw," and looks at us
+triumphantly as if he had solved the difficulty!</p>
+
+<p>I have no moral courage; I don't know if you have more, anyway, let us
+take two and then they can follow us if they like, and the others will
+go away. Accordingly we give orders to Yosoji, who bows, only
+half-satisfied, and interprets our orders. The plan works, the other men
+slink off, and the two selected ones follow us limply at a foot's pace.</p>
+
+<p>What I am really making for is a little print shop I saw as we passed
+along here this morning, with a number of Japanese drawings in the
+window. They are so queer, so well done, and yet so conventional that
+they have a charm of their own. Here it is! Look at that extraordinary
+picture of the great fish breaking through a hole in the blocks of ice!
+The ice <i>looks</i> cold, it is very well done, but the little bits of spray
+loop up round the fish in a stiff frill of a regular pattern. Then there
+is that one of the sea. It gives one a tremendous idea of a heavy
+lowering storm with the great indigo waves curling over that doomed
+boat, yet the edge of every wave has a sort of lace frill on it exactly
+alike! I must have those to take home; they won't take up any room.</p>
+
+<p>As we enter the Jap lady who is selling the prints gives a long hiss.
+She bows profoundly, and so do we. They won't know us when we get home!</p>
+
+<p>"But why did she hiss?" you ask Yosoji. He says it is a sign of respect.
+Oh! I thought they were nervous! How funny! As long as they don't expect
+me to do it back again&mdash;I can manage the bowing when there is no one
+there but you to see, but if I tried to hiss I should break down in the
+middle! I take out my purse to pay for the print. The money here is
+confusing, because there are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> yen and sen. A yen is equal to two
+shillings and a halfpenny, and a sen is only the hundredth part of a
+yen, or about a farthing. In order to reckon the change the old lady
+takes up a frame with beads strung across it on wires; I believe it's
+called an abacus, and they use them in kindergarten schools to teach
+children to count. She must be an ignorant old dame, and yet she looks
+wholly respectable. I wonder what Yosoji thinks of it. When we look at
+him he is quite demure and solemn and doesn't seem to notice anything
+odd.</p>
+
+<p>Coming out of the shop we find the dearest trio of children gazing at
+us. Of all the sights in Japan the children are the most fascinating.
+They are so funnily dressed, like the odd little Jap dolls English
+children buy. These three are clad very magnificently in kimonos of silk
+crape, very soft, and brilliantly coloured, with huge coloured sashes.
+Their little heads, with straight all-round fringes of black hair
+sticking out like brushes, are deliciously comic. They regard us gravely
+and without any fear or shyness.</p>
+
+<p>It is getting dark; suddenly someone lights a Chinese lantern across the
+street, and almost as if it were a given signal another pops out and
+another and another. Chinese lanterns with us are used for decoration,
+and it is impossible to help feeling as if it were a festival when we
+see them gleaming along the street among the coloured streamers.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether the lanterns, the gay dresses, the smiling faces, the funny
+shops, the clear deep blue of a perfect evening sky seen overhead, make
+a glorious picture. Shut your eyes and "think back" a moment. Think of
+Oxford Street on a wet night when the shops are shut and the high
+arc-lights shine down coldly on rigid lines and bleak grey walls!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus358.jpg" width="450" height="258" alt="A JAP VILLAGE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A JAP VILLAGE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>IN A JAPANESE INN</h3>
+
+
+<p>If we received a slight shock when we saw the woman in the shop adding
+up by the help of beads, what about the booking-clerk at the station? He
+seems unable to give the simplest change without this sort of reckoning.
+Comic, isn't it? Picture the clerks at Euston fumbling away at their
+beads while an impatient throng elbowed one another before the
+pigeon-hole!</p>
+
+<p>The station is quite small, merely a shed with a wooden roof set on
+posts. We are going second-class and taking Yosoji with us, so that we
+shall see some of the native life.</p>
+
+<p>The trains are corridor, with the seats lengthwise and across the ends.
+Many of the Japs are sitting sideways on them with their feet tucked
+under them,&mdash;they are not used to have them hanging down,&mdash;but one grand
+gentleman, directly opposite to us, is quite European in his top<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> hat
+and long coat, and his feet are on the floor as to the manner born.</p>
+
+<p>We have not been long started before he begins to fidget and shuffle,
+and presently he hauls up a wicker basket beside him, undoes it, and
+fishes out a very nice dark purple kimono. His top hat goes into the
+rack. His collar, tie, and stud disappear. His coat comes off and is
+carefully folded on the seat. We watch the gradual unpeeling with an
+absorbed interest, wondering how far it will go. Luckily there are no
+ladies present! We can stare as much as we like without being rude,
+because everyone else in the carriage has their eyes fixed with a
+straight unwinking stare upon us. It is difficult to realise that we are
+more entertaining to them than the gentleman who is disrobing himself
+with ineffable dignity in public, is to us.</p>
+
+<p>He has now slipped on the kimono over his remaining garments, there is a
+little twist, and a slight, a very slight struggle, and in some
+miraculous way the rest of his European outfit glides off underneath the
+kimono, neatly folded. It is like a conjuring trick! Last of all come
+off the boots also, and with his stockinged feet tucked up under him he
+sits transformed into the Complete Jap. Judging from the lack of
+interest taken in the performance by his fellow-countrymen, it must be
+quite a usual thing to undress in trains.</p>
+
+<p>Having finished his task the gentleman on the seat turns to us and asks
+innumerable questions. Where have we come from? Where are we going to?
+How do we like Japan? Is it not a very poor, mean country compared with
+the glorious and august land we belong to? All this is interpreted by
+Yosoji, who no doubt puts our answers into the flowery language Japanese
+courtesy demands; for instance, when I say that I like Japan very much,
+I am sure, from the breathless sentence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> that follows, that he is saying
+that the strangers think the honourable country of Japan far more
+beautiful and wonderful than their own poor land. The man opposite does
+not for a moment think really that England is to be compared with Japan,
+but in Japan people are taught to talk like that, and must often think
+us very rude and abrupt.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a long journey, and after an hour or so of passing through
+pretty, hilly country, with many bushy pine trees dotted about, we stop
+at a station which Yosoji says is our destination. It is a good thing we
+have Yosoji with us, for certainly we could never have discovered the
+name of the station for ourselves. We see a long scroll covered with
+Chinese characters, and other smaller scrolls ornamented in the same
+way, these are, of course, the name of the station and the inscriptions
+on various waiting-rooms, but they leave us none the wiser. I ask Yosoji
+how any European travelling alone could discover where he had got to,
+and he smilingly points out a board at the extreme end of the station
+with some of our own lettering on it. No one could possibly see it from
+the incoming train.</p>
+
+<p>We still feel absurdly big as we get out of the little train on its
+little narrow gauge line and wait while Yosoji captures our luggage from
+the van. It is packed in great baskets which fit into each other like
+two lids; we see them in England often, but there they are rather looked
+down upon, here they are quite the correct thing. Indeed, among all the
+luggage in the van there is no trunk or wooden or tin box at all, only a
+great pile of such baskets of all sizes, mingled with a few bundles
+simply tied up. When our belongings are rescued and identified they are
+stowed away in a rickshaw by themselves, while we three mount in three
+others and set off for far the most interesting part of the journey. At
+first the road is quite good,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> and the men trot away contentedly, the
+big hats bobbing up and down before us. What do these hats remind you
+of? To me they are exactly like the lids of those galvanised dustbins
+you see put out in streets for the dustmen at home.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus361.jpg" width="450" height="376" alt="PORTERS, JAPAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PORTERS, JAPAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The air is brilliantly fresh and sweet; we pass along by pine trees of
+many sorts, and between them see the fresh green of the feathery
+bamboos; these two colours, the dark blue-green of the pines and the
+brilliant yellow-green of the bamboo, are seen everywhere in Japan. Then
+there are avenues of red-stemmed trees called cryptomeria, we should say
+cedars, with dark heads spreading out at the top of their immense
+branchless stems. We see squirrels leaping about and scuttering up the
+trunks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> Then we go across open spaces, which are like an emerald sea,
+for they are the brightest green you can imagine, the green of the
+growing paddy, which is cultivated here as in Burma. There are men
+dressed in garments of glorious blue, like those we saw in Egypt, hoeing
+and watching the important crops. Then we plunge into cool woods and
+follow little paths up and down, and when we want to get out and walk,
+feeling lazy brutes to sit still and let a fellow-creature haul us
+uphill, Yosoji says no, it would hurt the feelings of our men, who would
+imagine we thought them poor weak things and scorned them.</p>
+
+<p>We twist down to a wooden bridge, dark maroon in colour, and built in
+one single span across a raging, leaping stream that dashes and splashes
+merrily far below. At the other end is one of the picturesque roofed
+arches or gates that the Japanese are so fond of, with its rich red
+tiles curved up at the corners. Not far on we catch a glimpse of a
+waving sheet of blue, a mass of flowers growing wild on a hillside, and
+in sight of it, but still in the shade of the trees, we sit down for
+lunch and to give the coolies a rest.</p>
+
+<p>Several times during the run we have noticed shrines with images of
+little foxes before them, some clean and new, but some weather-worn and
+grown over with lichen. As Yosoji unpacks the lunch he tells us these
+are Shinto shrines put up in honour of the god of rice. It seems very
+appropriate to hear this now, just as we are going to fare merrily on
+hard-boiled eggs, a tiny chicken, and plenty of rice, finishing up with
+those astonishing bright-coloured cakes, which we have learnt to eat
+without fear. We rest a long time, and all except you smoke contentedly,
+watching the blue films curl upward under the still foliage; and then up
+and on once more.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;">
+<img src="images/illus363.jpg" width="426" height="600" alt="OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is nearly five o'clock before we reach our destination, a little
+village, with a rather famous inn, not very far from the sea. In fact,
+as we approach we can see the blue water shining out only about a mile
+away across a flat expanse broken by hummocky sandhills. The village is
+one long straggling street of thatched huts, rather like huge beehives,
+with broad eaves. Our rickshaw men, who have been showing signs of
+exhaustion, make a gallant effort at the last, and run us up to the door
+of the inn in fine style. The inn stands on legs raised a foot or two
+from the ground, and is well built, with solid wooden posts and a tiled
+roof. It is two storeys high and has verandahs round both floors.</p>
+
+<p>As our men let down the shafts of the chairs for us to alight, two women
+and a man in native dress come out on to the verandah, and immediately
+fall down on their faces before us, with their foreheads on the ground.
+I don't know how you feel about it, but not having been born in the
+purple this sort of thing is embarrassing to me, and I wish they
+wouldn't! I have a vague idea that I ought to rise to the occasion by
+taking their hands and saying, "Rise, friend, I also am mortal," or
+something like that!</p>
+
+<p>Yosoji, of course, does all the talking, and with a great deal of bowing
+and volumes of flowing language, arranges for us to stay here the night,
+requesting us to pass on into the house. In the porch it is evidently
+expected that we should take off our boots, so we do, and they are
+stowed away in a little pigeon-hole, while we are offered instead large
+and awkward pairs of slippers like those we had at the mosques. You
+reject them, preferring stocking feet, and you have the best of me, for
+the next move is to go up a very slippery ascent like a ladder that is
+trying to grow into a staircase. While you hop along gaily I leave one
+slipper behind on the last rung, and in trying to recover it slip and
+bark my shin! However, when it is retrieved, I take off the other and,
+carrying them both in my hand, mount quite easily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus366.jpg" width="450" height="414" alt="FUJIYAMA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">FUJIYAMA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The room we go into is specklessly clean, and through the wide sliding
+panels, which are open on to the verandah, we see a glimpse of the blue
+sea. The floor is made of mattresses in wooden frames neatly fitted
+together, and is quite soft and comfortable to the feet; boots with
+heels would certainly be out of place here. In a little alcove on one
+side is a miniature tree such as those you sometimes see offered for
+sale in England now, and behind it a quite beautiful sketch of Fujiyama
+on a scroll. There is no other furniture at all, but when our luggage is
+brought up we can sit on the baskets. We explain to Yosoji that we would
+greatly like&mdash;first, a hot bath, after the heat and dust of the journey,
+and next some food. Presently in comes the little Japanese maid whom we
+saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> on her face at the door in company with her master and mistress.
+She prostrates herself at once, and with her forehead against the floor
+says something, indrawing her breath in a most accomplished hiss. Do you
+think we ought to do it back again?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;">
+<img src="images/illus367.jpg" width="330" height="400" alt="IN COMES THE LITTLE MAID." title="" />
+<span class="caption">IN COMES THE LITTLE MAID.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Yosoji interprets that with great good luck the hot water is ready, and
+if we go down now we can have a bath. Our things have been brought up,
+so selecting a few clean garments we go once more along the polished
+passage and down that dangerous ladder, then through a room, presumably
+the kitchen, which is quite full of people, on to a covered-in verandah
+on one side of the house, where two large shining brass basins stand on
+a sink, and an iron tub stands on the floor, with its own fire beneath
+it like a copper; clouds of steam arise from it. But what catches our
+attention most quickly is an amiable Japanese man, who, clad in a very
+slight garment, has evidently just had a bath. We can see he has been
+pouring the contents of the basins over himself, and letting the water
+run away between the wooden slats of the floor, so we wait for them to
+be refilled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> for us. All the people who were in the kitchen have by this
+time drifted in here, and stand in interested contemplation of our
+proceedings. "Which is the bath?" I ask Yosoji. He motions toward the
+tub of boiling water. "But that's too hot; we shall be boiled sitting on
+the top of a fire," I explain. Thereupon a great commotion ensues,
+embers are raked out, and there is much running about and chattering.
+The Japs themselves take their baths at a temperature which would peel
+the skin off our bodies. As the water is still too hot, even when the
+fire has been removed, we wait for it to cool, and meantime I ask where
+is the other bath, as there are two of us? This produces great
+consternation in Yosoji; who ever heard of each person having a bath to
+himself? The notion is absurd. He knows the ridiculous prejudice of the
+English, who do not like to use the same water as the Japanese, but, as
+it happens, this water is perfectly clean, for even the gentleman who
+has just gone out did not use it. Is it possible we can't use it, one
+after the other? I ask him what state the water gets into when half a
+dozen people have been boiled in it, one after another, and he tells me
+that it is in no state at all, for, of course, etiquette does not allow
+them to use soap actually in the bath! Well, we must manage somehow;
+when they clear out we can tip some of the hot water into that second
+basin and use it afterwards. Meantime they all stand, gaily expectant,
+smiling affably. I explain to Yosoji that we can't undress before the
+crowd, and he seems to think my ideas most extraordinary. In Japan
+people always bathe in a garment and have not the least objection to
+doing it in full view of the street.</p>
+
+<p>With considerable difficulty our absurd scruples are made clear to the
+assembled company, who reluctantly depart, defrauded of their fun, and
+draw close the sliding screen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then&mdash;yah&mdash;it <i>is</i> hot! We manage to tip out two good basins full and
+fill up with cold water from a tin pail which stands near. Well, we both
+find it very refreshing. You go first, and while I am revelling in the
+hot water I hear a dismayed exclamation, "Oh, the towels!" and see you
+holding up a tiny thing no bigger than a table-napkin, embroidered in a
+wandering blue pattern. There are two for each, and though they are
+little more than pocket-handkerchiefs we must make them do.</p>
+
+<p>When we get back to our rooms in a more or less steamy condition, we
+find that the screens, which are made of paper framed in wood, have been
+drawn, and outside them wooden shutters have been fastened. The room is
+very close, and there isn't an inch open for ventilation. After a long
+expostulation with Yosoji we are allowed to have the outer shutters open
+an inch or two, though he explains they must be shut and bolted before
+we go to bed at night or the police will be down upon us. There are two
+loose, flowing Jap gowns lying ready for our use, and very delightful
+they are. As they are quite clean we slip into them instead of coats and
+laugh across at each other. In comes the little maid, once more
+prostrating herself, then she goes out and returns with a lacquered tray
+on tiny legs a few inches high. This she sets on the floor, and after a
+considerable interval, during which she has brought up many tiny dishes
+and bowls, she suddenly seats herself on one side of the tray and
+motions to us to begin.</p>
+
+<p>We wriggle across the floor inelegantly and squat opposite to her. The
+first thing we see are two steaming bowls of soup; we make short work of
+these, drinking from the bowl, and find at the bottom some tough-looking
+bits of something. Then we discover all at once there are no knives,
+forks, or spoons, only chopsticks, like forks with one prong. We try to
+fish out the bits of something,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> but even when we have caught them the
+result is not satisfactory; it is like eating leather. Next comes bowls
+of rice, and if it was difficult before, it is doubly so now. I should
+certainly never be able to pick up grains of rice with a chopstick while
+that solemn little maid sits opposite; it would take a Cinquevalli to do
+it! I make a desperate attempt and explode suddenly, the maid giggles,
+you roar, and even Yosoji, who is somewhere in the background, begins
+tittering. After this the ice is broken; we entreat Yosoji to get the
+maid away without hurting her feelings, and when she has departed we
+finish the rice with our fingers. There are various other things&mdash;beans
+which can be skewered on the chopsticks, and funny little bits of stuff
+like mixed pickles, but even when we have eaten everything we are as
+hungry as when we began. Just as we are realising it our little friend
+appears again with a decent-sized fish on a dish, decorated with onions,
+and we quickly fall to, using a funny kind of bean-paste made up like a
+cake, instead of bread. By the time we have finished we are rather fishy
+but very much more satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>The meal taken away, our handmaiden slides back a panel in the more
+substantial side of the room, which is of wood, and produces various
+stuffed rugs which she spreads on the ground&mdash;these are called <i>futon</i>,
+and are very like our useful friend the <i>rezai</i>; we have some of our own
+to add to them, and altogether the beds look so comfortable that we are
+quite ready to get into them at an early hour. Having lit a Chinese
+lantern at one end of the room before the little picture recess, a
+sacred place in every Japanese household, the maid retires for the
+night, and so does Yosoji. Only then do we discover that for pillows
+they have given us tiny wooden stools, not unlike the national clogs,
+only slightly larger! These we are supposed to place in the crick of the
+neck; having tried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> it you declare that if you slept at all that way you
+would certainly dream you were lying on the block to be beheaded, so
+instead you choose the lid of one of the baskets, which, being yielding,
+makes not half a bad pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Good-night!</p>
+
+<p>After a profound sleep I am awakened by a flood of light, and sit up
+with a start, to find myself in bed before an admiring crowd. The
+sliding panels opening on to the verandah have been pushed back, and
+there stand my landlord and landlady, and the little maid-servant, and
+several other persons, bowing and prostrating themselves and asking
+innumerable questions, to which, as there is no Yosoji, I can give no
+answers. Everyone in Japan asks questions, I find; it is supposed to
+show a polite interest in you. I feel rather awkward sitting up there
+among my futon and making a series of little jerks meant to be bows, and
+I am glad when you wake up too and help me a little. You are not so shy,
+it seems, for you hop out of your rugs and dance to the verandah,
+revelling in the light and sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later we have had a sluice down with cold water from the brass
+basins, eaten a most unsatisfying and unsubstantial breakfast, much like
+the dinner the night before, minus the fish, and are out to visit the
+village schools, at the suggestion of Yosoji, before going on.</p>
+
+<p>They are worth visiting! I never saw anything quite so quaintly pretty
+as these rows of little dolls in their brilliantly gay garments, tied up
+with their big sashes. They are sitting on the floor and laboriously
+making strokes with a paint-brush. That is to say, they are learning to
+write. The Chinese writing is not an alphabet like ours, but each
+complicated symbol stands for an idea, and there are thousands and
+thousands of them. It takes a child seven years even to learn fairly
+what will be necessary in after life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These little mites are not making complete signs, but just doing one
+stroke again and again, all over a large sheet of paper, and when they
+have learnt that they will go on to another, until one complete symbol
+is mastered. The writing is done by brush-work instead of with a pen,
+and is more like artistic painting than stiff writing. Suddenly the
+teacher gives a signal, and the tiny tots rush out into the air, and
+dance and play and run and twiddle each other round and round like
+little kittens; they are so gay and so bright it is quite evident that
+Japanese children are not ill-treated.</p>
+
+<p>It is with great reluctance we pick up our luggage, pay our very
+moderate bill, and leave this dear little village. Whatever else fades
+out of our minds as time goes on I am sure the picture of those gay
+children will never be forgotten.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus373.jpg" width="450" height="342" alt="AN INDIAN RESERVATION." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AN INDIAN RESERVATION.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THOUSANDS OF SALMON</h3>
+
+
+<p>We dawdled so long in the quaint and charming country of Japan that it
+was full summer when we left. As the inverted fan of Fujiyama faded
+gradually into nothingness against the illimitable spaces of the sky, we
+said again and again <i>sayonara</i>, which is the musical Japanese word
+meaning good-bye, for we felt we were taking leave of an old friend.
+Japan is on the other side of the world from England; shall we ever get
+there again?</p>
+
+<p>Then came the voyage across the Pacific and the landing at Victoria, the
+chief town on the great island of Vancouver, which lies off the west
+coast of Canada. It is always a little confusing to people who have not
+visited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> this part, because there are two Vancouvers: one the great
+island which blocks the western coast of Canada, and the other the town
+lying on the eastern side of the narrow straits, on the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Well, here we are in Victoria, and the astonishing homeliness of it
+gives us both a warm feeling of delight. It seems as if we really had
+got almost in touch with our own country again. As we wandered through
+the town to-day we saw in the outskirts red-brick creeper-covered houses
+that might have been in an English market town. In spite of all its
+trams and docks and general go-aheadness Victoria is old world. We
+visited a place called Esquimault, by tram-car, and saw there British
+ships of war and many other kinds of craft. Now we are back in the
+hotel, and in our cosy bedroom there is little to remind us we have
+still a continent and ocean between us and our beloved little island.</p>
+
+<p>What are you doing? Putting your boots out to be cleaned? Well, that is
+one thing you won't get done here, it is not the custom; you will have
+to go down to the basement and have them cleaned on your feet, and tip
+the man who does them then and there. I'll come too, because we have to
+make a very early start to-morrow. I wish we hadn't, for some things.
+There is capital shooting and fishing here, though a great deal of the
+island, which, by the way, is more than twice the size of Wales, is
+covered with impenetrable forests. It is difficult to get about at all
+in the interior, but we could have gone around by the coast and explored
+the inlets, and with luck we might have seen something of the moose and
+the bear, to say nothing of wild fowl and salmon and trout, but we can't
+manage it this time. A friend of mine, who is in charge of a
+salmon-cannery on the coast of British Columbia, is going to put us up
+for a day or two, and he has arranged that we shall cross over on the
+cannery steamer, the <i>Transfer</i>, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> leaves so early that we'll have
+to be up at half-past four in the morning.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Ugh, I'm sleepy! But I see the sun is already up and shining in a
+cloudless sky. It is a trifle cold when we get out at first in the
+morning, but as we walk briskly down to the steamer we feel warmed up.
+The wharf shows a busy scene; there are numbers of blue-clad Chinamen
+rushing backwards and forwards loading boxes on to our little steamer,
+which floats by the wharf, and what a comic steamer she is! She is like
+nothing so much as a great fan-tail pigeon sitting on the water! That is
+because her immense paddle-wheel is tucked away at the back. There is a
+very good reason for this too! The steamer gives an agonised scream from
+her siren, the Chinamen on board chatter and gesticulate frantically to
+their comrades left behind, there is a terrific commotion, and for the
+moment no one could help believing that something has gone wrong; but
+no, this is only the way the Celestials say good-bye, for when we are
+fairly off all the noise stops and a great calm falls on board.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 190px;">
+<img src="images/illus375.jpg" width="190" height="400" alt="&quot;ONE PIECY EAT BREAKFAST.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;ONE PIECY EAT BREAKFAST.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The view from the deck is glorious; in this brilliant light we can see
+the mountains rearing up behind the town. While we are admiring them a
+voice says, "One piecy eat breakfast, Master," and turning we see a
+Chinaman in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> spotless white bowing before us. We gladly accept and go
+below, where we find other Chinamen gliding about in felt slippers
+serving hot baked buckwheat cakes and maple syrup; the cakes are
+beautifully flaky and about the size of a saucer; we soon dispose of
+them and some decent coffee too, and return to the deck quickly not to
+miss anything.</p>
+
+<p>It seems no time before we are gliding along close to the land on the
+other side, startling myriads of water-fowl, who fly up in front of us
+in an endless cloud, or dive just as we get near enough to see them
+well. Then a tall white lighthouse heaves into sight and we round a
+corner into that famous salmon river, the Fraser. There are red houses
+peeping out between the trees, and boats begin to pop up here and there,
+but we don't seem to be getting on very fast, for we are zigzagging this
+way and that across the water, almost more crookedly than we did on the
+Nile or Irrawaddy to avoid sandbanks.</p>
+
+<p>"See the nets?" asks one of the ship's officers, coming to a halt beside
+us and pointing to a line of corks on the surface of the water; "we've
+got to keep clear of them, and that's no job for a sleepy-head, I can
+tell you." He goes on to explain that the nets are sixty feet long and
+weighted with lead on the low side in the usual fashion. At this time of
+year the salmon are all trying to get up the river. Salmon have queer
+ways. They are born far up, in the head waters of the Fraser, or any
+other great river, and come down as quite little fellows to the sea,
+where they live a free bachelor life, enjoying themselves in the open
+for three years; but at the end of that time an irresistible desire to
+return to the fresh water seizes them, and in thousands and thousands
+they press up the wide mouth of the river, tumbling over each other in
+their eagerness to get there; this is the time they are caught. The nets
+are made with wide meshes, and the fish in their struggle to get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>
+forward run their blunt heads through, but when they try to withdraw
+them they are held by the gills and remain fixed until they are hauled
+out to meet their fate. But from six in the morning on Saturdays till
+six in the evening on Sundays the law forbids netting, so a certain
+number always escape and get up the river to lay their eggs, after which
+they return to the sea and leave their families to hatch out; but their
+life-work is finished, and they either die on the way or soon
+afterwards. All this the officer tells us as we meander across the
+smooth water.</p>
+
+<p>We stop once or twice where the flag calls, just as we did on the
+Irrawaddy, to take up or put down some freight, and then we sight Lulu
+Island, where we are to stay as the guests of Mr. Clay for a day or two.
+Hullo! there he is! That tall fellow in a flannel shirt and blue
+trousers. Oh no, it isn't&mdash;it's another Englishman; but among the
+multitude of Chinese one Englishman looks very like another! This man
+greets us as we get off at the pier, and says that Mr. Clay is expecting
+us, and he pilots us into a great shed at the end of the pier. My word,
+what a sight! There are thousands and thousands of salmon lying on every
+square foot of floor, and not only covering it, but covering it
+knee-deep, as they are piled one on the other. There are Chinamen wading
+about among them, and every minute fresh boats arrive at the wharf with
+their cargoes, and the men in them throw up the fish to the other men on
+the wharf. The salmon we see here, our new acquaintance tells us, are
+called "sock-eye," and weigh about ten pounds each. The great rush comes
+every fourth year, one of which was 1913, when about thirteen million
+fish were caught in the season. The men in the boats are Japs; we feel
+quite friendly toward them. Mixed with them are some others with rather
+Eastern faces too, but quite different from anything we have seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> yet.
+Notice their greasy straight hair, their flat, broad, good-humoured
+faces and little stocky figures; what race do you think they are?
+Esquimaux? That is not a bad shot; they are very like the pictures one
+sees of Esquimaux, but these fellows are Siwash Indians, who live along
+the coast hereabouts. Here is Mr. Clay, who has been watching the
+reckoning of the caught fish. He is dressed exactly like the man who met
+us, and a useful working dress it is too. He greets us with the greatest
+hospitality and says he'll take us right up to his house for breakfast
+first, as we must be starved, and we can see all we want to afterwards.
+When we are clear of the sheds we see a long, low, wooden building
+standing by itself; to reach it we have to pass over several wooden
+platforms raised on legs. These, Mr. Clay explains, are necessary,
+because in winter the whole island is pretty well under water. As we
+cross the verandah we are warmly welcomed by Mrs. Clay, and taken into a
+charming wooden room in the middle of the house, on to which all the
+other rooms open. Here is laid out a splendid home breakfast of bacon
+and eggs and porridge, and after a wash it doesn't take us very long to
+fall to! How long is it since we had bacon and eggs for breakfast? It
+seems to me to be so far back I can't remember! We are both rather thin
+after living on Jap diet so long, and are quite ready to wind up with
+more buckwheat cakes when we have finished the other things. All the
+servants are Chinamen you notice, and very well they wait too.</p>
+
+<p>While we eat, Mr. Clay tells us much about his kingdom. He and his wife
+have another house which is in New Westminster, not far off up the
+river, and they go there for the winter, only staying here in the summer
+when the work is in full swing. He is the manager of only one cannery
+here, and there are several others all working amicably together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus379.jpg" width="450" height="432" alt="A SIWASH INDIAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A SIWASH INDIAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then we stroll out, feeling blissfully satisfied, a condition we have
+long been strangers to, and as we smoke Mr. Clay points out the other
+houses round. There is the house for the white men who assist him, the
+houses for the Japs, and the Chinese house. At the back of his own
+premises are sheds where he keeps a couple of horses and some cows for
+his own use. Then there is the Stores, a big building full of tinned
+meats, sacks of rice, tobacco and tea, and all sorts of underclothing,
+as well as the other little things men are likely to want.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards we stroll through the Chinamen's house. It is a queer-looking
+place, with bunks ranged along the walls and a huge wooden table down
+the middle, where just now numbers of complacent Chinamen are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> sitting
+down to a midday meal of rice with cooked fish. As we pass along we see
+that each man keeps his little treasures beside his bunk, for, though so
+impassive, the Chinaman is a home-loving creature; there are little
+images of carved ivory and other small treasures. Do you see that white
+rat with pink eyes restlessly doing sentry-go in his cage?</p>
+
+<p>Behind the house, and some distance off, is the Indian village, where we
+see great barn-like buildings; here the Siwash Indians live, and several
+of their flat-faced, broad-nosed children are tumbling about and
+playing; as we come up one sturdy youngster raises a heavy stick and
+flings it with all his force at a wretched little seal tied up by a
+flapper. Mr. Clay goes quickly forward and catches hold of the little
+Indian boy, and the women all rush out and talk at a tremendous rate; it
+ends in the manager giving a trifle for the seal and making a signal to
+his men, who take up the poor little beast and carry it off to put an
+end to it mercifully. He does not put it back in the water, because
+seals do much mischief in breaking the nets. The Indian children don't
+mean to be cruel, but they have no imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Then we go on a voyage of inspection all round the place. We saw the
+fish when they were first landed from the nets, and the next proceeding
+is when they are slit open by the Indian women, who cut off their heads
+and tails and throw them into vats of salt and water. After this they
+are fished out and chopped into round pieces to fit the tins. This is
+done by Chinamen, who get so clever at it that they can judge exactly
+how much to put into each tin to make just one pound weight; the tins
+are weighed as they pass on, and all those not right are sent back to be
+done again. The tins which pass the test roll down an inclined shute.
+Look at them, one after the other, exactly as if they were alive! As
+they run they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> roll in soldering stuff, so that their lids are sealed on
+the way. But they have many other processes to go through before they
+can be shipped off. Immense care is taken to get all the air out of the
+tin, because if any were left in the fish would go bad. They are tried
+and tested time after time at every stage. The salmon is cooked when
+already in the tin, and the heating is so severe that all the bone
+becomes soft too. You know this well in tinned salmon, don't you? You
+know, too, the look of the tins, with their gaudy-coloured labels, as
+they are sold in shops in England? These labels are stuck on after they
+leave the cannery, which deals with the insides, not the outsides, of
+the tins. There is a sarcastic saying at the canneries, "Eat what you
+can and can what you cannot," but this is not fair, for the very
+greatest trouble is taken to ensure the fish being quite good. When all
+is ready, sailing ships come and are loaded up and carry off the
+season's catch to all parts of the world. And this is going on all along
+the coast at many and many a cannery, day after day, week after week,
+during the fishing season.</p>
+
+<p>There is so much to see that when we leave the last shed the day is
+almost gone. At that moment two Chinamen pass us carrying a pig
+suspended from a pole by its four feet tied together. The poor little
+beast is going to be killed, for the Chinese are very fond of pork.</p>
+
+<p>When we sit on the verandah after dinner, trying vainly to keep off the
+mosquitoes by smoking strong tobacco, we are joined by one of the
+assistant managers, a man named Jones, who has fiery red hair and, I
+should judge, a peppery temper. He is very angry about something, and
+several times Mr. Clay tries to argue with him and calm him down; it
+seems that he has had a row with a Chinaman. This morning he spoke
+sharply to the man, who went stolidly on with his work without seeming
+to notice it, but later on, meeting Mr. Jones outside, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> Chinaman
+drew the knife which they all carry in their belts, and muttered
+something threatening to his superior. This evening Mr. Jones keeps
+saying again and again in an excited way, "Leave him to me, I'll settle
+his hash," and Mr. Clay repeatedly tells him that he can report the man,
+who can be fined, but that it would be rash to tackle anything of that
+sort single-handed, as the Chinamen all stand together and are like an
+enraged swarm of hornets if any one of their number is touched.</p>
+
+<p>However, next day we hear nothing more and spend a lazy morning
+wandering about a little and sitting on the verandah until Mr. Clay
+turns up about midday and says, "Come and see all the men leaving work
+for dinner; you missed that yesterday, and it is quite a sight."</p>
+
+<p>So we go across with him to the big shed. Just as we reach it we hear a
+furious noise like the buzz of hornets, and coming quickly round a
+corner we run into an angry and excited crowd of Chinamen rushing this
+way and that, and stabbing at random in the air with their knives.</p>
+
+<p>"That fool!" ejaculates Clay. "He's done something!" and before we
+realise what he intends to do, he is right in among the mob of Chinamen,
+knives and all, without a sign of fear. You and I are too much
+interested to go away, but we keep well on the outskirts of the crowd.
+The roar redoubles as Clay is seen, but after a while it dies away a
+little, and then a small party emerge from among the rest, carrying one
+of their number, unconscious, between them, and as they pass on down to
+the house where they live, the others hurry after them, still chattering
+and brandishing their knives.</p>
+
+<p>Clay is much upset. "That fool!" he says again, and there is a deep fold
+of anxiety on his forehead. "This morning he took down with him to the
+sheds a piece of lead-piping, and stood by the door there, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> the
+men came out one by one, he marked the one who threatened him yesterday
+and dropped him with a stunning blow on the back of the neck. I don't
+think he's killed the fellow. Luckily it takes a lot to kill a Chinaman,
+but we'll have no end of a shindy over this; they'll lose days of work,
+and the worst is, Jones has disappeared&mdash;no one knows where he is."</p>
+
+<p>All the afternoon the place is in a blaze of excitement, and, as Mr.
+Clay foresaw, no work is done. Every now and then we can see, from where
+we are sitting on the verandah, a band of Chinamen burst out of their
+house flourishing knives and shouting and rushing about and then
+quieting down and slinking back. If Jones shows himself now his life
+won't be worth an instant's purchase! I try to get out of Clay what he
+means to do, but he won't tell me, yet I am sure, from something he let
+fall, that he has discovered the whereabouts of his junior, and I should
+not be surprised if the man was in this house.</p>
+
+<p>When we turn in at last to our beds nothing more has happened, and Jones
+has not appeared. I have been asleep for a little while when I hear a
+subdued whispering on the verandah outside my window, and jumping up I
+put my head out. There stands Clay in his pyjamas with a man I recognise
+as the night-watchman, a European. Clay sees me and waves his hand, and
+as the watchman disappears he comes over to me. "Strang has just been up
+to tell me that the Chinamen have carried the poor beggar out of the
+house and laid him on the bank of the river," he says in a low voice;
+"that means to say they think he's dying, and they wouldn't have him in
+their house, or his spirit would settle down there. That's a good job
+for us, or by the morning he'll be spirited away! There's the little tug
+ready, and it will soon run him up to New Westminster hospital. I'm just
+going down to see the poor chap aboard."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What about Jones? Aren't you going to send him off too?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No fear! He'll have to swallow his gruel. We can't spare him. Where
+would I get another man from at this time of the season? Besides, that
+would look as if he were afraid of them. We've lost hours of precious
+time with his foolery already," he adds savagely, and I can guess the
+headstrong Jones has "caught it" from his chief!</p>
+
+<p>Next morning still no Jones, and all seems as usual; work is resumed,
+the Chinamen ask no questions as to their wounded comrade, and peace
+reigns. About eleven o'clock Clay comes up from the works hurriedly and
+gives a whistle, and from one of the bedroom doors emerges Jones,
+looking rather like a schoolboy who has been in disgrace and means to
+carry it off with swagger.</p>
+
+<p>When we get out on the verandah we find the rest of the white men
+belonging to the place all gathered together with revolvers in their
+hands, and with one consent they move off toward the big shed. For the
+life of me I can't keep out of it, and it would be rather hard to stop
+your going. I wouldn't miss seeing Jones reintroduced to his friends the
+Chinamen for anything. Come on, but let us keep behind where we shan't
+be noticed, or Mr. Clay would send us back at once.</p>
+
+<p>There is a busy hum surging out of the factory as we approach, and the
+noise of it rings out on the still air; then, as the white men appear in
+a little knot in the doorway, there is a dead pause, a silence so sudden
+and dramatic that it seems as if one's heart must stop beating. The
+half-dozen white men stroll up the gangway carelessly, but you note they
+all keep together, until Jones, who doubtless has got his orders,
+separates himself from the others and walks briskly ahead. His face is
+very white as he bends over a Chinaman and glances at his work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> in as
+natural a manner as he can command, then he looks sharply at another and
+tells him to go ahead and not waste time. Hands grow busy, the noise
+recommences, and in a few minutes the buzz rises again to concert pitch.
+The critical moment has been safely passed. We follow the others into
+the building and walk the whole length of it and back, and by the time
+we get to the doorway again no one could tell that anything unusual had
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>However, I shouldn't care to be Mr. Jones on Lulu Island, and if I were
+he I should apply for a job elsewhere at the end of the season!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/illus386.jpg" width="408" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT DIVIDE</h3>
+
+
+<p>We are now in the train running toward the great ridge of mountains
+which rises like a backbone through the country from north to south,
+cutting off the territory of British Columbia from Alberta, though both
+are provinces of Canada. The Rockies! What ideas of grizzly bears and
+Indians and scalps and trails the name brings up before me! I don't
+suppose you have anything like the same feeling about them, because you
+weren't brought up on Fenimore Cooper and Ballantyne and all those other
+writers who are old-fashioned nowadays. Perhaps you have never even read
+<i>The Wild Man of the West</i>, or <i>Nick o' the Woods</i>? It makes me sorry
+for you!</p>
+
+<p>The Clays were good to the last; they brought us up on the little launch
+by river to New Westminster, and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> we went by electric cable-car to
+the mighty town of Vancouver on the Pacific Coast. What a town! Wide
+streets, huge buildings, tram-cars, and much bustle and life. But what
+struck us most was the splendid playground of Stanley Park which covers
+all the ground at the end of the peninsula stretching out into the sea.
+This is not an Englishman's idea of a park at all, for we think of the
+rather stiff green expanses, with a few trees scattered here and there,
+that we are used to at home. Stanley Park is just a bit of primeval
+forest with roads running through it. There are immense trees rearing
+their crowns on stems twelve feet in diameter. There are thickets and
+wild creatures and rich undergrowth. The inhabitants of Vancouver are
+lucky indeed, and they have another park on the other side of the town
+too. Stanley Park overlooks the harbour, where lie ships of all nations,
+from the liners of China and Japan to the tiny tugs of the Cannery
+Companies. The amount of trade coming here is immense. The ships carry
+cargoes of tea, rice, and silk and oranges, with skins from Siberia, and
+take away grain, timber, fish, machinery, cattle, and manufactured
+goods. There are some sailing ships, you still see them in this part of
+the world, and these are loading masses of timber baulks from the great
+pine woods inland. Lumbering and logging are the two great occupations
+of the Western Canadian winter, and what you see here is the fruit of
+that work. Terribly hard work it is too. Swinging an axe all day among
+the great giants of the forest requires knack as well as strength, and
+when a man first starts that game he quickly finds he is as weak as a
+baby till his muscles get hardened to it. When cut down the trunks are
+dragged to any stream, or creek, as they call them here, to be drifted
+down to the coast. It is a wonderful sight to see a river about half a
+mile wide literally covered with tree trunks wedged against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> one another
+from bank to bank. When the logs get jammed, and have to be released, it
+requires a great deal of courage to go right into the middle of the
+stream and find the key-log, the one which holds the whole together,
+like the keystone of an arch; most exciting work this is, many a man
+loses his life or his limbs over it. In Burma, where the teak companies
+run their business on the same lines, elephants are taught to do this;
+they feel around with their trunks and draw out the right log, and then
+make for the banks at full speed, to get out of the way before the whole
+mass of tons' weight breaks loose and comes down upon them. But here
+there are no elephants; dogs are the beasts of burden, and fine work
+they do in teams, drawing laden sleighs over the frozen snow,&mdash;but dogs
+can't pull out timber when it is jammed. A lumber man has to be a bit of
+an engineer too, and learn how to dam up the stream to make enough water
+to float his logs; he is a jack of many trades, and generally a fine
+fellow too.</p>
+
+<p>If we had come straight on from Victoria in the Empress steamer from
+Japan we should have landed at Vancouver. The Empress Line belongs to
+the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, which has its terminus there. This
+is one of the most miraculous railways in the world. We are on it now.
+When first it ran out to the Western end, after surmounting
+indescribable difficulties in crossing the mountain country, it stopped
+at that little place we passed through when we came to Vancouver from
+New Westminster. You remember we saw a deserted town, solitary and
+silent, on the inner curve of the bay? It is called Port Moody, and the
+name suits it to a T. It has a right to be moody, for when it was known
+the railway was going to end here the town sprang up in a week or two,
+in the way Canadian towns do; but the very first winter was so terribly
+severe that ice was driven up into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> the bay and blocked it completely,
+preventing vessels from getting to the terminus at all, and so the
+directors saw they must carry their line on farther round the bay to the
+northern point, and here Vancouver arose; but the irony of it was that
+no such winter has ever been known again! It only came that once, just
+to blot out Port Moody's chances. So the place lies mouldering away,
+with the lumber houses falling to pieces and the wharves rotting, and
+only a few wooden crosses and headstones on the hill to mark the graves
+of those who stayed behind when the others went.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 230px;">
+<img src="images/illus389.jpg" width="230" height="400" alt="NEGRO ATTENDANT." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NEGRO ATTENDANT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This is a very fine train, the cars are open all the way down, so we can
+walk from end to end, the seats face in the direction we are going, and
+the backs can be swung over to the other side in the same way as on a
+tram-car. I know you have already noticed the very spruce negro
+attendants, because I saw you staring at the first one who appeared with
+all your eyes! There is an observation car with huge plate-glass windows
+at the end of the train, and we will go there to-morrow when we get into
+the mountains. I saw that there was a placard saying the negro attendant
+will answer <i>all</i> questions! I hope he gets a very high salary!</p>
+
+<p>It was eight o'clock at night before we left Vancouver, and as there is
+a capital dining-car on the train, we had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> better get dinner at once.
+But the fun begins when we go to bed. I send you along first and say
+I'll turn in after a last smoke, but I have hardly settled down to an
+interesting conversation with a man in the smoking-car before I see you
+standing beside me looking very troubled. Well, what is it? In a low
+whisper you say&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go to bed there; there's a lady in the same car."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! She has her own bunk, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but&mdash;&mdash;" a long pause&mdash;"she drops her hairpins on to me!"</p>
+
+<p>My laugh makes the man beside us very inquisitive. Never mind, old man!
+Pick them up and return them to her in a neat little packet to-morrow,
+but whatever you do don't go to sleep with your mouth open!</p>
+
+<p>It certainly is funny. When I join you I find that the lady is in the
+upper bunk above that which you and I are going to occupy together. The
+curtains hang straight down and it is a very tight fit indeed to wriggle
+into my place without pulling open the top part, and a still more
+difficult job to get out of my clothes lying in a space like a ship's
+berth.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I take care to get up early and rouse you, and as we
+vanish out of the compartment we hear a little giggle, and looking back
+I see a long lock of brown hair hanging down over the edge of an upper
+bunk. I hope you gave her back her hairpins!</p>
+
+<p>We are surprised that the train is standing still, and want to find out
+why. We saunter along to the observation car and breathe the glorious
+freshness of the air, chilled by the great white peaks which rise
+shining up against a clear sky. Seeing that several of the men
+passengers have climbed down on to the track and are wandering along it
+we follow, and round the next corner come upon a cattle-train off the
+lines and blocking the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> way. She was just turning on to a siding to wait
+for our coming when the disaster occurred, and now she lies helpless,
+with twenty cars filled with cattle who are lowing in a disconsolate
+questioning way. Just look at the poor beasts, they are packed tighter
+than ever we see them in England, simply jammed up against each other
+like sardines in a tin. One of them has fallen, and the others bulging
+out over the space thus made are trampling on him. A fine-looking
+fellow, six feet high, in a blue shirt and cowboy hat, with a red
+handkerchief twisted round his throat, comes along with a pole, and
+skewering it under the fallen ox very cleverly levers it on to its feet
+again, holding it up until it forces its way upward itself. He jabs at
+it once or twice to make it move, but not unkindly. He looks a rough
+specimen and has a two days' growth of beard, but we go up to him, as I
+want to ask questions about the cattle. To our astonishment the moment
+he speaks we know him for an educated Englishman. "Oh, they're not badly
+looked after," he says; "they've all been out at Kamloops for twelve
+hours to get rest and food and water. They were only put on the cars an
+hour since."</p>
+
+<p>Looking at him keenly I find something very familiar in his face. "Are
+you a Winchester man?" I ask.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" he says, "Mitton!" and simultaneously I cry "Wharton!" and
+our hands are locked.</p>
+
+<p>"Got a rough job?" I ask.</p>
+
+<p>He laughs. "It's all in the day's work," he says. "I've done worse
+things. It's a man's job, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to live out here permanently?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not good enough. I've been knocking about now two years, and unless
+you've got capital you can't make a start; a man can always keep
+himself, of course, and you see something of life too, but for a
+permanency, no, it's not good enough! I wrote to my people only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> last
+week I'd be turning up next fall to settle down again."</p>
+
+<p>He has to go to help the men who are raising the wheels of the truck on
+to the line again with jacks. It has been a queer accident altogether.
+The train was running down in the early hours of this morning when a
+huge boulder, which had been loosened by the vibration of its passing,
+fell with terrific force against this particular car, and knocked it off
+the rails; the coupling-pin connecting it with the next one in front
+broke, and the engine and first few trucks ran on a little. Luckily the
+derailed truck ploughed the ground and stopped within a foot or two of
+the awful gulf yawning below, though those following, which had kept on
+the track, gave it a shunt forward.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long before all is shipshape again, and we draw slowly past,
+waving to Wharton, who stands up in his caboose, or van, a handsome,
+healthy figure of a man. He was one of the best short-slips Winchester
+ever had. For some time after this we pass waiting trains at every
+siding, for all the traffic has been held up by the accident.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest of that day it is difficult to spare thoughts for anything
+but the scenery. It is grander than anything I have ever seen in my
+life. Very few people in England realise that there is not one but three
+ranges of mountains to be crossed from the coast. We are through the
+first now and into the Selkirks, and we have to climb right up these and
+down again before starting on the heights of the Rockies, which is the
+only range most people know by name. The peaks, which rise majestically
+round, are often tree-clad far up; we see huge pines, centuries old,
+towering out of a tangle of undergrowth that has probably never been
+trodden by any human foot, not even those of the Indians. There is a
+great deal of dead wood to be seen, and this hangs out in banners of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>
+brown among the sombre green, and here and there are long strips of
+brilliant emerald, which stand out like streaks. We apply to the
+long-suffering attendant, who tells us that they are the new growth on
+some great gash, cut possibly by a fall or landslide in the winter, and
+as we go along he shows us some of these bare patches, yet unhealed,
+torn by an avalanche of stones and mud and snow.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus393.jpg" width="450" height="489" alt="INDIANS IN MODERN CLOTHES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">INDIANS IN MODERN CLOTHES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We pass on long trestle bridges over foaming torrents far below, and it
+makes us shudder to think what would happen if the train went over. That
+man in the smoking-car last night told me a story of what happened to
+himself on this line, some twenty years ago, when he was crossing over
+the barrier. The train he was in was trying to get up a tremendously
+steep incline on a dark and stormy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> night. The worst of these inclines
+are not used now, for the way has been engineered round them. The wheels
+were slipping on the greasy rails, and the engine was snorting and
+sending up showers of sparks, and inch by inch, foot by foot, the driver
+man&oelig;uvred her up, till he reached one of these bridges. There is a
+man stationed on duty at each of them. There, notice his hut as we
+pass&mdash;they have to guard the road and see to the safety of it and signal
+to the train if anything happens to the bridge. The driver communicated
+with the man on the bridge he had reached, and asked him to wire for an
+engine to meet him at the next bridge and help him up. Engines are kept
+in certain places ready for an emergency like this; so the wire was sent
+and the train struggled on, but when they got to the next bridge there
+was no engine. The message had gone through all right, and the man in
+charge there had received a reply that the relief engine had started,
+and it ought to have arrived by then, but there was no sign of it. The
+line is a single one you notice, all the way, except at certain places,
+where there are loops to allow trains to pass each other in the same way
+as on some tram-lines. After waiting some time the engine-driver steamed
+slowly ahead. He climbed on and up, and went very slowly, expecting at
+every turn to meet the relief engine, or find it waiting for him, held
+up at a bridge. But no, there was no sign of it, and yet every
+bridge-keeper gave him the same message&mdash;it had been sent out and should
+have been here by now. At last he reached the dep&ocirc;t itself, but there
+was no engine! What had happened to it? It had been dispatched on the
+single line, full steam up, into that stormy night, and it had vanished
+completely! A search-party was sent out in the morning, and found at one
+of the loops a slight fracture in the line; close to it the ground had
+been ploughed up, and there, far below, lay a shattered mass of iron
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> steel in the narrow valley, with the torrent plunging over it. For
+some unexplained reason the engine had left the rails and pitched
+straight over the precipice, carrying with her the two men in charge,
+who were, of course, killed outright.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the bridges there are tunnels and snow-sheds frequently on this
+line. Our puny tunnels in England are nothing to these; a new one which
+is just being bored through the Selkirks and fitted with electric light,
+is five miles in length! The snow-sheds are very peculiar; they are
+built out over the line with sloping roofs, so that when the avalanches
+of snow and stones and ice come flying down as the grip of winter
+relaxes, they are carried off right over any train that may happen to be
+passing, and thunder on into the valley below. For the line is for the
+most part laid on a mere shelf hewn out of the rock, with a precipice on
+the one side and the towering wall of the mountain on the other. We are
+not likely to get avalanches or snow-slides now, but in the spring it is
+an extraordinary experience to be in the train and hear the roar and
+rattle, as of big guns, followed by a hail of bullets, as tons of stuff
+come down, and most of it goes shooting into space, though a good deal
+is left on the sheds.</p>
+
+<p>These deep narrow valleys through which the rivers foam are called
+ca&ntilde;ons, and the narrowest point we pass through is called Hell's Gate.
+Here the rigid walls of the cliffs come so near together that you could
+easily throw a stone across, and the tossing, foaming water careers
+along hundreds of feet below. The marvel is how any engineer could have
+made a line here at all. Think of the blasting and of the machinery
+which had to be used; how did they ever manage it? For before the track
+was cut there was nothing to rest on. The engineers must have rigged up
+some sort of scaffolding, I suppose, but it seems incredible. They had
+no choice but to do it, for there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> no other way to get the line
+through, except by these narrow valleys, already occupied by a
+tempestuous river. The railway never would have been made at all but for
+that grand old man, Lord Strathcona, who died so recently. It was he who
+inspired people with his own enthusiasm and indomitable perseverance,
+and he at last who had the honour of driving in the spike which joined
+up the two ends of the line, that coming up from the Pacific slope, and
+that which had run across the plains from the Atlantic, and thus he
+bridged the continent. One of the finest peaks in the mountains is
+called after him. And the great "park" of 830 square miles, now being
+formed on Vancouver Island, is to be called Strathcona Park.</p>
+
+<p>The loops which the line makes are another thing to notice. Far up we
+can see another train crawling about on the mountain-side, which seems
+impossible! How did it get there? The negro attendant sees us staring,
+and grins, showing his set of splendid white teeth, "Soon see him
+below," he says, and he is right; in a comparatively short time we have
+passed that train at a siding, and afterwards, on looking down, see it
+deep below us in the valley. The line makes the ascent in a series of
+great loops, and the sides of these, seen from above or below, appear to
+be straight lines.</p>
+
+<p>Revelstoke is one of the interesting places we pass; here a branch goes
+off to the Kootenay country, where there is splendid land and climate
+for fruit-growing alongside the great lakes.</p>
+
+<p>You ought to be beginning to know something about Canada now. First the
+salmon-fishing, then the lumbering, next the cattle-export, and now the
+fruit-growing. It is a fine and prosperous country.</p>
+
+<p>It is the wrong time of year for the fruit, or we might have made an
+excursion to the south to get a look at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> it, for we could go down the
+great lakes, through the Crow's Nest Pass, and back again to the main
+line in a loop. But the blossom will all be over, of course; in spring
+it is as great a sight as it is in Japan, with the flowers springing out
+all along the trunk and branches like the hackles of a cock! Cherries
+are one of the chief exports, and then there are peaches, pears, apples,
+and plums, with other things such as strawberries and potatoes to fill
+in. But many a man's heart must sink when he comes out first from the
+old country and sees the wilderness he has to start on, for even if it
+is "cleared" there may be stumps of huge trees sticking up all over, and
+stones everywhere; it is all much rougher than our neat, tidied-up
+country. But then, on the other hand, the land is far cheaper, the soil
+is much more fruitful, and consequently the yield greater. After
+Revelstoke we pass Glacier, where the line runs round in a kind of
+amphitheatre, showing a magnificent range of peaks in solemn grandeur
+rising above the fringe of fir trees.</p>
+
+<p>We have come down from the Selkirk range and now rise to the Rockies,
+where the track is even steeper and more twisted; here the snowy peaks
+lifted into the region of eternal snow are higher, but the scenery is
+not so easily seen, as we are more hemmed in by even narrower ca&ntilde;ons.
+The main interest is in going through Kicking Horse Pass; but here even
+the negro attendant fails&mdash;he cannot tell us how the name arose! His
+spirits droop, but rise again when he comes eagerly to tell us we are
+approaching the "Great Divide." We have been running through many
+tunnels in and out of the "Cathedral Rocks," and now we reach the
+water-shed of the country, where sparkling streams fall away in opposite
+directions, one running down to the Pacific, and the other to Hudson's
+Bay in the north-west. At last we reach Banff, a well-known place, with
+a huge hotel of the most luxurious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> kind, belonging to the Canadian
+Pacific Company. Near Banff is the Canadian National Park, a park
+indeed, of 5732 square miles, including mountains and forests! You
+simply can't imagine it; it is a great tract of country, preserved in
+its natural state, and the haunt of wild things. Here are herds of the
+buffalo of the West, the bison, a very different fellow from the
+domesticated Eastern buffalo who so rudely chased you and Joyce. The
+bison are fine to look at, with their extraordinarily large chests and
+heads, out of all proportion to the rest of their bodies. Their great
+shaggy fronts and humped shoulders make a peculiar outline. In years
+past they were cruelly hunted and killed, but are now protected and
+encouraged. Now the Government is doing its best to save the remnant.</p>
+
+<p>The amount of land yet wholly untrodden in the heart of these great
+mountains is difficult to realise; even the Indians only pass through
+some of it, and no white man's foot has ever touched more than a tithe.
+Grizzly bears, cinnamon bears, deer, wild sheep, and goats live still in
+these fastnesses, quite undisturbed by the little line that threads
+through from sea to sea.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus399.jpg" width="450" height="250" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>ON A CATTLE RANCH</h3>
+
+
+<p>Do you remember your first sight of the sea? I've not forgotten mine,
+though it must have been many years before yours. I suppose I wasn't
+more than four, and kindly patronising elder brothers and sisters had
+tried to describe it to me beforehand, but the most I pictured was a
+very, very big pond, with water as flat and uninteresting as that of
+most ponds. No one can have any real notion of the sea before seeing it;
+and it is the same with the prairie. I have often imagined it, but now
+that we are actually on it, driving over it, I find that all my
+mind-pictures are lifeless compared with the reality. It gives one a
+feeling of freedom, as if one had been living always in rooms and
+suddenly got out. It is not flat like a table, but full of gentle curves
+and sweeps, as if it were always just going to reveal something unknown,
+and yet it reaches on for ever on all sides. It makes us feel quite
+insignificant as our conveyance crawls along the centre of a gigantic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+circle which appears to move with us. But the thing which is most
+surprising is the beauty of it. The grass is growing freely and is very
+fresh, and mingled with it, like poppies and cornflowers in a
+wheatfield, are innumerable flowers, red and blue and yellow, shining
+like jewels in the brilliant sunlight&mdash;some are like sunflowers, and
+others, growing singly, are tall red lilies. There are clumps of trees,
+too, here and there, little round islands of them, bluffs, they are
+called. We have left the mountains now and descended into the great
+plains once only inhabited by wild tribes of the Redskins and mighty
+herds of buffalo, but now for the most part taken up by white men for
+grazing-ground.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 244px;">
+<img src="images/illus400.jpg" width="244" height="400" alt="A LEAN SUNBURNT MAN." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A LEAN SUNBURNT MAN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When our engine ran into Calgary station, with a great clanging of the
+big bell, we found a sunburnt lean young man of twenty or so, in the
+shady hat, blue shirt, breeches, and leggings we have become accustomed
+to now. He greeted us very shortly: "For Mr. Humphrey's ranch?" and when
+we said "Yes," led the way outside to where an odd kind of waggonette,
+drawn by two horses, was waiting. We gather it is called a "democrat,"
+for we heard the stationmaster say, "Put 'em in the democrat" as sundry
+square wooden boxes were gathered up from a storehouse. Our luggage was
+a mere trifle compared with the miscellaneous mass of sacks and boxes
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> bundles that were piled in behind. We were six hours late, as we
+were due at two this morning and it is now eight. I remark on it to our
+silent young driver when he gathers up the reins. He laughs shortly.
+"You never can tell, sometimes it's as much as a day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus401.jpg" width="450" height="368" alt="LONE PINE RANCH." title="" />
+<span class="caption">LONE PINE RANCH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The trail out on to the boundless prairie, after getting clear of the
+town, is merely marked by two deep ruts. When we meet another "rig," as
+conveyances of any sort are called here, the driver usually goes off on
+to the grass to make way for us, as we have a heavy load, a courtesy our
+young driver acknowledges by raising his whip.</p>
+
+<p>It is very, very hot, and as we jog along in silence it is difficult not
+to fall asleep. It seems a long, long time before the driver points with
+his whip to a distant herd of cattle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They belong to the Lone Pine Ranch," he volunteers. That's the ranch we
+are going to stay at. Then a group of log buildings, with a few trees
+near, rises out of the plain, and we draw nearer and nearer steadily and
+realise this is our destination.</p>
+
+<p>The principal house is built entirely of logs and has a sort of verandah
+around. Mr. Humphrey himself is waiting outside, and at a shout from him
+a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked woman in a pretty pink cotton dress and
+sunbonnet joins him, followed by a tiny toddling child.</p>
+
+<p>Their welcome is as warm as all the others we have received in Canada.
+To our surprise the young driver turns out to be the Humphreys' son!</p>
+
+<p>His father and mother laugh heartily as he disappears round the corner
+of the house to unyoke the horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Edmund is the best man at holding his tongue I ever came across," says
+Mr. Humphrey; "seems to have been born that way; he doesn't get it from
+either of us!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Humphrey is doing all the work of the house herself, for her
+husband, five children, and three hired men, with the help of an Indian
+woman for the rough scrubbing.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't get servants here," she says; "and if you brought them out
+from England they'd get married in the first week."</p>
+
+<p>Edmund reappears for dinner, followed by three other young men dressed
+precisely alike. They sit down in a lump at one end of the wooden table
+and solidly consume immense helpings of boiled beef and dumpling, which
+Mrs. Humphrey carries in, disdaining any help. When we have finished she
+smilingly produces half a dozen jam tartlets from a cupboard.</p>
+
+<p>"I made them for you," she says, looking at you. "I'm proud of my
+pastry, but I had to hide them, for Edmund and his father have an awful
+sweet tooth, and if I'd put them out there wouldn't have been one
+left."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There are gurgles and nudges from the lower end of the table, and I see
+you grow scarlet as the plate of tartlets is solemnly put in front of
+you. I'll help you out. I have a "sweet tooth" too, and the toddler will
+do his best, as he has one bestowed on him by his mother.</p>
+
+<p>There is a crash in the little scullery opening off the room we are in,
+and as the mistress of the house jumps up with an exclamation the round
+moon-face of an Indian woman appears for a moment in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>It seems she has upset the coffee which she was going to bring in. Some
+of it is saved from the wreck, though the "boys" have to go without. As
+they file past, back to their work, Edmund follows last and snatches a
+tartlet while his mother's back is turned, winking at you as he does it.
+Mr. Humphrey immediately bolts another rather guiltily, so one, looking
+very small, is left alone in the plate.</p>
+
+<p>I'm afraid Mrs. Humphrey thinks we have gobbled them up!</p>
+
+<p>This room has nothing to hide the bare wooden walls except a few
+pictures from illustrated papers and a photo or two pinned up. The great
+stove is a very ugly thing, and its pipe goes out through the roof. Our
+room, which opens off on the same floor, is the merest slip of a place,
+with hardly room for the couple of camp-beds side by side. From the
+photos I guess it is Edmund's room, and that he has gone off to sleep
+with the men in their quarters near the barn meantime. We have the
+luxury of an enamel basin on a tripod, but, as Mr. Humphrey explains,
+it's much easier to get a wash down with a bucket outside.</p>
+
+<p>While we sit on the verandah he explains that he has three other
+children now at school; they will be back presently, and almost as he
+speaks a waggonette with a roof over it appears in the distance, and
+soon three rosy-faced girls, aged about seven, nine, and eleven, tumble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>
+out, waving good-byes to a few friends who go on in the conveyance,
+before they run in to get their dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"The authorities send the children from the outlying farms to school,
+and fetch them again free now," says Mr. Humphrey. "It's the latest
+thing, and a good thing too, or they would have to go without education
+when they live as far away as this."</p>
+
+<p>"The marvel to me is how Mrs. Humphrey manages to do it all," I say.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't heard the half!" he ejaculates. "She does all the washing,
+looks after the pigs and poultry you see around here, milks the cows,
+and finds time to go to every dance within twenty miles. She's a great
+deal keener on dancing than Edmund is, though she makes him go with her.
+That's not all, either; she'll show you herself her prizes&mdash;albums and
+things she has won&mdash;that very rocking-chair you are sitting in is one of
+them; those are for winning ladies' races, there isn't one that can beat
+her. The finest day she ever did was two years ago, when Harry, that's
+the little one, was only ten months old. She got up and did the family
+washing at five, milked the cows, drove into Edmonton with the kid&mdash;she
+hadn't anyone to leave it with you see; she did her shopping, turned up
+at Poplar Lake Fair in the afternoon, and got someone to hold Harry
+while she won the ladies' race there, giving a handicap to the field!
+She's the finest dancer in the country round and has won things for that
+too."</p>
+
+<p>Yet she looks not much more than a girl now!</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we are up early, as Mr. Humphrey has asked us if we would
+like to go with him to see some cattle "shipped" by rail at Red Deer,
+thirty miles away on a branch of the main line between Calgary and
+Edmonton.</p>
+
+<p>The "boys" have been off with the beasts long before.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 434px;">
+<img src="images/illus405.jpg" width="434" height="600" alt="INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW." title="" />
+<span class="caption">INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We reach Red Deer by half-past nine, and see from afar the great herd of
+cattle, standing lumped together, while the young men, including our
+silent friend, Edmund, sit motionless as statues on ponies surrounding
+them.</p>
+
+<p>As we get nearer we see kraals, or enclosures, close to the railway
+line, and on a siding some empty cattle-trucks ready. We are left to sit
+in the buggy&mdash;another name for a conveyance&mdash;while Mr. Humphrey gives
+orders and the boys begin to round the cattle up. It is a sight to see
+them, for they seem simply to flow round the herd in a continuous
+stream, they gallop so fast and handle their long-lashed whips so
+cleverly. The outer gate of one of the kraals has been unbarred, and the
+beasts are run through the opening into the kraal without the slightest
+hitch.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Humphrey walks across and seats himself on the high railing of the
+kraal near the trucks. Then a bar is taken out on this side, the first
+opening having been closed, and the cowboys send the cattle through this
+on to the slanting gangway leading to the first truck. The truck holds
+just nineteen beasts, and when nineteen are out of the kraal Mr.
+Humphrey drops the bar behind the last.</p>
+
+<p>It is a difficult job to get the nineteen into the truck, for they are
+frightened and suspicious and there is only just room enough for them
+all to pack in. But at last it is done, the door is fastened, and the
+truck moved on so that the next one comes abreast of the gangway. When
+all the trucks but one have been loaded, we count and discover that
+there are twenty-two cattle left. Mr. Humphrey shouts out that a certain
+white steer must go in any case, and he indicates the three beasts which
+can be left.</p>
+
+<p>But, of course, when the whole lot come through in a bunch the white
+steer remains till the last! They are sent back again and brought
+forward once more; the three unwanted ones press forward, and the white
+steer remains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> by himself in the kraal, refusing to come out at all. It
+is exactly as if the beasts had understood what had been said and were
+determined to give as much trouble as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The boys do their work admirably. This time they "cut out" the three
+unwanted ones and send them careering off across the prairie, to make
+their own way homeward. The remaining eighteen are fitted into the
+truck, and then they turn to tackle the steer, who stands in the middle
+of the kraal waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three of them, including Edmund, sidle up to him on their ponies
+and try to edge him toward the gangway. But he only paws the ground and
+throws his head up in the air. Just as Mr. Humphrey shouts out a
+warning, everything happens all together in a second.</p>
+
+<p>The steer makes a mad rush. Edmund, who is nearest the gate, is through
+it like a flash. The second man gallops for the other gate leading out
+of the kraal on to the prairie, but the third, who is in the middle of
+the green space, hesitates for an instant and is lost. The great beast
+is at him, the pony wheels, slips, and falls, and his rider is shot off.
+Another minute and the steer is on to him, pommelling at him with its
+great horns. Edmund, however, has snatched up a lasso and is back into
+the kraal like a streak of light; without ever checking his gallop he
+flings the lasso round the enraged beast's head, and drags him away in a
+great semicircle through the now open gate on to the prairie. We see him
+with a sharp turn jerk the animal off its feet, and then a revolver shot
+rings out; there is a convulsive kick or two and the great steer lies
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the others have run to lift up the unconscious man in the
+kraal. Luckily he is not much the worse, for he has only a fractured
+collar-bone and a broken arm. He was stunned by his hard fall, but soon
+comes round. Nobody seems to think much of this, but they all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>
+congratulate him on having escaped with nothing worse. These accidents
+are daily risks in a cowboy's life.</p>
+
+<p>It is late before we get back, and we have no time to wander round the
+homestead that day. Next morning you are up and out early to investigate
+something for yourself. I know quite well what it is, for you talked
+"gopher" in your sleep.</p>
+
+<p>In coming across the prairie we saw here and there colonies of odd
+little beasts that looked a cross between a squirrel and a rat. They
+jumped up and sat on the tops of their holes to see us pass, and then
+disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box when we got near. When I go out a bit
+later I find you in fits of laughter at the inquisitive little
+creatures. They can't resist peeping, and when they have popped into
+their holes, back come the little heads and bright eyes to watch what
+you are doing. I am pretty tired, as I was kept awake most of the night
+by a bird in a tree near the window which kept saying, "Whip-poor-will"
+over and over again at intervals. I understand that's its name, and it
+is hated by the ranchers. No, it is not the bright little black and
+white bird like a small magpie which pecks around, that is a
+Whisky-Jack.</p>
+
+<p>I spend a gloriously lazy morning watching you crawling around behind
+the holes and trying to grab the gophers! Needless to say you never get
+one!</p>
+
+<p>At dinner-time Mr. Humphrey is much amused at your game. "They drive
+dogs just frantic," he says, "especially young ones that don't know
+them. Rabbits aren't in it!"</p>
+
+<p>After dinner he suggests driving us round the ranch, and invites you to
+come and help him to yoke up. A minute or two later you both reappear
+without the horses.</p>
+
+<p>"A brute of a skunk," says Mr. Humphrey tersely; "we'll have to wait a
+while."</p>
+
+<p>It seems that one of these awful beasts has got into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> the shed among the
+harness, and till he chooses to move nothing can be done. Naturally I
+want to see him.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to be as quiet as a mouse," you say, guiding me round on
+tiptoe. "Mr. Humphrey says that he has a store of acrid fluid that
+stinks like rotten eggs, and if he's disturbed he lets you know it. It's
+weeks and months before any place is free from the smell."</p>
+
+<p>So we peep cautiously and see an animal about the size of a large cat,
+with bright black and white markings, lying harmlessly on a pile of
+harness. It has no sting, no formidable claws or beak, and yet it is
+able to keep any number of men from disturbing it while it chooses to
+lie on their possessions. No god could receive more respect from his
+believers. It is after tea-time when you, creeping to report, tell us
+the good news that at last Mr. Skunk has gone away!</p>
+
+<p>A day or two later Mr. Humphrey says he will take us to see an Indian
+reserve, as he thinks we ought not to leave the country without seeing
+one.</p>
+
+<p>You know the Indians are now looked after by the Government. There are
+certain pieces of land kept for them, and no one else may live on them.
+As the white men have spread over the land, and used it for corn and
+cattle, the Indians have been driven farther back, and find more
+difficulty in getting a living, so now Government agents are appointed
+to manage these reserves; they know all the Indians in their charge, and
+deal out to them certain amounts of stores and look after them.</p>
+
+<p>The settlement we are to visit is at Battle River, about forty miles
+south of Edmonton. The day chosen is the one when the Indians come in
+from the country to get their rations. They are a shabby-looking crowd
+as they gather up near the lumber houses where the agent lives and where
+the stores are kept.</p>
+
+<p>These are men and women of the tribe of the Crees,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> a very quiet,
+peaceful tribe, not troublesome, like the Blood Indians. If you imagined
+we should see them with feathers sticking out round their heads and
+fringes of scalps on their leggings you will be terribly disappointed.
+All these men are in European clothes, with round black felt hats,
+soiled coats, and blue overalls for trousers. The only thing Indian
+about them are their moccasins, the soft leather foot-covering they wear
+instead of boots. They have broad faces, lanky hair, dark reddish skins,
+and rather a sullen expression mostly, and look dirty and untidy, like
+old tramps. The squaws, who wear old shawls and skirts, sit solemnly
+smoking all the time; they nearly all carry on their backs papooses
+(babies) tied up tightly like little mummies. There are endless numbers
+of lean cur dogs, yapping and snarling at each other as they prowl for
+scraps.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians go in single file past the counter in the store and get rice
+and tea and flour dealt out to them, and then each one receives a
+portion of meat. The agent speaks to each of them by name, calling them
+Jim, Dick, or Charlie. Such grand names as "Sitting-Bull" or
+"Swift-as-the-Moose" are mostly discarded now in favour of something
+more European, which is considered more fashionable. The Indians hardly
+speak and never smile, the expression on their faces does not alter in
+the slightest when the agent chaffs them. When they leave the store they
+carry their provisions over to where a lot of rough-looking ponies are
+grazing. Do you see what a simple arrangement these ponies drag? It is
+made merely of a couple of long sticks, which run on each side of the
+pony like shafts; at the back the ends are crossed and tied together and
+trail on the ground. The goods are fixed on to these sticks, and then,
+seating themselves on the top of the bundles, the Indians set off
+homeward, followed by their patient squaws, who trail along after them
+on foot, carrying the papooses.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus412.jpg" width="450" height="288" alt="CROSSING LAKE SUPERIOR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">CROSSING LAKE SUPERIOR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT LAKES</h3>
+
+
+<p>If we found the prairie astonishing even when uncultivated, what of
+this? Corn, ripened in the sun, and spreading over mile after mile on
+both sides of the railway line! There are no neat little fences to cut
+it up into fields, and it does not grow unevenly, but all at one height,
+so the effect is a flat and boundless plain, yellow as the desert sand.
+Everyone has heard of the grain fields of Canada, the great stretch of
+land, about a thousand miles in width, from whence corn is shipped to
+the remotest ends of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>We lingered on so long with the Humphreys that already the harvest is
+ready for cutting. On leaving Calgary we passed through some towns with
+astonishing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> names. The first we noticed was Medicine Hat, which Mr.
+Kipling has written about as "The Town that was Born Lucky," because gas
+was discovered in great quantities below the surface, and when holes are
+bored for it huge jets spring forth and can be used in countless ways;
+even the engines of the C.P.R. make use of it.</p>
+
+<p>Then we came across Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Indian Head, and Portage
+La Prairie. I forget at which of these it was we saw Indians in all the
+gaudy finery of their ancestors, with feathers sticking up on their
+heads, buckskin shirts covered all over with beads and decorated with
+tassels, in which coloured grasses were twisted. As the Indian may not
+take scalps now he has to find other trimmings! These men dress up like
+this to attract tourists, because they want to sell buffalo horns,
+bead-work moccasins and bags, and many other things.</p>
+
+<p>Then we got to Regina, the headquarters of the Royal North-West Mounted
+Police, and were lucky enough to catch sight of one or two of the force
+in their neat work-manlike khaki, with their round broad-brimmed hats
+which the Boy Scouts have imitated. These men are hard as nails and
+absolutely fearless; the story of the adventures of the force would make
+a thrilling book.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 164px;">
+<img src="images/illus413.jpg" width="164" height="400" alt="INDIAN IN ANCIENT FINERY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">INDIAN IN ANCIENT FINERY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At every station we notice tall odd-looking buildings which form no part
+of an English station. These are grain-elevators. When the farmer has
+threshed his corn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> he can bring it here and receive a receipt for it,
+and have it stored; then it is run up to the top of one of these places
+by endless ropes, and thence can be easily poured down out of a
+funnel-like shaft into the waiting trucks for shipment.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus414.jpg" width="450" height="448" alt="NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At last there is a farm where the corn is being cut! I have been
+watching to see one. That row of machines following each other, in what
+seems from here to be a line, are cutting and binding the corn and
+turning it out in neat sheaves. The Canadian farmer is often very much
+ahead of us in the way of machinery. He has to be, for sometimes he has
+furrows four miles long and a farm the size of an English county. There
+is, for instance, a steam-plough which takes twelve fourteen-inch
+furrows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> at once! What would an English yokel, meandering along at the
+tail of his two slow horses, say to that? His little job would be done
+before it was time for breakfast! Hullo! there is another field, all in
+stooks already&mdash;look across the boundless plain to the horizon. There is
+nothing to be seen but stooks and that thin telephone wire running like
+a line in the sky in the far distance. When you look at any map of
+Canada you can't help noticing how straight the boundaries of the
+provinces are, just as if ruled with a ruler; as a matter of fact they
+run usually on lines of longitude or latitude, and are thus very
+different from our county boundaries, which have grown up anyhow. This
+province we are now in, Manitoba, has recently been increased by an
+immense area of land in the north, so that it now has a seashore on
+Hudson Bay, but before that it was nearly square. The farms are measured
+out in the same exact way too; men have land given to them in sections a
+mile square, and a man can take more than one section, or he can have a
+part of one, but every bit of land granted is marked out evenly like the
+squares on a chess-board.</p>
+
+<p>The days of our journey east seem to be just a succession of endless
+cornfields and grain-elevators, with glimpses of busy towns and small
+stations. And in the evening we see a yellow glow of sunset lighting up
+the uncut fields in a splendour of light that is worth coming far to
+see. There is a very striking difference about the twilight here and in
+the East. You remember there how night seemed to shut down close upon
+sunset, here the light remains on in the sky for many hours, even at
+nine o'clock we can see the hands of our watches.</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then we discover our watches are an hour slow, and we have
+to jump the pointers on. This is because Canada and the States are
+divided up into strips by north and south lines, which mark off the
+time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> to be kept in each. As I explained long ago&mdash;how very long ago it
+seems!&mdash;America is too vast a continent to keep one set time from shore
+to shore, as we do in our little country, so it was found convenient to
+make definite lines, each one hour apart, all the way across.</p>
+
+<p>Then we arrive at Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba and the largest
+corn-market in the world. The town is almost exactly half-way across
+Canada. But we are not going to stop here, for towns do not interest us
+so much as nature, though if we could have had a peep into the wide main
+street, with its towering buildings, remembering it was a prairie trail
+thirty years ago, it would have been worth while.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of that day we run through much prettier scenery than the
+cornland, which has become very monotonous, and at night-time arrive at
+a place called Port Arthur, where we are going to leave the train and
+explore the Great Lakes. Well may they be called "Great"! In Lake
+Superior, the largest of the five, you could put the whole of your
+native land, Scotland, and have nearly two thousand square miles left
+over! This is the largest fresh-water lake in the world. There are five
+lakes here lying together, and the three largest&mdash;Superior, Michigan,
+and Huron&mdash;spring from a common centre and stretch out just like the
+fingers of a horse-chestnut leaf, but you will find out all this
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>It is a glorious afternoon the next day when we first catch sight of the
+steamer waiting to take us across Lake Superior. She is more like an
+ocean liner than anything else. She is called the <i>Hamonic</i>, and is
+indeed as large as many of the ships of well-known lines running out to
+the East from England, for she is five thousand tons, with accommodation
+for four hundred first-class passengers. On the upper deck is an
+observation room with windows along the whole length of each side. For
+all we can see,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> when once we are out of sight of the shore, we might
+have left Canada for ever and be taking our final plunge across the
+Atlantic homeward. And it is the same thing all the next day. We see no
+land and might as well be on the broad ocean, until, after luncheon, we
+come to the great lock, or canal, which joins the two lakes of Superior
+and Huron. It is nine hundred feet long, and had to be made because the
+levels of the two lakes are different, and no steamer could have come
+through the rapids which the Indians used to love to shoot in their
+canoes. When we are through the lock we stop at a large and flourishing
+place called Sault Ste Marie, and then get into far the prettiest part
+of the route among the islands, where we see fine trees already turning
+crimson and gold. Right across Lake Huron we go, passing the entrance to
+Lake Michigan, and reach Sarnia at one o'clock the next day. Sarnia
+stands on a narrow strait, and just opposite is part of the territory of
+the United States of America.</p>
+
+<p>If Canadians are sons and daughters of Great Britain, the Americans are
+first cousins, for there is no other country in the world, outside the
+British Empire, of nearer kin to us than the mighty nation which leads
+in the van of progress in all manufactures and enterprise.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus418.jpg" width="450" height="294" alt="A GATEWAY IN QUEBEC." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A GATEWAY IN QUEBEC.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>OLD FRIENDS AGAIN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Supposing that some of our friends in Britain, who are expecting to
+greet us at home in a week, could see us now, suddenly, I wonder where
+they would think we had got to! Covered in borrowed oilskins, we stand
+in a mighty cavern, whose vast stone roof reaches up to a hundred feet
+or more, though in width it is comparatively narrow, like a long shelf.
+In front of us is a wall of water so thick and overwhelming that it
+resembles a curtain of giants; the roar of the falling water and the
+howl of the never-ceasing wind mingle in a great turmoil, and the air is
+thick with dashing spray. Fitting is the name of the Cave of the Winds!
+For we are standing in a cave right beneath one of the wonders of the
+world&mdash;the Falls of Niagara, on the American side. We have only had a
+glimpse of the gigantic waterfall so far, for we came straight here, and
+presently are going round outside on an electric tram.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;">
+<img src="images/illus419.jpg" width="418" height="600" alt="THE FALLS OF NIAGARA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These Falls lie between the two least of the Great Lakes, Erie and
+Ontario, and on one side of them is America, and the other Canada. We
+crossed on a bridge from the American side to an island in the middle
+called Goat Island, and then dived downward to this gigantic cave right
+below the American Fall. It gives one a mighty idea of power, doesn't
+it? The world can't afford to waste power nowadays when it can be
+harnessed up for use in generating electricity and a hundred other ways,
+and not long before the end of the last century power stations were
+started on both sides of the Falls to use this force. People cried out
+at first, thinking that the stupendous sight might be spoiled, but not a
+bit of it. What man has used is but as a few spoonfuls compared with the
+vast energy of the tons of water flowing resistlessly and ceaselessly
+day and night down these precipices and onward to the sea. Put out your
+finger and thrust it into the wall of water; the force of it sends your
+arm down to your side like a railway signal. We are not alone in the
+cave; there are many other people from all parts of the world. We heard
+French and German talked as we came across, though there is no chance of
+hearing any conversation now. As we climb up again and put off the wet
+oilskins, kept for the use of visitors, the roar becomes less, and when
+suddenly someone takes hold of my arm in a friendly way, and calls out
+my name, I wheel round to face the "nice" American who saved us from
+starvation in the train in Egypt! He has recognised us at once and grips
+our hands heartily. When we emerge on to the bridge he is full of
+questions about our trip, and wants to know what we have seen and what
+we have done. He has with him a boy who looks several years older than
+you, and he tells us that this is his son, who is studying at Harvard,
+but off on the long vacation. So we all go together back to Prospect
+Park, on the American side, and get into an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> electric car, which swings
+over a bridge just below the Falls, where we can see the whole grand
+panorama and both Falls. The Canadian one is called the Horseshoe Fall.
+Often you must have seen pictures of Niagara; but pictures do not convey
+much, and this is one of the few sights in the world that runs beyond
+expectation. As the torrent pouring over strikes the water below, the
+foam flies up in a vast frothy mass into the air; we, from our height,
+look down upon it and upon a tiny steamer in the basin just below. The
+reason why the steamer is able to sail so near the Falls without being
+swept down is because the falling water descends with such force that it
+goes right below the surface of the bay and does not agitate it at all.
+On the other side, away from the Falls, farther<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> down the river, there
+is a high suspension bridge belonging to the Grand Trunk Railway of
+Canada, with a place for carriages and foot-passengers below the lines.
+A carriage crawling over it looks like a small beetle. There was an
+awful scene here not so long ago in the winter-time, when the river was
+frozen from shore to shore. Some people were on the ice, which began to
+break up in large blocks, and in the very sight of hundreds of their
+fellow-creatures, who vainly tried to save them by throwing ropes,
+several were swept away, including a man and his wife, who were on a
+floating hummock. The man actually got hold of one of the ropes, but his
+wife had fainted, and in trying to support her the rope slipped through
+his fingers, and together the two black specks on the white ice-block
+were borne by the current to their doom. A never-to-be-forgotten
+tragedy!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus422.jpg" width="450" height="431" alt="THE FALLS OF NIAGARA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>After we have crossed the water we run along on the Canadian side close
+to the edge of the cliff, high up, following the course of the current
+downward; we go round a great curve, where it boils in a whirlpool, we
+pass by a tall monument, and then, much farther down, we cross another
+bridge, and are brought back on the American side, where the line runs
+at first low down and gradually mounts till, after passing below the
+suspension bridge, we reach our starting-place. While we are close to
+the surface of the water we see the Rapids splendidly. This is where the
+swift water from the Falls has come again to the surface, and, hemmed in
+by the walls of the gorge, it tosses in fury; long sprays leap up from
+below like grabbing fingers clutching to drag men down; miniature
+whirlpools boil, and in the centre the water is forced up higher than at
+the sides.</p>
+
+<p>All the time our American friend and his son, who seems quite a man of
+the world, and has been to the Falls several times before, are trying to
+persuade us to go home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> by New York and pay them a visit <i>en route</i>.
+Unfortunately we cannot. Our passages are booked by a steamer belonging
+to the Allan Line, which sails from Montreal the day after to-morrow.
+But I think perhaps sometime we may come back and make a tour of the
+States!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus424.jpg" width="450" height="279" alt="THE ST. LAWRENCE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE ST. LAWRENCE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is hard to say good-bye and tear ourselves away from our hospitable
+friends, but it must be done. The next day sees us at the fine city of
+Montreal, having come by way of Toronto, the capital of Ontario.</p>
+
+<p>Montreal is a very bright city, with trees lining the streets and the
+mountains rising at the back, and all the inhabitants seem cheerful and
+good-natured. The great liner waiting to carry us homeward can only get
+as far as this up the St. Lawrence in the summer; in winter she sets
+down her passengers at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, right out on the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>As she steams slowly up the beautiful river we see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> trees bursting
+out here and there into a perfect flame of colour. The maple is Canada's
+special tree, and it is the maples that make those crimson flame-like
+patches among the other foliage. We notice, too, what an unusual
+quantity of dead wood is left standing; this, in a small country like
+England, would be cleared out or cut away, but here the forests are so
+vast that it is left to rot.</p>
+
+<p>Then we pass Quebec on its heights, where Wolfe won his great victory,
+and so made Canada British for ever. It is odd, however, to notice,
+especially during the last part of our journey, how very French the
+people are in their ways and customs. At one small station I remember
+hearing a man chatting away in French and gesticulating like a
+Frenchman, and as he turned to go another called after him, "Ha,
+MacDougall!" The truth is that the original settlers here were mostly
+French, but after a while many emigrants came over from Scotland and
+intermarried with them, and the children, who naturally bore their
+father's surnames, learned their mother's native tongue!</p>
+
+<p>Once out of the St. Lawrence we begin to feel the roll of the great
+waves, but we need not at this time of year expect anything very bad,
+and we shall see no icebergs. The early summer is the worst time for
+them, for the warm currents have loosened them from the icefields in the
+north, and they float southwards. The voyage is uneventful, and,
+seasoned sailors as we are, we never miss a meal during the week that it
+takes to cross before we sight the chimneys and wharves of grimy
+Liverpool.</p>
+
+<p>As we step on to British soil once more, on the wharf we turn and look
+at each other.</p>
+
+<p>Has it come up to expectation? You are not sorry you went with me?</p>
+
+<p>As for me, I have never had a pleasanter companion and never wish for
+one. Hullo! here are your people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> ready to carry you off, rejoiced to
+find you safe and sound after not having seen you for nearly a year,
+during which time you have spanned the world and travelled somewhere
+about twenty-five thousand miles.</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye!</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+Abu Simbel by sunrise, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Acre, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Aden, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Africa, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Albert, Lake, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Amenhetep <span class="smcap">ii.</span>, tomb of, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Amenhetep <span class="smcap">iii.</span>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ants, white, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Anuradhapura, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Apes, Barbary, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Arabs, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Asia, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Assouan, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dam at, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Babel Mandeb, Straits of, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bakshish, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Banff, Canada, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Barbary apes, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Battle River, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bazaar, an Indian, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Jerusalem, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Benares, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Betel-nut chewing, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bethany, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bethlehem, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bisharin tribe, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bison, Canadian, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bitter Lake, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bo tree, the sacred, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bombay, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>-208.<br />
+<br />
+Bonito, the, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Borneo, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Boxing in Burma, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Brahmans, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Brazen Palace, Ceylon, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Buddha, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Buddhists, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Buffalo, a Burmese, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North American, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Burma, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Cairo, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Calcutta, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Calgary, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Camels, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Canada, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Canadian Pacific Railway, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ca&ntilde;ons in the Rockies, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Caste, Indian, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cathedral Rocks, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cattle ranch, a Canadian, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>-381.<br />
+<br />
+Cattle train, a Canadian, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cawnpore, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Well of, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Ceylon, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cheops, King, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Child-widows of India, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chinamen in Malay, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Vancouver, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Chinese temple, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Chuprassie</i>, a Burmese, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cingalese, the, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Circuit House, Mandalay, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Clogs, Japanese, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Colombo, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Colossi, the, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Corn-growing in Canada, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cotton-growing in Egypt, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Crees, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Customs house, French, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Cyclone, a, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Dagoba, a, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dead Sea, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Delhi, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>-234.<br />
+<br />
+Delta of the Nile, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Der El Bahari, Temple of, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Desert, the, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dolphins, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dover, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dragoman, the Egyptian, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Dutugemunu, King, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Earthquakes, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Edmonton, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Edward, Lake, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Egypt, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Egyptian gods, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>Elala, story of, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Elephants, Burmese, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Esquimault, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Etna, Mount, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Fakir, a, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fellaheen, Egyptian, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Figs, Indian, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fire-flies, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fish, deep-sea, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Flying fish, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br />
+<br />
+France, journey through, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>-19.<br />
+<br />
+Fraser River, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fruit-growing in Canada, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fruits preserved, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Fujiyama, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Galilee, Sea of, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ganges, the, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Garden party in Burma, a, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gateway, Japanese, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gendarmes, French, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Georgetown, Penang, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Geta clogs, Japanese, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gethsemane, Garden of, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ghurkas, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gibraltar, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>-32, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gizeh, Pyramids of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Glacier, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Golden Pagoda, the, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gophers, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Grain elevators, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br />
+<br />
+"Great Divide," the, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Haifa, adventures on way to, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hatshepset, Queen, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Herculaneum, destruction of, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hindus, the, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Holy Land, the, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hong-Kong, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Huron, Lake, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+India, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travelling in, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>-217.</span><br />
+<br />
+Indian corn, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Indian Ocean, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Indians, North American, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Irrawaddy, the, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the voyage by cargo boat on, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Ismailia, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Israel, the land of, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Italy, in, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Jaffa, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Japan, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Japanese gateway, a, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inn, in a, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>-344.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">porters, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Jerusalem, a walk about, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>-138.<br />
+<br />
+Jews, the, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Jews' Wailing-Place, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Jim's story of his adventure with Joyce, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>-303.<br />
+<br />
+Jordan, the river, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Joyce, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>-289.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her adventure with Jim, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>-303.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Kandy, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Karnak, Temple of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kashmir Gate, Delhi, story of, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Khartoum, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kicking Horse Pass, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kishon, the river, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kob&eacute;, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kootenay, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kutab Minar, Delhi, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Kutho-daw, Mandalay, the, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lakes, the great African, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the great American, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>-387.</span><br />
+<br />
+Lascars, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Leogryphs, Burmese, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lesseps, Ferdinand de, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Let-pet</i>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lulu Island, salmon cannery on, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lumbering, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Luxor, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Temple of, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>-84.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Macaroni, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Malays, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mandalay, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mangoes, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Manitoba, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Maples, Canadian, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Marseilles, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>-19.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strange bridge at, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Mecca, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Medicine Hat, town of, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Messina earthquake, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>-49.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Straits of, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Mikado, the, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mimosas, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mohammedans, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Monkeys, grey, of Ceylon, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Monks, Burmese, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>Monsoon, the North-East, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Montreal, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Moses' Well, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mosque of Omar, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mosquitoes, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mount of Olives, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mummies, Egyptian, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Naples, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nazareth, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>-146.<br />
+<br />
+Negro attendants on C.P.R., <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br />
+<br />
+New Zealand, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Ngap&eacute;</i>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Niagara Falls, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nile, the, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>-56, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">voyage by steamer up, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>-108.</span><br />
+<br />
+North-American Indians, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nubia, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Ocean, depths of the, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>-178.<br />
+<br />
+Olives, Mount of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Orient line, the, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Pagahn, Burma, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pagodas, Burmese, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Palestine, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Paris, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Parsees, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Penang, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Persian, a, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pharaohs, the, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tombs near Thebes, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Phosphorescence, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Policemen, French, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pompeii, story of, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>-45.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Poongyi</i>, a Burmese, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Port Moody, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Port Said, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Porters, Japanese, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Potter, an Indian, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Prairie, the Canadian, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pulo Pera, sea-birds on, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pw&eacute;, a Burmese, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pyramids, the, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Quebec, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Raffles, Sir Stamford, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Rameses <span class="smcap">ii.</span>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statues of, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Rangoon River, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Red Sea, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Regina, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Revelstoke, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Rice-growing in Ceylon, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Rickshaws, Ceylon, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Japanese, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Malayan, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Rocky Mountains, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Rokwren Island, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Roman Empire, the, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Rosetta Stone, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ruanveli dagoba, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>-198.<br />
+<br />
+Russian Pilgrims, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i>Saddiyeh</i>, a, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br />
+<br />
+St. Lawrence River, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Salmon cannery on Lulu Island, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>-353.<br />
+<br />
+Salmon in Fraser River, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sampan, in a, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sarnia, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sault Ste Marie, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sawbwa of Hsipaw, the, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Scarabs, Egyptian, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Scorpion, a, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Selkirk Mountains, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Shaduf</i>, a, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Shanghai, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sheep-farming in Australia, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Shinto Temple, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Shintoism, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Ship, life on board, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Shiva, the god, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Shwe Dagon, the, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sicily, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sikhs, the, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sinai, peninsula of, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Singapore, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Siwash Indians, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Skunk, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Snake-charmer, a, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>-181.<br />
+<br />
+Snakes, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Solomon's Temple, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Soudan, the, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Southern Cross, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Spain, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sphinx, the, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Storm on the Indian Ocean, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>-178.<br />
+<br />
+Straits Settlements, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Strathcona, Lord, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Stromboli, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Suez Canal, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-161.<br />
+<br />
+Sugar-cane growing in Egypt, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sumatra, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sunrise at Abu Simbel, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Superior, Lake, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>Sydney, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Tailor, the Indian, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tamils, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tarantula, a, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tea-plantation, a visit to, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>-191.<br />
+<br />
+Temples, Burmese, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chinese, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shinto, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Thebes, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Theebaw, King, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Thunderstorm, a tropical, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>-191.<br />
+<br />
+Time, alteration in, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tokyo, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tombs of the Kings, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tooth, Temple of the, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Torii, a Japanese, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tortoises, sacred, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Toulon, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Towers of Silence, Bombay, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Tripoli, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Typhoon, a, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Vancouver Island, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">town of, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Vesuvius, Mount, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Victoria, Lake, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Victoria, Vancouver, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Volcanoes, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Vultures, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Wady Halfa, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Weaver, an Indian, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Wheat-growing in Canada, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Winnipeg, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Yokohama, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD ***
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,11860 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Round the Wonderful World
+
+Author: G. E. Mitton
+
+Illustrator: A. S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #28783]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_
+
+A BOOK OF DISCOVERY
+BY M. B. SYNGE
+
+THE WORLD'S STORY
+BY E. O'NEILL
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+BY G. E. MITTON
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"THE BOOK OF LONDON" "IN THE GRIP OF THE WILD WA" ETC.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+WITH 12 DRAWINGS IN COLOUR AND 120 IN CRAYON BY
+
+A. S. FORREST
+
+LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, Ltd.
+35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+TO
+
+JIM
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP                                             PAGE
+
+I. WHICH WAY?                                       1
+
+II. REALLY OFF!                                    20
+
+III. FIERY MOUNTAINS                               36
+
+IV. THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD             51
+
+V. THE HIGHWAY OF EGYPT                            65
+
+VI. A MIGHTY MAN                                   75
+
+VII. THE CITY OF KINGS                             85
+
+VIII. ON THE NILE                                  95
+
+IX. A MILLION SUNRISES                            109
+
+X. A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM                         120
+
+XI. THE COUNTRY OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD             139
+
+XII. AN ADVENTURE                                 147
+
+XIII. THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST                     153
+
+XIV. THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN                      168
+
+XV. A TROPICAL THUNDERSTORM                       179
+
+XVI. A SACRED TREE                                192
+
+XVII. UNWELCOME INTRUDERS                         203
+
+XVIII. THE CAPITAL OF INDIA                       218
+
+XIX. TO THE DEATH!                                235
+
+XX. A CITY OF PRIESTS                             242
+
+XXI. THE GOLDEN PAGODA                            250
+
+XXII. THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE                   264
+
+XXIII. THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE                 271
+
+XXIV. ON A CARGO BOAT                             278
+
+XXV. JIM'S STORY                                  291
+
+XXVI. THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS         304
+
+XXVII. THE LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE              320
+
+XXVIII. IN A JAPANESE INN                         332
+
+XXIX. THOUSANDS OF SALMON                         345
+
+XXX. THE GREAT DIVIDE                             358
+
+XXXI. ON A CATTLE RANCH                           371
+
+XXXII. THE GREAT LAKES                            382
+
+XXXIII. OLD FRIENDS AGAIN                         388
+
+INDEX                                             395
+
+
+
+
+PLATES IN COLOUR
+
+
+THE MIGHTY SEATED FIGURES AT ABU SIMBEL                      _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY, PERHAPS FOR EVER            24
+
+ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS                                  56
+
+JEWS' WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM                                         128
+
+SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH THE TUNE        200
+
+A CARPET SHOP, DELHI                                                   224
+
+THE GOLDEN PAGODA                                                      256
+
+A BURMESE PLAY                                                         288
+
+A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA. LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY
+ABOUT AND FISH                                                         312
+
+OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN                                           336
+
+INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW                                                376
+
+THE FALLS OF NIAGARA                                                   388
+
+[Illustration: STRANGE BRIDGE AT MARSEILLES.]
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE WONDERFUL WORLD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHICH WAY?
+
+
+When you have noticed a fly crawling on a ball or an orange has it ever
+occurred to you how a man would look crawling about on the earth if seen
+from a great height? Our world is, as everyone knows, like an orange in
+shape, only it is very much larger in comparison with us than an orange
+is in regard to a fly. In fact, to make a reasonable comparison, we
+should have to picture the fly crawling about on a ball or globe fifty
+miles in height; to get all round it he would have to make a journey of
+something like one hundred and fifty miles. It would take a determined
+fly to accomplish that! Yet we little human beings often start off on a
+journey round the world quite cheerfully, and it is more difficult for
+us than for the imaginary fly, because the globe is not a smooth surface
+of dry land, but is made up of jungles and deserts and forests and
+oceans. There are some places where people can do nothing in the heat of
+the day, and others where their flesh freezes like cold white marble in
+a moment if they don't take precautions.
+
+To set out on foot around such a world would be folly, and man has
+invented all sorts of ingenious machines to carry him,--trains and
+steamers, for instance,--and with their help he can do the journey in a
+reasonable time. It costs money, of course, but it is a glorious
+enterprise.
+
+Here, in our own homes, we see pretty much the same things every
+day--green fields and trees, cows and sheep and horses, if we live in
+the country; and houses and streets and vehicles, if we live in the
+town. Everyone we meet speaks the same language; even if we were to go
+up to a stranger to ask a question we are tolerably sure that he would
+understand us and answer politely. We have cold days and warm ones, but
+the sun is never too hot for us to go out in the middle of the day, and
+the cold never so intense as to freeze our noses and make them fall off.
+The houses are all built in much the same way; people dress alike and
+look alike. Someone catches me up there, "Indeed they don't; some are
+pretty and some are ugly and everyone is different!"
+
+Yes, you think that now, but wait until you have travelled a bit, and
+seen some of the races which really _are_ different from ours, then
+you'll think that not only are British people alike, but that even all
+Europeans are more or less so.
+
+You are not likely to travel? Well, I'm not so sure of that, for I'm
+going to offer to take you, and, what is more, you need not bother your
+head about expenses, and we will have all the time we want. I am going
+to carry you away with me in this book to see the marvels of other
+lands; lands where the burning sun strikes down on our own countrymen
+wearing white helmets on their heads and suits of snowy white as they
+walk about amid brown-skinned natives whose bare bodies gleam like
+satin, lands where lines of palm trees wave their long fronds over the
+pearly surf washing at their roots. We will visit also other lands where
+you look out over a glowing pink and mauve desert to seeming infinity,
+and see reflected in bitter shallow water at your feet the flames of
+such a sunset glory as you never yet have imagined. Or you can ride out
+across the same desert lying white as snow beneath a moon far larger and
+more glistening than any you ever see here. You shall watch volcanoes
+shooting out columns of fire which roll down toward the villages
+nestling in their vineyards below, and you shall gaze at mountains which
+raise their stately heads far up into the silent region of eternal snow.
+You shall see the steel-blue waves rising in great heaps with the swell
+of an unquiet sea. You shall talk to the mischievous little Burmese
+women and watch them kneeling before their pagodas of pure gold, and
+shall visit the little Japs making merry in their paper houses; you
+shall find the last representatives of the grand races of North American
+Indians in their wigwams. And these are only a very few of the wonders
+of the world.
+
+Where shall we begin? That requires some consideration. As the world is
+not a solid block of level ground we shall have to choose our track as
+best we can along the routes that are most convenient, and we can't
+certainly go right round in one straight line as if we followed a piece
+of string tied round the middle of the earth. Of course we shall have to
+start from England, and we shall be wisest to turn eastward first,
+coming back again from the west. The eastern part is the Old World, and
+the western the New World, of which the existence was not known until
+centuries later. It is natural, therefore, to begin with the older part
+first. If we do this we must start in the autumn so as to arrive at
+some of the hottest countries in what is their winter, for the summer is
+unbearable to Europeans. So much is easily settled.
+
+Have you ever realised that Great Britain is an island? I hear someone
+say "Silly!" under their breath; it does seem an absurd question, for
+surely every baby knows that! Well, of course even the smallest children
+have been told so, directly they begin to learn anything, but to
+_realise_ it is a different matter. An island is surrounded by water,
+and none of us have ever sailed round our own country and made the
+experiment of seeing for ourselves that it is so. You have been to the
+sea certainly, and seen the edge of our island home, but have you ever
+thought of that long line which runs away and away from your seaside
+place? Have you followed the smooth sandy bays and the outlines of the
+towering cliffs; have you passed the mouths of mighty rivers and so gone
+steadily on northward to the bleak coasts of Scotland where the waves
+beat on granite cliffs; have you rounded stormy Cape Wrath, and sailed
+in and out by all the deep-cut inlets on the west of Scotland, and thus
+come back to the very place from whence you started? If you can even
+imagine this it gives you some idea of what being an island means. We
+are on every side surrounded by water, and nowhere can we get away to
+any other country without crossing the sea.
+
+The very nearest country to us is France, and at the narrowest point of
+the Channel there are only twenty-one miles of sea to get over. One way
+of starting on our great enterprise is to cross this little strip of
+water and take the train across France, right to the other side, there
+to meet a ship which will carry us onward. Or we can start in the same
+way across the Channel but go much farther on by train, all along Italy
+as well as France, and then we can catch the same ship a considerable
+way farther on in the Mediterranean.
+
+Or there is another way, the quickest of all, and the newest; by this
+means--after crossing the Channel--we can go the whole distance across
+Europe, and Asia too, by train, and come out on the other side of the
+world, near China, in about ten days! To do this we should have to get
+to Russia first by any European line we pleased, and on arriving at the
+town of Moscow change into the train which does this mighty journey. It
+starts once a week, and is called The International. It is quite a small
+train, though the engine is large. There are only half a dozen coaches,
+and one of these is for luggage and another is a restaurant. First-class
+people are put two together into a compartment. It certainly sounds as
+if that would allow plenty of room, but then if anyone has to live and
+sleep and move for ten days in a train, he can hardly be expected to sit
+cramped up all the time, he must have some space to stir about in. At
+night one of the seats forms one bed and another is let down crossways
+above it. There is, alas, no bath, but there is a small lavatory for
+every two compartments where we can wash after a fashion. There are even
+books provided in the restaurant car, some in Russian, some in French,
+some in German, and some in English.
+
+The journey itself is not very interesting, and we should be glad enough
+to get to the end of it I fancy. No, I am not going to allow you to take
+me that way, not even if you begged hard! It is very useful for business
+men, whose one idea is to save time, but for us who want to see all we
+can of this glorious world it would be folly.
+
+On the contrary, the route I should like to take is the very longest of
+all, and that is by sea the whole way, on one of the great liners
+running east. The real choice lies between this and the railway journey
+across France to the seaport of Marseilles, or Toulon, according to
+which of the great British lines of steamships we choose--the Peninsula
+and Oriental, known as the P. & O., or the Orient. I am willing you
+should decide between these routes. Think well. In order that you may
+understand better what the choice means I will tell you what you will
+see if we take the railway journey.
+
+[Illustration: AT CHARING CROSS.]
+
+We shall have to start one morning from Charing Cross Station in London.
+All around us people are carrying bundles of rugs and magazines. Some,
+like ourselves, are going far east and they are parting from those who
+love them and will not see them again for a long time. That fair young
+man standing by the carriage door looks little more than a big
+schoolboy, but he is going out to India to help to govern there. He is a
+clever fellow and has passed a very stiff examination to gain this
+position, and he eagerly looks forward to all the new scenes in the life
+awaiting him. His charming mother and sister are seeing him off; they
+are so much alike they might be mistaken for sisters; they are trying to
+talk and joke lightly, but you can see how hungrily the mother's eyes
+are fastened on her son, as if she could never see him enough. Rightly
+too, for when she meets him again, he will not be the boy he is now. His
+face will be browned by the tropical sun, and he will have become a man;
+he will have an air of command which comes naturally to a man who lives,
+often by himself, in charge of a district, and has to rule and judge and
+decide for the dark-skinned people.
+
+Close beside us there are several men smoking big cigars, and one of
+them says loudly, "All right, old chap, I'll bring one back for you next
+week; I shall cross again on Monday." He runs over to Paris on business
+every week and thinks no more of it than of going to his office in the
+morning. A trip to France is very easy when you have the means to do it
+comfortably.
+
+Then we take our seats, and the train steams out of the station, leaving
+the crowd on the platform to scatter. After a long run, with no stops,
+we reach Dover and go on board a steamer which seems quite large enough
+to anyone who is not used to steamers. Our heavy luggage has been sent
+on board the big ship which will meet us at Marseilles, so we have only
+our handbags to carry. The crossing is quite short, and it is best to
+stay on deck if you don't want to be ill. The very first thing to
+notice, as we gradually draw away from the land, is the whiteness of the
+towering chalk cliffs which stand out prominently near Dover. Often you
+must have read of the "white cliffs of Old Albion," and if you live in
+the north or away from the sea, you must have wondered what they were;
+now this explains it all. When the Romans came over from the Continent
+they crossed the sea the shortest way, and in approaching this unknown
+island were struck with astonishment at the high gleaming white cliffs,
+unlike anything they had seen before; they were so much amazed that ever
+after the "white cliffs" were the chief feature of Britain in their
+eyes.
+
+There is a break in the cliffs, where Dover now stands, and here the
+Romans later on made a port, and a port it has remained to this day.
+
+If we are lucky in getting a fine day for the crossing we can sit on
+deck-chairs, looking at the dazzling milky-blue sea and sky until
+someone cries out, "There's France!"
+
+[Illustration: NUMBERS OF EAGER LITTLE PORTERS.]
+
+You will not be able to make out anything at all at first, because land
+does not look in the least what you expect when you see it first from
+the sea. You would naturally search for a long dark line low down on the
+horizon, but it isn't like that at all. There is a hazy bluish cloud,
+very indistinct, and seemingly transparent, but as we draw nearer it
+grows clearer, and then houses and ships can be discerned, and after a
+good deal of manoeuvring and shouting and throwing of ropes and
+churning up the water with the screw, two bridges are pushed across to
+the dock, and numbers of eager little porters, dressed in bright blue
+linen suits with very baggy trousers, surround us and implore us to
+allow them to carry our baggage.
+
+"Me Engleesh speaking, sir."
+
+"Good me, good man me."
+
+"Baggage carrying me."
+
+They are here, there, and everywhere, so good-natured, so lively, so
+different from the stolid English porters. Their eyes are very bright
+and they will take money of any kind, French or English, it matters not
+to them.
+
+We have had to get our money changed on the boat, and that is the first
+thing that makes us feel we are really out of England. In exchange for
+an English gold pound we get twenty-five--not twenty--French shillings;
+these shillings are called francs and are not unlike our shillings at a
+first glance, but they are thinner and lighter. Some have the head of
+Napoleon, the last French Emperor, on them--these are old; the latest
+new ones are rather interesting, for they have a little olive branch on
+one side and a graceful figure of a woman sowing seed on the other, so
+one can interpret the meaning as peace and plenty. If you change a franc
+into copper you get ten--not twelve--pennies for it, and French pennies
+look very much like those of England. There are also half-franc pieces
+like little sixpences, and two-franc pieces like smaller florins, and
+gold pounds called Louis or Napoleons, and half-sovereigns too, but all
+the money seems light and rather unreal when one is accustomed to our
+more solid coins.
+
+We walk up the gangway into a large barn-like place, where we meet some
+smart-looking men in uniform with pointed moustaches turned up to their
+eyes and a fierce expression. They stand behind a shelf, on which all
+the baggage from the boat is put, and we approach this with our bags in
+our hands.
+
+[Illustration: PASSING THE CUSTOMS.]
+
+The official demands in French if we have anything to declare, meaning,
+are we bringing across anything which it is forbidden to sell in France,
+such as brandy, matches, or cigarettes, for if so we must declare it and
+pay something to the Government for allowing us to bring it. We answer
+that we have nothing. "Rien, Monsieur," very politely, hoping to soften
+his heart, and as we both have honest faces he believes us and scrawls a
+chalk-mark on our bags and lets us pass. We are lucky, for now we can go
+straight on to the train and get good places before the crowd follows.
+Some unfortunate people, however, are caught. One woman who is wearing a
+hat with enormous feathers and very high-heeled shoes, has two huge
+trunks.
+
+She tries to slip a five-franc piece into the hand of one of the
+custom-house officers. It is a silly thing to do, for it at once makes
+him think she is concealing something; very loudly and virtuously he
+refuses the money, hoping that everyone notices how upright he is, and
+then he insists on the contents of her trunks being turned out on to the
+counter. Piles of beautiful underclothing are spread out before all
+those men; silk and satin frocks come next; numberless dressing-table
+ornaments in silver and gold, and little bottles by the dozen; boots and
+shoes and books follow, while Madame begins to weep and then changes to
+screaming and raving. She is a Frenchwoman who has been staying in
+England, but she did not escape any more than an English-woman. How she
+will ever manage to get all her finery stuffed back into those boxes
+without ruining it I don't know, and we haven't time to wait to see.
+
+The platform is very low and the train looks in consequence much larger
+than an English one, as we have to climb up into it almost from the
+ground. It is a corridor train, and the first classes are lined with a
+kind of drab cloth, which does not seem so suitable for railway work as
+our dark blue colour. The guard sets us off with a little "birr-r-r"
+like a toy cock crowing. When we move out of the station at last we find
+ourselves going at a snail's pace along a street, and at once we catch
+our breath with interest--it is all so strange! Never will you forget
+that first glimpse of a foreign land! The very air is different, with a
+sharp pleasant smell of wood-smoke in it. Some people say that every
+foreign country has its own smell and that they would know where they
+were with their eyes shut! This must be an exaggeration, still there is
+something in it!
+
+As the train goes slowly forward a clanging bell rings on the engine to
+warn the people to get off the lines, which are not fenced in in any
+way. On every side you see neat little women wearing no hats, with their
+hair done up in top-knots; they are out marketing, and most of them
+carry immense baskets or string-bags stuffed with cabbages and carrots
+and other vegetables. The children are nearly all dark, with brown skins
+and bright black eyes, and they look thin but full of life. The boys
+wear a long pinafore or overall of cheap black stuff, and even the
+biggest go about in short socks, showing their bare legs, which looks
+rather babyish to us. The sun is shining brilliantly, and on most of the
+pavements there are chairs set out around small tables where men in
+perfectly amazingly baggy corduroy trousers and blue blouses sit and
+drink variously coloured drinks. A little boy who was too near the line
+is caught away by his agitated mother, who pours out over him a babble
+of words, and the child, laughing roguishly, answers her as volubly. Not
+one sentence, not one word, can we understand, though we are quite near
+and can hear it all. When you remember the painfully slow way you have
+learnt _avoir_ and _etre_ at school it is maddening to think that this
+child, much younger than you, can rattle away in French without any
+trouble, and it is still more annoying that when you _did_ think you
+knew a little French you cannot make out one single word! French spoken
+is so very different from French learnt out of a book! However, for your
+comfort you must remember that that little bright-eyed boy, whose name
+is probably Pierre or Jacques, would think you very clever indeed to be
+able to talk in English.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE FRENCH BOY.]
+
+The houses have a strange look; it is chiefly because every single one
+of them, even the poorest, has sun-shutters outside the windows, set
+back against the wall; they are of wood, mostly painted green and
+pierced with slits. In countries where the sun is hot and strong at
+midday the rooms must be kept cool by such shutters.
+
+When we are once clear of the town the train soon gets up great speed,
+and we race through green fields with hedgerows and trees as in our own
+land, and yet even here there is something different. It may be because
+of the long lines of poplars, like "Noah's Ark" trees, which appear very
+frequently, or it may be the country houses we see here and there, which
+are more "Noah's Ark" still, being built very stiffly and painted in
+bright reds and yellows and greens that look like streaks. At the level
+crossings you see women standing holding a red flag furled, for women
+seem to do as much of the work on the railways as men; and waiting at
+the gates there is often a team of three or four horses, each decorated
+with an immense sheep-skin collar, that looks as if it must be most hot
+and uncomfortable. Occasionally we catch sight of what looks like a
+rookery in the trees seen against the sky; however, the dark bunches are
+not nests at all, but lumps of mistletoe growing freely. Rather a
+fairytale sort of country where mistletoe can be got so easily!
+
+We can stay all night in Paris if we like, and travel the next day to
+Marseilles, and stay a night there too. That is doing the journey
+easily. Many people go right through, running round Paris in a special
+train and being carried speeding through France all night. There are
+sleeping cars made up like little cabins with beds in them and every
+luxury. But it is tiring to travel on continuously in a French train, as
+the carriages are made very hot by steam, and French people object to
+having the windows open at all, so the atmosphere gets almost
+unbearable, according to our ideas.
+
+We shan't have time to see much of Paris if we just stay the night
+there, but as we drive through in a taxi-cab we can see how full of life
+it is, though at this time of the year people do not sit out at the
+little tables on the pavements late in the evening as they do in the
+summer. There are taxi-cabs everywhere, and they all pass each other on
+the right side, you notice, the opposite side from that which we use;
+you will find this in all other foreign countries but Sweden, and in
+some Provinces of Austria. Though Great Britain stands almost alone, in
+this case she is certainly in the right, for the driver ought to be on
+the side near the vehicle he is passing, and also the whip coming in the
+middle of the street is less liable to flick anyone than if it was on
+the pavement side.
+
+The hotels in Paris are many and magnificent; when we arrive at one all
+gilt and glitter, we ask for small rooms, as it is only for one night,
+and are taken up to two tiny apartments simply crammed with furniture.
+It is enough to make anyone laugh, for there is hardly room to turn
+round. Both are alike. In each the bed is covered with a magnificent
+yellow satin brocade coverlet; there is a large arm-chair, which quite
+prevents the door of the huge wardrobe from opening. The washing-stand,
+which has taps of hot and cold water, is crammed into a corner so that
+one can hardly get at it. There is a writing-table with ink and
+blotting-pad and everything else for writing, but no dressing-table and
+nowhere at all to put one's brushes. Above the mantelpiece is a big
+mirror, too high for you to look into, though I can peer round that
+immense gilt clock to do my shaving. The rest of the mantelpiece is
+taken up with heavy marble ornaments--utterly useless--and gilt
+candlesticks. There is a telephone on the wall, and down this we can
+give our orders into the hall. Luckily I know enough French to ask for
+what we want, though if you stand giggling at me every word will go out
+of my head when the man below inquires my wishes.
+
+It is by means of this telephone I order breakfast for us both to be
+sent up next morning. All we can get is coffee, or tea, with rolls and
+butter and two poached or boiled eggs. You'll have to make this do. It
+is the custom here. In France people start with only coffee and rolls
+and then go off and do a good morning's work, and come back again to eat
+a large meal which is a sort of breakfast and lunch rolled into one, at
+about twelve o'clock. It all depends on what one is accustomed to, and
+certainly we look very hungrily at the small dish of eggs that appears!
+
+Meantime I am getting a little anxious about my boots. I put them out
+last night to be cleaned, but this is such a large place, with so many
+people coming and going, that I began to wonder if they have been taken
+to the wrong room; timidly I ask the waiter, who brings the breakfast,
+if he can find them. With a knowing smile he stoops down and opens a
+tiny cupboard in the wall near the door, and there, slipped in from
+outside, are the boots! "Voila!" he says triumphantly, as if he had just
+brought off a successful conjuring trick. Certainly what with the taps
+and telephone and trap-doors for boots this hotel is very much up to
+date.
+
+North of Paris we have seen orchards of apple and cherry trees, but
+farther south, as we rush along, we get into a land of vineyards, where
+rows of little vines are being cultivated on every foot of ground on the
+hillsides. By nightfall we reach Marseilles, and if we were going on to
+Toulon it would have taken two hours more.
+
+Marseilles is the largest seaport in France, and is second only to Paris
+in size and importance.
+
+Do you know those preserved fruits which generally appear about
+Christmas-time in oval cardboard or long wooden boxes? Have you ever
+wondered if they are real fruit, and where they come from? They _are_
+real fruit, boiled and dipped in syrup, though they taste very different
+from the same fruit freshly gathered. A great deal of the preserving is
+done in France, especially along the south coast, and when we get to
+Marseilles we are in the very heart of the business.
+
+After passing the night in an hotel we have time to wander about a bit
+before going down to the docks to find our ship.
+
+The sun is shining brightly as we turn out after another breakfast,
+which only seems to have given an edge to our keen British appetites.
+There is a nasty cold wind blowing round corners and buffeting people.
+The pavements are very lively; we see women and girls hurrying about
+doing household shopping, and boys in heavy cloth capes and military
+caps, so that they look like cadets, this is the uniform worn by
+better-class schoolboys in France. The French policemen, called
+gendarmes, are also in uniform of so military a kind that unless we knew
+we should certainly mistake them for soldiers.
+
+There are stalls set out on the pavements, heaped up with embroidery and
+odds and ends, including soap, which is manufactured here very largely.
+Bright-eyed girls try to entice us to buy as we pass. One street is just
+like a flower garden, lined with stalls piled up with violets and roses
+and anemones and other blossoms. Trams follow one another along the
+rails in an endless procession. We walk on briskly and turn down a side
+street; here at last is what I have been looking for, and well worth
+finding it is too! It is a shop with great plate-glass windows; on one
+side is every kind of preserved fruit, and on the other a variety of
+chocolates, tarts, and expensive sweets. Look at that dainty box filled
+with dark green figs, artistically set off by sugared violets pressed
+into all the niches! These are rather different from the flat, dry brown
+figs which is all that English children recognise under that name.
+Another box glows with tiny oranges, mandarins they call them here, and
+piled up over them are richly coloured cherries shining with sugar
+crystals. In the centre is an enormous fruit like a dark orange-coloured
+melon, surrounded by heaps of others, while the plain brown chestnuts,
+that don't attract much notice, are really the best of all, for they are
+the _marrons glaces_ for which Marseilles is famed, and once you have
+tasted these, freshly made, all other sweets will seem insipid to you.
+
+[Illustration: THE FRENCH POLICEMAN.]
+
+Inside the shop there are many carefully dressed ladies, daintily
+holding little plates, and going about from one counter to another,
+picking up little cakes filled with cream and soaked in syrup. They eat
+scores of them, and they do it every day and any hour of the day, in the
+morning or afternoon or whenever they happen to pass. No wonder they
+look pasty-faced! We are only here for once, so we need have no
+compunction about our digestions, especially as there is an empty place
+left after that tantalising bacon-less breakfast. We are soon provided
+with a plate each and a little implement which looks as if it had
+started life as a butter-knife and suddenly changed its mind to become a
+fork.
+
+The shop-girls take no notice of what we eat; we can pick and choose
+freely, and at the end they trust us to say how many cakes we have had.
+We can get here also cups of thick rich chocolate, and, if we wanted
+it, some tea, though it is only of late years that French people have
+taken to drinking tea at all freely, for coffee is their national
+beverage.
+
+Well, come along, tear yourself away, we must get a cab and go down to
+our ship which is at the docks.
+
+In the cab we pass what is called the Old Port with picturesque rows of
+weather-beaten sailing boats; only the sailing boats are allowed to come
+in here. Rising up against the sky at the far end of the port is a
+curious bridge quite unlike any other you have seen, for the bridge part
+is at a great height and there is nothing below by which people or
+vehicles can cross over. How is anyone going to take the trouble to
+climb up there? How, above all, are carts or carriages going to manage
+it?
+
+You can easily make a rough model to see the principle of this bridge
+for yourself. Get a couple of the tallest candlesticks in the house, and
+put a stick across them, run a curtain ring on to the stick, and to the
+ring attach numerous threads fastened at the lower end to a flat bit of
+card or board like a raft. Then, by pushing the ring along the stick,
+you can make the raft follow across below. The stick represents the high
+bridge, and the raft in reality rests on the surface of the water, and
+when the machinery above, represented by the ring, is set in motion, it
+rumbles across and draws with it the floating raft, which is large
+enough to take a great number of men and vehicles. Every ten minutes or
+so this floating bridge passes over from one side to another, and people
+pay a sou, which is the French halfpenny, to travel with it. Thus, you
+see, when a tall ship comes in she has only to avoid the raft, and she
+can sail in beneath the high bridge without any trouble. We could, if we
+wished, go up in a lift to the high bridge; but the railings up there
+are far apart, and there is a high wind blowing, you are not very big,
+and if you slipped between I should have to give up my voyage round the
+world; so I think we won't, if you don't mind!
+
+Besides, we have to catch our ship waiting at the docks, and she will be
+off very soon.
+
+Now that you have heard what we should probably do and see if we went
+across France, will you take this journey or will you start from England
+and go right round in the ship?
+
+You answer that though you would like to see the little blue-bloused
+porters, and that it would amuse you to think that the little French
+boys and girls could speak no English, and though you would certainly
+_love_ the _marrons glaces_, you think, after all, having heard about
+it, we might just as well go the other way round, though, of course--the
+_marrons glaces_----
+
+Sensible boy! Forget about them! We'll go round. In the very next
+chapter we'll be up and off in earnest.
+
+[Illustration: OUR OWN POWERFUL AND UGLY IRONCLADS, LIKE BULLDOGS
+GUARDING THE FORT.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+REALLY OFF!
+
+
+It is exciting to start on any journey, even if it is only one we have
+done before, but to go off round the world that is a real adventure!
+
+There are many lines of steamers we could choose to go by, but we will
+select for this first part of the journey the Orient Line. The choice
+really lies between that and the P. & O., as we have already decided,
+and for many reasons it is best to begin with the Orient and join the
+other later. The main reason being that I want you to see a little of as
+many European countries as possible, and the Orient ships stop at
+Naples, in Italy, while those of the other line do not.
+
+The ships in the Orient fleet all begin with an O; there are the
+_Otranto_, _Otway_, and many more, but the boat which suits us and
+happens to sail on the date we want to start--in the beginning of
+November--is the _Orontes_. She is not the largest ship in the fleet,
+having about half a dozen before her on the list, but she is a good ship
+and very steady.
+
+Our jumping-off place is London, whence a special train runs from the
+station of St. Pancras down to the docks at Tilbury, where the _Orontes_
+is waiting for us. The long platform beside the train is covered with
+people when we arrive there, so that we have some difficulty in finding
+seats. If all these people were coming with us we should have a full
+ship indeed, but the one half of them is only seeing the other half off!
+
+The line passes through dreary flat country, and at last we catch sight
+of open water and funnels and feel as if we must be right down at the
+Thames' mouth, but we are very far from that yet.
+
+[Illustration: THE _ORONTES_.]
+
+The heavy luggage has all been sent on ahead, and passengers are told
+only to bring with them what can be carried in the hand; judging from
+the piles of boxes that are tumbled out of the train many of them must
+have tolerably large hands!
+
+[Illustration: A STEWARD.]
+
+We pass through a great shed, and coming out on the other side find our
+ship there, right up against the dock side. It towers above us, blocking
+out the sky as a street of six-storey houses would do. In fact, it is
+rather like looking up at a street side, and when we see the sloping
+ladder leading to the deck, like those used for hen-roosts but on a
+giant scale, we feel our adventure is well begun. Hang on to the
+hand-rail, for the wind is blowing hard, and if you went down into the
+black dirty water between the ship and the dock there would be very
+little chance of getting you out again; even as we climb up something
+flicks past us and is carried away, and we see it floating far below; it
+is an enormous white handkerchief which the man up there on deck has
+been waving to his wife in farewell. It is gone, and it is to be hoped
+he has another handy, he'll need it to-day. At the top of the ladder a
+man in uniform looks at our ticket and calls out the number of our
+cabin. He is so smart and has such a dignified manner we might well
+mistake him for the captain, but he is an officer, called the purser,
+who looks after the passengers. A bright-faced steward, unmistakably
+English, takes possession of us and pilots us down some well-carpeted
+stairs, through a large room where small tables are laid for lunch, and
+into a very long narrow passage shining with white enamel paint. There
+are little doors with numbers on them on one side, and about half-way
+along the steward stops and ushers us into our cabin. It is a tiny room.
+If you lay down from side to side you could touch each wall with head
+and heels, and if I lay down from end to end I could do the same, and I
+am rather bigger than you! There are two shelves, one above the other,
+made up as beds, a piece of furniture with drawers and a looking-glass
+in it, a fixed basin such as those you see in bathrooms, and a few pegs
+to hang things on, and that is all. Our cabin trunks, which we sent on
+ahead, are here before us, and through the open round port-hole we catch
+a glimpse of grey water. We are lucky indeed to get a cabin to
+ourselves, for in many, not a bit larger than this, there would be a
+third bunk or bed, and a stranger would be forced in on us. When we have
+settled our things you will be surprised to find how comfortable it all
+is, for everything is so conveniently arranged. It is just as well to
+put out what we shall want at once while the ship is steady, for once
+she begins to roll----
+
+When we have done this we go back to the saloon, encountering many
+people rushing wildly to and fro with bags and bundles, still unable to
+find their cabins, having come on at the last minute. In the great
+saloon, those who are going ashore are hastily swallowing cups of hot
+tea, and just as we arrive a bell rings to warn them to get off the ship
+if they don't want to be carried away with her.
+
+They flock down the gangway while we stand high above, and many
+good-byes are shouted, and some are tearful and some are quite casual
+and cheerful. Then the gangway is moved, but just before it goes down
+with a run there is a shout, and two policemen hurry along the quay
+hauling two shamefaced-looking men who are hustled up into the ship
+again. They are stokers who fire the furnaces for the engines far down
+below in the bowels of the ship. They had signed on for this voyage and
+at the last minute tried to slink away, but have been caught and forced
+back to their work.
+
+Now the strip of water widens and very slowly we move from the quay,
+being dragged ignominiously backward across the great basin in which we
+lie by a diminutive steamer called a tug. We are not out in the river
+yet and our own engines have not begun to work. You can understand that
+it would be very difficult to load a ship if she stood always in the
+river, where there are rising and falling tides, so, to make this
+easier, great docks have been built along the river, and in them the
+flow of the tides is regulated, so that the water remains always at
+pretty much the same level.
+
+The tug that pulls us across the dock on our way out looks absurdly
+small, like a little Spitz dog pulling a great deerhound; but it does
+its work well, and presently we glide into a narrow cut between high
+walls; this is the lock, the entrance to the dock, and the water is held
+up by great gates at each end as required, just as it is on river locks
+for boats. Once we are inside the great gates behind us are shut, and
+presently those at the farther end open and we see two other little tugs
+waiting there to take us in charge. We are going out at the top of the
+tide, and if we missed it should have to wait for another twelve hours,
+or there would not be sufficient water in the river to float the ship
+comfortably. We are still stern first, so if we want to see the fun we
+must climb up to the top deck at that end. The wind is blowing a perfect
+gale and almost drives us off our feet; it catches the side of the ship
+and makes it far harder work for the gallant grimy tugs, which are
+pulling and straining at the taut ropes till they look like bars of iron
+lying between us and them. They churn the water to a fury, and pour
+forth volumes of black smoke; inch by inch we feel the ship moving out;
+her stern is dragged up-stream, so that when she is finally swung clear,
+her bows are pointing seaward and she is ready to go. It is an exciting
+moment when the ropes are cast off, and there is a great deal of running
+about and shouting, and then our own engines begin gently but powerfully
+to do their work. The screws beneath the stern revolve and we have
+started on our long, long voyage!
+
+[Illustration: SHE IS ON THE POINT OF LEAVING HER COUNTRY. PERHAPS FOR
+EVER.]
+
+There are no waves in the river; only those who are very nervous will
+think about being ill yet awhile, and this is a good chance to examine
+the great ship which is to be our home for some time.
+
+There is plenty of room to walk about on the decks or to play games when
+we reach a more summer-like climate. There are many rooms where we can
+shelter in the wet and cold weather, a great lounge with writing-tables,
+and a smoking-room--and there is no house on earth kept so spotlessly
+clean as a ship!
+
+[Illustration: THE CAPTAIN.]
+
+When we go down to dinner we sit on chairs that swing round like office
+chairs, only they are fixed into the floor, and as they only swing one
+way, there are some funny scenes till people get used to them. We have
+hardly taken our seats when a very magnificent man with a white
+waistcoat and gold shoulder straps and much gold lace on his uniform
+comes and sits down too, and smiles and bows to everyone. This is the
+captain, and we must be more distinguished than we guessed, for we have
+been put at his table, where the honoured passengers usually find seats.
+Though this captain has such a kindly smile, a captain can be very
+terrifying indeed; he is king in his ship, and has absolute authority;
+his word is law, as, of course, it must be, for the safety of the whole
+ship's company depends on him, and there is the fine tradition, which
+British captains always live up to, that in case of any accident
+happening to the ship the captain must be the last man to quit her.
+Innumerable captains indeed have preferred to go down into the
+unfathomable depths with their ships sooner than leave them when they
+have been wrecked.
+
+For several days there are very few people to be seen about, and the
+rows of empty chairs at the table and on deck are rather depressing, but
+as the weather brightens a little people creep out of their cabins;
+white-faced ladies come to lie, rolled in rugs, on the sheltered side of
+the deck, and the chairs are filled. Yet it is still a little dismal,
+though we tramp sturdily up and down and would not admit it for the
+world. The strong wind blows endlessly and the great grey waves are
+always rolling on monotonously one after another, one after another, in
+huge hillocks. So we plough down the English Channel and across the Bay
+of Biscay, which is no rougher than anywhere else, though people ask
+with bated breath, "When shall we be in the Bay?" "Are we through the
+Bay yet?" as if there was no other bay in all the world.
+
+Then comes a day when all at once everyone on board seems to wake up and
+become alive again. The sun shines in patches along the decks and the
+sea is blue and sparkling. We are passing close beside a steep and rocky
+coast, and so near do we go that we can see the white waves dashing
+against it and even spouting up in sheets of spray through blow-holes in
+the cliffs. What we see is the coast of Spain, so we have set eyes for
+the first time on another country than our own. There are many other
+steamers in this stretch of water, some small and some as large as ours,
+some coming and some going. It is all much more lively than it was.
+Soon we have pointed out to us the place where the battle of Trafalgar
+was fought, when Britain won a victory that assured her the dominion of
+the seas up to the present time--a battle in which our greatest sailor,
+Lord Nelson, was killed in the moment of victory!
+
+It is the next morning after this that, when we wake up, we find that
+the tossing and rocking motion has ceased; it is curiously quiet, the
+iron plates that bind the ship together no longer creak and groan as if
+they were in agony. We are bewildered. Then in a moment the meaning of
+all this flashes upon us. We have reached Gibraltar!
+
+Coming up on deck we find the scene glorious. The sun is shining out of
+a cloudless sky on to a sea so blue that it gives one a sort of pleasant
+pain to look at its loveliness. The air is brilliant, as if we were
+living at the heart of a crystal. The ship is stealing along so silently
+and gently she hardly seems to move, and then she comes to anchor in a
+bay that seems to be surrounded on all sides with hills. Some of these
+hills, lying rather far away, gleam white in the sunshine; they are part
+of the great continent of Africa, and so, though it is only in the
+distance, we have set eyes on our first new continent. Towering up
+before us, with mighty bulk, is an immense rock, rising bald and rather
+awful into the pure sky. Near the summit its sides are completely bare,
+seamed by great gashes, and broken by masses of rock that look as if
+they might crash down at any moment. Apes live up there, wild
+mischievous creatures, who descend to steal from the orchards below, but
+are so shy that they are hardly ever seen of men. They are of a kind
+called Barbary apes, only found elsewhere in Africa; and it is thought
+that perhaps, many ages ago, Europe was joined to Africa at this point,
+and that when a great convulsion occurred which broke the two asunder
+and let the water flow through the Straits of Gibraltar some of the apes
+may have been left on this side, where their descendants still are,
+sundered for ever from their kinsfolk by the strip of sea.
+
+About the base of the rock is a little town running up the hill and
+brightened by many trees--this is Gibraltar itself, one of the most
+famous places in the world. For this alone it is well worth while to
+come round by sea.
+
+[Illustration: A BARBARY APE.]
+
+Anyone can see at a glance why it is so important. That little strait,
+about a dozen miles across, is the only natural entrance by water into
+the Mediterranean Sea, which lies all along the south of Europe. At the
+other end men have had to cut a way out by means of a canal. If ever
+European nations were at war, the nation which held Gibraltar would be
+able to prevent the ships of other countries from getting into or coming
+out of the Mediterranean. It could smash them with big guns if they
+tried, or blow them up. So that even if the country on each side were
+flat this would still be an important place; but nature has made here a
+precipitous rock, which is a natural fortress, and by great good luck
+this belongs, not to the country of Spain, of which it is the southern
+part, but to Great Britain. To find out how this is so you must go to
+history. Gibraltar has been held by Britain for many years now, and
+though the King of Spain is very friendly with Britain, and has married
+an English princess, I think he must sometimes feel a little sore over
+Gibraltar.
+
+Lying in a basin on one side of us are some of our own powerful and ugly
+ironclads, like bulldogs guarding the fort, and on the other side are
+ships of all nations, come on peaceful trading errands or for pleasure
+cruises, including a dainty little white French yacht that looks like a
+butterfly which has just alighted.
+
+We go ashore in a launch and are met on the quay by a medley of strange
+folk and a great clamour of voices! The men and women are nearly all
+dark skinned and black eyed, and yet they are all speaking English after
+a fashion. A woman offers us a curiously twisted openwork basket of
+oranges, with the deep-coloured fruit gleaming through the meshes, a man
+implores us to take some of the absurdly neat little nosegays he has
+made up, picture postcards are thrust under our noses, and cabmen wildly
+beseech us to patronise their open vehicles. It is a brilliant scene,
+full of life and colour and warmth, and the people all seem
+good-humoured and jolly.
+
+Sitting huddled up against a wall, with some odd-looking bundles beside
+them, are a group of very poor people; they are emigrants about to leave
+their own country for South America. Out there in the bay is the
+emigrant ship, and dipping toward her over the open water are several
+boats loaded down to the gunwale going out; others have reached her side
+and the people swarm up like flies. This group on the quay are awaiting
+their turn. A small boy and girl are rolling about in the sun like
+little lizards and laughing gaily. The little girl is called Maria and
+is about ten years old; she has a tiny scarlet shawl pinned across her
+chest, and her bright black hair shines in the sunlight; in her wee
+brown ears are little gilt ear-rings, and she is hugging tightly to her
+bosom a large and very gaudy doll. It is not exactly the kind of doll an
+English child would care about, because its face is the face of an idiot
+and it is made of some sort of poor composition stuff; its clothes are
+tawdry material of tinsel and stiff muslin, and are pinned on by pins
+with coloured glass heads glittering in the sun. Maria thinks it lovely
+and shrieks if her young brother Sebastian lays a finger on it. She is
+on the point of leaving her own country, perhaps for ever, to travel for
+thousands of miles to a land where everything is different from what she
+is used to; but she is as unconscious of this as if she were a little
+kitten, and as long as she can roll in the sunshine and hug her doll,
+the first she has ever possessed, the thought of the morrow does not
+trouble her soul.
+
+Her home lies far away in the interior of Spain, and her parents have
+travelled to Gibraltar in carts and then in a marvellous thing called a
+train which made the children shriek with delight when it moved off
+without horses. Maria and Sebastian were brought up in a hovel with a
+mud floor, and only one room, shared with the donkey and the goat. They
+were never taught to obey, or to have their meals at regular hours, or
+to go to bed at night at a particular time; they ran in when they
+pleased, clamoured for something to eat or drink, or else fell down on a
+bundle of rags in the corner and were sound asleep in a moment. They
+often slept in the heat of the day and were up almost all night
+listening to a neighbour playing the guitar, or singing and rollicking
+with other children. Their usual drink was sour red wine made from
+grapes grown on the neighbouring hillsides after all the best juice had
+been already pressed out of them. This the peasants bought in immense
+bottles, swollen out below like little tubs, and cased in wicker-work
+with handles which made them easy to carry. In every hovel there was a
+bottle like this. To match it there was an enormous loaf of
+dark-coloured bread, made flat and round as a cart-wheel or a small
+table; bits of this were chopped off as required, and when Sebastian and
+Maria cried out they were hungry they had a lump of bread and sip of
+wine given to them, and then they became quite happy again. Sometimes
+they had olives with their bread, or chestnuts, or a salad made from
+herbs growing by the roadsides, and they had oranges very often and
+goat's milk cheese. On high days and festival days they had sometimes
+very thin hot cabbage soup out of a great black pot that boiled over a
+few sticks; they dipped their bread into it or supped it up out of large
+flat wooden spoons, wrinkling their little noses meantime because it was
+so hot. A grand treat was a purple or crimson pomegranate given by a
+kindly neighbour.
+
+When Maria was about seven the whole family moved into a town where the
+narrow streets were always dark between the tall thin houses. It was
+much more exciting here than in the country; there was always something
+to see, and in the evenings the whole place was like a bazaar with
+people coming and going, and shows and entertainments open half the
+night. On festival days the streets were gay with lanterns, and festoons
+of coloured paper and flags were waved until the children thought it
+like heaven.
+
+Then came a talk of crossing the sea. Some members of the family and
+very many friends had already made a journey to a far-away country
+called Argentina, and others were thinking of going. It seemed that in
+that land, which was as sunny and warm as their own, there was more
+money to be made than in Spain, and as party by party made up their
+minds and set off in one of the great emigrant ships Maria's father grew
+more gloomy and unsettled, until at last, by one means or another, he
+had scraped together enough money to pay for their passages, and then
+they all started on the great adventure, even a greater one than our
+going round the world.
+
+[Illustration: A FLOWER SELLER AT TOULON.]
+
+It is only a couple of days after leaving Gibraltar that we reach Toulon
+in good time in the morning. We anchor well outside the splendid bay, as
+Toulon is one of the most important French ports, and no prying eyes are
+wanted there. In the little steam-launch we run past the huge
+battleships _La Verite_, _La Republique_, and others lying solidly in a
+row manned by French sailors with little red top-knots on their flat
+caps. Then we see the beautiful range of high hills surrounding the bay,
+and are landed on the quay. The market is one of the most interesting
+things here, and we are lucky to be in time for it. Up a long narrow
+street are lines of open-air stalls covered with masses of fruit and
+vegetables. The natty little Frenchwomen who sell them almost all wear
+blue aprons and black dresses, and have little three-cornered shawls
+over their shoulders.
+
+Look at that bunch of celery there, it is monstrous--the size of a
+child! Everything seems on a huge scale; there are artichokes on great
+stalks, melons gleaming deep orange-red and too large for any but a man
+to lift; scattered all about are bunches of little scarlet tomatoes not
+much bigger than grapes. But the oddest thing to us are the bunches of
+fungi, tawny-coloured, piled up in heaps, and evidently very popular!
+There are squares of matting covered with chestnuts, and whelks, like
+great snails, sticking out their horns and crawling over each other in a
+lively way. A strange medley! The flowers are lovely; you can buy a big
+bunch of violets for a son, and sou is the peasant word for a halfpenny.
+Gladiolus, anemones, roses, and mignonette fill the air with fragrance.
+It is a beautiful place this market.
+
+After lunch we stroll down to the quay again and wander idly about
+looking at the people until the launch comes to take us back to the
+steamer. There is a huge fat man seated on a low stool cleaning the
+boots of another man equally stout. Wedged into the corner beside them,
+so that they cannot stir, are two small white boys with thin pathetic
+little faces. As we watch we see the boot-cleaning man, who has a cruel,
+mean expression, pull hold of the little tunic of the nearer one, and
+point to a smear upon it, then deliberately he raises his large hand and
+smacks the child hard across the cheek. The little chap makes no effort
+to escape,--he evidently knows it is hopeless,--he only crooks a thin
+little arm over his cheek as he shrinks back. Deliberately the great man
+holds down the thin little arm and strikes him again with savage force.
+It is sickening! If we interfere the child will probably only get it
+worse afterwards. There are a few brutes like this who make their own
+children's lives a misery, though mostly French people are very kind.
+The children look so ill and pale, too, they probably don't get half
+enough to eat.
+
+"May I get them some sweets?"
+
+Happy thought! We passed a shop a minute ago. Here, wait a second, say
+to the father in your best French this sentence--
+
+"Ils sont a vous, ces garcons, Monsieur? Tres beaux garcons!"
+
+You see you have put him in a good humour, he is pleased, though the
+poor little chaps are very far from being "beaux." They seem almost too
+stupefied to understand the sweets, but they know the way to put them in
+their mouths.
+
+While we are waiting on the tender before it starts we see a different
+set of little boys; one, a delicate, pretty-looking little fellow, about
+your age, but not nearly so tall or strong, raises his cap and begins in
+English, "Good-day, Monsieur." His little companions sit around in awe
+at his knowledge and audacity. His name is Pierre, he tells us, and that
+badly dressed sturdy little boy with a sullen face is Louis. Pierre
+tries to make conversation in our own language to entertain us. "Are you
+to Australie going?" he asks. We tell him we are going first to Egypt.
+"Monter au chameau!" he cries excitedly, going off into a gabble of
+French and beseeching us to take him with us as "boy." We tell him that
+he is too small and that it costs much money. "Have you money--English?"
+he asks. He is very much interested when we show him half a crown and
+explain that it is equal to three francs of his own money. Then he
+catches sight of some English stamps. "Timbres!" he cries, and then,
+with a great effort, "I college," meaning "I collect." We give him a
+halfpenny stamp, which he carefully puts away in a battered purse
+already containing two French pennies. Louis, who has been giving
+convulsive hitches to his little trousers, which threaten to part
+company altogether with the upper garment, bursts in eagerly, asking us
+to give him a penny, adding solemnly: "Ma mere est morte," as if the
+fact of his mother being dead entitled him to demand it. We explain that
+it is not polite to ask for money. "Cigarette," he then says promptly.
+We tell him that in England the law forbids boys under sixteen to smoke,
+whereat they all shriek with laughter. So we add that Englishmen want to
+grow up tall strong men, and if they smoke as boys they won't, whereupon
+they grow grave again and nod their little heads wisely.
+
+The waves are quite wild out in the bay and we have considerable
+difficulty in jumping on to the slippery step at the foot of the long
+gangway up the ship's side. Hanging on with a firm grip we struggle
+upward, and when we reach the top we see the little French boys waving
+their good-byes to us from the tender, Pierre bowing gracefully, cap in
+hand, Louis with his disreputable air of being a little ragamuffin and
+rejoicing in it.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN POMPEII.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FIERY MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Do you learn Physical Geography? I did when I was in the schoolroom, but
+it is quite likely to have been given up now, or perhaps it is called by
+some other name. It sounds dull, but is not really, at least there was
+one part of it that interested me immensely, so much so that that
+particular page was thumbed and dirty with being turned over so many
+times. This was the page on which volcanoes were described. I never
+thought I should see a volcano, but the idea of these tempestuous
+mountains, seething with red-hot fire inside, and ready to vomit forth
+flames and lava at any time appealed to the imagination. This lava, it
+seemed, was a kind of thick treacly stuff, resembling pitch, which ran
+down the mountain-sides boiling hot and carried red ruin in its track.
+It seems nothing less than idiotic for people to live on the slopes of a
+volcano where such an awful fate might overtake them at any time, yet
+they not only _did_ so but still _do_.
+
+One of the reasons why we came by the Orient line is to see Naples,
+which stands almost under the shadow of one of the best-known volcanoes
+in the world--Vesuvius.
+
+[Illustration: VESUVIUS.]
+
+We arrive at Naples early in the morning and are the very first to be up
+and out on deck. The bay has been called one of the most lovely to be
+seen anywhere, but to-day at least it is disappointing, for there is no
+sun and only a dull grey drizzle, which carries our thoughts back to
+England at once.
+
+The houses of the town rise in tiers up the hillside, very tall and
+straight, and seem to be filled with innumerable windows.
+
+However, it is not the view of Naples itself which is called so
+beautiful but rather that of the bay _from_ Naples, especially on a blue
+and golden day, and that we have no chance of seeing. On one side of the
+bay rises the mighty mountain whose furious deeds have made him known
+and respected all over the world. There is a heavy cloud hanging around
+his crest so that we cannot see the crater; the cloud looks as if it
+were composed of smoke as much as anything else, for even yet Vesuvius
+is terribly alive.
+
+We get a hasty breakfast, for though we are going to be here till late
+afternoon, there is much to see, and we have no time to spare. Then we
+get into a little launch and steam past all the great ships lying at
+anchor. On the quay we find ourselves in a great crowd of grey uniformed
+soldiers, many of them mere lads, carrying their kit, and drawn up in
+lines waiting their turn to march on board the towering troopship
+anchored alongside, while some of them wind up the gangway like a great
+grey snake. Those already in the ship are letting down ropes to draw up
+bottles of wine or baskets of fruit from the women who sell such things.
+Within a short time Italy has become mistress of Tripoli, a country in
+Africa, and now she is finding she will have to garrison it in order to
+hold it; and though it costs her a great deal of money she is sending
+out many of her young soldiers to guard the new possession.
+
+We get some money changed on the quay, receiving in exchange a number of
+lire; the lira is very like a franc and corresponds with it and the
+English shilling, though a little less in value.
+
+This done we walk along the front to the station. Many of the streets
+are high and broad with splendid houses lining them. In them are men
+busily at work washing away the mud with long hose pipes mounted on
+little wheels, so that they look like giant lizards or funny snakes on
+legs running across the streets by themselves, and as much alive as the
+well-known advertisement of the carpet-sweeper and Mary Ann!
+
+Other streets are very narrow and filled with people buying and selling.
+There are swarms of children rolling about in the filth of the roadway;
+they are dressed in rags and their bodies show through the large holes.
+They are often playing with old bones or pebbles. Their faces are
+sometimes quite beautiful, rich golden-brown in colour, and their great
+velvety brown eyes look so sweetly innocent you would be easily taken in
+by them; but they are terrible little rogues and would beg from you or
+steal if they got the chance. Here and there are shops where macaroni is
+sold; it is ready boiling in great pans; this and cakes made of a kind
+of flour called polenta are the chief food of the Italians. The macaroni
+is made out of flour mixed with water to a stiff paste and squeezed
+through holes in a box till it comes out in long strings. It used to be
+made in all the dust and dirt of the villages, and is still often to be
+seen hanging over posts there to dry, but there are now large
+manufactories where it is made quite cleanly by machinery; we shall see
+some as we pass on our way to Pompeii, where we are going. There is one
+pleasant thing to notice, namely, wherever you look you see flowers
+growing; the larger and better-class houses have balconies filled with
+broad-leaved plants and creepers, and the very poorest people living
+high up towards the sky have window-boxes filled with flowers.
+
+At the station we find a little train, like a tram, with red velvet
+cushions, and while we sit and wait for it to take us to Pompeii, the
+city buried by Vesuvius, the rain falls softly and steadily. Presently
+the stationmaster and his assistant step out gingerly along the
+uncovered platform, holding umbrellas over their uniforms, and give the
+word of command, and very slowly we start, and jolt along, stopping
+frequently. We pass through market gardens first and then through
+endless vineyards, in many of which the clinging vines are not propped
+up on sticks, but merely looped from one poplar tree to another, for the
+trees are growing in straight rows and form a natural support. This
+ground is particularly good for vines, for the lava which has been dug
+into the soil is peculiarly fruitful.
+
+There are little white box-like houses amid the vines, and they are hung
+all over with bunches of brilliant scarlet fruit, which, when we get
+near enough to see, we find to be tiny tomatoes. Other houses have
+pumpkins also and melons and chillies, all hanging out to get dried, so
+that they look quite decorative with their strange adornments. Suddenly
+our attention is called to a broad strip of black earth, in shape like a
+river, flowing down the hillside, but made up of huge blocks as if it
+had been turned up by a giant ploughshare. This is a lava bed made by
+the last great explosion of Vesuvius in 1906, when the lava ran down in
+molten streams, tearing its way through the vineyards and sweeping
+across the railway lines; at that time two hundred people were killed.
+An enterprising firm has run a little railway to the very top of
+Vesuvius, and anyone who cares to do so can go by it and peep into the
+awful crater at the summit, and a cinematograph operator has recently
+been down one thousand feet into the crater to take films for
+exhibition. When Vesuvius is in a bad humour and has growled and
+grumbled for some days, people are not allowed to go up to the top lest
+he vomit forth his fury even while they are there and overwhelm them.
+
+While we are on the way to Pompeii I will tell you something of the
+fascinating story.
+
+Many years ago, long before the people on our islands were civilised,
+when Britons ran about dressed in skins and floated in wicker-boats
+covered by skins, there were intelligent and refined people living all
+round the base of Vesuvius; they knew, of course, that the mountain was
+a volcano, but there had never been any very terrible explosion that
+they could remember, and, anyway, the slopes of the mountain where the
+towns stood extended so far from the crater that no one thought it
+possible for any great disaster to happen. The two principal towns were
+called Herculaneum and Pompeii. The people there dressed in lovely silks
+and satins; they had beautifully built houses filled with statues and
+pictures: the women wore costly jewellery; they had plenty of
+amusements, for they danced and sang and visited each other, and had
+stalls at the amphitheatre, and supported candidates at political
+elections, and gossiped and drove in chariots, and lived and loved. They
+thought, as we all do in our turn, that they knew everything and that no
+one could reach so high a pinnacle of civilisation as they had reached.
+This was only about fifty years after Christ's death on the cross, and
+the Christians were still a comparatively small and despised band.
+
+Well, one day there was a certain amount of uneasiness felt, for a
+curious black cloud had formed over Vesuvius, and it was not quite like
+anything that had ever been seen before; people also spoke of strange
+rumblings in the bowels of the earth, and there was an oppressiveness in
+the air which alarmed the timid. Then came terrifying noises, cracklings
+and explosions, and a fine dust filled the air and began settling down
+everywhere; no sooner was it brushed off than there it was again; it
+penetrated even close shut houses, and filled the hinges so that the
+doors would not open easily. The rich people began to make arrangements
+to get away, but before they could carry them out awful confusion fell
+upon them; day was turned to night, the clouds of dust fell thickly and
+chokingly, stifling men as they ran; volumes of lava poured forth,
+sweeping like fiery serpents down the mountain-side; they rushed over
+Herculaneum, which was not far from Pompeii, so that while the one city
+was boiled the other was smothered. Curses and prayers alike were no
+avail. Men were caught and choked, houses were silted up, and the whole
+district was buried.
+
+Years passed and the tradition of the destroyed cities remained; it was
+known that they were thereabouts, but so completely had the mountain
+done its work that no one knew exactly where, and it was only
+comparatively recently that money was subscribed and the work of
+unearthing them began. By the railway we have passed through
+Herculaneum, and here we are at Pompeii. Now you shall see what this
+city of two thousand years ago was like.
+
+[Illustration: A HOUSE IN POMPEII.]
+
+The station is close to it, and as we step out of the train we go almost
+immediately into the gates of the once buried but now uncovered city,
+which is one of the wonders of the world, attracting people across
+leagues of sea and land.
+
+We find ourselves in a long narrow street lined by roofless houses. The
+stones which form the pavement are uneven and much worn, the foot-walks
+on each side are raised very high, because in wet weather these streets
+were mere torrents and the water rushed down them. Here and there are
+stepping-stones, to enable people to cross from one side to the other.
+It would have been impossible in most places for two chariots or carts
+to pass one another, and we wonder how they managed. As a fact, the
+Pompeians did not use wheeled vehicles much, but chairs or palanquins,
+and the men went on horseback. There are many open counters beside the
+street, showing that these buildings were used as shops, and in one or
+two are large marble basins hollowed out where the wine which was sold
+was kept cool. Along the side of one house is a gaudily painted serpent,
+signifying that an apothecary, or, as we should say, a chemist, lived
+here.
+
+We can go into one of the better-class dwelling-houses and we find that
+it was built around a courtyard or central hall, and we can peep into
+the sleeping-rooms, which, in spite of all the luxury of the
+inhabitants, were mere little dark cupboards with no light or air. Well,
+so they were in our castles until quite recently! There was a garden
+behind the hall in all the better-class houses, and this had almost
+always a tank for gold-fish; we can see it still; but all the little
+personal things that have been unearthed--the jewellery and household
+utensils and even the statues--have been taken to the museum at Naples
+for safe keeping, which is a pity, as the streets and living-rooms seem
+bare and cold and we need a good deal of imagination to picture them as
+they must have been.
+
+Here at last is something that makes us start and brings back the awful
+scene of death and dismay. In a deep recess by a doorway are six
+skeletons, lying in various attitudes, left exactly as they were found.
+These people had been caught; they were hurrying, evidently to get out
+of the outer door, and finding it had been silted up by dust and that
+they could not open it, had turned back, too late, and been smothered!
+There they lie now, nearly two thousand years after, just as then.
+
+There were about two thousand skeletons thus found and taken away--only
+these few were left to give visitors some idea of the tragedy that
+happened. The sticky dust and ashes which poured down upon the doomed
+city reached a depth of twenty-six feet, and they encased everything in
+a kind of crust. Dogs and cats were caught in this way, and even little
+lizards, such as those that live in the cracks of the walls in Italy to
+this day; and though their bodies had decayed away long before they
+could be dug out, yet the exact impression remained, and in many cases,
+by pouring soft plaster into the holes, men have reproduced to the life
+the poor little wriggling body that was caught in such a terrible
+prison! You can imagine what great value it has been to historians to
+find the things used by people so long ago. In most cases customs change
+gradually; the implements and utensils which one generation use are
+broken and lost and replaced by new fashions, but here, in one lump,
+stamped down hard for ever, are the things caught in a second of time
+and held in an iron grip while the years rolled by.
+
+Passing on we find a small temple to the Egyptian god Isis, and this was
+the very first object to be discovered. Some men quarrying for stone
+struck upon it and thus the long-lost site of the town was found. Then
+we see the public baths with all the arrangements for heating the water;
+the Pompeians, like the Romans, were very fond of bathing. But it is the
+little things of everyday life that impress us most, and we are brought
+up suddenly by seeing on a wall a poster of the day advocating the
+return of one particular candidate to what was the Pompeian Parliament.
+This carries us right back into the midst of them! So does also that
+drinking-fountain by the street side, where the marble has been worn
+hollow by the hands of those who leaned on it as they stretched forward
+to drink at the spout!
+
+We can walk through the market-place where the people bought and sold,
+and look down into the great amphitheatre where the shows which they all
+loved were held; but as our ship leaves at four o'clock we shall have to
+tear ourselves away and hurry back along the little line again, running
+round the base of the sullen brooding mountain which may at any time
+hurl down his thunder-bolts on the vineyards which still creep up his
+sides. Past Herculaneum, now partly unburied, and so to gay Naples,
+where the sun is breaking out.
+
+On the quay we see barrows covered with a curious flesh-coloured fruit
+about the size and shape of a large pear, and this is quite new to us.
+We discover these are called Indian figs; but why Indian? They are grown
+here and are a popular native fruit. They are covered by a thick skin,
+easily peeled off, and are full of juice and very large pips; they have
+a sweetish rather sickly taste, but one can imagine they must be a great
+boon to the poor Italians who can get a good refreshing drink for almost
+nothing.
+
+Once aboard we discover that something has gone wrong--a propeller has
+dropped a blade and the ship will not start for some hours. We might
+have stayed longer in Pompeii after all!
+
+There are compensations for everything and soon we find that this delay
+is going to be a good one for us, for it will enable us to see two other
+volcanoes which otherwise we should have missed in the darkness.
+
+We ask the night-steward to wake us in time for the first, and it seems
+as if our heads had hardly touched the pillows when we hear his voice at
+the door, "Stromboli in sight, sir!" It is cold and we are very sleepy;
+grumbling, we make our way to the front of the deck below the bridge,
+and suddenly, in the blackness ahead, there shoots up a short straight
+column of fire like that from the chimney of a blast furnace. It
+disappears as quickly and quietly as it came, and odd bits of flame,
+like red-hot cinders, roll this way and that, then all is black again.
+As the sky quickly lightens we see outlined against it a cone or
+pyramid, and from the summit there shoots out another column of flame,
+to disappear almost instantly.
+
+"Stromboli sky-rocketing," says the voice of one of the officers on the
+bridge above.
+
+All the time we are gliding nearer and nearer to the wonderful mountain,
+when, with an amazing swiftness, up flashes the sun, sweeping rays of
+colour over the sky, changing it from pale primrose to fiery orange, and
+there, black against it, is a little island so neatly made that it
+appears an exact triangle with a bite out of one side near the top.
+Stromboli is one of a group of little islands. What had appeared as
+flame in the darkness shows at the next eruption to be a puff of smoke
+from which burning lumps fall on the rocky sides and down the
+precipices. This happens about every quarter of an hour. The sea
+meantime changes to vivid blue. We are quite close now and can see tiny
+white houses nestling on the edge of the island amid clusters of green.
+What happens to the people if the boiling lava rolls down through their
+vineyards and into their houses? There is no one to answer that
+question. Perhaps it never gets so far, perhaps Stromboli has not yet
+shown himself to be a fierce volcano, but limits his eruptions to angry
+splutterings which beat on the scarred precipices of the steep sides
+above the dwellings of the people,--anyway, I don't think I should care
+to live there, just in case----
+
+We awake suddenly from our intent gazing to find ourselves the
+laughing-stock of a crowd of decently dressed men and women who have
+come up in the daylight, properly clad, and there are we in
+dressing-gowns, not over-long, and slippered feet! But no one minds
+these little mishaps on board ship, and with dignity we pass through to
+our cabin, smiling and feeling very superior to have seen so much more
+than the lie-abeds!
+
+As it happens, it is Sunday morning and a very different day from
+yesterday, with bright sun and a clear sky. As a rule there is service
+on board ship on Sundays, but to-day we are just going to pass through
+the Straits of Messina, and the captain must be on the bridge the whole
+time, and there is no clergyman to take the duty for him, so we can't
+have it. But we could hardly pass a Sunday better than in admiring the
+marvellous beauty which God has given to us in this world for our
+delight.
+
+It is about four hours after passing Stromboli that we enter the straits
+which separate Sicily, the three-cornered island, from Italy, which
+seems to be kicking it away with the toe of its foot. Land begins to
+close in on us, and in the dazzling sunshine it appears radiant, while
+the sea is a mirror of blue. On both sides we see houses and villages
+built on the sloping shores, but the interest heightens when we come
+close abreast the great town of Messina which, on the 20th of December
+1908, suddenly became world-famous owing to the awful misfortune which
+befell it. All educated people knew Messina by name previously, but it
+was not until the Italian wires flashed the story of the earthquake
+which had wrought destruction so swiftly and dramatically that it will
+always be ranked as among the most appalling that ever happened, that
+everyone with one consent turned their attention to Messina, and the
+eyes of the whole world were focused on it. The suddenness of the
+calamity was the most terrible feature of it. It was early in the
+morning when the earth shook and heaved and raised itself, and in about
+four minutes, what had been a happy prosperous town was reduced to a
+smoking ruin, a shambles of dead bodies, and a hell on earth for the
+miserable beings who lived in it! Almost all the houses fell together;
+whole streets of them collapsed like a pack of cards, and the shock was
+so tremendous that in many cases even the bricks and stone of which they
+were made were ground to powder. Tens of thousands of people were
+buried before they could get into the streets, and their own houses,
+where they had been happy and miserable, had been born or married or
+suffered, were turned into their tombs. Those who were killed outright
+were not the most unfortunate, for others were caught by a limb beneath
+falling stones, or crushed and held yet living, and their direful
+shrieks of agony added to the horrors, for there was none to help them,
+all were in the grip of the same misfortune. To add to the disaster
+flames broke out from the ruined houses, and the city was lit by the
+lurid light of fire rising to heaven. No one will ever know how many
+hapless creatures were burnt to death! There was no possibility of
+working the telegraph wires, and the people left alive simply had to
+wait for help till help came. And meantime volumes of water, disturbed
+by the change of sea-level, rolled in upon the land!
+
+Directly the news startled the whole civilised world, ships of all
+nations, which happened to be anywhere near, hastened to the rescue.
+Camps were hastily run up and the survivors taken to them, food was
+supplied to all who needed it, the wounded and maimed were attended to,
+and wherever possible those who were still living in the ruins were dug
+out and set free. But, as you may imagine, this was a work of great
+danger, because dragging out a beam or stone often sent a shattering
+avalanche down on the top of the rescuers.
+
+The number of those destroyed can never be known certainly, but it is
+estimated at somewhere about 200,000, for Messina is a large town.
+Charitable people sent subscriptions from all quarters; money flowed in;
+those children who had lost their parents, and even in some cases their
+names and identity, being too small to give any account of themselves,
+were placed in kind homes and provided for, and those who were
+completely crippled assured of support; others were given the means to
+start life once more. It is difficult to imagine that all this happened
+only a few short years ago now; even though we are quite close to
+Messina, and have the use of a very fine pair of field-glasses, it is
+difficult to make out any of the mischief. It appears as if the houses
+had been rebuilt, warehouses and chimneys stand as usual, and the great
+viaduct spans the valley; but those who know say that this is only a
+good face seen from the sea, and that ruins still lie in quantities
+behind. In the memories of those who passed through the earthquake there
+must be a shuddering horror never to be forgotten, a black mark passing
+athwart their lives and cutting them into two parts--that before and
+that after the catastrophe.
+
+Farther on more little villages appear, some looking just like a spilt
+box of child's bricks tumbled any way down a mountain spur. Then we
+catch sight of the great majesty of Etna, the third volcano we have seen
+in two days, and we stand lost in admiration of his pure beauty.
+
+The smoothness of the eternal snow glows like a silver shield on the
+breast of the giant peak. Far below are vineyards, olive groves,
+orchards, and orange and lemon groves, for Sicily is celebrated for
+these fruits. Above them are beech-woods, so deep and dark that they are
+seldom penetrated even by the peasants; beautiful as the beech is, it is
+a poisonous tree and nothing can live beneath its shade.
+
+It is all so smiling and peaceful on this serene Sunday morning that we
+can hardly believe that in Etna too there lies the raging demon of
+mighty force. Even as we watch a faint puff of pure white smoke, so thin
+that it might be mistaken for a wisp of cloud, floats away from the peak
+into the infinite blue, and we know by his breath that the demon is not
+dead but only sleeping.
+
+"Lucky indeed to get Etna clear of clouds," says one of the passengers
+near us. "I've been through the Straits a score of times and I've hardly
+ever seen it as you are seeing it for the first time to-day."
+
+Volcanoes and earthquakes are closely connected. There lies within this
+world of ours an imprisoned power of vital heat, which now and again
+bursts through at weak places in the crust. Geologists tell us that
+these weak places may be traced in long lines on the earth's surface,
+and along one of them lie the volcanoes we have seen. But the laws which
+govern the earthquake and the volcano are hardly yet understood, even
+to-day.
+
+After calling at another little Italian port for the mails, we do not
+stop anywhere for the next few days, but steam along steadily, making up
+for lost time. We have seen something of the southern part of our own
+continent of Europe. We have landed in Spain at Gibraltar, we set foot
+on French soil in Toulon, where the steamer called to take on passengers
+from across France, we have visited Italy at Naples, and these are the
+principal countries which line the huge land-locked sea. In old times
+the whole civilised world centred around the Mediterranean, and Rome,
+which is now the capital of Italy, dominated it all, making one mighty
+empire. The dominion of Rome reached far northward to our own islands,
+and she was so secure and supreme in her power that it never entered the
+heads of the Romans then living that some day the whole empire would be
+split up and distributed. Their dominion reached even to Egypt, where we
+are now going, and to the Holy Land, which we shall visit afterwards;
+their fleets covered the sea, their armies strode hot-footed across the
+land, making broad ways that passed over hill and valley without pause
+or rest, yet now the empire of Rome is but a name.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE STRANGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
+
+
+Looking down from the deck of the _Orontes_ it seems as if we were
+peering into the folds of a black gauze curtain, between which demons
+from the pit rush yelling to and fro. These men are black from head to
+foot, with the exception of the gleaming white teeth which show between
+their open lips. They are black to begin with by nature, and are further
+covered, scanty clothing and all, with a thick coating of coal-dust,
+which sticks to their oily skins and dirty rags. They are digging
+frantically into the heaped-up coal of a great barge lying alongside,
+gathering it into baskets and rushing up planks to deposit it in the
+coal bunkers of the steamer, and all the while they shout in a strange
+chant at the tops of their voices. When white men are doing severe work
+they are silent, as they need all their strength for the task in hand,
+but when their dark-skinned brothers work they find it necessary to
+shout as loudly as they can, and the harder the work the more noise they
+make. At a little distance their confused yelling is like the cheering
+of a great crowd at a popular football match.
+
+[Illustration: PORT SAID--STATUE OF DE LESSEPS.]
+
+All the port-holes have been closed to keep out the dust, the ship's
+carpets are rolled away, the place looks as if prepared for a spring
+cleaning. It is time for us to go, for we have arrived at Port Said, the
+principal landing-place for Egypt, and we have to say good-bye to the
+_Orontes_ here, though we shall not forget her as the first of the many
+ships which carry us on our great adventure.
+
+It is easy enough to get a boat, competition is keen, and the laughing
+bright-eyed boys who row us across seem in the best of humour; they make
+a brilliant picture, for they are dressed in scarlet and blue for
+choice, with bits of orange wherever they can stick them on.
+
+Port Said, where we have landed, is a large town with a big business,
+yet it is built on a site which a comparatively short time ago was
+nothing but a marshy salt lake. Men of all nations walk in its streets,
+and ships of all nations pass through its port. It is a strange
+mingling of East and West. Here the two meet, and those who come from
+the West for the first time cry with delight, "This is the East!" while
+those who have been exiled for many years from their western homes and
+are at last returning, exclaim, drawing a long breath, "Now I feel I
+really am in sight of home."
+
+We are actually in Africa, that mysterious land which still contains the
+greater part of the unexplored territory of the world, and which for
+long was described as "The Unknown Continent," though it can hardly be
+called that now. Of all the countries which make up Africa, Egypt is the
+strangest, indeed, she is the strangest country in all the world--a
+weird and mysterious land whose ways are not as the ways of any other
+country on earth.
+
+Imagine a land much longer than it is broad, in the shape of an ordinary
+hearth-rug, and then lay down lengthwise along this a mighty river which
+divides it into two parts. Have you seen the Eiffel Tower? If not, you
+have at all events seen pictures of it, well, imagine an Eiffel Tower
+lying prostrate along the hearth-rug and you will have a pretty fair
+idea of Egypt and its river. The legs of the Eiffel Tower are very near
+the bottom and stick out sharply; from the point where they meet the
+long body stretches upwards straight as an arrow.
+
+The Nile is like that. Not so far above where it runs into the
+Mediterranean Sea it is split up into many channels like the legs of the
+tower. It is at the foot of one of these legs we have just landed, and
+presently we are going to pass on up to the junction of the many
+channels at Cairo, which is the capital town of Egypt. Of course the
+Nile is not perfectly straight and rigid like the man-made tower; it
+winds and turns, as all rivers do, but, taking it as a whole, the
+comparison is a good one.
+
+We have to wait for our baggage to be brought across from the ship so
+that we can see it through the custom-house, and here it comes at last;
+it is carried by a boy about your age who is simply lost to sight
+beneath it. They begin young! He stands grinning, well pleased with
+himself. He certainly deserves a good tip, for he is no shirker. We have
+just got some Egyptian money from Cook's, so can give it him in his own
+coinage, though he would not in the least mind taking English money.
+
+Egyptian money is not very difficult to understand: the principal coin
+is a piastre, which is equal to twopence-halfpenny; and half a piastre,
+which looks like a silver sixpence, but isn't silver at all, serves the
+purposes of a penny, though it is really equal to a penny-farthing.
+There are no coppers here. The most useful coin--corresponding to our
+shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira--is rather like an
+overgrown shilling to look at and equal to five piastres or a halfpenny
+more than a shilling.
+
+Now we have only to buy some cigarettes for me and some Turkish Delight
+for--well, for us both! Then we can go on to our train. Cigarettes and
+Turkish Delight are the two things no one ever fails to buy at Port
+Said, for here you get them good and cheap.
+
+It will take us four hours to reach Cairo by rail, and we shan't see
+anything of the country, as it is dark. And what a country it is!
+
+You will never get used to it, for it is run on lines of its own. The
+part of it lying between the legs of the imaginary Eiffel Tower, in
+other words, between the mouths of the Nile, is called the Delta, from
+the Greek letter [Greek: Delta], which shape it is. Except in this delta
+rain never falls, that is to say, not to speak of. Up in Assouan, one of
+the larger towns, which we shall visit, they say, for instance, "Rain?
+Let me see--oh yes, we did have a shower, two years ago it was, on such
+and such a day at four in the afternoon. Pretty smart shower too; the
+roofs of the mud houses got squashy and slipped down on the inhabitants.
+Quite funny, wasn't it?"
+
+It seems funny to us that anyone could remember the hour of one
+particular shower two years ago! With us if there is no rain for a few
+weeks the farmers begin to cry out that their crops are ruined. What a
+glorious land Egypt must be to live in when there is no chance of any
+excursion being spoiled by the weather!
+
+"But how in the world does anything manage to grow?"
+
+I thought you would ask that. Egypt has a system of its own. Once every
+year this gigantic river, which cleaves the land into two parts, rises
+and overflows all its banks; it submerges the low-lying flat land near
+it and carries all over it a rich fertilising mud. The land is
+thoroughly soaked, and when the Nile slowly retires, sinking back into
+its channel, the crops are planted in the spongy earth.
+
+For many ages no one knew why this happened, and indeed no one troubled
+to ask; the ancient Egyptians thought the Nile was a god, and that this
+wonderful overflow was a miracle of beneficence performed for their
+benefit. Then Europeans began to penetrate into the heart of Africa and
+the mystery was solved. The Nile rises far up in the vast continent
+where there are mighty lakes lying in among the hills. The three largest
+of these lakes are called Victoria, Albert, and Edward, after our
+sovereigns, for the men who discovered them were British and naturally
+carried the names of their rulers to plant as banners wherever they
+penetrated. These lakes are not in Egypt, but far beyond, in a region
+where at one season of the year there is a terrific downfall of rain;
+this swells them up and makes them burst forth from every outlet in a
+tremendous flood. The Nile carries off most of this water, and some
+other rivers, which flow into it up there, bring down masses of water
+too, and all this rushes onward, spreading far over the thirsty land of
+Egypt and turns the desert into a garden, making it "blossom as the
+rose." Wherever the water reaches the land bears fruit, but beyond it is
+sandy and sterile desert.
+
+The length of this amazing river from Lake Victoria to the sea is now
+reckoned to be between three thousand and four thousand miles, or almost
+half the length of the earth's diameter, and for over a thousand miles
+it receives no tributaries at all. In almost all rivers we are
+accustomed to we see streams and other tributaries running in and
+swelling the volume of water as the main river passes down to the sea,
+but for all these miles the Nile flows unsupported and unreplenished
+beneath the blazing sun. No wonder the Egyptians worshipped anything so
+splendid!
+
+The total length of England and Scotland together, from John o' Groats
+to Land's End, is eight hundred miles, which gives us a measuring rod to
+estimate the length of this splendid highway, which is frequently half a
+mile broad.
+
+Though the yearly inundation made cultivation possible, men soon learned
+that it was not enough; besides this they must water the crops between
+times, and so means were devised for storing up the water; but these
+were mostly very simple and primitive until Great Britain went to Egypt
+to help the Khedive out of his difficulties and to teach him how to
+govern for the good of his people. Then immense works were started for
+holding up the water which would otherwise have run away to the sea at
+flood-time and been wasted.
+
+We arrive at Cairo very late at night, and when we get to our bedroom we
+find both beds looking rather like large meat-safes, for they are
+enclosed in white net curtains. These fall from a top or ceiling
+resembling that on old four-posters.
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH SOLDIERS CLIMBING THE PYRAMIDS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE MOSQUE AT CAIRO.]
+
+You stare at them in a puzzled way a minute or so, and then declare,
+"What a stuffy arrangement! I'm not going to sleep shut in like that!"
+
+"Please yourself, but you run the risk of having red lumps on your nose
+in the morning if a mosquito takes a fancy to you!"
+
+"Oh, they're mosquito-curtains! I've heard of them. What are you going
+to do?"
+
+"Run no risks!"
+
+At last, protesting, you agree to do likewise, and climb inside your
+meat-safe. You'll soon get used to it, and though it is too cold here
+for any mosquito to be very lively, it is safer. In some countries
+the curtains are useful for keeping off worse things than
+mosquitoes--tarantulas, for instance!
+
+We are only staying one day in Cairo so are out early the next morning,
+and find that the town looks on the whole very like a French town.
+Indeed, were it not for the red fez or tarboush which so many men wear,
+even when they dress otherwise in European costume, and for the turbans
+and flowing robes of the native dress, we might be in Paris or
+Marseilles.
+
+We go to the top of a very wide main street to await the tram which is
+to take us to the Pyramids.
+
+"Poste-carte, sir-r-r-r," says insinuatingly a ragged ruffian, thrusting
+vividly coloured picture postcards into our faces as we stand. We turn
+away, shaking our heads. He quickly runs round to face us again,
+"Poste-carte, sir-r-r," in a tone as if the conversation had only just
+begun and he had great hopes of a sale.
+
+[Illustration: "POSTE-CARTE AND BEADES," CAIRO.]
+
+"No, thank you; go away," I say as sternly and emphatically as I can,
+for he is not too clean.
+
+"Poste-carte, Cismus cards, nice," he continues with unabated zeal as if
+we had not spoken at all. Resolutely we turn our backs on him and are
+confronted by a very gorgeous individual in a long loose gown and
+turban, with innumerable strings of beads of the cheapest and commonest
+"Made-in-Germany" kind, hung in festoons round his neck. "Beades,
+sir-r-r," he begins persuasively, and the other chimes in a duet,
+"Poste-carte." "Beades," continues the new tormentor, swinging his wares
+in our faces. Evidently "no" is a word not understood by these gentry.
+They go on at it hard for about five minutes, our stony silence in no
+way diminishing their enthusiasm, and then from the corner of my eye I
+see a tall man, with an exceptionally handsome face, clothed in a
+beautiful long coat of blue cloth cut away to show a great orange sash
+underneath.
+
+"You want guide?" he says, hastening to the fray and sending the other
+men flying with "Imshi, imshi!" "Me good guide, beest guide in Cairo,
+show you Pyramids, all-a sights, verry cheap, sirr, me show you, only
+ten shillings, citadel and----"
+
+"I don't want a guide, thank you."
+
+The gentleman's knowledge of English is limited apparently, for he
+doesn't understand that. In exactly the same tone in which he has just
+spoken he begins again, "Me good guide, showing you all sights, cheap,
+verry cheap, Pyramids, telling you all things, bazaar, only eight
+shilling----"
+
+By the time he has worked himself through all the grades down to two
+shillings, his eye falls on two other newly arrived tourists, evidently
+Americans, and he rushes upon the fresh prey. Luckily our car comes in
+sight just then, for a second dragoman, as these guides are called, has
+just caught sight of us and is racing across the street as fast as his
+legs will carry him.
+
+As the tram starts we hear his desperate "Me verry good guide,
+best--bazaar----" He is quite willing to risk his life in jumping on to
+the moving tram at the smallest sign from us, so we simply hold our
+breath and resolve not to wink an eyelid until the danger is past.
+
+[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So those are the Pyramids!
+
+We have arrived after a very cold and rather monotonous run of about an
+hour.
+
+Was there ever a time when one had not heard of the Pyramids and
+pictured their vast triangles rising out of the desert? But for my part,
+I had always imagined them set far off in solitude so that one came upon
+them gradually, seeing them first as mere hillocks in the immensity of
+the sand. Instead of that they spring upon us suddenly, rearing up on a
+height as the tram speeds toward them along a tree-shaded road across a
+vast artificial lake.
+
+The lake is picturesque, studded with little islands and promontories
+covered with houses and palm trees, so also are the groups of donkeys
+and camels with their attendant men waiting at the terminus for
+tourists, but these things disperse the mystery to which we had looked
+forward. The large and comfortable hotel at the foot of the white
+winding road which leads up to the Pyramids is doubtless useful, but----
+
+As we approach on foot we experience surprise to see that the blocks of
+which the largest Pyramid is composed are so small they look almost like
+bricks. Pictures show them as gigantic blocks up which stout ladies are
+being "boosted"--sorry, but there is no other word--by heated dragomans.
+As we draw near we see that the blocks _are_ fairly big. Nearer
+still--what is that crawling about on the edge of the great cone? Hullo,
+it's a man, and there is another and another. They do look small. Why,
+there is one who has reached the top; he is not to be compared with a
+fly so much as a midge--who would have thought it? We are close under
+now and I find that the block by which I am standing is the height of my
+shoulder, and I am fairly tall. This must be an exceptional one, but--it
+isn't! They are all the same! Watching the men clambering up above,--men
+who we now see are English soldiers dressed in khaki,--we can understand
+why they seem to find the ascent so difficult--each block is shoulder
+high and requires much strenuous exertion to surmount. They cannot
+stride from one to the other as on a flight of stairs. One man is
+exhausted and gives up half-way, and a cheerful Cockney voice comes down
+from above telling him to "put his beck into it!" He'll need it.
+Standing thus and looking up we get some idea of the enormous size of
+the Pyramid, which makes its blocks look small by contrast. It is
+bigger, far bigger than one expected. This is the largest of all, built
+anything between 5000 and 6000 years ago, as the tomb of King Cheops. He
+built it for himself by cruel forced labour crushed out of starving men;
+he intended that his body should lie like the kernel of a nut in this
+mighty shell.
+
+As we pass beyond it we see another, farther off in the desert sand, and
+yet another. We are accustomed to speak of the Pyramids as if these few
+at Gizeh were all, but there are others scattered about Egypt, though
+they are less known and visited.
+
+Then, quite unexpectedly, we come upon the Sphinx. It is in a hollow in
+the sand like the nest children scoop out for shelter on the seashore,
+only vastly greater. As we struggle round the yielding rim, with the
+powdery sand silting over our boot-tops, we feel something of the wonder
+of it thrilling through us. Let us sit down here facing it by these
+broken stones, where we can be a little sheltered from the chilly wind
+and gritty sand. We are looking at the oldest thing in Egypt. You will
+see farther south many splendid examples of amazing age but nothing to
+equal the Sphinx. When Abraham came down into Egypt the Sphinx was old
+beyond the memory of man! When King Cheops built his Pyramid the Sphinx
+sat with his back turned to it wearing the same inscrutable smile that
+it has to-day. It has watched kings succeed and die, it has watched
+empires spread and collapse, it has watched civilisations ripen and
+wither away. All the known history of mankind has unrolled before it,
+not the short history of a few trifling centuries which we call ours,
+but the history of the world.
+
+The crouching figure is lion-like in attitude, but how human of face in
+spite of its broken nose. It was carven of the solid rock and fashioned
+with its face to the sunrise and its back to the desert. No one knows
+the thought in the mind of the puny artist who brought it into being and
+then shrivelled beside it like a blade of grass. Was it intended to be a
+god? It has been silted up by sand and unburied again; it has been
+worshipped and hated. It has been reverenced and shot at, so that its
+face is chipped and its nose broken away, and still it smiles with
+fierce serenity.
+
+Sit silently.
+
+"Poste-carte----"
+
+"Imshi, imshi."
+
+That Arabic word, picked up at hazard from the dragoman, has acted like
+a talisman--the pest has actually gone!
+
+There creeps up beside you, very slowly and determinedly, an old, old
+man. "Fortune told," he says almost in a whisper, groping for your hard
+boyish hand. So be it! He at least does not send the spirit of the place
+flying away. Nonsense it may be, but these fellows do know something----
+
+Give him that five piastre piece that looks like a large shilling and
+listen to his quaint expressive English.
+
+"Clever head, head very much good, gooder than many men, but an enemy
+inside there. You see a long, long road, and you go that road, then
+coming hills and that road grow tiresome and you stop and say, 'Not
+worth it, I don't care,' an enemy here--slay him!
+
+"Much work lies to your hands to do when they grow large. In many lands
+I see them plucking down cities and raising ships from the depths of the
+sea. Strange things be waiting for those hands in all the world. Many
+tongues you speaking, and many things you gain. But the hand not opening
+easily. What it gains it grips, hard and tight; it is a close hand, and
+that which comes thereout drops slowly between the fingers to friends
+also as to foes. Riches and work and honour hold the hands, and only
+death will tear them away. With them all is a bitterness and a glory
+greater than the shine of what men count joy. But in that day when you
+eat with kings the desire of life shall pass from you!"
+
+Hullo, old boy! He gave you a good shilling's worth, anyhow! Though it
+was rather a nasty hit that at your Scottish national character! You
+don't believe it surely? Look at the Sphinx and laugh. What does it
+matter if we two midges, among all the midges that have crawled about
+his paws, don't exactly enjoy ourselves the whole of our brief day?
+
+What is that? How you start! No, it's not a lion roaring, though it's a
+pretty good imitation; it's only a camel cursing and snarling with all
+his might while his owner piles a few bushels' weight on his back. He
+doesn't really mind it, but it is the immemorial custom of camels to
+protest with hideousness and confused noise, and if he didn't do it his
+trade union would be down upon him.
+
+"Poste-carte----"
+
+Come, let us go!
+
+[Illustration: STRANGE LOOKING BEASTS MINCING ALONG LIKE GIGANTIC
+PEACOCKS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HIGHWAY OF EGYPT
+
+
+Of course you have been in a cinematograph theatre, and there, seated
+comfortably, have watched the various scenes pass before you. The great
+charm of these scenes is that the people really did do the things which
+we here see them doing, even down to the smallest gestures. But often
+the pleasure is spoilt by knowing that the actors were only making these
+gestures for the purpose of being photographed; also the scenes are
+sometimes disconnected and scrappy, and seldom indeed is it that they
+are represented in colour, and then, though the colour is clever enough,
+it is not like that of nature.
+
+To-day we are watching a cinematograph which has none of these
+drawbacks. We are seated in a leather-lined railway carriage running
+from Cairo southward up the country to a place called Luxor, and passing
+before us every minute are vivid pictures of the life of Egypt. The
+railway runs along the middle of Egypt, just as the Nile does, but we do
+not often see the river from the line, for at this time of the year it
+flows low down between its banks. It is on the other side of the railway
+that the main interest lies. Here there is a canal as straight as the
+line and close beside it, and on the far side of it is a sort of raised
+tow-path--the great highway of Egypt. We see it against a fringe of
+bushy palm trees at one minute, and the next against a field of tall,
+green-growing stuff, which looks exactly like those rushes found on the
+banks of our own rivers. This, however, is maize, or, as you probably
+know it better, Indian corn, which forms the staple food of the people.
+The brown feathery heads wave in the wind, but the corn itself is tucked
+away in the thickness of the stalk. You must have seen a "cob" of Indian
+corn some time, with all the flat yellow grains nestling in a honeycomb
+of little cells. To-day in Egypt you will see everyone eating them; even
+the solemn baby seated astride its mother's shoulder picks out the
+grains and nibbles them like a little monkey. The straw part of the
+plant is used for many things: it feeds the numerous domestic animals of
+the Egyptians to begin with--the donkeys, camels, buffaloes, bullocks,
+goats--and it forms thatch for the huts and makes bedding.
+
+Notice that man over there in the field; his cotton gown is of the
+purest blue, which shows up richly against the vivid green of the maize
+stalks. There is another seated far back on the rump of a small donkey
+who is tripping along on its stiff little legs. It wears no harness of
+any kind beyond a cord round its neck, which enables anyone to catch
+hold of it. The man has no saddle and he holds his long legs straight
+forward to prevent his feet from touching the ground, and from time to
+time he guides or goads the donkey with a little sharp-pointed stick.
+Close behind him, walking fast to keep up, is a tall woman in black with
+a black shawl covering her mouth, her dress is a mass of grey dust as
+far as the waist, and drags up the dust in clouds as she moves. On her
+head is a large bundle and on her hip a large baby. She is the wife of
+the lordly individual riding so comfortably ahead, and she takes this
+state of affairs as a matter of course. The scene arouses anger in the
+breast of a nice American with a grey moustache and keen grey eyes, who
+shares our compartment.
+
+[Illustration: "MAN AND WIFE."]
+
+"So long as they treat their womenfolk like that they'll never rise to
+anything better," he says emphatically. "The higher the civilisation of
+a nation is the higher the position of its women. A nation of men who
+ride and let the women carry the burdens is bound to be rotten and
+flabby."
+
+Next there passes across our window-frame a flock of goats, but they are
+not much like those we know--they are dark brown and black, with thick
+rough coats and cheeky tufted tails; numbers of kids dance up and down
+the steep sides of the tow-path after the manner of kids all the world
+over. A small boy, dressed in what appears to be a striped flannel
+night-shirt, with a tiny skull-cap on his head, is driving them. He
+pulls his single garment up to his waist as he dances and pirouettes as
+if the joy of living were almost too much for him. He is enveloped in a
+cloud of dust raised by the goats, but he snatches handfuls of the dust
+from the ground and flings it in the air around as if he could never get
+enough of it!
+
+"The Lady of Shalott," in Tennyson's poem, who watched in her mirror all
+who went down to Camelot, cannot ever have seen anything half so
+interesting as this.
+
+Presently we meet a long string of fine-looking camels, one of them pure
+white; they are fastened by a connecting rope and so covered with loads
+of bristling twigs that each looks like a walking bush, out of which the
+great padded feet are planted with deliberate steps and the haughty
+heads swaying at the ends of the long necks stick out. It is the scrub
+of the cotton bush that they are carrying; you will see fields of it
+presently, some of it bursting into fluffy pods, for cotton growing is
+one of the most extensive and profitable of Egyptian industries. The
+twigs and branches are used as fuel by the people, who have a happy
+knack of letting nothing be wasted.
+
+"I never!" exclaims the American. "If that isn't like them!" We are
+overtaking a second string of camels, precisely similar to the first,
+and similarly laden, stepping gingerly and protestingly in the opposite
+direction from the first, having just passed them. "Why couldn't they
+arrange things better?" demands the American. "If one lot is going this
+way and the other that, an exchange would have saved time and labour."
+
+In America labour is costly and all sorts of inventions for saving time
+have been invented; in this eastern land time is of no value at all, and
+a man working all day in the fields is content to earn a shilling.
+Perhaps the contrast with their own country is the reason of the
+fascination Egypt has for Americans!
+
+What are those strange-looking beasts mincing along like gigantic
+peacocks? As we draw nearer we see that they are camels too, each
+bearing a load of sword-bladed leaves, which hang down over their
+hindquarters exactly like the folded fan-tail of a peacock. Upon my
+word I never noticed it before, but a camel walks just like a peacock,
+with the same hesitating "Don't-care-a-hang-for-you" stride. The bundles
+so arranged hide the animals' hind legs and bring out the resemblance.
+
+But what is it they are carrying? Not maize stalks this time, nor bushy
+cotton twigs, for these stalks are a dull crimson at the upper end. It
+is sugar-cane, which grows in quantities here, and forms a more
+profitable crop than maize. You will see it sold at the stations; the
+people buy it, and, breaking off a joint, eat it with pleasure.
+
+We cannot tear ourselves away from this fascinating window even for a
+moment; far in the distance across the green fields and waving palm
+trees we see glimpses of the desert, looking pinkish-yellow, and rising
+up in it, changing with every mile we travel, are many pyramids, not
+only those famous ones at Gizeh we visited yesterday, but others
+stretching farther and farther away. You will notice that the favourite
+colour for the dress of the peasants, or fellaheen, as they are called,
+is a glorious blue, but that all the women are in black--most unsuitable
+of hues, as they live and move and have their being amid drab-coloured
+dust; khaki would be much better.
+
+As our breakfast, though better than that in France, was nothing so very
+wonderful, we begin to feel hungry, and are ready to go along early to
+the luncheon-car; we had a good dinner in that one on the train coming
+up from Port Said to Cairo, and anticipate something of the same kind.
+As we get up the American remarks casually, "Best pull in your belts and
+have a smoke--there isn't any."
+
+No luncheon-car! No means of getting any kind of refreshment on the
+train! And we, having started at eight, are in for a journey of fourteen
+hours! Lively this! It is one of the little incidental discomforts of
+travel! The American is in the same plight himself. But he found out
+soon after we started that there was no restaurant-car; it only runs
+three times a week, for the season hasn't begun yet!
+
+We call the Egyptian attendant to find out if there is any prospect of
+buying anything on the way. He stands grinning very affably but doesn't
+understand a word of English. Presently, however, he seems to
+understand, and dashes off, to return triumphantly with a feather-brush
+in his hand with which he violently flops the seats of the carriages and
+all our personal belongings until we are choked and smothered with the
+dust.
+
+In English fashion we have kept the windows open, not realising that in
+this country it is impossible, and that slowly we have been silted up
+with a layer of fine soft dust; but we didn't feel the inconvenience of
+it much until this idiot stirred it up and made it unendurable.
+
+Having accomplished this great feat he stands still, grinning and
+holding out a broad palm. Officials on the trains are probably forbidden
+to utter the wicked word "Bakshish," meaning tips, but they can ask
+quite as well without it.
+
+Having got rid of him, we turn in despair to the station at which we
+have just pulled up. There is a fine mingled crowd on the platform.
+Lying in the sun, awaiting their master's pleasure, are two beautifully
+kept white donkeys, with their hides clipped in neat patterns, very
+superior creatures indeed to what we know as donkeys, more like mules in
+size. A group of children, fascinated by our strange faces, draw nearer
+and gaze their fill unwinkingly; one poor little mite of about four has
+a mass of flies crawling all over its face, especially about the eyes.
+It never attempts to brush them off, for long habit has made it callous.
+Formerly very many children were so afflicted, and the crawling flies,
+carrying disease, made them blind; but since the British took the matter
+in hand the evil is much less. Yet so indifferent are the mothers, that
+in many cases even when lotion is supplied free for the children's faces
+they will not trouble to use it!
+
+There is nothing eatable being sold in the station except fruit, but
+there seems plenty of that, and by the time the train starts again we
+find ourselves with a fine assortment in rich colours of purple and
+orange and scarlet. First there is a packet of dates which looks all
+right on the top, but turning them out we find the purple side of one
+had been placed carefully uppermost, and the rest are all hard, green,
+and unripe, not in the least like the sweet juicy dates we are
+accustomed to. The attendant, who is watching, scoops them up and
+devours them as if he hadn't been fed for a month. Then comes a bit of
+sugar-cane, stringy and sickly, which makes us feel as if we had bitten
+into a piece of sweet wood when we try it. That great purple pomegranate
+is, like all pomegranates, unsatisfactory and full of seeds, and though
+the little green limes are refreshing for the moment while we suck the
+juice, after a while our lips begin to smart as if they were raw, and we
+both keep on furtively wiping them. It is a tantalising feast, and the
+American smiles serenely as he smokes in his corner and refuses to have
+anything to do with it. The only thing we do get out of it are some
+really good green figs, which cannot, however, be eaten without
+shameless messiness, as they are so difficult to peel.
+
+When the afternoon sun grows scorchingly hot the grinning attendant
+proves himself for once useful, by showing us that we can pull up
+sun-shutters with wooden slats outside the glass ones. He has indeed
+been anxious to pull them up all round the compartment ever since we
+started, and nothing but physical force has restrained him, for he
+cannot conceive how anyone could want to look out. Even now we keep down
+those on the sunless side, which grieves him deeply.
+
+So all the afternoon we watch the glorious scenes changing in sunlight;
+we see the sailing boats, with their tapering white wings, laden with
+cargoes of straw, drifting up the canal, driven by the strong north
+wind; we pass innumerable villages, and some larger towns, where
+market-day has attracted vast crowds.
+
+The small villages are indeed wonderful, and the first one excited us
+all three so much that we had to hurry to the window. Imagine a colony
+of last year's swallows' nests under the eaves, or a collection of
+ruined pigsties and sheds, only they are not ruins at all, but living,
+thriving villages with healthy people in them. The houses are all made
+of mud; a few are fashioned out of mud bricks, but many are merely of
+mud stuck and moulded together as a child would form a mud house with
+his hands. The doors and the holes for windows are crooked and lop-sided
+as they would be in a childish attempt. The roof is covered over with an
+untidy thatch of straw, thrown on anyhow, with piles of cotton scrub on
+the top of it. This scrub is for firing, and it is kept up there in the
+Egyptian's only storehouse; it is backed up by cakes of dried buffalo
+dung used for the same purpose. As it never rains the fuel is quite safe
+from damp.
+
+Every man builds his own house as it pleases him, without regard to the
+style or position of his neighbour's, consequently the streets are
+narrow crooked passages of uneven levels; there is not a green thing in
+them, and the people live in dust and eat it and wallow in it. Here and
+there you can see a tray of flat cakes pushed out into the midst of the
+dust to bake in the sun and form a playground for the flies and the
+microbes, for the Egyptian has no respect for microbes, he is
+germ-proof; for generations he and his forefathers have drunk the Nile
+water, unfiltered and carried in goat-skins not too well cured. Yet the
+people are happy and the children apparently a gay set of youngsters.
+Little Gassim or Achmed, in the single unchanged and unwashed garment
+that covers their little brown bodies, dance and roll and sing and drive
+the loathly black buffaloes to the water and eat scraps of sugar-cane,
+and are as happy as the day is long. They work hard, it is true, from
+the time they can toddle, but so does everyone else, and all the animals
+do their share of toil, day in and day out. "I can't understand why they
+don't find a way of harnessing the turkeys," says the American
+sarcastically as we pass a lordly camel, stepping, with protest in every
+movement, alongside a sturdy bullock who helps to drag a primitive
+plough. The plough merely scratches the surface of the ground, but that
+is enough, for the Egyptian will never go deeper than he need.
+
+[Illustration: A WATER-CARRIER.]
+
+We are getting very hungry indeed! Six hours more! How are we going to
+stand it?
+
+Hurrah! A bit of luck! The American has been along the corridor and come
+across some friends who are getting out at the next station. They have
+presented him with the remains of a lunch-basket supplied by their
+hotel, and he is generously willing to share it with us. Never was
+prize-packet opened with greater eagerness; suppose it should only
+contain enough for one?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Amid the white wrappings of the open pannier we find slices of tongue,
+rolls of bread, chicken legs, hard-boiled eggs, and a bottle of
+soda-water!
+
+Never did food taste better! We sit gnawing the chicken bones and
+blessing the American!
+
+Meantime the sun falls and a splendour you never yet have imagined fills
+the air. Streaks of flaming colour shoot athwart the sky, bursting up
+behind the tufted palms; the eastern sky catches the reflection and
+shows softest blues and pinkest pinks in contrast. A veil of amber light
+hangs like a curtain overhead and changes to orange and again to apricot
+as the afterglow sweeps the sky before darkness falls like the curtain
+on a scene at the theatre.
+
+[Illustration: COLUMNS IN THE TEMPLE AT LUXOR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A MIGHTY MAN
+
+
+Our beds face the windows, which open like high glass doors, French
+fashion; before retiring we set them wide, and close outside the long
+shutters made of slats of wood. In the morning we are awakened suddenly,
+almost at the same instant, by a red flame glowing between the slats as
+fire glows between the bars of a grate. Springing from our curtains we
+fling open the shutters, expecting to see a great conflagration, and
+behold, it is the sunrise!
+
+The sun does not greet us in such boisterous fashion in England! Here it
+fills the sky with a blood-red radiance and lights up the palm groves
+in the garden below, where a mighty congregation of small birds are
+shrieking out their joy to greet the god of morning. There is an
+intensity in it all, in the flaming sky, and in the thrill of the birds'
+clarion that sends exhilaration into our veins and makes us feel it is
+good to be alive!
+
+It is not long before we are out and around the garden--and what a
+garden! Strange coffee-coloured men in blue garments like smock frocks,
+with baggy blue trousers caught tightly round their ankles, appear and
+disappear noiselessly, their bare brown feet making no sound on the
+sanded paths. There is something unreal about it all, something that
+makes one think of the _Arabian Nights_ and an enchanted garden. The
+hotel is called "The Winter Palace," and in England we should associate
+such a name with a vast artificially warmed glasshouse filled with
+broad-leaved plants of dark green; here, right overhead, is a tall bush
+covered with masses of sulphur-coloured flowers, shaped like tiny
+trumpets, hanging in festoons against a sky of glorious blue. Through
+plumed palms we catch glimpses of the spreading fingers of a deep red
+poinsettia; there is a pink frilled flower shooting toward the sky, so
+decorative that it looks exactly like those made of crinkled paper for
+decorations; this is the well-known oleander. The grass is so vividly
+green that it seems as if the greenness sprang away from the blades; as
+we draw near to it we see that it is not all matted together and
+interwoven, as is our grass, but is composed of separate blades, each
+one apart and upright, all together standing like a regiment of
+soldiers. It has to be sown every year freshly, for no roots can survive
+the long drought. Close by is a lawn of bare earth, and a boy of about
+your age, with a thin pathetic brown face, runs round and round it,
+shouting and waving a flapper to keep off the birds from the newly sown
+seed.
+
+We are just going to plunge into a grove of trees--some acacias with
+leaves like delicate ferns, and others eucalyptus with long narrow
+leaves looking like frosted silver--when we find they are growing in a
+swamp, with the earth banked up all round to keep the water in!
+
+Other flowers, familiar to us in England, such as roses, look rather
+pale and washed-out here in contrast with the flaming beauty of richest
+mauve and brightest orange worn by those which are at home in a hot
+country. As the sun gets strong we hear the drone of a swarm of great
+creatures like prodigious wasps with legs like stilts, which fly around
+the sweet-scented blooms. In ancient inscriptions this wasp, or hornet,
+was used as the sign of Northern or Lower Egypt. Across the flower-beds
+run miniature canals of stone, by means of which the water from the
+life-giving river is carried all over the ground, so that it can be
+easily watered; a very large part of the time of the blue-bloused
+gardeners is spent in watering. A garden which was watered from the sky
+would be a miracle to them.
+
+We come back again to the hotel and pass through to the other or front
+entrance, where we catch sight of the majestic Nile, which we could not
+see in the darkness of our arrival last night. Standing on a high
+terrace, bounded by a parapet covered with riotous masses of magenta
+bougainvillea, we see the turquoise-blue river, flecked with boats
+carrying high, white, three-cornered sails; on the other side rise calm
+hills of orange-yellow. We shall visit those hills, for in them are
+buried some of the mightiest kings of Egypt, and the wild fastnesses
+form a truly royal burial-place, grander than any ordinary mausoleum or
+cemetery could ever be. On both sides of the river at one time stood the
+royal city of Thebes, one of the best known of all the capitals of Egypt
+which sprang up from time to time in its agelong history.
+
+If ever you "do" the ix. book of the _Iliad_ in your schoolwork, you
+will find that Homer speaks of Thebes as having one hundred gates and
+possessing twenty thousand war-chariots! It extended for about nine
+miles along the river-bank.
+
+After breakfast our first plunge into sight-seeing is a visit to the
+temple of Luxor, which faces the river just five minutes' walk along the
+street from the hotel. This is the very first Egyptian temple we have
+examined and it is astonishing how much we can learn from it. That
+mighty row of columns, larger and higher than any cathedral pillars you
+have ever seen, makes us feel like midgets. Standing close together the
+columns spring right into the clear sky, as there is no roof left. Not
+so very long ago they were covered up to the capitals in sand and
+debris. The poorer Egyptians had built their mud huts in and around them
+for generations, and when one hut crumbled away another was put up on
+the top of it, and thus the level of the accumulated earth grew higher
+and higher. Then some learned Frenchmen saw the wonder of the buried
+temple and bought the people out, persuading them to go elsewhere, and
+they gradually cleared away the rubbish until the original beauty of the
+temple was visible again. Even now, high up on all sides, you can see
+the depth of the earth surrounding it like cliffs, and on the top are
+squalid huts with dirty children and fluffy impudent goats and
+shrill-voiced, black-clad women, living their daily lives and looking
+down into the temple.
+
+The ancient Egyptian writing was by signs--a bird meant one thing, a
+flower another, and a serpent another, and so on, but for a long time
+the meaning of it had been forgotten, and it was impossible for anyone
+to read these wonderful signs. But at the very end of the eighteenth
+century a great stone was found which had upon it an inscription written
+in Greek and in hieroglyphics, as the sign-writing was called, and also
+in another writing which used to be employed by the priests, and from
+this, before many years had passed, clever men were able to understand
+the language of signs and read the inscriptions on the temples, which
+told who had built them and much else. This stone was called the Rosetta
+Stone, after the place where it was found. It is now in the British
+Museum.
+
+This was long before Luxor was unearthed, and the inscriptions were
+deciphered as they came to light; by their help it was found that the
+temple had been built chiefly by two kings, Amenhetep III. and Rameses
+II. who came after him, though not immediately. Rameses added to the
+existing work and carried it on. So far as we know all this was between
+three and four thousand years ago. In a village in England people are
+proud if they can point to any part of their parish church and say,
+"This is Norman work," and yet the Normans only came over to England
+less than nine hundred years ago! Go back more than three times that,
+and try to realise the age of this temple. And even this, as we know, is
+not old compared with the Pyramids! Doesn't it make us feel that, as a
+nation, we are rather young after all?
+
+Long before we were a nation these mighty kings flourished in Egypt and
+lived in pomp and splendour. They each had a different name, of course,
+and more than one, but yet they were all Pharaohs, just as at one time
+in the Roman Empire each emperor was a Caesar.
+
+The Pharaohs had unlimited power in their own dominions, and forced
+their subjects to work for them as they pleased without giving them any
+payment. By some means we can't understand these mighty blocks of
+sandstone composing this temple and many others were brought from a
+place farther up the river. It is supposed that they were put on great
+rafts and floated down at flood-time, but the handling of them is still
+a mystery. The men who dealt with them had no steel tools, no driving
+force of steam or electricity at their backs, yet they reared buildings
+which we to-day, with all our appliances, think masterpieces.
+
+Rameses II. was called the Great; he reigned for over sixty years, and
+he has a peculiar interest for us because he is believed to have been
+the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites, while his son and successor,
+Menepthah, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
+
+Walk up the great aisle of giant columns into the courtyard at the end,
+there, between the pillars, stand massive images of granite, most of
+them headless, but one perfect except for the ends of the fingers and
+toes.
+
+[Illustration: STATUE OF RAMESES II. AT LUXOR.]
+
+Sit down on this fallen block and look at that marvellous image; it is
+the mighty Rameses himself! There is a repressed energy and indomitable
+purpose about him that tells in every line of a man who never let go and
+never allowed himself to be thwarted. His almond-shaped eyes and full
+lips, the proud tilt of his head, are not merely conventional, they are
+an actual likeness of the man taken from life. He is every inch a king.
+His successor, who was his thirteenth son, was probably of the same
+type, and one can well imagine his scornful indignation at being asked
+to yield up that nation of slaves, the Israelites, whom he treated as we
+would not treat animals nowadays. The miracle is that Moses was not
+instantly slain for his boldness in proposing it; he was, of course,
+screened by his relationship to Pharaoh's daughter, but that would have
+counted little had he not been protected by a power far above that of
+the king of Egypt.
+
+Close down under the knee of the standing Rameses is the figure of a
+plump woman, his favourite wife, Nefertari. The Egyptians had the rather
+childish idea that size meant importance, and to them now, as well as
+then, women seemed of much less importance than men, so the wife was
+represented as being about as high as her husband's knee. In spite of
+this, however, women of royal blood were treated with great deference,
+and royal ladies enjoyed a freedom like that of western women to-day.
+They gave their opinions and transacted business and were seen in
+public. Many a king only sat securely on his throne because his wife had
+a better title to it than he had. This did not, however, prevent them
+from making women very often quite diminutive in size in their statues,
+though in some cases the king and queen are the same size and are shown
+seated side by side.
+
+It is very quiet and beautiful here in the temple this Sunday morning;
+the natives themselves are not allowed to come in, and visitors only on
+production of a ticket costing twenty-four shillings, which admits to
+all the temples of Egypt; and, as it happens, there is no one but
+ourselves. The sparrows twitter overhead in the holes and crannies of
+the pillars, and the great grey and black crows wheel silently against
+the blue sky, throwing moving shadows on the honey-coloured columns.
+
+If we walk round the back of these solemn statues we shall see that
+there is a quantity of deeply cut hieroglyphic writing on a great plaque
+at the back of each. The name of the king himself is always written
+enclosed in an oblong space called a cartouche; sometimes this cartouche
+is supported by two cobras, who are supposed to defend it. The rest of
+the writing tells of the deeds of the king and all the mighty feats that
+he performed.
+
+Turning to the walls we find them covered with pictures, not coloured
+but done in outline by means of deep-cut clean lines. We see the king
+offering fruit to weird-looking beings with men's bodies and animals'
+heads--these were the Egyptian gods; there were numbers of them, far too
+many to remember, but here are a few: Anubis, the jackal-headed; Thoth,
+the stork-headed; Sekhet, a goddess with a lion's head (some say a
+cat's). Besides these there were others of great importance: Osiris, the
+god of the dead, and Isis, his wife--these were the father and mother of
+Horus, the hawk-headed god. But it was to the glory of Amen-ra, the king
+or chief of all the gods, who can be recognised in the pictures by two
+tall feathers like quills standing straight up on his head, that that
+particular temple was built.
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN KING.]
+
+On one of the walls we see a long row of men, all exactly similar, one
+behind the other--these are some of the numerous sons of Rameses making
+offerings. You soon notice that in spite of the vigorous and excellent
+outlines of these pictures there is something funny and stiff about
+them. That is because the Egyptians had an odd custom of drawing a
+person sideways, with his two feet in a straight line, one behind the
+other. No one stands like that in real life, and if you try it you will
+find how difficult it is not to fall over! Also, though the people they
+drew were invariably shown from the side, yet the artists used to make
+them look as if they were squared round in the upper part to show the
+chest and both shoulders, so that Egyptians in pictures always look
+oddly wedge-shaped, being very broad at the top and narrow below. The
+eye was also put into the profile face as if it were seen from the
+front! Look at any typical Egyptian picture and you will soon pick out
+these peculiarities. It seems rather a pity they kept so rigidly to
+these silly notions, as they really drew extremely well; but no artist
+was original enough to dare to break away from the established custom!
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN.]
+
+Inside the temple walls all these scenes have something to do with the
+gods and the offerings made to them by the king, but come outside and on
+one of the finest bits of wall still standing you will see a most
+spirited battle-scene. Look at the king in his chariot with the plunging
+horses! He is drawing his bow and pursuing his enemies, who are dead and
+dying under his wheels, and fleeing before him. To show how much more
+important he was than the enemies he had himself made very large and the
+enemies shown very small. That is not quite our idea of honour and glory
+nowadays; we should think it more glorious to overcome enemies larger
+and stronger than ourselves! This afternoon we are going to visit a
+still larger and more wonderful temple, a mile or two away, called
+Karnak, and there you will see pictures of the king of that time holding
+the hair of his enemies' heads in the powerful grasp of his left hand
+while he prepares to strike off all their heads at one sweep with his
+sword.
+
+The original entrance of Luxor temple does not face the river on the
+side we came in; to find it we have to scramble over heaps of rubbish to
+one end and there we see a great obelisk, a companion to the one which
+is now in the principal square of Paris, the Place de la Concorde, and
+we see also two huge buildings reared up on each side of the ancient
+entrance--these were called pylons and were always built in Egyptian
+temples. On festival days they were decorated with flags on tall staves
+and made very gay.
+
+Then we go out again into the main street amid all the life of the
+place, and see men cantering past on gaily caparisoned donkeys; we note
+dancing, capering, gleeful children, guides in gorgeous gowns, shopmen
+of some mixed nationality from the Mediterranean, who run out of their
+shops and entreat you to come in. "Only look round, no paying, not
+wanting you buy," they lie. "Look and be pleased; there is no charge
+just only to look."
+
+We stop at last and buy two fly-whisks with short bamboo handles and
+long silvery horsehair tails; of course they do look very smart, but we
+do not buy them just for that, but because they are useful.
+
+As we have found already, nothing less than physical force suffices to
+remove an Egyptian fly, who sticketh closer than his English brother. No
+shake or puff will induce him to stir an eyelid, and yet he is quick on
+the wing and you rarely get him, sleepy as he appears! He doesn't buzz,
+and there generally appears to be only one of him, but if, by the aid of
+a fly-whisk, you get rid of him, another takes his place immediately!
+
+[Illustration: THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CITY OF KINGS
+
+
+I think this is the gayest scene I have ever looked upon in my life. See
+those mahogany-coloured boatmen in their brilliant scarlet and white
+striped jerseys and blue petticoats, grinning so as to show all their
+milk-white teeth. The boats are apple-green and scarlet, and they are
+reflected in the clear still water, and the dragoman, who marshals all
+the party into them, is a very splendid person indeed, in a long
+overcoat of turquoise blue cloth as soft and fine as a glove, with a
+striped gown of yellow Egyptian silk underneath.
+
+We are off with a party of Cook's tourists to explore the Tombs of the
+Kings on the other side of the river It is a pretty stiff day's work, so
+we are up early, and it is only half-past eight now. As we near the
+other side of the river we see an excited group of donkey-boys who have
+brought their animals over earlier, and now stand expectant, looking
+like a fringe of blue beads.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAT LADY ON HER DONKEY.]
+
+"Lily best donkey--Lily name for Americans, Merry Widow for
+Engleesh----"
+
+"Come, lady, with me, Sammy best donkey in Egypt, verry good, Sammy my
+donkey, best donkey----"
+
+"Kitchener, lady, best donkey in Egypt, me speak verry good Engleesh,
+alla way gallop."
+
+And so on in a continuous yell. The dragoman shouts out the numbers of
+the donkeys, and helps the ladies of the party to mount. Some ride on
+side-saddles, others, unused to any form of riding, prefer to get up
+astride, which they find difficult in the tight modern skirts. One
+German girl, after a frantic attempt, has to give it up, and sits
+wobbling on her saddle with her arms round the donkey-boy's neck,
+agonisingly appealing to him not to move! A very stout lady in black is
+lifted on to her mount by the united efforts of the dragoman and two
+donkey-boys, and, held in position by the boys, moves off, threatening a
+convulsive landslide to one side or the other at every step.
+
+We are lucky in securing two fine greyish-white animals, almost as large
+as mules and very well fed and kept; yours is named "Sirdar" and has a
+single blue bead slung on a string round his neck as a charm, while
+mine, "Tommy Raffles," has a rattling chain of yellow and blue beads and
+much scarlet wool in his harness. You won't have much difficulty, I
+know, as you have been used to a pony since you could walk.
+
+At first the soft powdery sand makes the going stiff, and we have much
+difficulty in restraining our boys, who run behind, from smacking or
+prodding the donkeys as they plough through. These boys are very proud
+and fond of their donkeys and treat them well, but it is the ambition of
+every donkey-boy to see his donkey head the cavalcade, and he is ready
+to die of envy and mortification if any other boy's donkey gets in front
+of him. We pass through clouds of dusty earth and then turn on to uneven
+narrow ways between tall green stalks of growing dhurra, stuff which
+looks like maize, except that it has a heavy head of grain which is
+ground up for making rough bread for the poorest people.
+
+Along by a canal, over a bridge and a railway line we gallop, our
+animals going well. Their trot is impossible, as we soon find, but the
+easy loping canter delightful. We pass many black-clad women working in
+the fields, with crowds of bright-eyed friendly children who murmur
+"'Shish" in the vain hope that we may throw them some money. Then we see
+herds of black goats in among the cut stalks, and a tethered baby camel,
+who looks at us with innocent wondering eyes.
+
+Far off rise up from the plain two mighty seated statues, the Colossi,
+set up by Amenhetep III. as part of a temple now vanished. Presently we
+all stop to see another temple, interesting enough, but not so
+interesting as those already visited at Luxor and Karnak.
+
+The dragoman, whose work is not easy, brings up the rear of the
+cavalcade, having managed to keep even behind the fat lady, who has
+stuck to the slippery surface of her saddle with many a desperate plunge
+firmly resisted by her escort.
+
+[Illustration: BOATMAN.]
+
+The dragoman describes the temple fluently and intelligently, first in
+English, then in French, and adds a little explanation in German for the
+benefit of two men of that race who have talked loudly in their own
+guttural tongue all the time he has endeavoured to make the rest of the
+party hear. The dragoman does not reel his words off as if he were
+repeating a lesson, as, alas, so many of the guides at our own
+cathedrals do. He is a clever man, well educated and capable. It has
+taken him years to learn all he knows, and it is only the clever boys
+who can become good dragomans. One of our donkey-boys, a bright little
+fellow who speaks far better English than most of his companions, tells
+us, "I am going to be a dragoman." He says it deliberately, with a pause
+between each word to get them correctly. "Thus I speak always with the
+English and the Americans. To the English I speak English, which is
+what I have learned, but when I am with Americans I can talk to them in
+their own tongue too."
+
+Laughing, we mount and are off again.
+
+We are now penetrating into the great hills of sandstone we saw afar off
+from the hotel. The road winds into a gorge, and at each turn displays
+more vivid beauty. We feel a strange joy rising within us, so that we
+would like to sing or shout at the tops of our voices. The brilliance of
+the air shows up every line in the great precipices of orange-yellow,
+streaked with red and purple, which rise against a sky of thrilling
+blue. There is not a blade of grass or a leaf to be seen in these vast
+solitudes, only the massive stones, broken and split and scattered, lie
+in the fierce sun or black shadow. We can imagine these defiles looking
+much the same when three or four thousand years ago the funeral
+procession of one of the mighty Pharaohs wound its way into the heart of
+the mountains, carrying the man who had never known opposition or denied
+himself his slightest wish. They were very magnificent these
+processions, composed of hundreds of people who carried all sorts of
+things--furniture, chariots, boats, animals, fruit and flowers--with
+tremendous ceremony.
+
+It is a longish ride before we alight again, and leaving the donkeys
+under a slight straw shelter penetrate into the fastnesses of the hills.
+
+How many of these rock-tombs were made here will probably never be
+known, but year by year more are uncovered. The first we step into is
+like a large well-lighted cave cut out of a cliff-side, from it opens
+another cave-like room, and from that another, each sloping downward and
+the whole series giving the impression of a series of puzzle-boxes
+fitting into one another and then drawn out. The walls are covered with
+pictures, paintings on plaster, not outline pictures like those we saw
+in the temples, but filled in with blue and green, orange and
+terra-cotta, laid on thickly, and as fresh as the day they were done.
+Ever descending we pass on until we reach the last chamber, where the
+great sarcophagus or coffin of the king was placed right up against the
+face of the rock. The sarcophagus might be a mighty block of granite,
+enclosing a wooden case, and that again another case, probably carved
+and gilt, and finally, as a kernel, there was the body of the king,
+preserved and dried by spices, lying awaiting the final resurrection.
+The Egyptians believed in a future world, but they could not imagine a
+future world without there being human bodies in it such as we have now,
+so they took infinite trouble in preserving the dead body that it might
+be ready for its time of call. Most of the sarcophagi from these tombs
+have been removed and taken to the museum at Cairo, but in one to which
+we penetrate, hewn out at a slope so steep that we have difficulty in
+keeping our feet as we slither down, the mummy has been replaced and is
+left uncovered.
+
+Lit up by electric light we see King Amenhetep II., with his skin
+blackened to a parchment, drawn tightly over his chiselled aristocratic
+features. In the dome-shaped forehead, the Roman nose, and the tightly
+compressed lips there is an expression of infinite disdain, as if he, in
+his time the mightiest ruler in the world and the leader of
+civilisation, knew that now he was exposed to the gaze of a party of
+outer barbarians whose national histories were but of mushroom growth.
+This king struck terror into the hearts of his enemies; he raided the
+land of Syria, slew seven chiefs with his own hand and brought them back
+to Thebes, hanging head downward from the bows of his boat!
+
+The very day after a king ascended the throne he used to begin hewing
+out the sepulchre where he should lie. The scenes drawn on the walls
+show what he expected to find in the other world. We see a pair of
+scales with the heart of the dead man in one balance and a feather in
+the other; a monkey sits on the top and adjusts the weight. The heart
+must weigh the feather exactly, for to be over-righteous was as bad as
+being wicked! The dead man also had to pass before forty-two judges, who
+each examined him searchingly as to whether he had committed one
+particular sin. As one of the party remarked in an awe-struck voice,
+"And if he did pass them all safely and another started up and asked him
+if he ever told a lie he'd be done, for no man could deny that he had
+committed any of the forty-two principal sins and remain truthful!"
+
+To accompany the soul to the other world many things used to be buried
+in the tombs, clothes and food and utensils and weapons, and, thanks to
+this custom, numberless things have been saved to show us how the
+ancient Egyptians lived. These, however, have mostly been taken to Cairo
+for safe keeping. But here in Amenhetep's tomb one thing has been left.
+In a small side chamber, with the light falling full upon them, are
+three mummies, each with a hole in the skull and a gash on the breast,
+showing that they were the king's slaves, killed in order that their
+souls might accompany him and serve him beyond the tomb!
+
+They lie there with their hair still on their heads, and even the false
+hair, they used to increase it, showing; on their faces is a ghastly
+grin. We wonder if they submitted quietly, proud of having been chosen,
+or if each fought fiercely for the life which belonged to him and was
+not any man's to take away.
+
+It is very hot and close down in the rock-hewn chamber, and we are glad
+enough to stumble up and out again, though we are blinded by the
+sunshine as we emerge.
+
+The next part of the day is the hardest of all, for we scramble up a
+mountain-side to gain a splendid view of gorges and valleys on one side
+and the flat plain spreading to the Nile on the other. The view is
+indescribable; from lemon-yellow to orange and saffron are the hills,
+with blue-grey shadows in their folds. Right opposite is one absolutely
+perpendicular, with immense rounded columns looking like giant organ
+pipes rising on its face. A fresh wind is blowing, and when we mount our
+donkeys, which have come round to meet us another way, and ride along a
+path a few feet wide, with no fence of any kind and a drop of some
+hundreds of feet on one side, we are devoutly thankful that the German
+girl and the stout lady went round the other and longer way by the
+valley!
+
+Over the summit the donkeys are set free to get down the steep descent
+as best they may, and they are as sure-footed as goats, but we who
+follow find considerable difficulty as the loose stone and sand fall
+away in miniature avalanches from beneath our slipping feet and we get
+very hot. We are sheltered here from that fresh wind which is such a joy
+in Egypt, the sun is at its height, and we have done a good morning's
+work already after an early start. There, far below, looking like a
+doll's house, is the rest-house where we lunch, and beside it two of the
+men of the Mounted Police Camel Corps in khaki on their long-legged
+beasts.
+
+Whew! That last bit was tough! I am glad to get a long drink and equally
+glad to go on after it to an excellent cold lunch which has been brought
+to meet us. Hard-boiled eggs, salad, cold meat and fruit! We try them
+all and then rest on the verandah looking at the towering orange cliffs
+which hem us in. They seem to hang right over that little temple near,
+to which we shall presently pay a visit. That is the temple of Der El
+Bahari and was built by Hatshepset, the greatest of Egyptian queens.
+Hatshepset was the daughter of one king and the wife of another, and
+after her husband's death she ruled for about sixteen years. She made
+expeditions to the Red Sea and acted in every way like a man. In the
+drawings of her on the temple wall she is represented as a man and is
+dressed in man's clothes. When her son-in-law, Thothmes III., who had
+married her daughter, succeeded her, he scratched out her name wherever
+he found it and chiselled out the pictures of her. He had evidently had
+a bad time while she lived, but he must have been a small-minded and
+spiteful man to take that petty revenge after her death!
+
+[Illustration: A SOLEMN GIRL-CHILD.]
+
+On the way home across the dhurra fields I see you stop riding suddenly
+and stare intently down at something on the ground. I think at first it
+is a scorpion you have found on the patch of light-coloured sand, but it
+is only an immense black beetle, with a strong horny skin and a horn or
+trumpet-shaped excrescence on the front part of its head. He belongs to
+the scarabaeus, or dung-beetles, and big fellows they are; this one would
+just about cover the palm of your hand. The Egyptians called one of
+their gods Khepera, or the beetle, and believed him to be the creator of
+all things, so they used to make images of these beetles and put them in
+their temples; you saw a huge one, you remember, on a pedestal at
+Karnak, and any time you are in London you can see them at the British
+Museum. There were also tiny images of them made in stone and amethyst
+and porcelain, and almost anything else, and these were frequently
+buried in the tombs with the mummies. Sometimes they had the name of the
+person with whom they were buried inscribed on the back in hieroglyphic
+writing, or the name of a god. These scarabs, as they are called, are
+bought and worn in rings and ornaments by visitors. The natives quickly
+found out that there was a demand for them, and as they could not always
+find old genuine ones they set to work to make them! Hundreds of new
+ones are palmed off as old in this way on unsuspecting tourists.
+
+"Scarab!"
+
+A solemn girl-child clad in a rust-coloured garment has come up on
+seeing our donkeys halt and holds out a brilliant blue scarab for sale
+in a hot little hand. She nods violently, repeating, "Scarab! Verry
+old." "Found in tombs," says our donkey-boy gravely, willing to help her
+to take us in. He picks it up and pretends to examine it carefully,
+"Genuine anteekar," he pronounces. Laughing, we hand the "genuine
+antique" back to its owner, knowing that it is probably "genuine
+Birmingham," and then we canter after the rest of the party.
+
+[Illustration: A NILE STEAMER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ON THE NILE
+
+
+In my ears is the sound as of the tuning up of a thousand fiddles! I
+hear the agonising scrape of strings, the squeal of the bows! I have
+heard it all before at many a concert, but this time it is intensified a
+thousandfold and penetrates even into my dreams. I imagine I am in a
+concert hall and spring up wildly with the intention of getting outside
+until the music begins, but the movement wakes me, and behold I am not
+at a concert in London on a dim Sunday afternoon, but in a brilliantly
+white two-berth cabin with the sun flooding in through the square
+window! Peering out I see we are running smoothly along up-stream close
+in to a high mud bank, and that is where the noise comes from. It is
+caused by the squeaking of one wooden rod against another as hundreds of
+Egyptian fellaheen raise the water from the Nile to moisten their crops.
+
+It is not long before we are both dressed and out to examine the
+curious sight. The banks are about the height of a high room, and at the
+distance of, it may be, fifty yards, all the way along them there are
+deep cuts like miniature denes, or chines, running down to the water. At
+the foot of each of these a brown-skinned man stands with his bare feet
+at the edge of the water, gripping with his toes to save himself from
+slipping in the mud. At this time in the morning he is clothed in a
+quantity of garments, mostly mud-colour, but as the sun grows strong he
+throws them aside and stands forth a fine bronze statue with his skin
+gleaming in the clear light. Just above his head there is a pole
+bridging the cut, or chine, and fastened to the middle of it at right
+angles is another, which swings up and down upon it like a see-saw.
+
+A huge lump of mud like a swollen football is plastered on to the far
+end of this, and at the other end a basket or basin made of skin is
+attached to a string. The mud ball is heavy, and when it is allowed to
+go free it hangs down to the ground; but the brown man constantly
+reaches up and raises it by pulling down the basin, which he dips in the
+Nile water, then lets the heavy end swing it up as high as his head,
+when he tips it up, and the water from it flows into a pool at that
+height. Another man stands on the edge of this pool and he has a similar
+arrangement, by means of which he raises the water out of the pool with
+a basin like the first, and there may be another above him, and another
+again. This primitive arrangement is called a _shaduf_, and by its means
+the water from the Nile is lifted up to the surface of the fields, where
+it runs away in miniature channels to water the roots of the maize. This
+is one of the most extraordinary sights in the world. Think of all the
+mills in which machinery does delicate work like that of the human hand;
+think of the patterns made by the machines, of the newspapers printed
+and folded with very little human guidance, and then leap back to this
+clumsy device used now by the Egyptian as it was used by his ancestors
+thousands of years ago! A few pints of muddy water raised by a weight,
+half of it falling out of the badly constructed basin as it goes, and
+the same drop of water handled again and again by four men till the tiny
+trickle reaches the fields! We watch with amazement. The shrieking and
+squeaking of the _shadufs_ goes on, the brown figures stoop down, rise
+again, and swing with regularity, minute after minute. We steam on round
+the next corner and see more of them and yet more again; how many have
+we not seen already in the short time we have been on deck? Multiply
+that times without number for all the miles we came up by train and
+double it to include both banks! Imagination gives way!
+
+[Illustration: A "SHADUF."]
+
+"I can't bear it," says the nice American who was in the train with us
+and has now joined us in the trip up to Assouan in one of Cook's
+steamers. "It's maddening! Why can't a whole village form a company and
+get some sort of machine to work? It would water all their crops in a
+tenth of the time."
+
+As he speaks there comes into view something just a little better. At
+the top of one of the deep cuts on the bank two bullocks plod slowly
+round and round in a circle as if they were threshing corn; they work a
+wheel, which revolves horizontally and is fitted into another which
+turns vertically, deep down into the hole it reaches, low enough to
+touch the water at the bottom. Earthenware jars are strung all round it
+like beads on a necklet, and as each pot dips into the water it brings
+up its share, and when it reaches the highest point it tips it into a
+little channel, where it runs away. This is called a _saddiyeh_. The
+wheels groan and creak, the patient beasts turn in their dizzy circle,
+and the youngster seated on the wheel prods them with a sharp-pointed
+stick when they slacken. At least the water runs away in a continuous
+stream at the top, however tiny.
+
+Then the steamer takes a sharp turn, leaves the bank, and careers across
+into midstream! We go up on to the top deck and see three dark-skinned
+men, warmly wrapped up in brown coats, sitting in a little glasshouse in
+the bows and watching earnestly the channel ahead.
+
+This is the _reis_, or captain, with his two assistants. They know every
+turn and dip in the river; but the river changes ever, no two days is it
+alike as it falls and washes away a bank or deposits sand so as to make
+an island where none was before. So the three men watch intently and
+steer the boat to this side and that wherever they can find the deepest
+channel. The Nile is low for this time of year and caution is necessary;
+when there is any doubt as to there being enough water, one of the crew
+below handles a long pole, dipping it in to find the bottom and calling
+out the depth as he goes.
+
+There are twenty passengers or so on the boat and they sit about the
+sunny decks watching the panorama of the banks and the wonderful
+changing scenes ahead, hour by hour. Hardly anywhere would you find a
+greater variety of nationalities than on one of these Nile boats, for
+Egypt draws people from all parts of the world with her mystery and
+beauty. The odd people one meets add to the interest, and the strange
+manners, which are not ours, are like flavouring in the dish of travel,
+which, if it were composed only of scenes of perpetual beauty, might be
+a little insipid.
+
+To begin with, I am English and you are Scottish, we have our friend the
+American and four of his compatriots, not by any means so delightful as
+he is. He takes care to steer clear of them, we notice! One of them is a
+little man who might be any age from twenty to fifty; if we examine him
+with field-glasses we shouldn't be able to discover how old he is. His
+yellow skin, drawn tightly over a bony face, gives no sign of age or
+youth. He eats sweets all day out of a box as large as a child's coffin,
+and he is attended by three stout ladies, doubtless "his mother and his
+aunts." They are veiled and swathed in wraps, and seem to spend their
+time gossiping or asleep in the innermost recesses of the cabin. We
+never once catch them admiring the scenery or taking any interest in the
+wonders we pass. Then there is a Swiss, a gentle-mannered bronzed man
+with a brown beard; he speaks only French, and in an unobtrusive way
+seems to have seen a great deal of the world; we discover, for one
+thing, that he has lived out in the desert near Tunis for many years.
+There are three Russians, mother, father, and daughter, who speak
+practically nothing but Russian, with a few words of French; they are
+brave to have started out on such a journey so ill-equipped. Coming
+across a Russian dragoman in Cairo they trusted him joyfully; he bought
+three temple tickets for them at their expense and promised to meet them
+somewhere up the Nile. They seem to expect to find him sitting on every
+sandbank, and their faith is pathetic; they'll never see those tickets
+again, for the man will sell them to the next party of victims. Then
+there is a Belgian, also a couple of lively pleasant French people, and
+two Germans, a sister and brother, who dress in clothes intended to be
+very sporting.
+
+It is an interesting crowd, and it is well kept in hand by the manager,
+who looks like a fair-haired, brown-faced boy of two-and-twenty, but has
+been everywhere and speaks half a dozen languages fluently. In addition
+to this he sketches in water colours, plays the fiddle, and breaks in
+horses! You have to travel to come across people like that! Here he is
+nothing so out of the way--every dragoman is able to talk in three
+languages at least. Doesn't it spur you on to feel how much we have to
+learn and how ignorant we are in our stay-at-home villages?
+
+All the morning we sit about and watch the graceful white-sailed boats
+coming down with cargoes of every kind. Sometimes we see them stranded
+on a hidden sandbank with the crew making frantic efforts to get them
+off again. We see the reaches lying ahead glittering like jewels in the
+sun, and then we land and ride a short way to a temple, under the care
+of the dragoman of the boat. The most moving thing in all that temple is
+a set of scenes of a hippopotamus hunt shown with great spirit; the poor
+little hippo looks more like a pig when he is at the bottom of the water
+with a spear or harpoon sticking in him, but when they haul him up by
+means of a noose round one leg the ancient artist represents him
+becoming bigger and bigger as he comes to the surface!
+
+The walls are, besides, covered with all the usual scenes of the king
+making offerings to the gods, and overriding his enemies, and doing all
+those noble things which kings wanted their posterity to know about
+them.
+
+A high-pitched voice, speaking in a hyper-refined affected tone, breaks
+in on our enjoyment; it belongs to one of the English people from the
+boat, a lady who evidently considers it her mission in life to instruct
+people; information flows from her ten finger-tips, she cannot help it,
+she was born to be a schoolmistress certainly.
+
+"That is the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt," she says, "that the king
+is wearing; sometimes you see him with one and sometimes with the other,
+here he has both together."
+
+As this is about the first thing a dragoman tells anyone in the first
+temple he sees, and as it is repeated at least once at every temple
+afterwards, only an idiot could fail to know it. We murmur something
+politely and turn away. Round a corner we stop to admire the rich colour
+still left in the ceiling, where a heavenly blue, covered with golden
+stars, represents the sky.
+
+"When we were here three years ago," says the lady at our elbows, "they
+had not uncovered those pillars, but we are told--that----"
+
+The peace and beauty are spoilt! Again we murmur something and make a
+dive to get away, but are confronted by a clean-shaven man in glasses.
+"When we were here three years ago," he begins, "perhaps my wife has
+told you----"
+
+It is rude, but there is nothing for it but to bolt; people like that
+would take the effervescence off newly opened champagne! We leave them
+confronting each other, and wonder what they do when they are alone
+together! Do they force their mixture of guidebook and water on each
+other?
+
+[Illustration: THE DAM AT ASSOUAN.]
+
+When we look back upon Egypt these river days will stand out most
+clearly, for the glory of them and the interest of them are unfailing.
+We have to leave this boat at Assouan, but we shall come back and go
+right down the Nile to Cairo on our return journey, so that is something
+to look forward to.
+
+At Assouan we are not going to stop but to change on to another steamer,
+one belonging to the Government this time, and we shall penetrate
+farther into the heart of the land to see something, which, after the
+Sphinx, is the most wonderful thing in Egypt.
+
+But we can't step off one steamer on to another, for at Assouan is the
+first of the many cataracts that for ages has hindered the navigation of
+the Nile. The river, hemmed in between two rocky sides, tears down,
+dashing over stones and whirling round corners in a dangerous way. So
+the steamer for the upper part of the river waits above the cataract and
+we have to make a short train journey of half an hour or so to join it.
+
+Picture the scene at an English railway station of any size, with its
+solidly-built platform and its gloomy roof and its row of uniformed
+porters drawn up waiting the arrival of the incoming train. I don't
+suppose anywhere you could find anything less like this than the station
+at Assouan where we await our train this afternoon. There are great palm
+trees springing out of the platform itself, not fenced in in any way.
+There are masses of scarlet poinsettias growing. And the porters! yes,
+they _are_ porters, not criminals waiting to be hanged! There they
+stand, a ragged regiment indeed, dressed in any sort of garment that
+takes their fancy. Most of them look as if they had collected all the
+dish-clouts and dusters which had seen service and piled them on anyhow.
+To add to their adornment each man has a double coil of shabby-looking
+rope hung round his neck, this is to fasten together the luggage he
+hopes to carry. The men are of all sizes and all colours. That
+good-looking fellow at the end is not darker than a sun-browned
+Englishman, while that stout, round-faced, thick-lipped one next to him
+is as black as the polished boot seen in an advertisement. He is a
+Nubian, for here we are on the borders of Nubia, now counted part of
+Egypt. The porters are making a tremendous hullabaloo, chattering and
+quarrelling at the tops of their voices, so a native policeman in khaki
+comes along and smacks one of them hard on the side of his face, and
+then catches him a crack on the other side to make him keep his balance;
+the man does not resent it at all--he rubs his cheek and takes the hint.
+Fancy a policeman in our country smacking a porter on the face; what a
+row there would be!
+
+Here is the train! The engine-driver and his mate are dressed in shabby
+European clothes crowned by turbans which have gaudy orange and red
+handkerchiefs twisted round them. They get down on the platform, and
+suddenly the fireman sees a rather unpleasant-looking man, with a beard,
+standing away from the others; he rushes at him, bows low before him,
+and finally kisses both his hands. The man is probably a sheikh of the
+Mohammedan church.
+
+The train is a corridor one, and we mount the platform at the end of a
+carriage and find ourselves in a compartment thick with dust, where the
+seats vary from straight leather-covered benches to comfortable-looking
+basket-chairs. The place is crammed with "kit"; dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases, sword-cases and leather bags fill every corner.
+
+"Allow me," says a pleasant-voiced sunburnt man as he stoops to remove
+some of his things to make room for us. "We've come right up from Cairo
+and things get a bit scattered," he adds apologetically.
+
+When we get clear of the town we find that in addition to glass windows
+and wooden shutters there are also windows of blue glass to keep off the
+glare, a splendid idea, as they do not hinder the view. One of these is
+up, and peeping through it we get our first real glimpse of the desert,
+transformed as if it lay beneath bright moonlight. From the other side
+we can see it as it is in its yellow colouring. How fascinating! Its
+runs away in sweeping low waves to a line of hills and is crossed by
+caravan tracks; even as we watch we see a man riding a small donkey
+ahead of a string of camels laden with huge bales. The railway is still
+but a small thing in Egypt; it runs right ahead, with few side-lines,
+and from it the desert tracks lead off in many directions. The camel,
+who has been the bearer of Egyptian traffic for generations, still does
+a large share of the transport. A good camel is expensive, but a man who
+owns one is sure of a livelihood, for he works backwards and forwards
+across the great solitudes, eating his handful of dates or grain, and
+drinking the water he carries with him, if he is not lucky enough to
+camp near a well. Oddly enough camels are not represented on the
+wall-drawings of the ancient Egyptians, and though it is true they were
+probably not to be found in the country in the very earliest times, yet
+they were certainly introduced as early as the horse, who is often shown
+in battle-scenes.
+
+[Illustration: MEN OF THE BISHARIN TRIBE.]
+
+What rivets our attention directly it comes into sight is an encampment
+of low mat huts like beehives right out in the midst of the sand.
+
+"Those belong to the Bisharin," says the same fair-haired, keen-faced
+man who had first spoken; "tribe of fuzzy-wuzzies! They extend right
+away from here to the Red Sea. Live on raw grain mostly. Quaint lot!"
+
+Some of the men from the camp are standing near the railway line, so we
+can see them well; they are very tall and extremely handsome, with
+well-cut features and well-proportioned figures. Their hair is cut
+exactly after the fashion of the palm trees, with a tuft standing up in
+the middle and two tufts dropping away from it on each side. These men
+are quiet enough now that they have learnt the British power, but not so
+long ago they were inflamed with fanatical hatred.
+
+You have heard of the dervishes who were killed in thousands at
+Omdurman, outside Khartoum, in the great battle at which Lord Kitchener
+won his title when he freed the Soudan from the power of the Mahdi? Now,
+having seen the Bisharin, you can imagine what dervishes looked like.
+For they dressed their hair in the same way, they wore the same
+dirty-white garments, and as they came yelling onward at a run,
+brandishing their weapons, it must have taken some courage for the
+Egyptian soldiers to meet them steadily.
+
+All the men in the carriage with us are going on up to Khartoum and
+beyond. They are soldiers, administrators, and Government officials, men
+whose lives are passed on the outposts of civilisation, and who carry
+the British ideals of cleanliness, honesty, and straight-dealing far
+into the desert; but they do not talk about it, as Kipling says they
+speak:--"After the use of the English in straight-flung words and few--"
+
+    "Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways,
+    Baulking the end half won for an instant dole of praise.
+    Stand to your work and be wise--certain of sword and pen,
+    Who are neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men."
+
+Khartoum is the capital of the Soudan, but we have not arrived in the
+Soudan yet. This great province was won from barbarism and brutality by
+the English, who had trained and commanded the Egyptian army for the
+purpose through years of heart-breaking work, and it is held jointly by
+England and Egypt.
+
+Then we arrive at Shellal, the station where the steamer waits, and in
+a moment we are plunged into a turmoil of confusion and shouting.
+
+The red sun is setting in a flame of glory over the great lake-like
+expanse studded with black rocks; this is the huge dam or reserve of
+water held up for the use of the crops when the Nile goes down. The
+scene beggars description; bags, bundles, bales, boxes are pitched out
+pell-mell. Gleaming black faces are lit up by the flames of leaping
+fires lit on the sand. Petticoated porters thrust metal numbers at us so
+that we may be able to recognise them again and reclaim our luggage
+safely. We make our way to the steamer and mount to the first-class deck
+and look down on the whirl of turbans and red fezes (also called
+tarbooshes) below. The perpetual chatter, the long low cries, the
+beating shout of men staggering under heavy loads make up a resounding
+din. Clamped boxes, camp-chairs, enamel basins, dispatch-boxes,
+helmet-cases are carried swinging up the gangway. Here is a man wildly
+waving a gun-case which a non-commissioned officer wrenches from him;
+another is struggling under a folded tent, the end of which catches on a
+post and nearly precipitates him into the water. Black Nubian sailors in
+white and blue jumpers are wrestling with an endless series of
+mail-bags; third-class passengers, lost under piles of bedding, straggle
+into a great barge alongside. In the midst of it all one sailor detaches
+himself a little from the rest and drops down on his knees on the quay,
+prostrating himself and bowing with his forehead to the ground; he rises
+again, stands straight, with head erect, then down he goes again. He is
+praying at sunset, as a good Mohammedan is told to do. No one notices
+him or ridicules him. What would happen to an English sailor who knelt
+to say his prayers on an English dock? We feel that we have something to
+learn from this people, who are at all events not ashamed of their
+religion.
+
+A man is selling oranges on the quay, another has large round flat
+loaves of bread tucked well under his arms and hugged against his body.
+A black hand, extended from the lowest deck beneath us, grasps one of
+these loaves and begins to finger it with a view to purchase; we cannot
+see the owner of the hand, but we can see his fingers feeling cautiously
+all around that loaf; he nips it between finger and thumb, he prods it,
+kneads it, rubs it, and finally, when no inch of it has been untouched,
+he hands over reluctantly a small coin and withdraws with the bread.
+
+"Hope that isn't for us," says the cheerful voice of a young officer
+leaning over the rail beside us in the dark. "Think I'll cut off my
+crust at dinner to-night on the off-chance, anyway!"
+
+[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN SOLDIER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A MILLION SUNRISES
+
+
+It is very cold and quite dark when I wake. The steamer is anchored
+close up to the bank and not a sound comes from the still water. My
+blankets are very comfortable; it can't be time to turn out yet. It is
+an effort even to stretch out a hand and strike a light to see my
+watch--5.15! Yes, we ought to go!
+
+You take some waking, and only my threat of, "You'll never get another
+chance in your life," brings you out of your bunk at last.
+
+If you've ever done anything nastier than trying to dress against time,
+two together in a small cabin on a cold morning in the pitch dark, I'd
+like to know it. The electric light is off, because the engines are not
+running, and there are no candles. By the time we've got into some sort
+of clothing we're both at snarling-point. Twice I've violently tried to
+put on your boots, thinking they were mine, and I know you've got my
+shirt on, because I couldn't find it and had to drag out a clean one!
+
+A walk along the cold dark deck and across a slippery plank to the mud
+bank does not improve matters. Apparently we have this exhilarating
+entertainment all to ourselves, for the rest of the fifteen passengers
+have not appeared.
+
+The sand is like the softest silk, and it seems sometimes as if we must
+be walking backwards so little headway do we make. If it wasn't for this
+icy wind I should think I was still dreaming. All the time that red bar
+in the east glows steadily brighter, and warns us that if we want to see
+one of the grandest sights in the world--Abu Simbel by sunrise--we must
+hurry up.
+
+When at last we get clear of the sand we find ourselves on a piece of
+ground cut up by cracks wide enough to put a foot in. There is just
+sufficient light to keep us from twisting our ankles if we walk along
+with our eyes glued to the ground, and so we get along somehow, till
+suddenly we stop--sunrise is here!
+
+A considerable distance in front of us and above our level we see three
+mighty seated figures and the remains of a fourth in a flat recess
+chiselled out of the side of a great rounded cliff. That first touch of
+dawn has tinged them with rosy pink, and they sit with their faces to
+the sunrise, which they must have seen somewhere about one million times
+already. Night succeeding day, day succeeding night, light following
+darkness, darkness following light, thus has time flickered before them
+throughout their stupendous age. As we creep nearer and climb higher
+they seem to rise and rise in size. Silently we seat ourselves on a
+stone, forgetting the shivering wind, and we stare and gaze spellbound
+at the triumphant eager expression on those mighty features, which, as
+the dawn spreads, softens to a deep complacence. Then the pink changes
+to a splendour of living gold, which sweeps over like a curtain, and the
+full majesty of them strikes us almost like a blow.
+
+Their expression has in it something akin to that of all mighty
+time-resisting images set up by man; it is found in the face of the
+Sphinx and on that of the Buddhas of the East. It is an expression of
+soul-crushing superiority, so without doubt of its own unassailable
+dignity that it can afford to be benign. We must make up a word and call
+it "supremity"--it is the only one that fits it.
+
+Under the knee of each mighty figure is the plump outline of a little
+wife, small it looks from here, but draw nearer still, stand right under
+that colossus on the right and you will find that she is twice the
+height of a man.
+
+As they tower above us, seeming to grow greater every instant as the
+light filters into the crevices, we get some idea of the monster size of
+these noble statues, and discover that each foot is nearly as long as a
+man! From the broken face of the sloping cliff they have been hewn, not
+built and pieced together and brought here from elsewhere, but born full
+size, springing to life from out the living rock. They all represent the
+king with whom we are already familiar, Rameses II., who caused this
+great temple to be made to celebrate his victory over the Kheta, a tribe
+of Syrians, living far away by the river Orontes in the north of the
+Holy Land.
+
+Two on each side of the temple doorway the statues sit, and between
+them, in low relief, is the small figure of the god Harmakhis. Running
+above, across them all, is an inscription, part of which signifies--
+
+    "I give to thee all life and strength."
+
+Look up at it beyond those towering immovable heads, and from it again
+to the rough cliff untouched by tool, and from that to the sky, now of
+the purest, softest blue, hanging like a canopy above.
+
+The high black doorway of the temple lies like a gash on the face of the
+cliff, and on one day of the year the ray of light from the rising sun
+falls through it clean as a shot arrow. The black-robed guardian has
+been expecting us, he stands waiting, holding his staff of office, and
+admits us to the interior. It is very dark, and even with the light of
+the flickering candle he holds up it is difficult to make out those
+great columns, each seventeen feet high, carved with an image of the god
+Osiris. As for the deep-cut pictures everywhere on the walls we can only
+get the merest glimpses of them. We pass on through several halls,
+noting how the angles and lines are absolutely plumb and true, and come
+to the innermost sanctuary, where we find the king again as one of four
+seated statues, not very large, the other three being gods! That was the
+idea Rameses had of his own importance!
+
+Then it grows on us with increasing wonder that all this temple--the
+walls, the columns, the statues--are cut out of the actual rock, and
+that all the stone dislodged in the cutting must have been carried out
+through that doorway. How was it achieved? The depth of the temple to
+its farthest wall is one hundred and eighty-five feet, or almost three
+times a cricket-pitch! Imagine this depth driven in to the rock and
+cleared out to a great height without any machine power or modern tools!
+And this was accomplished in the reign of one king. Rameses reigned some
+sixty years, and his great victory over the Kheta was five years after
+his coronation, so perhaps sixty years is the longest we can give for
+the construction of the temple, and it was probably much less. The story
+goes that in this great battle the king, cut off from his men and alone
+in the midst of a hostile army, performed prodigies of valour; he slew
+and hewed right and left until he sent the greater part of the Syrian
+army flying before him; all this is recorded on the walls. Of course in
+the case of kings these doings are apt to be magnified, still, there is
+no doubt that this was one of the most memorable occasions of his life,
+and he has certainly caused it to be remembered by building this
+enduring monument.
+
+[Illustration: A CHILD HOLDS OUT A STRANGE LITTLE BEAST.]
+
+We hear voices, and are joined by half a dozen of our fellow-travellers
+from the steamer. As we all walk back together a child sidles up and
+holds out a strange little beast with a head like a skull and a long
+tail like a rat. It is about as big as your hand. One of the army men
+takes it and puts it in the sleeve of his green tweed coat, and as he
+walks along carrying it the quaint little beast turns a greenish colour.
+It is a chameleon and has the faculty of changing to the colour of its
+background whatever that may be; this forms a protection against its
+enemies, who cannot easily see it.
+
+"I'll keep it," says the soldier, laughing and giving the child a coin.
+"He is a useful little beggar. You should see that tongue of his flick
+out and catch an unwary fly half a foot away."
+
+The steamer hoots a warning note and we all scramble on board hastily.
+Yes, I _told_ you it was my shirt!
+
+An hour or so later we pass the boundary into the Soudan.
+
+"Now we are out of Egypt," says another of our friends, a Government
+official with years of experience behind him. "The Soudan is a greatly
+superior place; no one is allowed to bother you here--we don't let them.
+The children don't even know the meaning of the word _bakshish_; they
+are not allowed to learn it."
+
+This sounds comforting and gives a good prospect for the day we shall
+have to spend at our stopping-place, Wady Haifa, before going back on
+the steamer to Assouan.
+
+There is no railway between Assouan and Wady Haifa, and so Government
+steamers run all the year round to bridge the gap between the two ends
+of the railway. In the season Cook runs steamers too, and they give much
+more time for passengers to see Abu Simbel and other temples on the way;
+unfortunately, as we are too early in the year, we could not take
+advantage of them and had to go on a Government boat.
+
+The men we have been with are all passing on by rail from Wady Haifa,
+and when we land there we go in the afternoon to see them off at the
+station. They are a keen, hard-bitten crew, and make us feel proud of
+our countrymen; they are reticent mostly, bearing the unmistakable stamp
+of responsibility. Men who "build the Empire" are little apt to "slop
+over" or demand sympathy. The boyish vigour remains with them later than
+with most men, but it is tempered by a certain hardness outside. The
+train is particularly comfortable and well managed, with sleeping-cars
+that bear comparison with the best in Europe, and a good dining-car; and
+it is necessary, for these men have a journey of a day and a night
+before reaching Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan, and the way lies
+right across barren desert, where the sand insidiously creeps in at
+every chink in spite of the closely shut windows. To some of them indeed
+Khartoum is only a jumping-off place. There is one army man who received
+orders to leave Cairo at ten days' notice and plunge into Central
+Africa, there to hold an outpost as the only white man for hundreds of
+miles around. He knows little of what is expected of him beyond the fact
+that he is to purchase a year's stores in Khartoum, and that when he has
+gone as far as boat and waterway can take him, he will have to march at
+least a hundred miles through country where his equipment must be
+carried by natives, as it is the haunt of the dreaded tsetse fly whose
+bite is fatal to animals. He has a map made up mostly of rivers
+"unexplored" and country "unknown." It looks quite full of information
+and names when you merely glance at it, but when you begin to handle it
+you find a great deal of the print tells you only what is not there. The
+owner of it hardly knows what language he will have to speak, but he is
+as pleased about it all as a girl going to her first ball. In his own
+words, he "has got his chance." When we ask him what he is going to
+take with him, he answers with a merry twinkle, "I started with two
+dozen tooth-brushes; I should think in their line they would be enough."
+So long as England produces men of this metal she need not fear the
+decadence of the race.
+
+When we have parted from them all we stroll down the bazaar at Wady
+Haifa and are immediately followed by a horde of children of all ages,
+sizes, and descriptions, who, whenever we stop and look around at them,
+say with growing confidence, "Bakshish, bakshish!" even the tiny fat
+babe who can scarcely toddle murmurs "'Shish!"
+
+Still pursued by the horde we make our way to a tea-house, where
+numerous natives of Haifa sit out in a little compound surrounded by a
+wooden fence and refresh themselves. We order tea, and get it after some
+difficulty; but it is more because the attendant guesses what we would
+be likely to ask for than because he understands us that we eventually
+are provided with a small pot of quite decent tea.
+
+While we drink the children gather from afar; every one in Haifa under
+the age of fourteen is there I should say. They glue themselves to the
+fence and force their little faces between the posts, or spike their
+chins on the top and then watch in solemn deadly earnest the ways of
+these strange beings whom fate has so kindly sent to amuse them. The
+rest-house attendant does not approve of these manners, so he slips out
+of a side-door with a basin of water in his hand and pitches it straight
+over the little crew as if they were a flock of intrusive chickens; they
+fly, shrieking with delight, and return in thicker swarms than ever
+inside of two minutes.
+
+An affable gentleman in a gown seats himself beside us.
+
+"I wish you good-day," he says in English, and we return his greeting.
+
+"I am dragoman here," he continues.
+
+We point to one small girl with a face quite different from that of the
+other children, and her hair done in innumerable little tight pigtails,
+and ask him who she is. "Nubian," he says. "Eat castor oil, plenty oil,
+like it much." We tell him to bring the child to us, but directly he
+translates, she flies screaming, is captured by the other children, and
+a noise begins like that inside the parrot-house at the Zoo. I explain
+that we don't want her to be frightened, but that if she will come and
+speak to us she shall have bakshish. The magic word produces instant
+calm, the child comes forward at once with coquettish assurance and
+when, through the interpreter, we inquire her name, and she tells us it
+is "Nafeesa," we give her half a piastre and let her go.
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE NUBIAN GIRL.]
+
+When we start off again for the steamer the whole crowd follows hard on
+our heels, for it is we who provide the free circus to-day. One mite
+trotting forward with his eyes glued on us goes smack into a tree and so
+hurts his little face that he covers it with a crooked arm and sets off
+homewards wailing softly.
+
+This is really a deserving case, even in England it is allowable to
+soothe the feelings of a hurt child, so we mutter "Bakshish," and all
+the eager crew rush after the little suffering child, yelling,
+"Bakshish," and they bring him back triumphantly with the tears already
+dried on his hurt face.
+
+So much for the Government official!
+
+Now we are off really! Back down the Nile and good-bye to this glorious
+land. Rapidly we fly down-stream, past Abu Simbel, past the sweeps of
+deep rich yellow sand seen nowhere south of Assouan in such glorious
+colouring; sand that is swept smooth by the wind into great banks and
+drifts with sharp edges like snow-drifts; past masses of plum-coloured
+rock sticking up out of it; past defiles of stony mountains falling
+sheer to the water; hiding here and there in their folds tiny villages
+indistinguishable from the rocks without glasses. There is hardly a
+_shaduf_ to be seen and very little cultivation, it is either desert or
+stony hills on each side. Grand beyond thought is it when seen in the
+flaming light of the afterglow!
+
+[Illustration: THE PEOPLE GOING HOME IN THE EVENINGS--WATER-CARRIERS.]
+
+At Assouan we have time for a glimpse at the great dam, extending for
+over a mile in length and built of masonry eighty-two feet thick at the
+bottom. This banks up the water, we have already seen, among the hills
+into a prodigious lake when the great swirl of the river comes down at
+flood-time, and thus much of it, which would have rushed away and been
+lost, is stored and let out gradually through the sluice-gates as
+required.
+
+Then we change on to one of Cook's steamers, and for days we fly
+down-stream to Cairo. We see the green fields of maize, and we watch the
+people going home in the evenings with the tired oxen and the little
+donkeys carrying their provender on their backs. And one day we arrive
+at Cairo and take the train for Port Said.
+
+Good-bye to Egypt! Mysterious, beautiful land! Never in all our
+wanderings round the globe shall we come upon a country more
+interesting.
+
+[Illustration: JERUSALEM.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM
+
+
+We have passed along the south coast of Europe and have been into a
+corner of Africa, and now we are going to set foot on a new
+continent--Asia. From Port Said, before we go on eastward, I want you to
+see just a little of the Holy Land--the scene of the Bible. The Holy
+Land stands by itself, apart, and though it is in Asia it doesn't seem
+to belong to it. Someone once said that it is to the world what a church
+is to a town--the centre of religion. Anyway, it is curious and
+interesting to notice that it forms the middle point where three
+continents meet, so that they all share it. I expect you know the
+position quite well. At the east end the Mediterranean does not run into
+a point as it does at Gibraltar, but comes up against a straight wall of
+land which cuts it off squarely, and this straight line is the coast of
+Palestine, better known as the Holy Land. If the schoolboys of Palestine
+were set to draw a map of their own country, they would find it much
+easier than a British boy would if told to make a map of his country.
+For all that the Jewish boy would have to do would be to make a fairly
+straight line, sloping a little out at the bottom end. There would be
+hardly any indentations on it and only one small bay.
+
+Palestine, of course, is the country of the Jews, though people of many
+other races and nations live there, and thousands of the Jews are
+scattered in all parts of the world. Some people dream of restoring all
+the Jews to their own land, but it is difficult to see what good it
+would do them. Palestine is held at present by the Turks, but everyone
+can visit it when they please. It is not a very large country, only
+about the size of Wales, and yet there isn't a country in the world to
+equal it in importance. Thousands of people visit it every year in spite
+of the fact that it is very difficult to get there. There are no good
+harbours, and the landing at Jaffa, which is the principal port for
+Jerusalem, has to be done in small boats. As we have to make our visit
+in the winter we may find the sea rough and dangerous, and may even be
+carried on north of Jaffa and have to come back on another boat as some
+friends of mine did. The Holy Land is not great or powerful or even
+beautiful nowadays, though in the spring the wild flowers are lovely.
+Seen in the winter it is just a rather barren, stony land, with many
+hills, and it is inhabited by very poor people. Yet this little country
+has been more fought over than any other. For centuries there were
+crusaders, or soldiers of the cross, who went out to try to conquer it,
+to hold it in Christian keeping, but they did not succeed.
+
+We must leave our heavy luggage at Port Said, to be picked up again on
+our return, and only take what we can carry in handbags. The rather
+small steamer which is to take us starts in the evening, and it is best
+to go straight to bed on board, as we shall have much to go through when
+we arrive to-morrow morning. After a rather disturbed night we are glad
+to get up and dress and come on deck. The ship is at anchor off Jaffa,
+tossing up and down on the grey water, so that we have to clutch at
+handrails and hold on to keep our footing on the slippery deck, which is
+cumbered up with bags and bundles and people and crates in a most
+confusing way.
+
+[Illustration: JAFFA.]
+
+All around the ship are big clumsy-looking boats filled with swarthy
+shouting men wearing turbans and immense baggy blue trousers with enough
+stuff in them to clothe a whole family! Except that they are not armed
+we might imagine we were held up by pirates! In front of us, a little
+distance off, are cruel jagged rocks over which the waves pour and dash,
+spouting up in cascades as they come slap on the hard surfaces.
+
+One of the boats is close to the ship and the men in her are hanging on
+by a rope which they gather up or let out as they rise and fall at the
+bottom of the long slippery gangway, much worse than that we climbed at
+Toulon. The men in our ship are pitching in bags and bundles very
+cleverly as the boat comes up, and among the things we see our own brown
+bags. Very soon we shall be pitched in too! How will you like that?
+
+Near us is a very fat Turkish lady, who is so rolled up in clothes, head
+and all, that it is quite possible she might be mistaken for a
+feather-bed. Two sailors get hold of her and carry her down the
+gangway, depositing her neatly in the boat as it swings near.
+
+Before you have quite realised what has happened a muscular man has
+caught you up like a sack of potatoes. You are run down the gangway with
+his hand on your arm like a vice, the boat comes up, and just at exactly
+the right second, when it balances on the crest of the wave, your captor
+lets you go and you land on the seat gently and sink away again with the
+boat. I follow, but am not so lucky, for the next wave catches the boat
+awry and sluices me from neck to heel! However, I have a stout coat on
+and do not mind. Then, in the heavily laden boat, with the Turkish lady
+and the bags and the bundles, we start for the distant shore.
+
+This is the principal landing-place for Palestine! Babies and bishops,
+pilgrims and pigs, pianos and potatoes have all to be pitched into
+boats!
+
+Our excitement is not over yet, for as we near the rocks it looks as if
+we must be smashed by the heavy waves. The roar of the surf is so great
+that we cannot hear each other speak, and the rain and foam bespatter
+our faces. We blink and hang on to each other, see-sawing up and down,
+and wondering every second if we shall be feeling colder yet when we are
+actually in the water, and then the boat swings up on a wave and runs
+through into calmer water beyond.
+
+We thread our way in and out of narrow channels, still between rocks,
+and see ahead of us a desolate land with a queer flat-roofed town.
+
+When at last we are on firm ground our guide leads us quickly through
+some narrow dirty streets, and before we have time to notice anything we
+are in a noisy, fussy little train, bound for Jerusalem.
+
+We are actually in the land of Israel, the land where all the Bible
+stories happened, not only those of the New Testament but also of the
+Old! Here Noah lived when the Flood came, here Abraham and Isaac and
+Jacob pitched their tents and pastured their flocks. From here the sons
+of Jacob, who was also called Israel, went down to the land of Egypt to
+buy corn when there was a terrible famine lasting many years. We know
+that they settled there, having found their brother Joseph in great
+power; and long, long after they had all been dead their descendants
+multiplied into a great people and were treated as slaves by the
+Egyptians, so God brought them back again to the land of their
+ancestors.
+
+When they arrived here, after wandering many years in the wilderness,
+they found the country occupied by stranger races whom they fought and
+conquered; among them were the Hivites and Jebusites and Amorites and
+Hittites. Then the Israelites became a great nation and had kings of
+their own. The second king, David, was of the tribe of Judah, one of the
+best of old Israel's sons, and he drove out the people who occupied
+Jerusalem and made it his capital. His son, Solomon, built here the most
+wonderful temple ever known. But later on trouble came upon the
+Israelites, and mightier nations from the east swept down upon them, and
+carried them away as slaves. After long years of captivity some came
+back to Jerusalem, and they were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin,
+but the other tribes returned no more, and no one knows what became of
+them; they are spoken of to this day as the Lost Ten Tribes, but the
+descendants of Judah were called Jews. These Jews, who returned and
+lived again in Jerusalem and other parts of the country, were again
+conquered by the Romans, and when the Saviour Jesus Christ was born the
+Romans held the supreme power in the Holy Land.
+
+As the train goes on we see a bare and bleak country, which looks as if
+giants had had a desperate fight and hurled stones at each other, after
+which the stones had lain there ever since. This was the part of the
+land inhabited by the Philistines, against whom the Israelites had so
+many and such bitter fights. It is quite likely that Goliath of Gath,
+whom David fought, once strode among the fields; and we know that the
+great Israelitish hero, Samson, the strong man, lived about here and
+wandered in among the valleys. Most people are disappointed with the
+country unless they come in the spring, but when you get used to it you
+find it has a wonderful charm.
+
+It takes nearly four hours in the train to reach Jerusalem station. It
+seems quite odd to think of Jerusalem having a station. We have heard
+the Bible stories so long that we forget that they are real, and that
+they actually happened just as truly as the stories in our own history.
+Jerusalem is a real town, just as real as York, though it is not like
+it, except for the fact that it has city walls. The station is a good
+way from the town, and a mob of eager men are waiting there to catch any
+tourists and drive them up. They are quite ready to fight each other or
+to clutch us to gain this privilege, and if it were not for our guide we
+might be torn in pieces.
+
+Our dragoman is a clever man; he chooses his driver at once and helps us
+into the ramshackle old conveyance and off we go over the hillside. Soon
+we see ahead of us the encircling wall of the city on a height above,
+and we wind up to it by gradually inclined roads till we come to the
+great gate. We cannot have the satisfaction of saying to ourselves,
+"Jesus actually looked at these walls with His human eyes," because the
+walls were built long after His death. The town was utterly destroyed
+about sixty years after the crucifixion, and nothing was left but piles
+of stones, and when the rebuilding began no one remembered where the
+streets had run or where the holy places had been. All we can say with
+certainty is that the present city must be very much the same kind of
+city as that Jesus knew.
+
+The hotel is just inside the gateway, and here we can rest and get
+something to eat, and then we can go out; but we must have the guide
+with us, for any well-dressed European walking alone in the city would
+be pestered to death by beggars and touts trying to get money out of
+him.
+
+It is not long before we sally forth and are led into a curious long
+dark alley or passage where the houses almost meet overhead; it slopes
+down steeply and there are shallow steps at intervals. The sun has come
+out, luckily, and looking up we can see a very narrow strip of blue sky,
+but down below it is very dark. You slip and nearly come full length on
+the pavement because of the old cabbage leaves, bits of orange peel, and
+other messy remnants of food left about, and then I, in my turn, go
+almost headlong over a bundle of rags lying on a door-step. Immediately
+a shrivelled hand shoots out and a long melancholy cry which curdles our
+blood comes from the heap. It is a woman, so wrapped up in rags that she
+looks like nothing human. A small coin dropped in her hand brings down
+what we must suppose are blessings on us in her own tongue.
+
+The wee strip of blue sky is cut across here and there by iron bars,
+high over our heads; these are "camel-bars" put to prevent camels
+passing through this way, though the donkeys and people can get along
+underneath. Then we turn a corner and pass into a slightly wider
+thoroughfare, though it is still merely a passage in comparison with any
+streets in our western towns. Swaying high above us is the head of a
+camel whose squashy feet come down almost upon us as we hastily tumble
+back into our entry, while the great bales on his back brush the walls
+as he goes on his lordly way. Women selling vegetables crowd the more
+open spaces at the crossing of the narrow streets. Men in red fezes and
+flowing garments like dressing-gowns stride along; brown-faced boys run
+in and out, and the din, the confusion, and the smell are very trying.
+We begin to wonder when we shall get out into the real streets and we
+ask the dragoman. He tells us at once that we _are_ in a street, one of
+the principal ones, that, in fact, they are all like this, and no
+wheeled vehicle can pass in any part of Jerusalem! This is so
+bewildering that we feel as if we were in a labyrinth, and huddle close
+up to the guide anxious not to lose sight of him for a moment.
+
+[Illustration: A BEGGAR, JERUSALEM.]
+
+Overhead there are arches sometimes spanning the narrow space, and at
+others we cross over curious little open bridges joining one house to
+another, then we plunge into a cellar and walk right through it and out
+on the other side. Everyone seems to be doing the same; it is a regular
+passage-way, and yet people live in that cellar, for we see them
+crouching over a red fire in the cavernous dark, and we wonder how they
+like strangers to make a highway of their home.
+
+[Illustration: A JEW.]
+
+All the way we see people of so many kinds we have never seen before
+that it is difficult not to stand still and gape. There are men in
+cloaks and wrappings, weather-beaten and worn, and men in European
+clothes and brown or yellow boots, there are thick-lipped negroes with
+rolling yellow eyeballs, and warlike Turkish soldiers, who clank down
+the street thrusting everyone aside. The Jews themselves are the least
+attractive of all, with very greasy head-gear, from each side of which
+hangs down a corkscrew curl, as often red as black; they wear usually a
+kind of soiled dressing-gown garment and seem afraid of being struck. Of
+the many types of men the Arabs are the manliest, and come nearest to
+our idea of the old patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They wear a
+kind of cloth on their heads falling down behind, you could easily make
+something like it with a towel any day. This is bound round the forehead
+by a fillet sometimes made of camel's hair, which holds it in its place
+tightly, like a cap. They have across their shoulders a striped narrow
+blanket of brilliant orange or scarlet, and they walk with a free stride
+and their heads held up; they are men of the desert, accustomed to
+freedom and to taking care of themselves against all comers.
+
+[Illustration: JEWS' WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM.]
+
+At one corner a man who has been angrily expostulating with another
+bangs him with a bag he carries, the bag bursts and the air is filled
+with a cloud of flour which envelops the two until they cannot be seen.
+Furious voices come out of the cloud, and as everyone hastens to the
+sight we take the chance to go the other way.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB IN JERUSALEM.]
+
+In every Eastern city there is a "bazaar" corresponding with what in
+England we should call the market-place. The guide leads us to the
+"bazaar," and at the first glance we can hardly believe he is right, for
+we plunge into a long narrow passage arched overhead so that it is
+simply neither more nor less than a tunnel. There are three of these,
+and the light only comes in from the ends or from some holes far
+overhead. In this dimness we see caverns or recesses on each side, quite
+open, with no glass, and these are the shops. There is a curious glare
+from some of them where the owners have a fire for cooking food or for
+heating their forges. Butchers and shoemakers abound, and the smell of
+raw leather is revolting. In the next passage many things are sold, and
+there are quite a number of chemists' shops. In most of these the owner
+sits serenely smoking as if he had nothing on earth to do. In one we see
+a chair tilted up against the merchandise, this is to signify that the
+owner is away and that no one must touch anything till he returns. In
+the third tunnel, which is the noisiest and darkest of all, there are
+many silversmiths showing some wonderful work. It is no use our buying
+any of it, for we cannot carry it round the world with us. Even if we
+could, we should be rash to get it here, for every man asks about four
+times as much as he expects to get. That is one of the things which is
+so different in the East and West. Fancy going into one of the big
+west-end shops in London where an article was marked at a fixed price
+and trying to beat the shop assistant down. He would only smile, hardly
+answer, and turn away. Such a thing is absurd, but in the East any
+article is worth just as much as it will fetch, and the merchant says at
+first an enormous price in the hope that his customer is ignorant and
+will give it him, but if the customer bargains he will slowly come down.
+It takes much time to shop in this way, and is not altogether
+satisfactory, for you really have to know what the things are worth
+first.
+
+After this we must go back to the hotel, for we have wandered about all
+the afternoon and are weary and bewildered, and we have many sights to
+see to-morrow.
+
+Thoroughly rested after a good night we start out next morning to see
+something of the sacred places. Of course we know very well that when
+the long lane is pointed out down which Jesus bore His cross, the very
+spots where He stumbled and where Simon was made to carry it for Him,
+that these things cannot be true. Speaking of Jerusalem Jesus said once,
+"There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
+down," and it came literally true, so the present streets are not those
+He trod. Yet even so the scene is wonderfully interesting, for the old
+Jerusalem must have been like the present town, and the sights Christ
+saw must have resembled those we see, as for the first time we walk down
+these narrow steep alleys. We are going to the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre built over the place where the sepulchre of Christ is supposed
+to have been. As we go toward it we come across more beggars than we yet
+have encountered. A perfect army of halt and maimed and lame and blind
+crouch by the sides of the lane and live on the charity of the
+passers-by. This sort of thing would never be allowed in any Western
+country, and, as we are not accustomed to it, it strikes us as very
+distressing. Then we come out into an open space where there is a great
+building so irregular and piled up that it is difficult to recognise it
+as a church. Here are seated on the pavement numerous gaily clothed men
+with crucifixes and mementoes of the Holy Land for sale. They spread
+their wares out on the paving-stones.
+
+Passing them all we go inside the church and find a darkened atmosphere
+where red lamps burn always.
+
+We are led up steps and down steps and this way and that, and have many
+things pointed out to us. We are shown, for instance, the slab on which
+Christ's body lay and the sepulchre hewn in the rock where He was
+buried, and though we know that neither of these things can be true,
+still we feel we are in a more sacred place than any we have ever yet
+visited. For centuries men of all races and all nations have come here
+to worship and pray, as the shepherds and Wise Men came to worship and
+pray at the manger in Bethlehem. The slab of the marble is worn away by
+the soft lips of adoring pilgrims, who fall prostrate before it and kiss
+it while tears roll down their cheeks. Of all that come from far the
+Russian pilgrims are the most devout. These poor people, worse off than
+any English labourers, save their pence from year to year, and then
+tramp hundreds of miles from their country homes to the seaport of
+Odessa in Russia in order to come across to see the Holy Land. They live
+on the charity of other poor villagers as they go, or they carry sacks
+of bread-crusts, getting more and more mouldy every week. Thousands
+arrive at the Holy Land every year just before Easter, old and frail men
+and women who have undergone incredible hardships. They say, "What does
+it matter what happens to our bodies?" and many of them die
+uncomplainingly. They are so good and simple that they believe
+everything that is told them, and almost faint with joy to think they
+have at last arrived at the holy places. The air seems to glow with
+their wonderful faith and love and kindliness to one another. If,
+indeed, this is not the real sepulchre, at least it is a very holy
+place.
+
+After this the guide leads us through so many churches of all sorts that
+we are quite bewildered, until at last we come out on a high open place
+where all is quiet, and in the midst there stands a huge church quite
+different from anything we have yet seen--it has a round dome rising
+from walls of exquisite blue and green slabs of polished stone. This is
+the church of the Mohammedans, called a mosque, and why it is so
+especially interesting to us is because it stands on the very spot where
+stood the Ark of the Jews, and where, from the days of King Solomon,
+they worshipped God in the Temple. When Solomon built the Temple it was
+the most wonderful and beautiful church in the world. It was put
+together of massive stones, made ready and hewn and carved before they
+came to this place, so that there was no sound of axe or hammer in the
+sacred precincts. And the fittings were made of carved cedar wood,
+brought down by sea from Lebanon, while the furnishings were of pure
+gold. Never was any building before so carefully finished or so
+artistically designed. Solomon's Temple was utterly destroyed, but there
+were temples built and rebuilt on the same site, and that site is
+considered to be peculiarly sacred, because it is a peak of a mountain
+called Mount Moriah. You remember that it was to Mount Moriah Abraham
+was told to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him? The Jews hold that the
+very peak on which the mosque now stands is that place. It is, indeed,
+quite certain that there is an outcrop of rock belonging to part of the
+summit of Mount Moriah in the mosque which stands just where the Temple
+stood. You shall see it. Meantime we must put on huge loose slippers,
+made of sacking and straw, over our boots before we go in, for the
+Mohammedans always take off their own shoes on entering holy places, and
+as our modern boots are not constructed to be easily slipped off like
+Eastern shoes, we must cover them up. The man at the entrance ties on
+these enormous things and we shuffle along in them as best we can.
+Inside, the mosque is light and high and very rich in polished stone and
+gilding; it is very different from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We
+are led through it, wondering and gazing, until we come suddenly to a
+bare rock cropping up out of the pavement to just about your height, and
+this, for all the ages past, has been a sacred rock. Indeed, no one can
+say that it was not on this mountain-top, then in the midst of wild
+natural country, that Abraham laid his only son bound. From this cause
+the mosque is often known as the "Dome of the Rock."
+
+[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF OMAR ON MOUNT MORIAH, JERUSALEM.]
+
+One more sight we must see before going out on to the quiet hillside
+called the Mount of Olives. This is that most curious place called the
+Jews' Wailing-Place.
+
+To reach this we pass down long staircase-like streets in a poor
+quarter. We see many tall and fierce-looking men, with hooked noses and
+keen eyes, who wear a white cloak thrown round their heads and hanging
+down on their shoulders; but there are also many other Jews from all
+parts,--the Polish Jews are most conspicuous in their brilliant crimson
+or purple plush gowns, with round velvet hats of the same colour edged
+with fur; and then we come out into an open space with a huge wall as
+high as a very high house made of enormous blocks of stone. This is said
+to be part of the actual wall surrounding the Temple built by Solomon.
+It is Friday afternoon and there is a great concourse of men and women
+in flowing garments, bending and bowing and kneeling before the wall and
+wailing out their prayers. Some crouch low, others cling to the giant
+blocks and kiss the rough surface, others beat their breasts as if in
+agony. Standing not far from us is a tall man who calls out some words
+in a long wailing cry, immediately the crowd respond as in a Litany.
+What they are crying out is something like this--
+
+    "For the sake of the Temple that is destroyed
+        We sit solitary and weep;
+    For the walls that are thrown down
+        We sit solitary and weep."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are alone at last. All the morning it has been raining heavily, and
+in our wanderings about the city we got drenched by water-spouts from
+roofs that stuck out across the street, and deluged by drippings from
+window-sills. In many of the narrow streets we simply had to wade, for
+the water rushed down them like mountain-torrents, and then we went back
+to the hotel to get warm and dry before sallying out again. Now we are
+sitting on a great grey stone on the Mount of Olives, and the sun is
+coming out and drying up all the dampness. We look down upon Jerusalem
+as Christ looked down on it that day when He entered in a triumphal
+procession and paused to weep over it. We can see the domes and the flat
+roofs with the sun glinting on them and making them shine out white, and
+the great wall with its turreted top running round all. It is not the
+same city He saw, but it must be very like it. These buildings,
+churches, and mosques were not there, of course, and there were a good
+many more trees than there are now. An olive tree never looks young;
+from the earliest time it always has a twisted cross appearance like an
+old man who knows what rheumatism is. The blue-green leaves are small
+and narrow, and they turn edgewise to the sun as if they were reluctant
+to give anyone beneath them any more shade than they could help. There
+is one line of a hymn that always comes into my mind when I look at an
+olive tree, it runs--
+
+    "Beneath the olive's moon-pierced shade."
+
+That is very good, because the brilliant clear white light of an Eastern
+moon would certainly pierce through any "shade" an olive tree could
+make.
+
+Many, many times must Jesus have crossed this hill, and the most
+memorable time was when the people came running beside Him, singing
+Hosannas and cutting down palm branches, and even spreading their
+clothes for Him to pass over, on that first Palm Sunday so long ago. The
+association, which is the most sacred and heart-stirring, is of that
+night before the crucifixion, when He came out here with His disciples
+and, kneeling, prayed earnestly while they slept. That was in what is
+called the Garden of Gethsemane. There is more than one place on the
+Mount which claims to be that garden. The monks have fenced one in and
+planted it with gay flowers, and there is a good deal of reason to
+believe this may be actually right. In the country, places cannot be
+utterly swept away as they are in towns under an avalanche of brick and
+stone. We can look down from the hill into this garden, even though it
+is surrounded by high walls. In the middle is a very ancient olive tree,
+said to have been growing in Christ's time. Rosaries are made from the
+stones of the olives which it bears. There are little round flower-beds
+carefully tended in the garden, and between them you can see a monk
+walking in his long coarse gown.
+
+The hill is not very high, and the country is barren and stony and would
+be rather dull were it not for the thought of all the wonderful scenes
+that have happened here. Let us climb on to the very top. From there,
+away to the east, we see a long line of high blue hills, the mountains
+of Moab, and nearer, in a deep hole in the ground, we catch just a
+glimpse of the water of the Dead Sea. It is a strange name and a strange
+place! It lies deep, deep down, far below the level of the ocean, and
+though many rivers and streams run into it none run out. You would think
+it must always be getting larger, but no. The water evaporates very
+quickly. You know if there is a drop of water or a wet mark on your hand
+and you wave it about in the air, presently the water disappears, that
+is because of evaporation. The dampness has not really gone but turned
+into another form and made the surrounding air a little more damp. If
+that drop had been salt, the salt would not have entered into the air,
+but stayed on your hand, so when the air drinks up the water from the
+surface of the Dead Sea, the salt remains behind and the sea gets more
+and more salty; it is many times more salt than the water of an ordinary
+sea.
+
+The sandy shores all round are full of this salt and nothing can grow
+there, so all is desolate and dreary, and thus it is that the name Dead
+Sea is so appropriate. If you tried to swim in that sea you would find
+it impossible to sink, for just as sea-water holds you up more than
+fresh, so the Dead Sea water holds you up more than that of the ordinary
+sea. All the same, though you could not sink to the bottom you might
+drown, because the head and chest being heavier than the legs go down
+naturally, and a man might not be able to recover himself but be drowned
+legs upward, as many have been through not knowing how to manage a
+lifebelt.
+
+The sacred river Jordan runs into the Dead Sea. We have met one of the
+sacred rivers of history already--the Nile,--and the Jordan, though very
+small, is another. It is almost absurdly small in contrast with the
+Nile, being only one hundred miles long! From all over the world people
+send to get water from the Jordan with which to baptize their babies;
+they have a feeling that it is different from ordinary water because
+Christ Himself was baptized in it. As you have heard, the Russian
+pilgrims go down in crowds to bathe in the Jordan in their shrouds, for
+they too look on the river as sacred.
+
+About six miles to the south of where we are sitting is Bethlehem, where
+Jesus was born, and where the shepherds and Wise Men found Him. Much
+nearer is Bethany, where He often stayed.
+
+To-day something of the wonder of the Holy Land has come upon us. We
+have got out of the narrow crowded lanes and away from the jostling
+people into the country; so the Bible story has become more real than it
+ever was before. Here is the hillside over which He passed. There are
+the olive trees, exactly like those He saw.
+
+[Illustration: ABOUT SIX MILES TO THE SOUTH IS BETHLEHEM.]
+
+We have visited Him in His daily life. It is now only left for us to go
+to Nazareth, where He spent all His life up to the time when He
+announced Himself as the Christ, the Messiah, and began His Mission. But
+Nazareth is a long way off. It will take us about three days to get
+there. We can ride or drive, whichever you like. You prefer to ride? All
+right, but don't expect a sleek, home-fed pony, or a fine horse champing
+the bit, or even a well-grown, well-fed Egyptian donkey; wait and you
+will see what riding means here!
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN AT A WELL IN NAZARETH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE COUNTRY OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD
+
+
+If you only knew how funny you look! Perched up on a dirty, thin, white
+horse which scrambles along somehow, while the great iron stirrups,
+shaped like shovels, dangle far below your feet. Aha! I thought so, one
+has fallen off. I try to pull up quickly to dismount and help you, and
+my bridle, which is made of worsted, like the toy reins children play
+with, breaks suddenly and my noble steed comes a cropper!
+
+By the time I recover and get to you I find our guide, who looks more
+like a bundle of rags than anything else, tying up your stirrups with a
+crazy bit of string full of knots and quite rotten. This is the way we
+journey in the Holy Land in the present year! This is the third day of
+it, and these little accidents don't affect us; the harness must have
+been broken in at least two dozen different places since we started,
+and, as an Irishman might say, most of it is made of gaps.
+
+To-day we ought to reach Nazareth while it is still light, though, as it
+is dull and grey, the evening will close in sooner than if the sky were
+clear. What a pity we could not manage to come here in the spring when
+the fields of blue lupins look like a strip of summer sky fallen to
+earth and fill the air with their scent for miles around. There are
+anemones too, purple and red and white, and lilies, but I think nothing
+would strike us so much as the homely little daisies which grow here
+just as they do at home. There is something strange and yet familiar in
+this country, where so many different sorts of trees and plants grow,
+that a man coming from almost anywhere in the world will find something
+that carries his heart back home. Besides the daisies we have the
+sparrows, just as pert and neat as our own sparrows, yet other things
+are odd. Yesterday we saw a man carrying a sheep on his shoulders; he
+wore a striped garment hanging down on each side of his neck, and even
+the sheep did not seem quite the same as ours. It was some time before
+we discovered why, and then we found out that the long flapping ears
+hung down, while the ears of our sheep are small and upright. It is a
+most difficult thing to remember how an animal's ears grow. Nine people
+out of ten, on being told to draw a pig, will give him small, pointed,
+upright ears, instead of making the flaps fall over!
+
+The rest of the flock of sheep quietly followed the shepherd who carried
+the hurt one, for in the East sheep are used to being led, instead of
+being driven by a dog, as in Britain, and that is why so often we hear
+in the Bible of the sheep being led. Jesus took almost all His parables
+from natural things around Him--the cornfields, the lilies growing, the
+sparrows, and the vineyards.
+
+[Illustration: A MAN CARRYING A SHEEP ON HIS SHOULDERS.]
+
+We have been steadily rising for long past, now we mount a steeper bit
+of rising ground and suddenly there comes into view a tiny valley from
+which the hills rise again, and on the opposite slope, spread out before
+us, is Nazareth. We pull up and look at it in silence. The little,
+flat-roofed, white houses are dotted about among gardens and trees, and
+resemble the square white dice one throws out of a box. Very much as it
+appears to us now must this little hill-village have looked to Jesus
+when He lived here, except that the slopes of the hills were more
+cultivated, and there were more houses. Jesus came here as a small child
+and lived here until He was thirty. _You_ know, of course, every tree
+and hole and stream and almost every stone and bird's nest about your
+own home in the country; you will never get to know any other place so
+well again in your life, for when one is grown up one can't climb trees
+and dabble in streams and build huts and root about in the earth. Jesus
+was just a natural boy; He grew to know all the byways between the
+little gardens, all the trees which bore figs or pomegranates or olives
+or oranges, and He climbed the hills around with other lads when He had
+a holiday--no other place would ever be to Him what Nazareth was.
+
+[Illustration: NAZARETH.]
+
+One or two tall buildings stand out prominently, these are the churches,
+and they, of course, were not there in His time. None of the houses can
+be the same after nineteen hundred years, but many of them are probably
+exactly like those that existed then.
+
+As we go down toward the village at a foot's pace we see grave,
+brown-faced, bright-eyed boys, who stand and stare but do not bother us
+for coppers, as the Jerusalem children did. We pass in among the houses
+and come to the well where both men and women are standing, for it is
+just the time that they come to draw water in the evening. This well is
+one of the most interesting things in Nazareth, for it is the only one,
+and has been known for generations. It is almost certain that it must
+have been here when Jesus lived in the village. Now it has a stone arch
+over it, and as the water gushes out the women fill hand-made
+earthenware jars with narrow necks and curving sides, and having filled
+them they put them on their heads and walk gracefully away. Just so must
+Mary, the mother of Jesus, have filled her jar in the ages long ago, and
+the child Jesus may have clung to her skirts as that tiny brown boy is
+doing, shyly hiding at the sight of us. The women are very good looking,
+and dress in a great variety of colours, many wearing striped clothes.
+One or two have chains or bands of silver coins across their foreheads,
+very many have bright red head coverings falling down over blue dresses.
+There are some swarthy-looking men too, in sheepskins, and one is
+waiting to water his camel. On one side is a very handsome lad of
+sixteen with a flock of black goats. They all look at us with interest,
+but they are quite accustomed to strangers and are not at all
+embarrassed.
+
+We go on between the houses by the widest road, which is now slippery
+with mud, and after our guide has asked permission of a man standing in
+a doorway, we dismount and get a chance of seeing inside one of these
+little dark houses. The only light comes from the doorway, for there is
+no window; it shines into one room with a mud floor, beaten hard by
+many feet. There are a few mats laid about, a few stools, and on one
+side a kind of shelf with more mats and some cushions--this is where the
+family sleep at night. In a corner are some of the earthenware jars and
+some pots and pans. That is all. There is no reason to think that the
+house Jesus lived in was at all more luxurious than this.
+
+As we turn to go out we hear a flutter of wings, and a flock of white
+doves rise from the ground and alight on the roof, cooing softly.
+
+In this village are a good many shops, but they are not the sort we are
+accustomed to. Picture the village shop at home with its small glass
+panes and the post-office on one side. The window crammed with marbles
+and liquorice and peppermint, and slates and balls and copybooks and
+hoops and everything that the owner thinks anyone would be in the least
+likely to buy. In Nazareth the shops sell only one sort of thing, and
+those that sell the same sort of thing have a general inclination to
+come together. In one little street, for instance, are the saddlers'
+shops.
+
+The front of the house is open, but there is no glass to fill it in, and
+we can see the men working at their trade inside. The harness is
+extremely gay, painted in all colours, red and blue and yellow, and made
+up with bits of tinsel and glitter. The more decorated he can afford to
+have his harness the prouder is the rider. As we stand watching, a
+number of women steal gently up behind us and offer some embroidery they
+have made; they do not push or scramble, and when we shake our heads
+they melt away again.
+
+As we turn a corner, there, right in front of us, is a carpenter's shop
+with the front quite open to the street, as in the harness-makers'
+shops. The bearded man who leans over a cart-wheel and handles it with
+long brown hands might have been Joseph himself. In just such a
+workshop as this Jesus learnt His trade.
+
+[Illustration: IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN JOSEPH HIMSELF.]
+
+The life of a little Jewish boy of those days was carefully ordered, and
+in his life there was much more saying of prayers and going to
+church--that is, the synagogue--than you have in yours. At school there
+was a great deal to be learnt by heart, and what with that and the
+churchgoing and the workshop there cannot have been much spare time.
+
+We go slowly on to the inn, where we are to pass the night. To-morrow we
+will go down to the Sea of Galilee and watch the fishermen drawing in
+their nets as they did in Christ's time when He called them to be
+fishers of men.
+
+After that we will come back, pass Nazareth once more, and make our way
+to a port called Haifa, where we can get a steamer to take us down to
+Jaffa instead of returning to Jerusalem again by three days' journey on
+horseback.
+
+[Illustration: THERE IT WILL STAY TILL IT ROTS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN ADVENTURE
+
+
+We are late, very late, the moon is rising and I must confess I am just
+a wee bit uneasy. When we reached Haifa safely last night, coming from
+Nazareth, and found we couldn't get a steamer till to-morrow it seemed
+the best thing to drive across the bay and get a look at Acre, that
+celebrated town which has spent its existence in the turmoil of sieges
+and assaults. It is a great fort built out into the sea, and nearly
+everyone who wanted to get possession of the Holy Land has tried first
+to take Acre as the key to it. One of the most memorable sieges was that
+of two years in the reign of our own King Richard I., who ended it by
+arriving with fresh troops and helping his allies the French; but it is
+reckoned the two countries, between them, lost 100,000 men, one way and
+another, before they took the stubborn town. After that it remained in
+English hands for a century.
+
+The Turks held it in much later times against Buonaparte; they were
+helped by an Englishman, Sir Sydney Smith, and if Acre is celebrated for
+nothing else it should be celebrated for the fact that it held out for
+sixty-one days against Buonaparte, who was in the end obliged to give
+up and go away!
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN WITH BUNDLES, WHICH THEY ALWAYS THINK NECESSARY TO
+DRAG ABOUT WITH THEM.]
+
+We drove this morning, with three horses abreast, across the twelve
+miles of sandy bay between Haifa and Acre, in one of the ramshackle
+waggonettes that take the place of omnibuses and carry any passengers
+who want to go. We came with numbers of natives, chiefly women, and
+innumerable bundles and bags, which they always think it necessary to
+drag about with them. We did not get here till midday, and after
+spending a few hours we had seen all we cared to of the place, and were
+ready to go back. But in the East things are not done like that. So we
+waited and waited long after the hour the omnibus was said to return,
+and when at last the driver did saunter up, the scarecrow horses had to
+be sought for, and then the harness, of course, had to be mended with
+string, and that wasn't nearly the end, because, after waiting again a
+long time for nothing at all that anyone could see, a Turkish woman who
+was evidently of some consequence, attended by a maid and quantities of
+baggage, came up, and everyone had to turn out until all her things were
+stowed away. So it was nearly nightfall before we got off.
+
+The sands are in most places firm and make good going, but a couple of
+rivers run down across them to the sea; one of these is that "ancient
+river, the river Kishon," mentioned in Deborah's song of triumph when
+the Israelites had overcome their enemies. These rivers have to be
+crossed with care, and, not so long ago, some people got bogged and were
+set upon by robbers and stripped, and one was drowned by the incoming
+tide; but I ought not to tell you these things. We are half across now,
+and the moon is getting high, so we shall have more light presently.
+
+Bump! The horse on the off-side runs out of his traces suddenly and
+stands facing the other one in a sort of mild amazement. The harness has
+given way once more. Grumbling and growling the driver climbs down and
+pulls him back and goes on muttering to himself. Far off the lapping of
+the water is heard out at sea; it wouldn't do to be caught by the tide
+in this situation, but they tell us the tide has not turned yet. The
+moon sheds a curious unearthly light that fills the air with mystery.
+The long low sandhills on the shore show up plainly, and nearer there
+are countless wrecks which have been piled up on this desolate coast.
+That large one, nearest of all, looks just like the huge up-curving ribs
+of some mammoth that has had the flesh picked clean from his bones.
+Look! There is something moving close to it, in the shadow; what is it?
+It comes out a little way into the light, it is a furtive-looking
+little four-footed creature whose fur shines with a reddish tinge; there
+is another, peeping out from the sandhills, and another and another!
+They are all over, but so silent and light-footed are they that it is
+difficult to believe them to be anything but shadows. A wave of the hand
+and they have disappeared! They are jackals, inquisitively watching us
+with their bright eyes. Nothing to be afraid of. They dare not attack a
+man if he is alive, though they would gleefully devour him dead. They
+are much more frightened of you than you are of them. Weird, shy,
+furtive little beasts. One can imagine them on a night like this playing
+games and chasing one another in and out of the ribs of the drowned ship
+in a sort of witches' dance.
+
+Heigho! Well, we're on again at last.
+
+We journey at a foot's pace for another mile or so and the lights of
+Haifa begin to shine out clearly ahead, when all of a sudden the
+carriage seems to be going down on one side. The two Turkish women, who
+are on the high side, roll violently down on to us, screaming and
+sobbing hysterically. I don't know what you feel like, but I am nearly
+smothered by the flowing shawls and the strong smell of scent; when I
+manage to get free I find that you have disappeared altogether till I
+get hold of a leg and jerk you forth.
+
+The carriage has gone further and further over; the horses are splashing
+and struggling; and as we stand up the middle one goes down and
+disappears altogether. The water must be deep and we are evidently in
+the river.
+
+There is nothing for it but to go to the driver's help, so I leave you
+to reassure the ladies and get up to my waist almost at once as we pull
+the horse's head above water, while the sand slips away beneath our
+feet. The poor beast, after desperate kickings, gets on to his legs
+again, but no effort of ours can move the carriage, which seems to be
+sinking deeper and deeper. With the struggles of the horses the harness
+has all come to bits again, and the poor, mild, dismayed creatures turn
+round, quite free from their trappings, and look at the vehicle as much
+as to say, "What a shabby trick you have served us!"
+
+The driver brings the horses alongside, and the bundle of scented
+wrappings, which is the more important lady, is lifted on the back of
+one. The man himself gets up behind her to hold her on, and when she
+feels his wet embrace she raises a perfect storm of shrieks as if she
+were being carried away by a robber. He takes not the slightest notice,
+but solemnly sets his horse's head to the shore, and they splash away.
+By yourself you have managed to land on to the back of the next horse,
+and before you have time to turn round or do anything to help with the
+other lady, the horse kicks up its heels, sending you shooting on to its
+neck, and whinnying wildly scrambles off after its comrade. The Turkish
+lady's companion makes no fuss at all about coming with me. She slips on
+to the remaining horse as if she were used to riding all her life, and,
+sitting astride like a man, holds him in until I mount behind. It is
+lucky indeed this animal has no spirit left, or she and I would have
+been stranded!
+
+At this rate we shall soon reach Haifa.
+
+When we do get there what a chattering and what excitement!
+Unfortunately, as we can't speak the native tongue, we miss most of it,
+but the excited gestures and loud voices show that we are heroes indeed.
+
+Next morning I find myself none the worse for my wetting, and before we
+leave we have the satisfaction of seeing all the bundles and packages
+belonging to the ladies safely recovered. But we gather that the
+waggonette remains immovable. We can see it, far off, partly surrounded
+by the swirling water like a little black island. The united strength
+of a dozen men and six horses have been unable to pull it on to firm
+ground. There it will stay till it rots, in the midst of the stranded
+ships, and the little soft-footed shadowy jackals will dance around it
+and tell one another strange tales of that wonderful night when the air
+was shaken by piercing screams, and strange heavy animals galloped
+across the sands, making them shake and quiver, and yet, after it all,
+there was nothing left for them to eat!
+
+[Illustration: THE SHIPS SEEM TO BE GLIDING ALONG THE TOP OF A
+SANDBANK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST
+
+
+The anchor is up and we are in a stately ship moving on slowly into the
+Suez Canal. When we arrived at Port Said--how many weeks ago was it? It
+seems to me like a year--we were on the _Orontes_, of the Orient Line,
+and we steamed into the harbour past a long breakwater like a thin arm;
+standing upon it is a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who made
+the Suez Canal. That meant nothing to you then, for the canal was merely
+a name and not of any special interest, but now that we are actually
+passing into it it is different.
+
+Just here, you remember, we are at the place where three continents
+meet, Europe being represented by the Mediterranean Sea. The other two,
+Asia and Africa, are joined by a strip of land called the Isthmus of
+Suez, about a hundred miles across. For ages men had it in their minds
+to cut through this strip so that their ships could sail straight from
+the Mediterranean into the Red Sea on the other side of the Isthmus.
+But it wasn't quite so easy to do as it sounds, for the land was mostly
+desert sand, and if you have ever tried to dig out a trench on the
+seashore and then let water into it, you will know very well what
+happens. The sides slip down, and in a few minutes your trench is level
+up to the top and is a trench no more!
+
+The ancient Egyptians frequently marched across the Isthmus with their
+armies and advanced into Palestine and made war on the wild tribes
+there. They built also a strong wall across the Isthmus to prevent the
+inhabitants of Palestine from retaliating, just as the Romans built a
+wall across Northumbria to hold back the Picts and Scots.
+
+It was not until comparatively recent days, that is to say, in the time
+of your grandfather, that the attempt to cut a canal across the Isthmus
+was successful, and the man who did it was Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose
+statue stands on the breakwater. He was a Frenchman, but he wished to
+get other nations to help in the great work, as France could not raise
+all the money alone; unfortunately Great Britain would have nothing to
+do with the idea, though luckily afterwards, when the canal had been
+built, the Government managed to buy a large number of the shares in it
+from the Egyptian Government. It took ten years to make the canal, but
+it was done at last after the expenditure of quantities of money and the
+loss of many lives, and even up to the opening day there were many who
+scoffed and said it could never be made useful; yet now that bronze
+statue stands solemnly watching, day by day, the great ships of many
+nations crawling slowly into the narrow opening at the northern end.
+
+Not only had the canal to be made but it has to be kept in working
+order, for the sand silts back into the channel, and so numbers of
+dredgers are constantly at work scraping out the bottom so as to keep
+it deep enough for ships of large size.
+
+At first the depth of the main channel was twenty-six feet, but now it
+has been deepened to twenty-nine feet; but even that seems less than we
+should expect.
+
+At one time the storms of January and February used to drive quantities
+of sand from the Mediterranean into the mouth of the canal, and even
+now, though the breakwater has been lengthened to prevent it, there is
+always difficulty. Steamers are only allowed to go through slowly,
+otherwise the suction or pull of the water they disturb would tear down
+the banks and soon make the canal useless. You have no idea what a wave
+a big ship can raise in going through that narrow trough; even at a
+moderate pace it would be sufficient to tear another ship from her
+moorings by the bank, and then there might be a collision and disastrous
+results. Ships have to pay a heavy toll for the privilege of using the
+short cut, but the toll is needed to meet the working expenses and to
+pay the interest on the money spent in the construction.
+
+The ship we are in is considerably larger than the _Orontes_; she is the
+_Medina_, belonging to the P. & O. Company, and was chosen to take the
+King and Queen to India in 1911. She is not very cheerful looking
+outside, being painted buff, with black funnels, but she is a
+comfortable boat, and we are lucky in having a large cabin on the upper
+deck, so that we can have our port-hole open whatever the weather may
+be.
+
+The sun is setting in a flame of salmon and scarlet as we pass the canal
+offices and turn into the narrow channel. There are sidings dug out
+about every five or six miles, for as only one big ship can go through
+at a time, if she meets another, one of them must stop and tie up. There
+are telegraph stations at every siding, and every ship entering the
+canal is controlled all the way by an elaborate system of signals which
+tells the pilot exactly what he is to do, whether he must "shunt into a
+siding," to use railway language, or if he may go right ahead.
+
+Directly we are in the canal we see over the banks on both sides; on the
+west is a wide sheet of water lit up to smoky-red by the reflection of
+the sinking sun. Flocks of storks and pelicans and other birds cover it
+at certain times of the year to fish in the shallow salt waters, for
+this is a salt lake, a sort of overflow from the sea. One day it will be
+drained and then crops can grow upon it. The canal is cut through it and
+hemmed in by an embankment; farther on it runs through the desert and
+then goes through another lake. For the greater part of the way a
+railway line runs beside it, passing through Ismailia, the junction for
+Cairo, and going on to Suez, and from some parts of this line you can
+see a strange spectacle, for, as no water is visible, the ships appear
+to be gliding along the top of a sandbank; there is apparently just a
+huge modern steamer lost among the sandhills and making the best of her
+way back to the sea!
+
+The pilot who is on board now takes us to Ismailia, half-way down, and
+then another replaces him as far as Suez, where the canal ends. Every
+ship over one hundred tons is compelled to carry a pilot, who is
+responsible for her while she is in the difficult channel. And, indeed,
+a pilot is necessary, for the canal is not by any means a straight, deep
+trench; there are curves where it is a delicate job to manoeuvre a
+ship of any length, and in places in the deeper lakes the course is only
+marked by buoys. It needs a man who spends his whole time at the work
+and gives all his attention to it. The danger at the curves is lest the
+propeller at the stern should come in contact with the banks, so the
+ship has to be manoeuvred most slowly and carefully round them. Only
+at one place in the whole length of the canal was no digging out
+necessary. This is in the great Bitter Lake, where for eight miles the
+water is deep enough for the ships to pass safely.
+
+There is not much to see at first; the banks are lined by scrubby
+bushes, and on them, in a sandy open patch, we see a man falling and
+bowing at his evening devotions; a few camels pass along the raised
+bank, looking like gigantic spiders against the illuminated sky, and
+there comes faintly to us the distant bark of a jackal.
+
+When we come on deck again after dinner we find the air quite mild; we
+are only going at the rate of six miles an hour, which is the
+speed-limit.
+
+Somewhere across the desert where we are passing to-night have passed
+also the feet of many mighty ones of history. Abraham crossed it with
+Sarah, his beautiful wife, Joseph was carried down a captive over the
+caravan track of that day. Later on his brothers twice journeyed, driven
+by famine, and lastly came old Jacob also. Many times, as we know, did
+the armies of the Pharaohs start out in all the panoply of war and
+return victorious bringing captives in chains. Across the wilderness
+somewhere Moses led forth the children of Israel, and, most wonderful
+remembrance of all, Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, brought down to
+Egypt his wife and her infant son to escape the wrath and jealousy of
+Herod. Hardly any strip of land we could name has so many associations
+interesting to all the world.
+
+Why do you start and catch hold of my arm to draw my attention? That is
+only a Lascar, one of the sailors, a picturesque fellow, isn't he?
+Didn't you notice them when we came on board? The P. & O. ships carry a
+crew of Lascars to work under the white quartermasters; they are dark
+brown men with shining eyes and gleaming teeth, who dress in bright blue
+with red belts and caps; they love a bit of finery and stick it on
+wherever they can. They come from the coasts of India and usually sign
+on for three years under one of their own headmen called a _serang_; you
+can always pick him out by the silver chain of office which he wears
+round his neck, Lord-Mayor fashion. I saw him just now, a little man
+rather like a monkey. He is a very important personage, for all the
+orders are given through him, and he receives the pay for his men and is
+responsible for their good behaviour. Woe be to the man who is
+insubordinate! Not only will he be punished now, but his whole village
+will hear about it, and he will be disgraced and find it difficult to
+get work thereafter.
+
+[Illustration: A LASCAR.]
+
+The moon is covered with clouds to-night, which is a pity, but the
+brilliant reflectors the ship carries in her bows throw the light well
+ahead on to both banks.
+
+Hullo! We're coming to something; there is another ship tied up waiting
+for us to pass. No, it is true I can't make her out, but I can see her
+searchlights, so I guess she is behind them. Very slowly we crawl on,
+making hardly a ripple; we are going dead slow now, scarcely moving, in
+fact. That light from the other ship is blinding; just where it strikes
+the water there are any number of little fish wriggling and squirming in
+an ecstasy of painful delight. The water is alive with them, churning
+and threshing over one another like a pot full of eels. Bright lights
+attract fish and it is a very old dodge, known all over the world, to
+hold a flare over the water and then spear or net the fish who are
+attracted by it. Fish must have something akin to moths in their nature,
+as many of them simply cannot resist a light.
+
+Now we are alongside; the other ship's light is out of our eyes and our
+own falls full upon her. What a spectacle! She looks like a phantom ship
+carrying a cargo of ghosts! She is transformed by our lights into blue
+fire! Every plank and rope stands out brilliantly in the ghastly light.
+Her decks are crowded by a mass of turbaned and fez-covered men, mostly
+in light garments, and they, their faces and their clothing, are all
+blue-white. They stand silently, packed side by side like sardines; it
+doesn't look as if they would have room to lie, or even to sit down. As
+we glide slowly past a strange odour floats over from them enveloping
+us--an odour made up of spices and camels and tired unwashed humanity;
+there is a hint of coffee in it and a touch of wood-smoke--it suggests
+Eastern bazaars and the desert.
+
+Then our light slips off them and we see the ship as she really is under
+the faintly diffused light of the clouded moon. She is a dirty
+commonplace hulk, packed with men in soiled clothes, no longer the
+radiant white ship of our vision.
+
+"Taking pilgrims back from Mecca," says one of the passengers who is
+leaning over the rail near us smoking. "They pack them like cattle
+usually. On some of these vessels their fare doesn't include any
+accommodation or food; they have to bargain with the captain for a bit
+of deck to lie down on, and the highest bidder secures the best place!"
+
+Mecca, which lies many miles inland from the port of Jiddah, half-way
+down the Red Sea, is the birthplace of Mohammed, and the sacred city of
+the Mohammedans; when they kneel at their devotions it is with their
+faces turned towards Mecca. Those who have managed to pilgrimage there
+even once in their lives are looked upon as superior beings.
+
+The siding we have just passed is one of the largest in the canal, and
+three ships can lie up there together if necessary. It is here that the
+Syrian caravans cross over into Africa.
+
+Next morning we are up on deck in good time, as we want to see all we
+can of the canal. We are by this time out in the wide water of the
+Bitter Lake, where we can go at a good speed, then the canal itself
+begins again and we pass one of the little station-houses where the
+signalmen live; it looks as if it was built out of a child's bricks, and
+stands on the arid banks with only a few scanty palms near. It must be a
+dreary sort of life for ever signalling to ships which are going onward
+to all countries of the world, while you yourself remain pinned down in
+the same few square yards of land.
+
+This narrow waterway that passes down between Asia on the one side and
+Africa on the other is stimulating to the imagination.
+
+We catch a glimpse of Suez afar off and run by a tree-shadowed road that
+leads to a peninsula, where are the P. & O. offices and a row of houses
+inhabited by the men whose work in life it is to look after the canal.
+Notice that buoy on the port side of the ship, it is about as far from
+the bank as a man could throw a cricket-ball, yet through that strip of
+water, which marks the deepest channel, every ship has to pass either on
+entering or leaving the canal. Think of it! Between five thousand and
+six thousand ships steam through in a year, they are of all sizes, of
+many nations, carrying many kinds of cargo. There are the mail ships and
+passenger ships of the European countries, there are pilgrim ships from
+Russia and Turkey, there are transports carrying our own khaki-clad
+soldiers; you can always recognise one of these transports, for she is
+painted white and carries a large white number on a black square at the
+stem and stern. Then there are merchant ships innumerable; it is true
+that the heavily laden Australian ships go home round the Cape, as the
+distance (from Sydney) is much the same, but those stored with teak wood
+from Burma, with tea, cotton, spices, and silk from China, Ceylon, and
+India come through here. If a boy were to sit on the verandah of one of
+those houses and hear the names, destinations, and freight of all the
+vessels he saw, he could learn the geography and commerce of half the
+world with hardly an effort!
+
+[Illustration: IN THE SUEZ CANAL, THE NARROW WATERWAY BETWEEN ASIA AND
+AFRICA.]
+
+That range of mountains across there, which look strangely like ruined
+forts and castles, forms part of the great peninsula of Sinai where the
+Law was given to Moses, and though it is in Asia it now belongs to
+Egypt. It looks as if you could hit it with a stone, so wonderfully do
+distant objects stand out in this clear atmosphere, but it is seven or
+eight miles away. That dark clump midway between it and the sea marks
+the place called Moses' Well.
+
+We are in the Gulf of Suez now, and it must have been somewhere about
+here that the Israelites crossed over with the host of Pharaoh pursuing
+them.
+
+We are getting up better speed, and it is not long before we have
+reached the end of the gulf and pass out into the wide waters of the Red
+Sea.
+
+There were two delusions I cherished for many a year about this sea. I
+always imagined it a long, narrow strip, like a river, in which you
+could see from bank to bank as you sailed along; and secondly, I thought
+there must be some red colouring on the banks or in the water to account
+for the strange name. As a matter of fact, the sea is over one thousand
+miles long and varies from twenty to one hundred and eighty miles in
+breadth. Being on it in a ship is like being out in the open ocean, for
+one can see no shore. The name "Red" Sea has never been satisfactorily
+explained, but some people suggest that it may have arisen from the
+spawn or eggs of fish which float on the surface in quantities at
+certain times of the year and are of a reddish tinge, others say it is
+from the coral which grows so well here, and others think it may have
+something to do with the rocks of red porphyry on the Egyptian side of
+the Arabian Gulf.
+
+For the first time since we left England we begin now, as we go
+southward, to feel uncomfortably hot. It was never too hot in Egypt, for
+there was always a fresh wind. Here at first we have a following wind
+which makes it seem dead calm; there is a kind of clammy dampness in the
+air which makes it impossible to do anything requiring energy. The deck
+games of "bull" and quoits and even cricket, which have been carried on
+in such a lively way lately, fall off; no one cares to do anything.
+
+Even the children cease from troubling. There are quite a number of them
+on board, for this is an Australian ship; if she were going to India
+there would be no small children. Here I counted fifteen at the table
+downstairs where they have their meals. You, of course, are treated as a
+grown-up person, and quite right too, as you are on the eve of a public
+school. I wonder how you will settle down at Harrow next winter after
+all this change! There is only one other boy of about the same age. I
+saw you talking to him this morning; what do you make of him?
+
+A "rotter"? Yes, I thought so too. He seems to consider that the
+greatest fun on board is to rumple up the stewards' hair or to knock off
+their caps, and as they can't retaliate it is poor sport. He never plays
+games either, which is odd considering he is an Australian.
+
+Oh, I hoped that child had sunk into a sweet slumber! He is a nuisance;
+he can't be more than four, but he never seems to rest day or night, and
+he spends the laziest hour of the afternoon dragging a squeaking cart up
+and down the wooden deck, to the annoyance of everyone except the fond
+mother, who encourages it as a sign of genius! Odd one never can travel
+without at least one child of that sort on board. There's a nice alcove
+aft behind the smoking-room where we may find refuge.
+
+Yes, I grant the little girls are just as bad as the boys; there is that
+pert spoilt little miss who rushes after the steward when he carries
+round the _hors d'oeuvre_ before dinner and clamours for them.
+
+"They're not for children," he told her.
+
+"But mother doesn't forbid me to have them," she retorted, standing on
+one leg with her finger in her mouth.
+
+If she refrained from doing only what her mother _did_ forbid her she
+would have a fairly easy time I think.
+
+It is too stifling to sleep in the cabin, so we will try the deck
+to-night. It is rather pleasant stepping out on to the warm dry boards
+when the lights are out. The awning shuts us in overhead, but at the
+side we can see the smooth water lying white in the moonlight. Here is
+our place, with our mattresses laid out neatly side by side and the
+number of our cabin scrawled in white chalk on the wooden boards beside
+them. There is a story of a certain ape who got loose on board ship and
+paid a visit to the deck when all the men were asleep! A funny sight it
+must have been as he landed on the top of one after the other!
+
+In spite of the calmness of the night it is always more or less noisy on
+a ship: there is the flap of an awning, the crack of a rope, the
+creaking of the plates, and the frilling away of the water past the
+ship's side. I lie awake a long time, turning uneasily and feeling the
+taste of the salt on my lips. At last, low down between the rails, away
+on the horizon, I see the well-known constellation, the Southern Cross.
+You have often heard of it I expect. It is one of the most famous groups
+of stars in the southern hemisphere and as much beloved by southerners
+as the Great Bear is by us. As the Great Bear sinks night by night lower
+in the north so the Southern Cross rises into sight. It is not a very
+brilliant or even cross, but rather straggly, and the stars are not very
+large, but it means much--hot skies, blue-black and brilliantly
+star-spangled, lines of white surf breaking on silvery sand beneath palm
+trees, fire-flies and scented air--I am growing drowsy at last--sleep is
+coming.... I must show you the cross another night.
+
+Hullo! it's morning! A Lascar is standing by grinning, with a bucket of
+water and a deck-swab; they want to begin holystoning down the decks.
+How sleepy I am! And as for you, the night steward, who is still on
+duty, lifts you in his arms and carries you into your bunk, where you'll
+find yourself when you do wake. It's only five--time for some more hours
+yet. Sleeping on deck is rather an overrated amusement I think!
+
+Before getting out of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean we have to pass
+through the Straits of Babel-Mandeb, which means the Gate of Affliction
+or Tears, because of the numerous wrecks there have been here. Then we
+stop at Aden, where the passengers going on to India change to another
+P. & O. steamer, the _Salsette_, which is waiting for them. The _Medina_
+goes across to Ceylon and then south to Australia, but the ship
+following her next week goes straight to India.
+
+It is lucky for Britain that she owns Aden, for it is the doorway at the
+south end of the Red Sea, as the canal is the doorway at the north end.
+Of course it is more important to us that the route to the East should
+be kept clear than it is to any nation, because in case of difficulties
+in India we should have to send troops there at once. It is more by good
+luck than good management that just these little corners of the world,
+that mean so much, should happen to fall into our possession--Gibraltar,
+for instance, the gateway of the Mediterranean. And though the British
+Government refused to have any hand in the making of the Suez Canal, yet
+afterwards, because the Khedive of Egypt was hard up and willing to sell
+his shares, we bought at a reasonable rate and have much influence in
+the management of the canal.
+
+Standing beside us, watching the passengers for India climb down the
+gangway, is a fresh-looking, pink-faced young man of about
+one-and-twenty. He has a simple look, and you would think he was too
+young and innocent to go round the world by himself.
+
+"I'm right down glad I'm not going to 'do' India," he remarks. "I'm sick
+of travelling; I'm just longing to get back."
+
+"To Australia?"
+
+"Yes; I'm a sheep-farmer there. I've worked four years without a break,
+so I took a holiday in Europe."
+
+Anything less like one's idea of a sheep-farmer it would be hard to
+find! I always pictured them stern bearded men, with brick-red faces and
+sinewy limbs. This lad doesn't look as if he had ever been in a strong
+sun, and his slender loose-jointed legs and arms do not give the
+impression of an open-air life spent mostly in the saddle.
+
+"You have a sheep-farm? Hard life, isn't it?"
+
+"Best life in the world," he answers with enthusiasm. "Always on
+horseback, miles of open country, not shut in by beastly houses."
+
+"But there's a lack of water, isn't there?"
+
+"You can always sink a well, that's what they do now. It costs a good
+deal, but you can get water almost anywhere within reason."
+
+"Are you far out?"
+
+"No, only about three hundred and forty miles from the town where my
+mother lives. I go down to see her at week-ends; we're lucky in being
+close to a station, only a fifteen-mile ride."
+
+Three hundred and forty miles! About the distance from London to
+Berwick! Good place for week-ends, especially with a fifteen-mile ride
+at one end! I suppose our ideas get small from living in a little
+country. Pity we can't visit Australia, but we can't manage it this
+time. That great island-continent and its sister, New Zealand, are well
+worth seeing. Except for the Canadians there are no people nearer akin
+to us than the Australasians. The world-famous harbour of Sydney, the
+great hills clothed in eucalyptus, hiding in their depths vast caverns
+of stalactites, the wide open ranges stretching for leagues inland, all
+these things are attractive. In New Zealand, too, we should find
+tree-ferns of gigantic size, lovely scenery, and spouting geysers; it is
+an England set in a very different climate from ours! Then we might pass
+on to those strange South Seas, gemmed by coral islands, and to the
+latitudes where the mighty albatross swings overhead like an aeroplane,
+only, unlike an aeroplane, he glides in a never-ending plane without
+apparent effort or even one flap of his huge twelve-foot wings.
+
+Alas, we can't see everything this trip!
+
+[Illustration: A FLYING FISH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN
+
+
+Now we are right out in the Indian Ocean, and it is a bright day with a
+certain freshness in the air, instead of that horrible muggy heat that
+made us feel so languid when we were in the Red Sea. Look over the
+ship's side and watch the rainbow in the spray; that is one of the
+prettiest things to see on board. As the vessel cuts through the water
+she raises a frill of foam on either side--what the sailors call "a bone
+in her mouth." The frill, rising to a continuous wave along the side,
+catches the sunlight and a perpetual rainbow dances in it, changing
+always but remaining ever. Whew! What a rush! Flying fish. Look at them!
+These are the first we have seen so near; when they spring out of the
+water like that and skim along in the air they are not doing it for fun,
+but to escape a bitter enemy in the water, the bonito, a ferocious large
+fish who preys upon them; he is their chief foe, but there are many
+others also. They curve up all together like a glittering bow and
+slither down again. In dropping back into the sea they make a kind of
+pattering noise, though, of course, we are too far to hear it, and the
+fishermen in the small islands near India make use of this in trying to
+catch the bonito. They go out in boats specially built for the purpose,
+with a kind of platform overhanging the stern; here they sit and make a
+splashing with their paddles, at the same time using some little fish,
+which they catch and breed in tanks, for bait. The noise attracts the
+large fish, who think there is a shoal of the small fry about, and they
+jump at the bait and are caught. The catch is often very good, and the
+boats come back to the huts laden with the ogre fish, destined to be
+eaten in their turn!
+
+Have you ever thought what it must be like right down there in the deeps
+below the green water? We can't see because of the light striking the
+surface, but if we had a water-glass we could. This is a wooden funnel
+like that made of paper by village shopkeepers to roll up soft sugar in.
+At the broad end is a piece of strong glass, which is thrust under the
+water, and by peering through the small end it is possible to make out
+what is happening below if it is not too deep; anyway, we are too high
+up out of the water to use one here even if we had it, but in a boat
+near the coral reefs and islands there are wonderful things to be seen
+by the help of one of these glasses.
+
+If you dropped a stone overboard here it would sink and sink gradually
+for about two miles, until it found a resting-place on a slimy bottom of
+ooze in a strange dark place. You have a pretty good idea of what a mile
+is from running in the school races; in imagination set it up on end,
+and add another to it, and then think of that stone sinking that
+distance into the grey water! Down there it must be quite dark, for the
+mass of water above cuts off the sunlight like a black curtain. There
+are many beasts living there, nevertheless; lobsters and other
+shell-fish as well as fish, and in a great many cases those that have
+been examined are found to have no eyes; it is probable that they have
+lost their eyesight in the course of many generations, because it would
+be no help to them in getting a living in those black depths. The
+subject is not fully understood yet, because _some_ deep-sea fishes have
+exceptionally good sight, but these may possibly live higher up in the
+water, where there is a certain amount of glare, and then their eyes
+would become sharpened by necessity.
+
+[Illustration: DEEP-SEA FISH.]
+
+The bed of the ocean is not a level plain; if you could see it emptied
+of all water, you would discover that the land slopes down, sometimes
+gradually and sometimes with terrific precipices from the shores, and
+that at the mouths of great rivers there are great banks of mud brought
+down by the current and piled up, making a fat living for innumerable
+sea-creatures. But at the very bottom, in this carpet of slime, there
+are no weeds, or as we might call them sea-vegetables, for they cannot
+live altogether without light, so the creatures which have their home in
+what to us would seem this cheerless, miserable retreat, must live on
+one another. They are differently built from surface fish, because they
+have always resting upon them the weight of an enormous pile of water.
+Picture a pyramid of water two miles high resting on anybody. It would
+crush him to atoms; but the fish and crustacea down there are used to
+it, and fitted by nature to support it, and so, if they are brought up
+to the surface by any means, they burst! In deep-sea trawling it is
+quite a common occurrence to see fishes literally burst open, with their
+eyes protruding from the sockets, and this annoys the fishermen, because
+they are of no use for the market in that condition. It is difficult to
+imagine creatures unable to live without a great weight resting on them,
+but as a matter of fact it is the same thing with us in a less degree.
+There is a column of air some miles high resting on every one of us, and
+if we could imagine ourselves lifted out of it into space, our heads
+would throb, and our eyes would burst out, and we should be as helpless
+as a deep-sea fish brought up to the surface.
+
+As for light, they have strange methods down there in the black depths.
+A great many of the deep-sea inhabitants carry their own lights, for
+they are more or less luminous, shining by internal light as glow-worms
+and fire-flies do. One extraordinary fish has a row of shiny spots
+stretching from his head to his tail, and when he is swimming about he
+must look like a liner with a lighted row of ship's ports stretching
+along his side. Even lobsters and crabs shine luminously, and what use
+it is to them when they are frequently blind it is hard to conjecture;
+it must have something to do with catching prey, who are perhaps not
+blind and may be attracted by the lights. There is at least one fish who
+hangs out what is like a red lantern, only it is the tip of his fin, and
+by this means he draws to himself small creatures who swim right into
+his capacious mouth; thus his dinner comes to him without his having to
+search for it!
+
+I want to go to the bows, for it never seems to me I am in a ship until
+I can get to a place where there is nothing to shut one in. These modern
+liners are horribly shut in, one might as well be in a drawing-room most
+of the time. Here we are at last, and it is good to draw a deep breath,
+feeling the huge dome of the sky above and the wide rim of the horizon
+around with nothing to cut them off. Look down where the ship cleaves
+the sea with her bows cleanly and beautifully like a living thing.
+Hullo! there is a dolphin! We are in luck! Can you see him dancing round
+us and plunging in under water and coming up again, much as a dog does
+on land when he goes out for a walk with his master? There is another,
+and another! What they call a shoal. They go fast enough; I expect we
+are making about fifteen or sixteen knots, or miles, an hour, which is
+good going, and yet these little chaps swim round and round, cutting
+across ahead of us, diving under us and coming up again all the time; to
+them it is mere child's play, and they really are playing; they are full
+of fun, and there is no earthly reason why they should behave like that
+except for amusement!
+
+[Illustration: A DOLPHIN.]
+
+There goes the bugle for lunch.
+
+Seems early, you say? As if we had only just finished breakfast? Yes.
+Look at your watch. It is hopelessly wrong, of course; so is mine and
+everyone else's. We are going just about due east now, so we are meeting
+the sun half-way, so to speak. That is what makes the time different.
+You know that when the sun is at the highest point overhead at any place
+then it is midday, and as the earth spins round from west to east a
+constant succession of places come beneath him in turn, each getting
+their midday a little later than the one before. In the British Isles
+there is really very little difference between the hours when the
+eastern and western coasts meet the sun. Take Yarmouth, say, and Land's
+End; there is perhaps something like half an hour between them, but as
+it would be awkward for railway work and business if every place had a
+little different time, so, for convenience' sake, one "standard" time is
+adopted in England, Scotland, and now even in some of the nearest
+continental countries; this is the hour when the sun is highest above
+Greenwich, where is our greatest observatory. And this is called midday,
+even though as a matter of fact the real midday at different places may
+be earlier or later.
+
+As we journey east across the world, however, we are constantly going
+forward to meet the sun. We are not only on the earth, which is turning
+round all the time, but we are going ahead ourselves as well, and
+out-running the earth, and so we arrive at noon sooner and sooner each
+day. Our watches of course take no heed of _real_ time as judged by the
+sun, they are just mechanical and tick away their sixty minutes to each
+hour whether the sun is overhead or not. At this moment we are about
+four hours ahead of our friends in England. It is one o'clock here, but
+they will only be having breakfast! When we live always in one place it
+is easy to forget that we are on a ball spinning round in space, but
+this brings it home to us and makes us realise our absurd position in
+the universe. Well, let us get our lunch. There is one thing on board,
+everybody is always ready to eat an amazing amount after they have got
+over sea-sickness, and the number of meals we manage to consume here
+would surprise us at home!
+
+As the evening closes in, the day undergoes a change; there is a thick
+bank of black-looking cloud in the west, and just as the sun goes down
+this breaks up into wild streamers and shows deep ragged gulfs of livid
+light between; there are glimpses of green and tawny-red and angry
+orange flashing through, and then the veil of cloud blots out the light.
+Yet it is still, there doesn't seem to be a ripple of wind, and the sea
+has a curious oily calm upon it. Would you like to come along to the
+bows after dinner? Don't, if you don't want to. It is more difficult to
+get there than we expected, for though it looks so calm there is a big
+swell, and we are rising and falling considerably on the smooth-backed
+hillocks of water. Creep under these ropes and over this barricade. Then
+we are free from all the entanglements. There are no dolphins now, but
+there is a strange light dancing away like fire from the cutting bow; it
+comes in streaks and flashes, one moment it seems as if it must be only
+a reflection in the cut water, and the next one could swear there was a
+real flash.
+
+That is phosphorescence, which is very common in tropical seas,
+sometimes the whole sea is alight with it. Look at that! It is a vivid
+light like a wave of green fire, most beautiful! It is only, however,
+where the ship strikes the water that we see it to-night. But sometimes,
+though not often at this season of the year, the whole ocean seems to be
+alight with it; it is the effect of innumerable millions of tiny
+sea-creatures floating on the surface, though exactly why they do it at
+one time more than another is yet unknown. The curious thing is that
+there are so many different kinds of phosphorescence; there is the
+bright fiery kind like this we are seeing now in flashes, and there is a
+dull luminous kind which sailors call a "white sea." Then the whole sea
+appears as white as milk, or, as someone who has seen it describes it,
+as if it were changed to ice covered with a coating of snow. This was on
+a dark night before the moon had risen, but when she did get up it all
+disappeared and the sea looked much as usual, glittering only where the
+beams struck it, except for odd patches of shiny light here and there,
+and oddly enough exactly the same thing happened the following night.
+I'm afraid we shan't be lucky enough to see that.
+
+Is the motion making you uncomfortable? No? I'm glad of that; you're a
+first-rate sailor. Let us go back to that jolly alcove at the end of the
+smoking-room looking aft, where we can see the great green-black waves
+rising suddenly behind us.
+
+Yes, this is distinctly comfortable and quite interesting. It seems as
+if every wave rose in a great hill suddenly just after we had passed the
+spot! We must have come over it, but sitting like this we didn't feel
+it, we are riding so smoothly.
+
+If we look out ahead we shall see the same sort of thing happening; we
+approach a black hillock of water, and just as we get to it it rolls
+down and disappears under us. The ship is so large that though she
+climbs those hills, we get the impression that the hills straighten
+underneath her. You must have noticed something of the same kind in
+riding a bicycle; if you are running down one hill and see another
+rising in front, the other one looks terrifically steep, but as you get
+on to it, it flattens out in an inexplicable way; it is the change in
+our own position that accounts for the phenomenon.
+
+It is very close to-night and there is an uneasy feeling in the air; the
+captain did not appear at dinner. It is a good thing that they put off
+that fancy-dress ball which was to have been held this evening, for
+there could not have been much dancing. Your costume will come in useful
+another time. I want to see you sometime as a little Egyptian with a
+skull-cap and a garment like a flannel night-shirt! But we shall have
+another chance.
+
+"Hope we're not in for a cyclone," says one of the men, appearing out of
+the smoking-room with a pipe in his mouth.
+
+"Very unusual at this time of year in the North-East monsoon," replies
+another as they disappear.
+
+At that moment forked lightning plays across the sky in a great ragged
+streak, and immediately there is another display as if answering it,
+but we can hear no thunder.
+
+What is the North-East monsoon? It sounds rather like some kind of
+animal, but it is only the name given to a certain wind that blows
+always at one season of the year.
+
+Across broad spaces of the ocean there are always steady winds to be
+counted on, such as the trade-winds, which are caused by the air at the
+Equator getting hot and rising, and being replaced by the cold air from
+the Poles which rushes in; besides this there are other winds which blow
+half the year, called monsoons, these are due to very much the same
+causes. The North-East monsoon comes in the northern winter; the air
+from the North Pole coming down slowly is met by the earth as she turns,
+and as she rushes into it she makes it a north-eastern wind; this,
+coming over the land from the north, is a dry wind, while the other one,
+the South-Western monsoon, coming from the south over the ocean in the
+other half of the year, is a wet wind and brings the rain which is such
+a boon to India.
+
+The lightning is continually playing, and I shouldn't be surprised if we
+are on the edge of a cyclone, but with a big ship like this, and a
+captain who knows his business, there is nothing to be afraid of. These
+cyclones, which are called typhoons in the China seas, are curious
+storms which twist round and round in a circle, all the time progressing
+onward too, and the danger is in getting into the middle of one, for
+there, as you may imagine, the wind comes from all quarters at once, and
+the waves are piled up on all sides like huge overhanging pyramids. I've
+never been in the middle of one, I'm thankful to say, but those who
+have, and have escaped with their lives, say that the ship is buffeted
+as if by mighty billows which smack down upon her from all directions.
+Sometimes there is seen a space of blue sky, and there is a great calm,
+but this to the commander is the most ominous sign of all, for he knows
+he must be in the centre funnel of the storm, so to speak, and that it
+will be worse for him directly!
+
+We had better go to bed, there's nothing else to do.
+
+Are you awake? Yes, I thought even you could hardly sleep through that!
+What a smack! It sounds as if the heavens had opened and a water-spout
+had descended on deck! What a roar! Can you hear me? All right, come in
+here beside me if you like, but there is precious little room. It seems
+as if every noise on the ocean had been let loose. The rain must be
+simply one great volume of water, and the thunder----Even through our
+port-hole the cabin is as light as day with the lightning; it is just
+two o'clock in the morning. The thunder seems to come absolutely
+instantaneously with the lightning; we must be right in it! I never
+heard such crashes. One minute our heads are down below our feet and the
+next we are almost standing on end. Hang on! We shall probably get
+through all right, this noise doesn't mean anything very bad. But I
+thank my stars I'm not an officer on the bridge. How they ever manage to
+keep on their feet I don't know, much less how they give directions. One
+man told me that he was once in such a sea that when he was pitched off
+his feet into one end of the bridge he hadn't time to recover himself
+before the same pitch came again and sent him down just as he was trying
+to get up! At any time the life at sea is hard, but doubly so in a storm
+like this! Hour after hour it goes on. I don't suppose anyone has slept
+through this, and many must be feeling very ill. We are lucky to be
+spared that!
+
+Next morning, though the lightning had ceased, the wind is terrific, it
+goes screeching past, and the rain comes down in buckets; with great
+difficulty we get into our clothes and scramble up to the smoking-room.
+It is a miserable day and very few of the passengers appear, but by the
+afternoon the worst is over, and we can get out into our alcove. We are
+still labouring heavily in a blue-black sea, and can see a very little
+way as we are surrounded by mountains of water. Hurrah! There is a cleft
+over in the east, which means the storm is breaking. Our captain knows
+the law of cyclones and has judged rightly which way to turn to get out
+of the track of the storm. We have passed through a corner of it, and
+though we have got out of our course, that won't mean much delay.
+Anyway, you've had an experience very few people have had, for there are
+few indeed of all the thousands who go to India who have ever been in
+the tail of a cyclone! It is most unusual, but in these seas one never
+knows what will happen.
+
+[Illustration: A NATIVE VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A TROPICAL THUNDERSTORM
+
+
+We have really arrived in the East! We are in Colombo, the capital town
+of Ceylon, the great island which lies swung like a pendant from the
+southernmost point of India. We are sitting in the shady verandah of one
+of the largest hotels, the Grand Oriental, called G.O.H. for short, and
+as we sip lemon-squash we look out over a scene so full of interest that
+it is difficult to take it all in. This is quite different from Port
+Said. There it was bright and clear, but there was not the wonderful
+smell and sense of being the East that we have here. The air is full of
+scent, a kind of spicy smell mingled with a touch of wood-smoke, and
+there is a balminess in it that we have never felt till now. The water
+in the harbour is a glorious emerald green, and small boys, almost
+naked, play about on roughly shaped log canoes called catamarans. They
+used to dive for pennies, but the sharks lopped off a leg here and an
+arm there and swallowed one up whole now and again, and so the
+Government forbade it. The dark wooden wharf forms a frame for gay
+figures in pure pinks and greens and yellows, and on the roads there run
+past continually the funniest sturdy little men with their loin-cloths
+tucked up, pulling light-looking chairs on high wheels with people in
+them. These chairs are called rickshaws and are the chief way of getting
+about. Very comfortable they are too, and quite cheap; we will go in
+them presently. The men who pull them have funny chignons of frizzy
+black hair sticking out under their little red caps, and it would be
+easy to mistake them for women. That attendant from the hotel at your
+elbow is asking you if you'll take another lemon-squash; he is quite a
+different sort of man from the runners, isn't he? Much taller and with a
+mild expression; his straight hair is adorned by a curved tortoise-shell
+comb of considerable size; he wears it round the back of his head, and
+how he makes it stay on among his very scanty locks is a miracle. His
+flowing white garments are immaculately clean, and he doesn't look as if
+he could kill a mosquito! He is a Cingalee, and the little men who run
+in the rickshaws are Tamils; these races live side by side in Ceylon,
+though there are many more Cingalese than Tamils. They are quite
+distinct, though they both originally came over from India, and in the
+old days when the Cingalese gave a line of kings to the island they were
+always fighting the Tamils; to-day both live together peacefully under
+British rule.
+
+This place is a positive bazaar! There is a deep, crafty old merchant
+sitting like a spider over his pile of sheeny silks in the corner--he
+hopes to get good prices from the unwary tourist; there is another with
+a stall of beautiful brass and copper hand-worked things, and others
+with jewellery and carved ivory. But more interesting than any is the
+snake-charmer, who has just squatted down in front of us, prepared to
+give us an entertainment.
+
+That is a cobra he takes out; you know it by its large, flat head. It
+seems sleepy and stupid, but its bite is deadly. It is possible, of
+course, that he has abstracted the poison-fangs which make its bite
+fatal, but even without them I shouldn't care to handle it. It is a huge
+beast, seven or eight feet long I should guess. See how he teases it; he
+is making it rise up on its coils and swing this way and that, darting
+its forked tongue out at him, and yet all the time it fears him. He has
+a marvellous power over it; its narrow, wicked light eyes are fixed on
+his face; it never looks away. Now he begins to play to it on a little
+flute; it is dancing, swaying its lean unlovely body to and fro and up
+and down in time with the tune. He puts down his pipe and makes a motion
+to it as if he were mesmerising it, passing his hands this way and that,
+until it comes to him and puts its flat head on his shoulder, nozzling
+into his neck. It makes one shudder to see it! It coils round his body
+again and again; he is enveloped in the coils. I should not care for
+that profession! It is not every man that can do it, only some of the
+natives have a gift for it, and they really have a power over snakes,
+even those in a wild state, for they make them come forth out of holes
+when called and remain passive at their feet. This man deserves a good
+tip. Bakshish they call it here too; that word accompanies you round the
+world!
+
+[Illustration: A CINGALEE WAITER.]
+
+I think we'll go for a jaunt, if you're ready, as the light falls
+quickly here. There is no difficulty in getting two rickshaws, and how
+they spin along. They say the men who drag them don't live many years,
+as the constant running wears them out, but they look healthy enough and
+show no more exhaustion after running than a horse does after trotting.
+Each one has twisted up his dhoti, as the white skirts they wear are
+called, showing his bare brown legs; the upper garment is simply a
+European cotton vest. We spin along the bright red road by the sea,
+seeing the long lines of foam breaking gently on the beach, and then
+turn into shady roads where trees with brilliant yellow leaves light the
+wayside. Then we pass through a native village with huts of thatch,
+while plantains, which at home we call bananas, grow on broad-leaved
+plants by each door. There is dust enough here, and mangy-looking pariah
+dogs, and cocks and hens, and multitudes of bright beady-eyed children
+with hardly any clothing on. There is plenty of foliage and greenery and
+a freshness and richness of colouring that is much better than the grey
+leafless harshness of an Egyptian village, for this land gets plenty of
+rain. Everyone seems good-humoured and happy, and the children look fat
+enough; some of them are very black, with woolly heads, of a different
+type from the others. These are the children of a race called Moormen.
+
+When we get down near the hotel I want you to come into this jeweller's
+shop in the arcade; you'll see a strange sight. A crowd of tourists are
+sitting round a table which is covered with little heaps of shining
+stones, unset and piled on squares of white paper; some are brilliant
+blue, others flashing crimson, others sombre in hue, but showing a
+glitter of living light whichever way you turn them. The odd thing is
+that the visitors are handling them and turning them over, and examining
+them quite freely, while the owner, a wizened old man in horn
+spectacles, hardly watches!
+
+"They're not real?"
+
+Indeed they are! Rubies, star-sapphires, opals, and many another
+precious stone. That native owner has a queer faith in the honesty of
+his customers! Long may it last!
+
+We are only in Colombo for one night, and to-morrow we are going
+up-country to stay with a friend of mine, a tea-planter.
+
+As we are undressing you give a sudden start, "What's that?" Only a
+lizard scuttling over the dark-washed bedroom wall, first cousin to the
+chameleon you saw at Abu Simbel. He is quite harmless and lives on
+flies. He runs like a little shadow across the wall and sometimes he
+loses his balance and comes down thump on the floor, or breaks his fall
+on the mosquito curtains. He is one of the signs that we really are in
+the East; here is another. Listen for a moment at the window. There is a
+distant barking of dogs, a far-away crow from a defiant cock, a strange
+murmurous chant of men, weird cries intermingled, and now and then the
+deep beat of a parchment drum. The people of the land are all awake and
+stirring though it is late--the East never really sleeps as profoundly
+as does the West; there is a restlessness in the blood that stirs too
+much, and a pulsating warmth in the air that does not allow of deep
+slumber; it is the restlessness of the jungle translated into town life.
+
+Next day at the station we find that the porters, though dressed in neat
+blue suits, have pronounced chignons of the same type as their brothers
+who draw the rickshaws, and in spite of their European-cut coats and
+trousers they run about with bare feet! We might make a museum of the
+strange porters we see on our wanderings, collecting a specimen from
+each country!
+
+The train is comfortable enough and there is a luncheon-car, so we
+shan't starve this time; besides, the journey to Kandy is only a few
+hours. There I hope we shall be met, as I haven't the least idea
+whereabouts my friend, Mr. Hunter's, tea-plantation is; however, I sent
+him a wire yesterday directly we arrived to say we would come by this
+train, so he is sure to be there.
+
+The line for the greater part of the way is laid on a terrace or shelf
+cut out of a hillside, and it winds along climbing ever up with a
+towering wall on one side and a precipice on the other. The little
+stations have hardly room to wedge in, but they are very gay with
+flowers--indeed the whole line is, for great yellow daisies and the
+terra-cotta blossoms of a pretty creeper called lantana climb
+everywhere. As we get higher and higher we can look down and see the
+country spread out before us like a map; it is cut up into neat little
+fields and would be like a draught-board except that the fields are
+often on different levels one above the other, made on land cut out from
+the hillsides. These people grow rice, which is to them what maize is to
+the Egyptian. In the fields, before it has been threshed, it is known as
+paddy. They live on rice and very little else, and seem to thrive on it.
+Rice pudding if repeated every day for a month at both breakfast and
+dinner would grow monotonous, but the man of the East does not find it
+so. His rice is not cooked with milk but with water, and is eaten with a
+little curry made of fish or vegetables to give it flavour.
+
+Higher yet, and soon we see the hills laid out with rows of a tiny
+dark-green bush, planted as neatly as rows of turnips; this is the tea
+for which Ceylon is famous, and we shall get a nearer look at it
+presently. That and rubber are the staple crops that Englishmen come out
+here to raise, but they also grow coffee and other things too.
+
+[Illustration: DOWN IN THE PADDYFIELDS.]
+
+When we arrive at Kandy there is no sign of anything to meet us and no
+white man on the platform, so I make inquiries of the stationmaster, who
+is a Eurasian, which means that he has some white blood in his veins. He
+knows Mr. and Mrs. Hunter perfectly well, he says, though he has not
+seen them for a day or two. If, as I say, I wired, they are certain to
+send in a trap to meet us; but it may have been delayed or still be in
+the town. If we care to go up and look round, and come back again, he
+will meantime make inquiries. With many thanks we take his advice. The
+town is quite near and we find the main part of it built around a pretty
+little lake near which is the famous Temple of the Tooth. This is a
+massive building visited by thousands of pilgrims, because it enshrines
+a relic of great sanctity, nothing less than the tooth of Buddha! What
+Mohammed is to the Mohammedans so Buddha is to the Buddhists, among
+whom the greater part of the people of Ceylon may be counted. But Buddha
+is more than a prophet; his followers say that he has appeared on earth
+many times, and that the last time he came in the form of an Indian
+prince who, instead of living in careless luxury, left his home and
+wandered forth among the people to discover the meaning of life. When he
+found it, after deep meditation, he left certain precepts and rules to
+his followers. Some of them are very good, resembling our own
+Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not lie," "Thou shalt
+not steal," "Thou shalt not drink intoxicating liquor." But, unlike the
+Mohammedans, the Buddhists do not believe in God. Their idea of blissful
+happiness at the last is to melt away into a kind of nothingness of
+perfect peace, with no desires, no worries, and no cares.
+
+All over the East you find temples which are supposed to contain some
+part of Buddha's person, hairs, teeth, even a collar-bone! Of course it
+is impossible that these things should be genuine, and in any case, if
+they were, there is nothing sacred about them. The worshippers always
+say they do not look upon Buddha as a god, but only a great spiritual
+teacher, yet the poor and ignorant come and worship and bow down in
+these temples, and there is no doubt that to them the image itself
+stands for a god. The tooth which is here is kept in many caskets, one
+within the other, and it is never shown except on very great occasions.
+Mr. Hunter saw it once, and says it is not a human tooth at all, but a
+great thing like a boar's tusk or possibly an elephant's tooth. He
+couldn't get a good look at it, anyway he saw enough to be quite sure
+that it is not human at all, and the same may be said without doubt of
+all similar relics.
+
+What a lovely scene! The graceful dark-skinned crowd in their softly
+flowing garments of the purest pinks you ever saw, with sulphur yellow
+and rich red draperies thrown over them, are idling by the hoary grey
+steps of the temple and dropping bits of bread into the ponds in front.
+They are feeding the tortoises, fat lazy beasts who will hardly move to
+snap at the fragments unless they fall before their very noses. These
+beasts are supposed to be sacred too, and so they have an uncommonly
+good time of it. This massive building, temple and palace in one, was
+inhabited by the old line of native kings who made Kandy their capital.
+
+We must get back to the station or we may miss Mr. Hunter. When we
+arrive there we find there is no sign of him, whereat the attentive
+stationmaster is greatly distressed. He advises us to hire a trap and
+drive to some place with an unpronounceable name, where Mr. Hunter is
+sure to meet us; visitors often do that, he says. I try to discover why
+we can't drive all the way, but his answers are not enlightening; "big
+hill," he replies, and I don't see why the trap can't go up a hill!
+However, we shall see. He engages a trap for us, anyway; with a
+scarecrow horse and a friendly looking driver whose hairy legs protrude
+from wrappings of cinnamon-coloured cloth--once white, I suppose--and we
+are off. The roads at first are very good; and there is none of the dust
+we suffered from so much in Egypt, for Ceylon is a moist land. In fact,
+it looks rather like rain now, with heavy clouds gathering up.
+
+After going at a slow trot for a considerable distance the driver pulls
+up, and pointing with his whip to a tree-covered mountain says something
+unintelligible, which turns out to be "'Unter Tuan," after he has
+repeated it about six times. This means Mr. Hunter, "Tuan" being the
+same term of respect here that "Sahib" is in India.
+
+There is no sign of a house or any living being; the place is
+absolutely deserted. In vain I sign to the man to go ahead; he shakes
+his head and remains seated on his box like an image of despair. I get
+out and see that the road runs away to nothing in the bushes and scrub
+in front, it just ends suddenly for no apparent reason, and while I am
+looking I hear a slight crackling in the bushes, and a tall, thin, very
+dirty-looking youth appears and salaams respectfully. The driver
+immediately begins to converse with him, whereupon the youth takes our
+bag unceremoniously out of the carriage and putting it on his head
+beckons to us to follow him. There is nothing else for it, so, after
+paying the driver, we do so, feeling like two infants in charge of this
+fellow.
+
+I try the lean lad in English, asking him if he knows Hunter Tuan's
+place, but he swings round, looks at me gravely, and continues his
+graceful, elastic walk.
+
+It is pretty warm, and the path is narrow and lined by thorn bushes, so
+the going is not easy; but the youth seems to float on ahead with
+mysterious ease, and we pant after him feeling as if our lives depended
+on not losing sight of him. At last the bushes get so thick that we have
+to push our way through, and we suddenly see him a good distance ahead,
+half-way across a broad and shallow river which bubbles round his knees.
+
+"Hi!" we shout after him. "Stop!" And he turns, but only to beckon
+imperturbably and continue evenly on his way. It is evidently the custom
+of this country to walk through rivers when you meet them! Easy enough
+for the inhabitants, who are not encumbered with shoes and stockings,
+but for us....
+
+Down we go and are soon hard after him with our boots slung round our
+necks and our stockings stuffed into them; the cool water splashing
+round our legs is rather pleasant. Lucky it is not deep. We have to stop
+and re-clothe on the other side. Here our coolie has condescended to
+wait for us, and just as you are about to sit down on a convenient
+hillock of bare brown earth he waves you away, and you see that big red
+ants with a most fierce and warlike appearance are running about it; it
+is their home and fortress! Once more booted we struggle on, uphill now,
+on a stony path, and very stiff work it is. When we tell our guide to
+stop for a moment he looks at us condescendingly and stands with his
+burden poised on his head, not even caring to put it down as he waits
+until these poor creatures, who are not carrying anything at all, regain
+their breath, and that makes us feel so inferior we don't like to stop
+often! The clouds gather and blacken, the perspiration is running down
+my back, and I am as wet as if I had waded through the river up to my
+neck. I should be glad to see the house, for we have been scrambling
+upwards for quite an hour now. What a place to live in! Fancy having to
+come down here every time you wanted to do a little shopping!
+
+Another hour at least! A few drops, muttering thunder, and then, quicker
+than one can say it, a blinding, crashing downpour. Never in my life
+have I seen rain like this until that night at sea when we passed
+through the edge of the cyclone, and now twice have I met it in a week!
+It is simply a water-spout. A brilliant flash of lightning shows us the
+youth crouching under a bank some yards ahead, and we dive into the
+nearest place, following his example. Luckily the bank is high here and
+there is a kind of cave beneath a mass of broad-leaved plants; there is
+just room for the two of us huddled close together, and the wall of
+water sweeps past the entrance like a curtain. The rain makes a
+deafening noise, it literally crashes down; the path is a mountain
+torrent; if we had stayed there we should have been swept off our feet;
+it seems as if the whole mountain-side must go. We hang on to each
+other, avoiding the trickles as best we can. Hullo! this plant is a
+cardamom, carrying little seeds rather like spicy pepper; nibble one, it
+may keep off the effects of the wetting we have been unable to avoid
+altogether. How cold it seems to have grown all of a sudden! Is it the
+rain, or because we are so much higher up? I suppose really it is the
+latter, because I remember now that the planters always live on the tops
+of hills to get the fresh air, which is more healthy there than in the
+stifling valleys.
+
+It is a long time before the storm passes, and when at last it dies down
+to a few drops and we emerge and shake ourselves, all trace of the
+coolie boy has vanished! Yes, it is true! He has gone, and the bag too!
+Well, he must have gone upward or we should have seen him pass, so let
+us hope he is honest and has taken the bag to the house. There is only
+one path, so we can do nothing but follow.
+
+On we climb again, and presently the scene changes; we have got into the
+tea-scrub, and wander among rows of bushes about the size of gooseberry
+bushes, receiving deluges of cold water against our legs. The path
+zigzags this way and that, rising each time so that we can look back and
+see it lying below us in fold after fold. At last! There is an opening!
+I see a glimpse of green lawn and some poinsettias! This must be the
+place! Yes, I can see the bungalow, and here is a mackintosh-clad figure
+hastening down the path to greet us.
+
+"My dear fellow! However did you get here? Why on earth didn't you let
+us know? We'd have sent to meet you!"
+
+As we grasp hands I explain about the telegram. "Oh, then I shall get it
+with the letters to-morrow morning!" he says lightly. "No matter, so
+long as you are here and safe. I was afraid you had got lost upon the
+mountain-top, and was setting forth to seek you."
+
+"But how did you know?"
+
+"Your coolie arrived with the bag a quarter of an hour ago, and your
+name is written on the label very large and clear. Delighted to see you!
+The missus is romping round getting your beds aired and pinning up
+curtains in your honour!"
+
+[Illustration: RUANVELI DAGOBA AT THE "BURIED CITY."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A SACRED TREE
+
+
+Do you remember that just about this time last week we were crouching in
+a hole in a muddy bank waiting for the thunderstorm to pass on? How
+different now, though we are still in Ceylon and, as crow flies, not so
+many miles from the Hunters' mountain-side. It is a gorgeous tropical
+afternoon, the bits of sky we can see through the feathery-leaved trees
+are of the deepest blue, and we are resting, because it seems too hot to
+move a limb. In front of us there stretches a sheet of limpid water
+which might be a lake except that it is surrounded by a raised bund, or
+bank, artificially made, with hewn granite slabs as steps going down at
+one end. We are glad of the shade of the trees falling across the short
+turfy grass, and we are seated on some broken blocks of granite,
+keeping a sharp look out for snakes. They will hardly be likely to
+trouble us here, but in that jungly bit behind it wouldn't be at all
+safe to rest like this. Even to sit on the short grass might be
+unpleasant, as there are all sorts of unknown insects here which bite
+and sting and stab, but we are safely raised on stones and are wearing
+thick boots. Examine that slab of granite there beside you; do you see
+that it has a most wonderfully carved snake upon it--a cobra with seven
+heads? It is so clear-cut it might have been done yesterday, yet it is
+part of the ruins of a mighty city, a city as large as London, which
+once stretched its busy streets over this quiet glade. The cobra was a
+sacred beast to the Hindus, and a seven-headed one was peculiarly so,
+seven being a mystic number.
+
+What a glorious butterfly! Its body is as big as a small bird, and its
+great velvety wings are the sharpest black and white. No, I don't for a
+moment suppose you'll catch it, so it is no use getting hot! I'm glad
+you can't, for we have no proper apparatus here, and it would only be a
+crushed mass to take home. Don't go headlong into the tank, though, in
+your frantic efforts; it might be awkward. No, I don't think there are
+any crocodiles, only a few sacred tortoises perhaps. Look! there is a
+tiny one--that small yellow thing that is walking away with the
+melancholy dignity of a retired general. Pick it up if you like
+certainly, see it wag its head and legs helplessly. I wish we could take
+it home. As you replace it, it continues its grave walk in the same
+direction as if it had never been rudely interrupted. At that instant a
+hare darts across an open glade and disappears in the thick undergrowth.
+What a country! AEsop's Fables in real life, where hares and tortoises
+live together!
+
+"Was this city here at the same time as Rameses II. was living?"
+
+No. Egypt was past its best days before this city, which was called
+Anuradhapura (Anarajapura), was built, and you must remember Rameses II.
+was by no means one of the earliest kings of Egypt, he came quite late
+on in his country's history. His date was about thirteen hundred years
+before Christ, and it must have been about eight hundred years after
+that, though still you notice, 500 B.C., that this city was founded by
+some Cingalese who are supposed to have come over from India. That makes
+it between two thousand and three thousand years old, which we should
+think ancient enough if we hadn't visited Egypt first. Anuradhapura
+flourished for centuries as the capital of the Cingalese kings, who
+often carried on savage battles with the Tamils when they came over from
+India also.
+
+Turn round now and examine that hill you wanted to climb a little while
+ago and tell me if you can see anything peculiar about it. No, I don't
+mean that large grey monkey who has just peeped at us in an impudent way
+and then swung himself into hiding, though I admit he is very
+interesting. I mean something odd about the hill itself. It is covered
+with trees and jungle scrub certainly, as any ordinary hill might be,
+but it is oddly steep and the sides rise very sharply from the ground.
+It is an even shape too, more like an inverted bowl than a hill; or,
+better still, just try to imagine some giant cutting off the dome of St.
+Paul's and setting it down here in the jungle, wouldn't it look
+something like that?
+
+You don't quite agree, for you say that this has trees and bushes
+growing on it and St. Paul's dome would be bare. That is so, but if St.
+Paul's dome had been left for many hundreds of years in a country where
+vegetation grows as fast as it does here, wouldn't it probably be grown
+over too?
+
+Yes, I _do_ mean it. That isn't a hill at all, but a huge brick
+building called a dagoba, made by the same race of men who dug out this
+tank, and whose descendants to-day, with tortoise-shell combs in their
+hair, wait on us in the Colombo hotels.
+
+[Illustration: LARGE GREY MONKEY.]
+
+We will go back now to the place where we left that native cart and
+driver and we'll find a dagoba which has been stripped of its trees, so
+that we can see what it really looks like.
+
+Hush! Do you hear that curious singing like a chant? Wait; there is a
+procession of pilgrims. They come swinging round the corner of the road
+in their picturesque flowing garments, and just at the turn they stop
+and kneel with their hands held palms together before their faces, and
+they bow repeatedly before marching on again. Let us go and find out
+what it was that stopped them. We soon come to it and find that it is
+the seated figure of a man with one hand falling over his knee and the
+other on his lap, while his legs are crossed tailor-wise. It is painted
+white and it is not very much larger than life. This is Buddha, of whom
+you heard in Kandy, and all over here, and in Burma, and in a less
+degree in India, you will find images of him set up to remind his
+followers of the precepts he left for them to follow.
+
+Our driver is dead asleep under a tree, but we manage to wake him and
+soon we are rattling along a tree-shaded road in the queer little cart
+to Ruanveli, the best known of all the dagobas. When we arrive in full
+view of it we dismiss the driver and climb on to a slab of stone that is
+raised from the ground and tilted slightly like a table with two legs
+higher than the others. Here we can gaze upon this extraordinary
+monument which rises about one hundred and fifty feet into the air, and
+is about two and a half times as much across, just the shape of a
+pudding basin, you see. It is not a temple, not even a tomb, as the
+Pyramids are, but a solid block built of millions and millions of bricks
+with a tiny chamber inside containing an infinitely precious relic,
+nothing less than a few of Buddha's hairs. So they say! Only the priests
+were allowed to go into this sacred chamber, with the exception of one
+king, who had this priceless privilege granted to him. It is not very
+many years since mighty monuments were rediscovered, because the jungle
+had grown up all around them and no one knew even where Anuradhapura had
+stood; but now there are men who spend their whole time uncovering and
+preserving them, just as many men are working at the excavations in
+Egypt; and the trees and overgrowth have been stripped from Ruanveli,
+which stands forth sharp and clear-cut against this beautiful sky.
+
+Men are very much alike all the world over! This great dagoba was put up
+by one of the Cingalese kings, Dutugemunu, to celebrate his great
+victory over the Tamils, just as Rameses II. put up the inimitable
+temple of Abu Simbel to celebrate his victory over the Syrians. Before
+Dutugemunu came to the throne the Tamils had usurped all power and made
+one of their own men, called Elala, king, and the young prince, exiled
+from his capital city, met them in battle outside the walls. He fought
+with great bravery, and in the end the issue of the day was decided by a
+single combat between him and Elala, both mounted on huge elephants.
+That must have been a fight indeed! Dutugemunu killed Elala and regained
+the throne of his fathers, but he must have been a singularly
+enlightened prince for his age, for he not only buried his fallen foe
+with great honour but he gave orders that henceforth all music should
+cease when bands were marching past his tomb, and that royalties were to
+alight from their horses or palanquins and walk past on foot to do
+honour to the mighty dead. Even in the nineteenth century one of the
+princes from Kandy, who was flying from capture, obeyed the order and
+would not allow himself to be carried past the spot! So the memory of
+Elala and the great fight he made were kept alive as Dutugemunu had
+intended they should be.
+
+On this very slab where we are now sitting it is said that Dutugemunu
+died. If not the actual stone, it is probably the spot. It was about 140
+B.C., and when he knew he was dying he gave orders that he should be
+carried out here, that his fast failing eyes might look their last on
+the greatest monument of his reign. In the midst of his great city, with
+its fine buildings and the great tanks he had caused to be made to give
+the people water, he thought most of all of Ruanveli, partly because of
+the sacred relic enclosed, but partly also because he had done a
+wonderful thing in paying for all the labour that was used in its
+building, instead of forcing his subjects to work for nothing, as was
+the custom in his time.
+
+There is much to examine in Ruanveli; we can see the casing of granite
+running up the sides, we can examine a statue of the king himself and
+many wonderful carvings; around the dagoba runs a magnificent granite
+platform wide enough for six elephants to walk abreast, as no doubt they
+did many times in the gay processions on festival days.
+
+Behind the dagoba, not far off, is an immense lake, or tank, much larger
+than that we saw this morning. It was considered a peculiar work of
+merit for kings to make these tanks so that water could be stored up for
+the use of the people, and they are found all over Ceylon; there is one
+twenty miles in length!
+
+The sun has fallen low by the time we pass on to the Brazen Palace. At
+first, when we near it, we see merely a forest of columns with nothing
+brazen about them; they are not very high, about twice the height of a
+man perhaps, and they are set in rows very near together. Altogether
+there are one thousand six hundred of them! There is no roof now, but in
+the days of its glory this great house, which was built for the priest,
+had nine, and was finished by a sheet of burnished copper which caught
+the sun's rays and flashed far and wide beneath the clear blue sky. The
+walls were decorated with glittering stones and the fittings were of the
+most costly and beautiful kind. The wonder is how the priests found room
+to walk about between those multitudinous columns which so filled the
+space in their halls.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRAZEN PALACE, CEYLON.]
+
+One more sight in this city of ancient glory. Do you see across that
+park-like space of short grass some fires glimmering weirdly in the dusk
+which has now fallen round the most sacred object in Anuradhapura; I
+won't say what it is. Come nearer. A heavy scent, like that of
+tuberoses, greets us as we approach; it comes from the white waxy
+blossoms of the frangipani lying in that cardboard saucer with all the
+heads put outwards like the spokes of a wheel. In the centre is a pink
+blossom. Those flowers are sold as offerings in this sacred place. Don't
+stumble over that dark bundle, it is a sleeping child. Step cautiously
+between the bright-eyed people who watch, furtively alert, like shy
+woodland creatures, as they crouch low over their fires, for the evening
+has suddenly become chilly with the loss of the sun. These are pilgrims
+come from afar, and they will lie down to sleep just as they are in the
+open. There are very few at this time of the year; but in June and
+July, which are the principal months, thousands and thousands arrive
+here, having crossed weary leagues to come. It is strange how the world
+is linked up by its pilgrimages. We saw the pilgrims in the Holy Land
+coming from afar to the Christian shrines, humble and devout, believing
+all that was told them and carrying out in their poor lives much of
+Christ's teaching; we saw them in crowded and uncomfortable ships
+journeying from Mecca, the shrine of Mohammedanism; and now we see them
+here reverently drawn to the only sacred place they know, there to pray
+to something unseen and unknown, that they may be helped by a power
+stronger than themselves. In all ages and all races man yearns for a
+god, and if he knows not God he still worships dimly any strange god he
+hears of.
+
+We cross some brick pavement, and climb up a few worn steps on to a
+platform surrounded by a railing. Out of the middle of it there grows a
+gnarled and ancient tree with crooked boughs splitting asunder with
+hardly any leaves on them.
+
+_Now_ do you see?
+
+You only see monkeys looking like little black demons against the
+afterglow still lingering in the sky as they leap from the tall palm
+trees near, but this tree is not a palm.
+
+Suddenly a leaf, shaped like that of a poplar, but much larger, floats
+down, and in an instant a slight dark figure, tied up in a bundle of
+loose clothes, falls upon it, and holding it between the palms of the
+hands bows again and again. That leaf is a precious relic, for this is
+the sacred Bo tree, said to be at least two thousand years old!
+
+[Illustration: SWAYING ITS LEAN UNLOVELY BODY TO AND FRO IN TIME WITH
+THE TUNE.]
+
+After the Cingalese had come over from India and settled here, a monk
+came and converted them to Buddhism; he was followed by his sister, a
+princess, as he was a prince, and she brought with her, so it is said, a
+branch of the actual tree under which Buddha sat when he considered all
+the problems of life and found an answer to them, which he left to his
+people. This branch, being planted, became a tree itself. So the story
+goes; and that there has been a tree here worshipped for untold ages is
+true, and if that is so, whatever its origin, this also to us is a
+sacred spot, hallowed by the thousands of poor souls who, knowing not
+the light, yet have come here with yearnings towards the light and to
+the "unknown god."
+
+After dinner we wander out again into the tree-shaded road near, and a
+sight of extraordinary splendour startles us. Every tree is brilliantly
+illuminated as if by a million points of electric light. You have seen
+an arc-light which seems to scintillate rays? These lights might be very
+tiny arc-lights, for each one vibrates in the intensity of its
+luminousness. We can see the outlines of the trees clearly. It is a
+wonderful evening for fire-flies. No one knows why on some nights they
+appear like this in countless thousands, and on other nights, apparently
+the same, there is not one to be seen. It looks almost as if they had
+parties and agreed to do their best on certain occasions. They have
+evidently done their best for us to-night, for the other people
+following us out of the hotel, who have been here longer than us, are
+entranced.
+
+"Never saw anything like it, not even in the West Indies," says one man.
+
+"Puts a Christmas tree in the shade," remarks another.
+
+Catch one, he doesn't burn; don't grab him so as to hurt him, just take
+him gently; that is right; bring him into the light and open your hand a
+little. You see he is a flat, greenish beetle, with head set on a funny
+hinge so that he could nod it violently if he liked. Half shut your hand
+and turn away from the light; now you see two round green eyes glowing
+like emeralds. He doesn't seem embarrassed by all this attention, but
+you might let him go back to his party!
+
+When we have let him go we will walk down the avenue of living light,
+where is one thing more to see to-night. It is only ten minutes' walk
+and as we near it it gleams in the dim light of the brilliant stars, a
+ghostly white object. As our eyes grow accustomed to the light we see a
+building like a snow-white bell. It is small compared with the gigantic
+dagobas we have examined already to-day, for the very tip of the
+pinnacle, rising above the bell-shaped part, is only sixty-three feet,
+but it is very graceful and is considered the most sacred of all the
+dagobas, for it was built to enshrine Buddha's collar-bone!
+
+We haven't seen the half of Anuradhapura yet, and there are numbers of
+other ancient cities in Ceylon to explore, to say nothing of
+rock-temples with strange paintings and carvings; but we mustn't be here
+too long or we shan't get through India and Burma before the hot weather
+comes, which no European can endure.
+
+The white coating of this dagoba is a stuff called chunam, a kind of
+lime. It is startlingly white and looks beautiful at night, but
+otherwise it is just a sort of whitewash, clean enough but not
+particularly attractive. There are numbers of the same square-cut
+granite columns that we saw at the Brazen Temple falling about near the
+dagoba, some this way and some that. A good place for snakes, that is
+why we came round by the road and walked so carefully.
+
+Hullo! There is one! Keep still! Did you see him wriggle across among
+the interlacing shadows of the trees? A large one too! Thank goodness he
+has gone harmlessly! I wonder what sort he was? We ought not to have
+come out, let us get back as quickly as we can.
+
+[Illustration: A BULLOCK CART.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+UNWELCOME INTRUDERS
+
+
+India at last!
+
+We have come up the west coast from Ceylon and are now approaching
+Bombay. It is night-time, and far ahead we see a great yellow light
+which appears and disappears, and is visible for twenty miles out at
+sea. It seems to blink at us in greeting, peeping every few seconds to
+see if we are still there. Then at last we ride into the harbour, and
+such a harbour! We cannot see it now at all, and even if it were
+daylight we couldn't see more than a very small part of it, for it is
+fifteen miles one way by four or five the other, and a harbour that size
+cannot be taken in at one glance.
+
+We have to sleep on board, for there are some formalities to be
+observed before we go ashore. There is our heavy baggage to get out of
+the hold, for instance, and to pass through the Customs. That can wait
+until to-morrow.
+
+Our first impression of Bombay is therefore a city of lights. There are
+lights sprinkled about anyhow and anywhere; some in chains, some
+separate, some low, and some apparently slung high up in mid-air. These
+are on the hill above the town, which itself stands on an island.
+
+The very first incident we notice is a ludicrous one, and I am sure we
+shan't forget it. A rather stout Englishman who is landing to-night
+steps on to the launch, and in an instant is garlanded with marigolds
+hung in wreaths round his neck. A crowd of native friends surrounds him.
+Some are in European dress, and talk a queer sort of English very fast
+and fluently, as if it were being pumped out of their mouths by the
+yard; others wear the flowing drapery of the East. Many of them carry
+bunches of flowers, which look more like balls, because the native habit
+is to strip off every atom of leaf and then pack the blossoms with all
+their heads together as tight as they will go. Many such balls are being
+pressed upon the embarrassed Englishman, and the scent of crushed
+marigolds fills the air. This is all by way of welcome, and it is
+evident that the newcomer is a prime favourite with the people. He looks
+sheepish, but his round rosy face rises good-humouredly above the absurd
+garlands.
+
+Next morning we are up in good time, and as soon as ever we get our
+baggage clear of the Customs we go sight-seeing. In our nostrils is the
+subtle scent of India; it has something of dust in it, but is not
+chiefly dust, as in Egypt; there is a waft of wood-smoke, and a strong
+flavour of mixed spices, and some hint of sweet flowers, and many other
+things not so agreeable. It is a blend that any Anglo-Indian knows, and
+if he smelt it suddenly when he was thousands of miles away, with the
+daisied grass beneath his feet, and the swallows wheeling overhead, it
+would carry him back with a jump to a land of dark faces and burning sun
+and red dust, and all the vivid sights of the East.
+
+We are not starting on our great journey across India until the evening,
+so we can wander at will through the broad clean streets, looking into
+the magnificent shops that might be in any European town, and then we
+can plunge into the native part, where we find narrow, busy bazaars that
+might belong to the _Arabian Nights_.
+
+Bombay was one of the first bits of India to belong to the English. The
+Portuguese held it before then, and gave it to our nation as part of the
+dower of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married
+Charles II. You know the old saying, "trade follows the flag," and it
+certainly did in Bombay, for the East India Company rented the city from
+the king at L10 a year. The Company pushed forward all over the rest of
+India year by year, and it was through their steady and persistent
+advance in the country that the British finally occupied India--so later
+on the saying was reversed, and "the flag followed trade," as it more
+often does. But you know that story, every British boy does, the story
+of Clive and Hastings, and later on of the Mutiny; it is a part of
+English history and one of the most thrilling parts too.
+
+Bombay is a city of trade; her immense docks receive ships of all sizes,
+her wharves are laden with the produce of the world, her wide streets
+are open to traffic of all descriptions, her public buildings are
+splendid, her clubs and hotels palatial. Her merchants prosper and grow
+rich, and build for themselves houses on Malabar Hill, the long ridge
+above the town, which catches the sea-breezes. At one time that ridge
+was looked upon as sacred to Europeans, but now the wealthy natives
+settle there, and there is not room for all the poorer Europeans, who
+have to be content with lower levels.
+
+Stand still for a moment in this street, and look around. Here comes a
+motor-car, and in it lolls a hugely fat man with a yellow skin, and that
+crafty insolent look which marks the successful native trader; his thick
+neck rolls in creases above his purple brocade coat. But they are not
+all like this; some are thoughtful men who have given lakhs of rupees
+for the public good.
+
+What a contrast! Here is one of the poorest of the poor. A bullock-cart
+comes along, drawn by two lean animals with their ribs sticking out. A
+heavy yoke passes across their necks, but otherwise they have not a
+scrap of harness on them. That lean man huddled up on the pole between
+them, clad in a few yards of rag, prods them with a pointed stick when
+he wants them to go this way and that. He dares not now twist their
+tails till he breaks them, or keep open running sores so that he may
+prick them in a sensitive part, as he would have done at one time, for
+if he did the police would be down on him.
+
+On the side-walk there is a lady, yes, it _is_ a lady--in very baggy
+green and gold trousers, with gold anklets tinkling as she walks. Her
+head and face are swathed in a "sari" or shawl of shot gold and purple,
+which only allows her heavy black eyes to appear above its folds. The
+street is alive with men in white; some wear long white coats buttoned
+down over the kind of white petticoat called a _dhoti_, others have the
+curious habit of wearing their shirts outside their trousers like a
+kilt, but you soon get used to this, and cease to notice it. That fellow
+in a tall extinguisher cap made of lamb's wool is a Persian.
+
+In the midst of all this queer crowd, which looks like a fancy-dress
+ball let loose in broad daylight, run the curving steel tram-lines.
+There are shades of every complexion to be seen. That very fresh,
+pink-faced lady, who has just gone dashing by in her smart "tum-tum" or
+pony-cart, is at one end of the scale--she is probably newly out from
+home,--and that ebony-black native woman of so low a caste that she goes
+uncovered in the public street is at the other, but even she, poor
+thing, cares enough about her personal appearance to wear a gold ring
+through one of her nostrils!
+
+[Illustration: A PERSIAN.]
+
+Now we can see the long outline of Malabar Hill quite clearly, and below
+all its trees and gardens and the great houses rising among them, but at
+one part, the highest, the hill is kept for other uses. Look up into the
+clear blue sky overhead, do you see a black speck? Not got it yet? Wait
+a moment and try again. There! That is right, and there is another and
+another; you can't help seeing them now. Their flight is the slow heavy
+flight of clumsy birds. What do you suppose they are? Vultures. They
+live, as you know, on carrion, which is dead flesh, and the vultures of
+Bombay are peculiarly favoured, for they banquet on human bodies.
+
+In this district there are a large number of Parsees or
+fire-worshippers, and these people have their peculiar ceremonies. Under
+the British Crown every man is free to carry out his own religion in his
+own way; persecution is unknown. The Parsees have their cemetery on the
+top of that high hill; it is a beautiful place, laid out in gardens,
+and reached by flights of steps. Only at one end are five grim towers
+shut in by a wall and called the Towers of Silence. Their parapets are
+high, and none may climb to the top except certain men set apart and
+dedicated for this terrible work. When a Parsee dies, his body is borne
+reverently and with care to the gardens on the hill, but instead of
+burying it in the earth, these men take it up the winding stairs of one
+of the towers and lay it on the roof, and then retire. The vultures do
+the rest! No human being has ever seen that dread spectacle, for when
+the men come back again about a fortnight later there are only the clean
+bleached bones of the skeleton to take away and lay in quicklime to be
+absorbed.
+
+So the vultures hover over Bombay and sit like great images around the
+parapets on the Towers of Silence, knowing that they will never lack a
+meal!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have seen many and bewildering things in this great city, and when at
+last we arrive at the station between five and six in the evening, for
+our first journey across this vast land, we are glad to rest. We engaged
+our places directly we arrived, for here, where a journey takes often
+nights and days, it is no use wandering in casually a few minutes before
+the train starts. We also engaged the whole of a compartment to
+ourselves, as we want a good night's sleep. It has been cleaned and
+prepared, and looks very comfortable when we come to claim it. There are
+two seats running lengthwise, the opposite way to that which they do in
+an English train. Above them are two more which can be let down as bunks
+if required, so that the carriage can accommodate four, but as we have
+paid extra to get it to ourselves we ought not to be disturbed.
+
+By the way, you haven't seen any Indian money yet. This is a rupee, a
+large and substantial coin you see, about as big as a two-shilling
+piece, but it is only worth one and fourpence; fifteen of them go to the
+pound. An anna is a penny, and that little coin like a threepenny bit is
+a two-anna bit.
+
+[Illustration: SIT LIKE IMAGES ROUND THE PARAPET.]
+
+We have had to hire a native boy to travel with us and look after the
+luggage, as it is difficult to do without one in India. All servants are
+called "boys" here, even if they are grey-headed; our man is probably
+about five-and-twenty. He is called Ramaswamy, and has a
+chocolate-coloured moon-face with big round eyes; I think he is
+intelligent though he looks stupid. He is dressed in spotless white, his
+garments consisting of a short jacket and a dhoti, and he wears a large
+round turban on his head, and a pair of neat little gold ear-rings in
+his ears. It is a very difficult thing to get a really trustworthy boy,
+but the Madrassees are the best, and Ramaswamy comes from the Madras
+country far south; he has been in service with a man I know for two
+years, and as he is only lent to us for this trip he will probably
+behave himself. He is piling up our bedding in a corner of the carriage,
+and later on when the train stops at a station for a few minutes he will
+come to spread it out. It seems funny to have to carry bedding with us
+on a journey, but it is very necessary here. We have pillows and rugs
+and a couple of _rezai_ each. These are rather like eider-down quilts,
+but are stuffed with cotton instead of down, so they are heavier, and
+very comfortable they are to lie upon when doubled up.
+
+You remarked on the amount of luggage we seem to be taking in the
+carriage, it is a simple nothing to what is the custom here; look at all
+that being piled into the next compartment! Besides masses of bedding
+there is a deck-chair, a typewriter, a case for a topee, or helmet, a
+gun-case, two portmanteaus, and a box of books, as well as a
+lunch-basket. The owner, a pleasant-looking, sun-browned Englishman,
+stands by giving orders to his native servants in Hindustanee, which is
+a language spoken by the English people to the natives and understood
+pretty nearly everywhere. That man is almost certainly what is here
+known as a "civilian," that is to say, one of the men in the Indian
+Civil Service who govern India. They have to pass stiff examinations at
+home, and then come out here for a number of years to do all the work of
+government, being magistrates, judges, rulers, and general protectors of
+the native, giving up their lives to the country, and dealing out
+justice to all men. Some men have not the habit of command, but if it is
+in them at all it comes out here, where one white man alone in a
+district running to hundreds of miles often has everything in his own
+hands; he has to make decisions in an instant of emergency, and stand
+by them, compel evildoers to behave, save the miserable low-caste
+natives, ground down by those above them, and often to hold his life in
+his hand for fear of the knife or bullet of a fanatic.
+
+A little farther up the platform there is a gorgeous group, of which the
+central figure is a fine tall man, slenderly built, with a clear proud
+face. He is dressed in marvellous silks which shimmer and flash in the
+late afternoon sunlight. His upper garment is deep rich rose, and the
+lower one a medley of greens and gold. Watch the flashing of that great
+jewel which fastens the aigrette in his turban; it is probably worth
+anywhere about three thousand pounds. That man is a native prince, and
+those very splendid gentlemen in purple and yellow silk are seeing him
+off. There are many of these native rulers or maharajahs in India, and
+they keep up the state of royalty and are treated with respect. So long
+as they rule their people wisely the British Government does not
+interfere with them.
+
+[Illustration: A RAJAH.]
+
+Sometimes one thinks of India as one whole country, as England is or
+France, but that is not true. It is not, and never was. The state held
+by a native prince may be only the size of a gentleman's country
+estate, but it may be as large as the United Kingdom. In the old days
+the rulers of these kingdoms were for ever fighting against each other,
+and though one of them sometimes got the better of his neighbours for a
+while, India was never ruled from end to end by one sovereign until it
+passed into the possession of Great Britain. The nations and races who
+make up this vast land are as different from each other as the races of
+Europe; to think of them as being one people would be as foolish as to
+imagine that you, say, and an Italian, were one people.
+
+The size of India is a thing almost impossible to conceive. In
+old-fashioned atlases the whole of this mighty land was often given one
+page to itself, and little England was put on another just the same
+size, that is to say, they were drawn on quite different scales, a mile
+in England being given about as much space as forty miles in India! The
+best way to judge is this--picture India set down on the map of Europe,
+and you will find it would cover about half of it!
+
+At the other end of the train, the third-class end, what a contrast to
+His Highness! Here a crowd of natives of all kinds have been crammed
+into what look like covered-in trucks, and they are squatting on the
+floor. There is no hardship in that, they prefer it; to sit on chairs is
+an art only acquired by the Europeanised. There are women here as well
+as men; look at that handsome creature whose crimson scarf has slipped
+off her sheeny black hair, showing the gold ring in her nose and the
+huge decorative ear-rings! She is hugging a tiny boy with one blue bead
+slung round his neck as a charm, just as it was round the donkey's neck
+in Egypt,--people are very much alike all the world over! This little
+chap has silver bangles on his podgy ankles but not a rag of any sort of
+clothing.
+
+[Illustration: NATIVES AT THE RAILWAY STATION.]
+
+These people are packed so tightly you could hardly get a foot in
+between them, but they are very happy, because they love travelling.
+Natives have no idea of time, and when they are going to start on a
+journey as likely as not they arrive at the station the evening before,
+sleep rolled round in their garments where they may happen to be, and
+next day eat a handful of something or other they carry with them,
+waiting patiently till that marvellous object, the train, condescends to
+start. Most of these here are munching sweetmeats; they love them as
+children do, and the sweetmeat-seller never lacks trade. There he is,
+with a tray on his shoulder! A man with a water-pot stops by the third
+classes and pours some of the precious fluid into the cups held out to
+him, and even into one man's hands. You notice that he is careful not to
+touch either hand or cup. In India there is an extraordinary custom
+called caste, deep-rooted in the natives. They are all divided into
+higher and lower castes, according to their birth, and those of a higher
+caste will not allow those of a lower caste to touch them or prepare
+their food and drink, for they fancy they would be defiled! Only the
+lowest castes of all will do dirty work, such as scavenging and carrying
+away refuse, and you can imagine what difficulties all this leads to.
+The Brahman, who is the highest caste, will not touch food which has
+been defiled even by having the shadow of another fall on it, he would
+throw it away and remain hungry sooner.
+
+As we stroll back to our places we pass various men with marks on their
+foreheads; these are caste-marks and to those who understand they tell a
+great deal. Standing beside the second classes we see a short-sighted
+gentleman in glasses, wearing an alpaca suit; he has with him a lady,
+who, like himself, is coffee-coloured. She is wearing a full petticoat
+of brocaded silk, and has a very lovely shawl edged with sequins thrown
+round her head in place of a hat, but, alas, all this magnificence is
+spoilt by the pair of tight and obviously most uncomfortable yellow
+leather European shoes, which she has put on to show how fashionable she
+is. When she climbs into the carriage she immediately takes them off,
+putting them on the seat beside her, and shows a pair of bare brown feet
+without shame. The shoes were only meant for show, and she has endured
+them to the utmost!
+
+Well, we are off! And as it is dark we can't, unfortunately, see much of
+the country, which at first is quite pretty. Presently we cross the sea
+by a long bridge and notice the lights reflected sparkling in the water,
+and then we begin to climb up into the hills and it quickly grows
+colder.
+
+While we go along to the restaurant-car for dinner Ramaswamy takes
+advantage of the stoppage of the train to hasten along, settling his
+turban as he comes. He must never appear before us without it; we are
+supposed to think it a fixture on his round cropped head, and also he
+must not come into a room where we are with his shoes on! Odd how
+fashion differs! With us men remove the head-covering on entering a
+room, but would not dream of being so rude as to take off their shoes!
+
+When we come back after dinner we find our bedding neatly spread out and
+looking very inviting. As there is nothing else to do it is not long
+before we turn in and fall asleep, lulled by the rumbling of the train.
+
+I am deep in dreamland when I am woke unpleasantly by a draught of icy
+air as the door at the end of the compartment is pushed open, and I
+realise the train has stopped at a station. The native guard stands in
+the doorway apologetically fumbling with the key which he has just used
+in undoing the door. "Mem-sahib coming in," says he hopelessly, and a
+very disagreeable high-pitched voice makes itself heard behind him.
+Pushing rudely past come a man and woman so much alike they must be
+brother and sister; they have both coarse features and clumsy squat
+figures; they speak English but with a strong Colonial accent of some
+kind.
+
+"They can't have it _all_ their own way," says Madam viciously. "I'm
+coming in here, and that's flat."
+
+An overloaded coolie follows, and dumps down masses of rolled-up bedding
+and trunks into the small space between our bunks and departs.
+
+"This compartment is engaged," I say as politely as I can, conscious
+that I don't look dignified in shirt-sleeves, but thankful I have only
+taken off my coat and boots.
+
+"Can't help that," snaps the lady.
+
+"Isn't there any other----" I begin patiently.
+
+"I telling the Mem-sahib," begins the guard plaintively, "that there is
+one with only----"
+
+"Don't care if there is! Horace, undo that bundle. I'm going to bed at
+once," and the newcomer proceeds to remove her coat and hat.
+
+The guard hastily lets down the two upper bunks and disappears as the
+train gets under way again.
+
+Appalled at the idea of how much she may think it necessary to remove,
+and thankful that you are sleeping peacefully through all the turmoil, I
+get up and grope for my shoes.
+
+"If you prefer the lower bunk it is at your service," I say, making the
+best of a bad job and gathering up my coverlets. She deigns to snap out
+"Thanks!"
+
+"I will go outside until you're ready," I say, retreating to the small
+platform between the carriages; there is nothing else for it, as there
+isn't room to turn inside. Just as I leave I add to the man, "Don't wake
+the boy if you can help it, he has had a hard day."
+
+It is intensely cold outside, and after having smoked two cigarettes I
+think I may venture in again as I hear no sounds, so I knock, and
+getting no answer enter. By the dim light I make out the form of the
+lady in my bunk; but that is surely not the brother in the one opposite?
+It _is_! The impudence of it! They have turned you out and made you go
+into the upper one. As I climb to my own perch, internally wrathful and
+debating whether I shall not poke the man up and make him restore you to
+your place, I hear your sleepy voice in a stage whisper--
+
+"He made me come up here." Then deliberately, leaning over and with
+mischief in your voice, you add: "I suppose when you are fat like that
+it would be very difficult to climb."
+
+I think you got your own back! I saw the fellow squirm!
+
+Bad as they were at night our fellow-travellers are worse in the
+daytime. They won't get up until ten o'clock, and we have to stay
+outside until they do, as there is nowhere to sit down. Ramaswamy brings
+us _chota hazri_, consisting of tea and toast and plantains, and we eat
+it outside. The Englishman in the next compartment looks out presently
+and invites us in. He laughs when he hears of our adventure. "Brutes!"
+he says tersely; "people like that should be hanged at sight. The worst
+is you meet them travelling more often than elsewhere; they have come
+into some money probably, and are so proud of it they think themselves
+little gods."
+
+I think he was right, for when we pull up at the station, where we are
+at last to get rid of our tormentors, I happen to remark to you that I
+thought some restaurant we had been to in Bombay was rather expensive.
+
+"Did you indeed!" says the lady, taking the remark as if addressed to
+herself. "'Grace and I dined there and paid double that, and we did not
+think anything of it."
+
+She then immediately turns, and seeing Ramaswamy standing outside
+mistakes him for a station-attendant, and orders him to tie up their
+bedding. He looks to me for orders. I nod to him to do it, and, hat in
+hand, make a sweeping bow--
+
+"Only too glad if my boy can be of any service to you, Madam."
+
+I think I also got my own back!
+
+[Illustration: A BRASS WORKER, DELHI.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAPITAL OF INDIA
+
+
+Delhi!
+
+If you draw a line across the map of India from the north to the south
+at the greatest length, and another from east to west at the greatest
+breadth, the two will form a cross of the usual shape, with the
+cross-bar high up. Just at the point where they intersect stands Delhi,
+the chief city in India since the King-Emperor's proclamation in 1911.
+Before that Calcutta was the capital, but Calcutta, like Bombay, is a
+city of trade, and has practically no historic memories. Delhi is full
+of the romance of history. In the Mutiny the question as to who should
+hold it was of the greatest importance, and if the British then had let
+it slip from their grip, without an effort to retake it, their power in
+India would have been gone for ever.
+
+Now, on the first morning that we are here, let us drive round and see
+what we can of this splendid city. First we will go down the Chandni
+Chauk, the main street which cuts Delhi into two parts. It is immensely
+wide and lined with trees of a good size. These stand on each side of a
+broad walk for foot-passengers, which runs down the middle of the
+street, foreign fashion, and makes a popular promenade. The gay colours
+of the natives' clothes flash in and out of the shadows of the trees as
+the people pass along, each on his own errand. On one side are the
+tram-lines and on the other you can see a fast bullock-cart with pretty
+little white trotting bullocks as dainty in their own way as antelopes,
+and as different from the slow yellow ones as carriage-horses are from
+cart-horses. There are on both sides shops for jewels, for sweetmeats,
+for the richest and most beautiful silks and ivory, and mingled with
+them grocers' shops filled with tinned stuffs from England, and others
+with every kind of modern utensil for a house. Such a mixture! They are
+all heavily protected against the sun by awnings, for even at this early
+hour of the morning it is strong. At the end of the street is a tall red
+sandstone tower with a clock in it. In the distance we see the spire of
+an English church, and down that opening we catch sight of a Mohammedan
+mosque. The shop here beside us is a blaze of colour with Eastern
+carpets hung out like banners; the native owner squats on a thing like a
+wooden bedstead by his door and chews betel-nut, which makes his tongue
+and lips a deep red. Next door is a vigorous agency for the sale of
+sewing-machines! A Hindu religious fanatic, smeared with ashes and with
+hardly any clothes to cover his lean body, walks ahead with eyes
+unseeing, and at the same moment a smart motor-car stops beside us and
+the voice of a high-bred English-woman says, "I will meet you at the
+Effinghams in an hour," as she waves a greeting to her companions and
+steps out.
+
+[Illustration: A SHOP IN DELHI.]
+
+Hullo! There is a band. Round the corner swings a company of Ghurkas,
+the sturdy little men who helped England to overcome the mutineers. They
+look very soldier-like in their neat holly-green uniforms, with small
+round caps set at a jaunty angle on their cropped heads. They are hill
+tribes from the north, and in appearance not unlike the Japanese. They
+are all so much of one size you could run a ruler along their heads.
+Their swinging stride would delight a soldier's heart, for it is like
+clockwork in its precision. They are born soldiers, brave and easily
+disciplined, devoted to their officers and without the knowledge of
+fear. They have faults, of course. The Ghurka is apt to be rather a gay
+dog; he gets drunk, and the girls he loves are many, but he is of the
+right stuff, and his officers are proud of him.
+
+I was talking to one of them as we came up the coast on the ship.
+
+"Nothing like them anywhere else in the world," he said. "They take to
+drill like their mother's milk, they thrive on it and discipline--the
+slightest fault that might be overlooked elsewhere we punish severely.
+They like it and live up to it. You could lead a Ghurka regiment
+anywhere; fighting is their pastime. They have nothing in common with
+the slothful races of Lower India; they are alert and vigorous and
+active as cats. The funniest thing is their love for the Highlanders; if
+a Highland regiment comes up the two meet and mingle as if they were
+brothers. You'll see a great Highlander in his kilt and feather bonnet
+arm in arm with one of these little chaps, hobnobbing as if they had
+known each other all their lives. And the Ghurkas won't have anything to
+say to the other Indian regiments; they despise them all except the
+Sikhs--they get on with them all right."
+
+We are lucky, for the Ghurkas are followed by a company of Sikhs, and
+anything less like the Ghurkas you could hardly imagine. The Sikhs are
+big men with stern bearded faces, they look like veterans and are a
+pleasant sight in their scarlet tunics with neat gaitered feet. There
+were many Sikh regiments belonging to our army in the black days of the
+Mutiny, and some wavered, but some held firm. Had it not been for the
+Sikhs things would have gone badly with us.
+
+Now we are nearing the Lahore Gate and you can see that Delhi is a
+walled city. The walls run all round for six miles, and are backed up
+by a twenty-five feet ditch, so that it is a tough city for any army to
+take. The gate itself is a fine building. When the British troops, who
+varied at times from 5000 to 10,000 men, set to work to attack this
+strong city, held by 40,000 to 100,000 natives, many of them trained and
+disciplined soldiers, taught by the very men against whom they were
+fighting, it seemed an impossible task. The audacity of it! This gate
+was one of the hardest of all to break through. Four attacking parties
+had been sent against the walls, the other three got in, but the one
+that came here failed. Then the others tried to work their way through,
+inside the city, to capture this gate. They crept along the narrow lane
+running inside the wall, but it was commanded everywhere from the
+heights of the houses by the enemy, who poured down a murderous fire
+into it. Again and again the reckless men, who determined to take the
+gate, started off on the deadly errand, again and again they were wiped
+off, and alas! one of those mortally wounded was General John Nicholson,
+whose utter disregard of danger and marvellous understanding of the
+native character had made many of the natives look on him as a god!
+
+Now we are outside and driving up to the ridge. Every British boy and
+girl has heard of the ridge. It played a great part in the Mutiny. It is
+a long backbone of hill which runs close up to the city at one end. We
+will leave our carriage to go slowly along to the far end, where the
+road winds up, and we ourselves will scramble up at this side till we
+gain the Mutiny Memorial, a Gothic tower rising in many stages like a
+church spire. We can mount the steps inside to see the view. It is worth
+it, for miles and miles of country lie spread before us from this
+height.
+
+I don't want to go into details of history, but if ever there is a place
+where history was made it is here. On this ridge for months was camped
+the British army, including some loyal native regiments, and all the
+time they never wavered in their determination to retake Delhi, then in
+the hands of the natives. Our men could not be said to besiege the city,
+because to besiege means to sit down all round a place and prevent the
+inhabitants from getting supplies from outside until they are compelled
+to give in or are too weak to resist the entrance of the besiegers; we
+never invested Delhi in this way. There were not enough men even to
+attempt it; the natives could always get supplies into the city, if they
+wanted, from the river Jumna, which runs past the other side. But the
+British sat steadily on their heights in grim determination, and never
+lost the chance of a move. They died in hundreds; remember it was during
+an Indian summer, and even under the best conditions, with ice and
+punkahs and shade, the European finds it hard to get through the hot
+weather. Here there were no conveniences and very few even of what might
+be considered necessaries. The men suffered from dysentery, fever,
+wounds, and sunstroke, and yet they carried through their forlorn hope
+triumphantly, and it was hardly a year later that the Queen of England
+was proclaimed Sovereign of India.
+
+In that great plain, which stretches far as eye can see on the other
+side of the ridge, some twenty years later another proclamation was
+made, and the Queen was further proclaimed under the title of Empress of
+India; while in 1911 her grandson, King George, himself proclaimed Delhi
+as the capital of India in place of Calcutta.
+
+Over the screen of trees you can see beautiful Delhi lying within its
+hoary walls. You can see the towers and steeples and minarets and domes
+of the city. Now look the other way, along the ridge. That great pillar
+close to us is very old; it was made by one of the Hindu kings, but it
+was only put up here ten years after the Mutiny, and is not
+interesting. That white house farther on is now a hospital; it was once
+a private house, and in it General Nicholson died. Look on again, much
+farther, past trees and other houses, and you will see a rounded
+building with turrets--that is the Flagstaff Tower so fiercely held.
+
+Come down now to rejoin the carriage and we will go back to the city by
+the Kashmir Gate. Of all the gates this is the one with the most daring
+story of adventure attached to it.
+
+When the British had resolved to make an assault on the city they
+detailed four parties, as I said, to attack in four places. One of them
+was this gate. The other three places had been partially broken in by
+the guns, and there was a chance for those heroic madmen to get through,
+but this was entire. The assaulting party had first to break a way in
+and then get through.
+
+And they did it!
+
+The five told off to make the breach were Lieutenants Home and Salkeld,
+and Sergeants Carmichael, Burgess, and Smith. Some carried bags of
+gunpowder, and others, the fire to set them off. It was daylight when
+they ran towards the gate across a single plank spanning the ditch, so
+that they had to go one by one in full range of the enemy's fire from
+the walls. The marvel is that any lived to reach the gate alive. When
+one fell another leaped forward to carry on his task. The bags were
+flung down, and those who placed them tumbled back into the ditch, while
+their comrades set the powder alight and rolled down too. Out of the
+whole party only Home and Smith survived. The wicket of the gate was
+burst open by the explosion, and the storming party, also crossing that
+single plank, made for it, got inside, and beat back the foe, meeting
+their comrades, who had burst in at other points, inside.
+
+The tale of "how Horatius kept the bridge" pales before this amazing
+pluck.
+
+[Illustration: A CARPET SHOP, DELHI.]
+
+We must get out and look at the gate where this actually happened not
+sixty years ago.
+
+There are two wide arches in the shattered wall, and the coping above is
+half gone; it remains unrestored just as it was that day. On a slab is
+an inscription telling of this noble deed when men died for their
+country without hesitation.
+
+Close by is the cemetery where General Nicholson is buried. You can see
+his statue in the city raised high on a pedestal. He stands with bared
+head and drawn sword. But Nicholson's is not the only name immortalised
+by the Mutiny--there are the two brothers, John and Henry Lawrence,
+Outram and Havelock, Hodson, Sir Colin Campbell, and many another name
+which is a household word in England. These men, in those days of fierce
+fighting and desperate stress, made history and wrote themselves in its
+pages by deeds that still cause every British boy's heart to ring within
+him. We have passed through the Kashmir Gate, and here, on one side of
+the street, is a battered bit of arcade, another Mutiny memorial. In the
+early days, just at the first outbreak, when no one realised what was
+going to happen, the mutineers marched on Delhi. This bit of wall was
+part of the powder magazine, then in charge of nine men. They defended
+it against a swarming army of Sepoys, as the native soldiers were
+called, and when they found that they could not hold it in spite of
+their desperate defence, they calmly blew up the powder magazine, and
+themselves with it, to prevent its falling into the hands of the
+mutineers and being used against their kinsmen. The most incredible part
+of the whole story is that three of those who blew up the magazine
+actually escaped with their lives!
+
+We are now approaching the fort and palace, the kernel of the city,
+which it is best to see after the ridge.
+
+It is a fine building that faces us, with an ornamental arcade running
+along the upper part. We pass in on foot under the gateway and see
+another, a Hall of Public Audience, with red sandstone pillars. Inside
+is a great throne of white marble, inlaid with mosaic work, where the
+old kings of Delhi used to sit and listen to their ministers. The last
+of this line was still living in the palace when the Mutiny broke out.
+He was a poor specimen, given up to indulgence and sloth; but the
+British had left him the state of royalty and all his wealth until the
+rising made it impossible any more. His sons and grandson, who, when the
+Mutiny broke out, themselves actually murdered and tortured helpless
+English women and children, and watched their agonies as "sport," were
+rightly shot out of hand, and the old king became a prisoner.
+
+Coming out of this hall our eyes are caught by a gleam of something
+lustrously white against a sky which is now burning blue. This is
+another Hall of Audience, the Diwan-i-Khas, more beautiful than the
+first. It is of white marble, which, in this clear atmosphere, remains
+white, and it is richly ornamented with gilt. It is in the form of a
+square cloister or arcade, with a little dome at each corner, and if we
+stand inside and look out between the white pillars to see the lawns and
+the trees in the old palace gardens, we shall find it difficult to
+realise that this place of beauty and peace was ever a scene of fierce
+revolt. The rest of the palace is now used partly as a barracks.
+
+When the British, having beaten their way through the narrow streets,
+and swept them clear of the foe, arrived here on that fateful day, the
+14th September 1857, they found the palace deserted, except for a stray
+sentry, holding his position with sublime courage. The rest had
+fled,--thousands flying from hundreds,--and well they might, for the
+British troops were wrought up by the cruelties of the Sepoys to a
+sublime and just fury that made them seem like avenging angels. It is
+said in one place that the sternness of the expression of the Sikhs'
+faces made the wretched Sepoys fly without a shot being fired. The
+palace area is full of beautiful buildings, and we shall see many more
+specimens of this kind of Oriental architecture when we visit the
+mosques in the town this afternoon.
+
+[Illustration: THE KUTAB MINAR.]
+
+So much is there to see, indeed, that it is not until the next day we
+can ride out for a sight beyond the walls.
+
+Pull up your horse and look ahead. Do you see that huge column rising
+skyward from the plain? It is called the Kutab Minar and is two hundred
+and forty feet high. As we get under it and gaze up at it it seems to
+tower into the very sky. It is forty-seven feet across the base and
+narrows to the top, it is fluted all the way down, and has frills in
+stone around it here and there--truly a curious sight! There are three
+hundred and seventy-nine steps to climb to the top; do you want to try
+them? If so, I will wait here and hold your horse. You shake your head.
+Wise boy!
+
+There are other buildings around, parts of a mosque, and inside is an
+iron pillar said to be one of the oldest things in India. The Kutab
+Minar is supposed to have been built about the reign of our King John,
+though there are some who put it further back; the pillar is
+considerably older than that, but it cannot compare in antiquity with
+many things we have seen in Egypt. After the Hindu kings came a line of
+Moghul or Mohammedan kings who swept the others away; of these the old
+king of Delhi, living at the time of the Mutiny, was the last, and it is
+supposed that it was at the beginning of the rule of the Moghul kings
+that the Kutab Minar was erected.
+
+Notice that brown-faced, scantily clad boy, who keeps beckoning and
+shouting "Sahib." We follow him as he leads us to a well, and almost
+before we realise what he is doing he goes down head first, a drop of at
+least eighty feet, into the black water below. There is a tradition that
+the water of this well cannot drown anyone. At anyrate it hasn't rid the
+world of this rascal, for here he comes shaking the water off his oily
+body and grinning. He has earned his bakshish!
+
+As we are in Delhi for several days more we can go at our leisure
+through the bazaars, which really are well worth seeing. We choose a
+late afternoon, when there is no hurry and we can watch the people in
+their daily life and get a glimpse into the real India.
+
+The streets are narrow, mere passages mostly, and lined by the open-air
+stalls or wooden sheds which are what the native understands by shops. A
+marvellous array of slippers greets us first, for all of one trade tend
+to congregate together, a curious custom and one which you would think
+was not very good for trade, though convenient to the customer. There
+are slippers of all colours from scarlet to brown; you would never have
+thought they could be so decorative. They hang in bunches, festoons, and
+chains. Every man here wears slippers when he puts anything at all on
+his feet. Boots would be of no use to him, for he has so often to
+shuffle off his foot-gear in a hurry. Modern streets, with their stones
+and liability to nails and broken glass and other sharp things, has led
+to the native taking to strong soled slippers when he walks about his
+business.
+
+[Illustration: HE GOES HEAD FOREMOST INTO THE BLACK WATER.]
+
+There is a sizzling and a delicious smell from the next shop, and
+peeping in we see a huddled form crouched over a pot placed on a few red
+embers; it might be a witch stirring potions and muttering incantations.
+But it is only a native looking after a pan full of Indian corn popping
+out in the most fluffy and tempting way. I have often popped it on a
+shovel over the school fire. A native soldier, who is passing, stops and
+bargains for a handful, and carries it off, eating it as he goes; when
+he has had enough he will stow the rest in his turban, which serves as
+his pocket, his private trunk, and play-box all in one. This is the food
+he best thrives on, so his wants are easily supplied. A tailor sitting
+cross-legged on his board attracts us next; he is a good-looking old man
+with a grey beard and kindly eyes blinking behind horn spectacles. His
+garments are of the dark red colour seen sometimes in certain parts of
+the country when the earth is ploughed. His turban is a mighty erection
+of green arranged with much dignity. You would think it hot and heavy to
+carry all those yards of stuff on your head, but the habit has probably
+arisen to protect the head from sunstroke.
+
+"He is a _dhurzi_, Sahib," says Ramaswamy, who has followed us to
+interpret if we want. "He making all clothes for mem-sahibs. Very clever
+man and not asking too much money."
+
+Yes, a _dhurzi_ will come and sit outside on a verandah and work by the
+day and copy any garment you give him; sewing is a man's job here, and
+not a woman's.
+
+Then we see a sweetmeat shop with a crowd outside and a cloud of flies
+bearing them company. While we look, many of the flies crawl slowly over
+the sticky, syrupy stuff which has just come from the pan, and get their
+legs entangled in it, but it doesn't seem to hinder the sale, which goes
+on cheerfully. There are sweets in rings and coils and fantastic shapes.
+A child gets a large pink slab for two pice, and ten pice go to the
+penny, that is to say, the anna, so it is not dear. The buyer tucks the
+sticky stuff up in the corner of her garment and ties it carefully into
+a knot before starting homeward.
+
+Standing a little aloof from the crowd and looking at them disdainfully
+is a small boy with a twisted cord slung across his left shoulder. "He
+be Brahman, Sahib," says Ramaswamy timidly. "Very proud and not eating
+anything dirty peoples touch, just having had cord." Standing where he
+is, so as not to approach nearer to the lad, he asks a few questions,
+which are answered curtly and proudly, with a glance thrown across at us
+as much as if to say they wouldn't have been answered at all except for
+our presence.
+
+"Just two, three days he been made Brahman," explains Ramaswamy.
+
+But he was born a Brahman, of course, and what Ramaswamy means is that
+up till then he was counted a child and could play and run about with
+other children without responsibilities; now that he has been invested
+with the cord he has taken up his birthright and is of the highest
+caste, the caste from which the priests come; he may not eat anything
+prepared by a lower caste, or even let others touch him, for he is set
+apart, and very proud of his new dignity in spite of the many
+difficulties it carries with it.
+
+The child who stands staring at us with her shawl over her head is a
+little girl about the same age as the boy. She has been grinding corn
+between two stones and is a very thin and miserable little wretch. Her
+clothes are rags and there are no bangles on her little brown ankles.
+Ramaswamy tells us she is a widow! That child? She has probably never
+even seen the boy-husband who was so unlucky as to die; but because he
+did she is scorned by everyone. The worst life in all India is that of a
+widow. She has no ornaments, no amusements, and is treated worse than a
+slavey in a boarding-house, and for her there is no escape.
+
+[Illustration: A POTTER.]
+
+Right out in the street sits a man weaving a web of wonderful colours;
+he throws the shuttles, carrying different coloured threads, across and
+across, without seeming to look at them, and all the time the web is
+growing into an intricate pattern under his fingers. So his father wove,
+and his grandfather and great-grandfather. All these crafts run in
+families. A little farther on is a potter spinning a wheel with his
+feet, while the soft lump of dull-coloured clay takes shape beneath his
+clever thumb as it races round. It seems to grow and swell and curve
+exquisitely as if it were a living thing. There are few sights more
+fascinating than a potter at work. You have often heard of the "potter's
+thumb," I expect? The thumb grows broad and flat and capable, because it
+is the chief instrument with which the potter works. On the floor beside
+him lie many of the clay jars of different sizes and shapes ready for
+the baking, others are being baked. There is always a good sale for
+them, and a potter in India flourishes exceedingly. Even now there is a
+woman passing us with a pot balanced on her head and a child on her
+hip. She swings along in the dust with a graceful gliding step, for she
+has been used to carrying things on her head almost from babyhood. These
+pots are brittle enough and frequently get broken, and even the poorest
+households must have a supply of them. But what helps the potter to make
+a living more than anything else is the custom that when a death occurs
+in a family, or a new life arrives in it, all the pots must be broken
+and new ones bought! It is a symbol of the life that has gone out and
+the new life beginning.
+
+In church you must have heard those grandly poetic lines--
+
+"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the
+pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
+
+"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
+return unto God who gave it."
+
+Pass on to the silversmiths' quarter. Any of these men can do fine and
+beautiful work with very few tools. If you want anything made you pay
+them in a queer way. For the finished article is put in the scales and
+weighed against rupees thrown into the other balance, and when the
+rupees equal it then you give them to the workman, together with so many
+annas in each rupee for his work.
+
+How can we ever take in all this varied life, so different from the life
+we are used to? The women sitting on the balconies above, the pariah
+dogs prowling for scraps below, the druggists and spice-sellers, the
+fruit and vegetable stalls? Over it all is that peculiar, scented, musty
+bazaar smell, made up of saffron and wood and dirt, with which we are
+already so familiar.
+
+Wonderful Delhi! A city teeming with myriads of men of many races and
+customs, living side by side. Successor of seven cities which have
+stood here or hereabout in successive ages. From the earliest days a
+place of consequence, a place to be reckoned with, and now, by the
+proclamation of the King-Emperor, the first city in the land, as it is
+already the centre!
+
+[Illustration: CLUMSY BOATS WITH THATCHED ROOFS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TO THE DEATH!
+
+
+A curious building, isn't it? I mean that one right in front of us. It
+is something like a very large and many-sided crown, built of stone and
+set upon the ground. The sides are pierced with windows of the same sort
+as those seen in churches, and on each of the angles there is a little
+pinnacle. It rises up serenely against the soft blue sky of this early
+morning. We are far from Delhi now, having arrived at Cawnpore late last
+night, and we have come out here first thing this morning. It is only
+seven now.
+
+Cawnpore! The Mutiny! Those two things rush simultaneously into the
+mind, for Cawnpore is associated with the most awful scenes of the
+Mutiny, and no Briton can ever think of it without those scenes flashing
+before him.
+
+Come nearer and pass inside the crown and you will see in the centre a
+great angel of the usual sort, with high sweeping wings, holding palm
+branches folded across its breast. It marks the Well of Cawnpore.
+
+You know that story, of course, and yet, as we sit here, on the very
+spot where it all happened, with the Indian sky above us, we cannot help
+recalling it once more. In telling it I shall not dwell on the agonies
+and bloodshed which have hallowed this place for ever; they are done
+with, and those who suffered have been at rest for nearly sixty years.
+The deep peace around us overlies their torments and forbids us to think
+too much of the darker side of the picture. But the heroism, the
+courage, the indomitable spirit that animated these men and women, these
+things live for ever, rising up from the earth in a flood of inspiration
+for all who pass over the place.
+
+[Illustration: THE WELL OF CAWNPORE.]
+
+There are certain little animals called Tasmanian devils, who do not
+know what it is to give in; they die fighting and attack their
+persecutors as long as one limb hangs on to another; of such stuff were
+the people besieged at Cawnpore. They were encamped here on a wretched
+piece of flat ground, quite open except for a low mud wall, which anyone
+could have jumped over easily. There were about nine hundred and fifty
+of them altogether, some soldiers, some civilians, some women and
+children and a few native soldiers who remained loyal. Outside were
+unending hordes of natives well armed and well trained, because the
+greater part were the men of the native regiments who had mutinied,
+known by the name of Sepoys. A few huts built of thin brick were all the
+shelter the beleaguered people had; they were constantly under a
+shrieking storm of bullets and shells, and were ringed around by steel.
+You would have said two days at the outside would see the end of it, and
+that then the black hordes would sweep clean over that field, having
+wiped out the garrison completely; but so amazing is the power of pluck
+that those within held the hordes at bay for twenty-three days! They not
+only prevented any single Sepoy from getting inside alive, but they
+constantly sallied out and acted on the defensive, burning their
+enemies' defences and killing scores of them, while thousands fled in
+confusion before them! The sublime impudence of it! And all the time
+they were short of food; women and children were laid in holes in the
+earth covered with planks to protect them from the bullets. And
+water--ah, that was the worst--water had to be fetched from a well which
+was quite exposed in the midst of the encampment, and the Sepoys kept up
+an incessant fire on it. We are now beside it, this well where water was
+drawn at the price of blood, and yet volunteers were never lacking. The
+very ground our feet now rest upon was ringed around with the bodies of
+those who laid down their lives for the women and children. There was
+another well, a little distance off, now marked by an Iona cross, and to
+this, under cover of night, the British conveyed their dead for burial.
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN OFFICER OF THE CAMEL CORPS.]
+
+Read the inscription that circles round the wall of the well now in
+front of us:--
+
+     "Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian
+     people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were
+     cruelly murdered by the followers of the rebel, Nana Dhundu
+     Pant of Bithur, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the
+     well below, on the fifteenth day of July 1857."
+
+Yes, we have not come to the end yet!
+
+When the bloodthirsty tyrant, better known as Nana Sahib, found he could
+not crack this nut, when he realised that his whole army was held at bay
+by a few hundreds of determined spirits--there were only three hundred
+fighting men to begin with, and they were daily killed--he made terms
+with them, promising to send the survivors safely in boats down the
+river if they would give in. Desperate as they were, without food or
+water, without shade from the killing glare of the Indian summer sun,
+the brave men held their heads high and only accepted on condition they
+marched out under arms with so many rounds of ammunition to each man.
+
+This was granted.
+
+Now leave the well and follow that heroic band who went down to the
+river on that blazing day some sixty years ago. It is about a mile away.
+The little garrison now numbered some four hundred and fifty all told,
+the half of what they had been three weeks before. Blackened with the
+sun and smoke and gunpowder, so as to rival the Sepoys in complexion,
+tattered and worn and wounded, but yet with courage undaunted, they went
+down to the river.
+
+[Illustration: NANA SAHIB.]
+
+There is another building here, an arcade on the banks facing the placid
+stream; it has a tower behind and a broad flight of stairs, a ghaut, as
+it is called, flanked by walls running down to the margin. But on that
+day long ago there was nothing of this, nothing but a number of clumsy
+boats with thatched roofs to keep the sun off, native fashion. As the
+English took their places in them, suddenly a bugle rang out, and at
+that signal the native boatmen sprang from their places and splashed
+ashore; up rose an army of Sepoys from the scrub on the banks, and death
+was rained on the victims of the blackest deed of treachery ever written
+in the annals of the world. Standing here on these smooth steps which
+mark the place it is difficult even to picture that scene of horror.
+Many were killed outright, many mortally wounded and torn, one hundred
+and twenty-five were dragged ashore and brutally killed afterwards; it
+was they who were thrown into the well; but three boats got away down
+the stream. Two went ashore and all the occupants were killed by the
+merciless brutes who lined the banks. The other had men in it, men who
+were filled with a madness of wrath that knew no bounds. In spite of
+their own condition, in spite of the odds against them, they leaped like
+tigers on the foe whenever they got the chance. They were followed by
+the natives, who fired on them repeatedly from a safe distance, and
+again and again the dead had to be east into the stream. Yet when a
+Sepoy boat ran against a sandbank, twenty or so of the powder-blackened
+Englishmen sprang out into the water and raced with fury to kill them,
+though the boat contained three times their own number. It is good to
+read how they wiped out all but those who escaped in terror by swimming!
+At last only fourteen of the English were left alive and they got
+hopelessly penned in a backwater. These men charged the army of Sepoys
+on the banks and made them keep their distance. They secured themselves
+in a tiny temple on the margin of the river and killed all who
+approached. At length, seeing preparations made for blowing them up with
+gunpowder, they charged out; seven who could swim made for the river,
+the other six (one was dead) rushed straight at the mass of Sepoys and
+dealt death on every side before they fell.
+
+Four of the seven eventually outdistanced their persecutors and reached
+safety, and then, alas! one died.
+
+It is good to hear that an avenging army descended on Cawnpore, though
+too late to save the remnant of the captives. The Sepoys were smitten
+hip and thigh, and thousands paid with their lives for those other lives
+they had spared not. Nana Sahib fled and was never heard of again.
+Stripped of all his wealth and luxury he must have skulked from place to
+place like a plague-tainted rat, till death took him and he went to meet
+the souls of the hundreds he had treacherously and brutally massacred.
+
+It is finished! The price has been paid; the native has learnt that it
+is not well to meddle with white men. And we must not forget that
+hundreds of natives remained faithful, and gave their lives to save
+those of our fellow-countrymen.
+
+As we wander back through the park in the sunshine, now growing fierce
+and strong, toward the Memorial Church showing above the trees, the
+chief feeling is not of bitterness but of pride. That little band,
+whose courage was unquenchable and untamable, were not picked men and
+women, but just an ordinary crowd made up of soldiers and civilians and
+their wives and children, yet not one act of selfishness or cowardice
+remains to stain their record. When the last extremity came, sloth and
+indifference and selfishness dropped off like sloughs and only devotion
+and bravery shone out. It is grand to belong to a race which holds these
+qualities as the highest good.
+
+One incident more. When the tyrant had brought his handful of captives
+up from the river he found there were a few men among them. So before he
+started to massacre the women and babies he sent for the men to come
+forth to instant death; he dared not leave even half a dozen men of the
+untamable breed, who are "little used to lie down at the bidding of any
+man," among them, even unarmed.
+
+The men came forth, and among them was a lad of fourteen; he was only a
+year older than you, but he preferred to be reckoned among the men
+rather than to hide behind the women's petticoats. He chose a soldier's
+death and he had it, for he fell pierced by bullets with the rest.
+
+[Illustration: BATHING IN THE GANGES.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A CITY OF PRIESTS
+
+
+Surely you have never before seen anything like this, there is nothing
+to be seen like it anywhere else!
+
+We are at Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, which stands on their
+sacred river, the Ganges. We have taken a boat and have floated out into
+the current, and are looking up with amazement at the spectacle before
+us. The city rises high on the banks, and towers and minarets and domes
+of a curious long-drawn-out shape, glittering in the sun like gold,
+arise out of the flat roofs. Down to the river at every opening between
+the houses stretch stairways, as you know called _ghauts_, some broad
+and some narrow. We judge that they are there, though we cannot see the
+steps, for every inch is covered by a moving mass of people, clothed in
+the colours of the rainbow. You have often turned a kaleidoscope over
+and over, and watched the bits of coloured glass falling into strange
+patterns. Half shut your eyes and make a tube of your hands and see if
+this doesn't remind you of a kaleidoscope.
+
+Thousands and thousands of people are passing and repassing up and down,
+or sitting on every scrap of available building. They flow out over the
+steps and down into the water itself. They are standing there knee-deep,
+waist-deep, shoulder-deep, with hardly any clothes on their glistening
+brown and yellow bodies, diligently throwing the water over themselves,
+washing their long, straight, black hair in it, or even drinking it!
+
+Ah, what is that gruesome object? Take care, don't touch it as it floats
+by; it looks like a bit of charred stick, but indeed it is half-burnt
+human bones!
+
+We have already seen a few sacred rivers in our wanderings--the gigantic
+Nile, the tiny Jordan, and now we see the Ganges, which in size comes
+between the two, being one thousand four hundred and fifty-five miles in
+length. Quite a respectable-sized river that! The Hindus regard it with
+such reverence that they count bathing in it a religious act, and when
+they die their one desire is to be burned beside it so that their bones
+may be cast into its waters. If we row a little way up we shall see this
+ceremony at the Burning Ghauts. There are funeral pyres of wood where
+the relatives are carrying out the last offices for the dead. Some
+prowling pariah dogs, of the lean yellow breed, and a few impertinent
+crows are hovering about, hoping that some scraps may fall to their
+share. The dead bodies are rolled up in white and red cloth and lie with
+their feet in the blessed water awaiting their burning.
+
+Men are bringing logs of wood to pile upon the pyres, others are poking
+about in the ashes of the last burned to see if maybe an anklet or
+ear-ring has fallen off and may be scavenged.
+
+The red flames rise and lick up the sides, while the enveloping smoke
+wreathes around the corpse. Remember that at one time the miserable
+widow of the dead man would have mounted that gruesome throne and be
+sitting there to be burnt alive. This is forbidden by law now, as indeed
+it was forbidden by some of the wisest of the Indian kings too, only
+until the British came there never was any power strong enough to
+enforce it.
+
+Benares is the religious capital of India; it takes the place that
+Canterbury does with us, and it has been the place of pilgrimage for
+generations.
+
+We have met with Buddhists in Ceylon and Mohammedans in Egypt. There are
+Buddhists among the natives of India too, though not many, considering
+the population; there are many more Mohammedans, but by far the largest
+number of the people, outnumbering the Mohammedans by three to one, are
+the Hindus, and it is as a Hindu capital that Benares mainly exists.
+British rule throws protection alike over all races and all religions;
+never was there a broader based dominion; be a man a Hindu, Sikh,
+Mohammedan, Parsee, Buddhist, or Christian, the law protects him in the
+exercise of his faith so long as it does not lead to cruelty such as in
+the burning of widows, or so long as it does not encroach upon the
+rights of others.
+
+The Hindu religion is an extraordinary one. At first sight, seeing the
+jumble up of strange gods,--the cow-goddess, the monkey-god,
+elephant-god, and others,--it seems rather to resemble the religion of
+the ancient Egyptians, but it is not a real resemblance. The highest
+idea of the Hindu, as of the Buddhist, is to pass out into a sort of
+painless existence of nothingness. And to overcome the flesh and to
+arrive at a placid state, where nothing matters, is attempted here on
+earth by some. Some of the old men, fakirs as they are called, like the
+one we met in Delhi, do astonishing things merely by force of an iron
+determination. They will sit so long holding an arm in one position that
+it shrivels. Others will lie for years on a bed of spikes. They eat very
+little, live on charity, and are often lost in a state of trance.
+
+[Illustration: A FAKIR.]
+
+As we row slowly back along the river we see countless flat umbrellas,
+like those known as Japanese umbrellas, studding the gay crowd; under
+each one of these there is a "holy man," and there are thousands of them
+altogether in this city, living on the offerings of the pilgrims.
+
+Look at that fellow seated cross-legged on a plank running out into the
+river. He pours water over his feet every now and again out of a little
+copper bowl, and mutters something. He is so much absorbed in what he
+is doing that he never looks up or turns his head. Another, close by,
+has hung his gaily-coloured turban on a post and proceeds to unwind his
+garment and cast it from him before he steps into the water with hardly
+a rag upon him. This lady in an orange scarf, dripping wet, seats
+herself on the end of the board, and winds a dry scarf round herself so
+adroitly that it is like a conjuring trick; she stands up and the wet
+one falls from her. She would get well paid as a quick-change artiste at
+a music hall, and such a gift would be invaluable for bathing on the
+Cornish coast!
+
+The men along the edge are very jolly, they chatter all the time and
+splash and wash and enjoy themselves. No English seaside place on a
+trip-day can beat this crowd. The fact that dead bones and skulls are
+constantly thrown into the water, and that the ashes of dead people, and
+much else that is indescribably filthy, mingles with it, doesn't seem to
+disturb them at all.
+
+When you have wearied of watching them we will go and visit one of the
+innumerable temples in the city, but we shall need a guide for that, as
+it is not safe to wander in these streets alone.
+
+No sooner have we landed and fought our way into one of the narrow
+alleys, than the road is blocked by an enormous bull who stands placidly
+before a greengrocer's stall sampling his wares. The man makes no
+attempt to drive him away, but tries to tempt him by holding a choice
+bunch of his best stuff. The beast has slavered over much that will be
+sold for human food afterwards. What? A good smack on the flank! For
+goodness' sake take care! The animal is supposed to be sacred; to touch
+him would be to bring out all the inhabitants of these houses on to us
+like a swarm of hornets. Luckily the beast is so well fed that he soon
+moves on and we can get past.
+
+Now we have reached the most important temple of all, known as the
+Golden Temple, and as we pass into the cloisters we see a couple more
+animals standing inside, as much at home as if they were in a byre,
+which, indeed, the place smells like, with a strange scent of sweet
+flowers on the top of it. It is a wonderful place, but oh, so dirty! It
+is dedicated, of all things, to the poison-god, Shiva! It stands in a
+quadrangle, roofed in, and above rise some of those curious elongated
+domes we saw from the boat. If we climb up through that flower-stall
+where blossoms are being sold for offerings, we can see these domes,
+which really have cost a lot of money, as two of them are gilt all over;
+the gilding keeps its glitter here and rises dazzlingly against the hot
+sky.
+
+There are other temples by the dozen and mosques too for the
+Mohammedans. If we wander round we shall see many strange sights; in one
+shrine is the image of the god Saturn, a silver disc, in another that of
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, surely the most hideous of all! Look at him! A
+squatting dwarf with an elephant's trunk! At another place is the image
+of Shiva himself; it has a silver face, though made of stone, and
+possesses four hands; it is guarded by a dog, and you can buy little
+imitation dogs made of sugar anywhere near. There is even an image of
+the goddess of smallpox, and if you ask why the Hindu chooses such
+repulsive and revolting things to worship, the answer is, because he is
+afraid. He says, "If the gods are good they will not injure me, but if
+they are evil I must propitiate them!"
+
+Everywhere we go we have copper bowls or even the half of coco-nut
+shells thrust at us for offerings; the priests tolerate the strangers
+entering their temples only because they hope to get something out of
+them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are now far from Benares; we have left behind the narrow crowded
+alleys, the violent smells, and the gay colours, and are in the train
+speeding toward Calcutta, whence we will take a steamer to Burma. The
+train has just stopped at a wayside station and there is a chance to
+stretch our legs. Ramaswamy appears and tells us they are going to stop
+here for a time. He doesn't seem to know why,--something about a sahib
+is all we can gather,--so we get out and wander along the village
+street. We have only gone a short way when we see a kind of litter
+coming along slung on bearers' shoulders. It is screened by curtains,
+and beside it rides a white man in a helmet, followed by natives. Why,
+that is the very man who came up in the train from Delhi with us! I
+wonder what he is doing here. That must be a sick woman in the litter.
+This is evidently what the train was waiting for, so we might as well go
+back.
+
+We get to the station just in time to see the curtains pushed aside by
+the sahib, who very tenderly and skilfully raises in his arms the sick
+person inside, and supports him into the station. It is a gaunt
+scarecrow of a man, a skeleton of a creature, whose big pathetic eyes
+look dark in his hollow face. He is evidently very ill. He is
+half-carried across to a carriage next to ours that has been prepared
+for him, and is laid down on a couch on the seat, and it is not long
+before we get under way again. Going out a little later on to the
+platform between the two compartments we find our friend, the tall
+Englishman, standing there smoking. He recognises us at once and asks us
+about our experiences; it is not difficult to find out about the
+invalid.
+
+"One of the best chaps going," he says shortly. "Simply broken up by the
+work he's been doing in the plague-camp up there. He is a doctor, so am
+I, and I've just got back from leave. I went up-country to relieve
+Jordan, but the work is nearly over, and I found him played out. He has
+hardly had his clothes off for weeks. The difficulty is to persuade
+these people to get out of their infected houses into a camp until the
+place is made sanitary and the plague stayed. He was single-handed at
+first, now there are two other men up there, so I can be spared to take
+him down to the coast. He'll get over it; oh yes, he's got the turn now,
+though he was nearly gone once or twice, but he'll never be the same man
+again. He is invalided home for a bit, and the voyage will pull him up,
+but even as he is he's sore at leaving it. He wants to finish his job."
+
+"Then when you've left him at Calcutta you'll go back to the infected
+district?"
+
+"Yes, of course, why not? It's all in the day's work, and you know we've
+actually had only thirty deaths in a month since the beggars were got
+out into camp, and they were dying at the rate of hundreds a week
+before. Grand, isn't it?" His face lights up with enthusiasm.
+
+India is full of such men; they don't play for safety, they take their
+lives in their hands at a moment's notice, and go blithely to grapple
+with death.
+
+[Illustration: BURMESE VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE GOLDEN PAGODA
+
+
+It is hot and still, we have passed across a place of broken tangled
+undergrowth and come out into a rather untidy courtyard, where some
+sneaking yellow pariah dogs barked at us until I cut at them with my
+stick, when they ran away and barked again from a safe distance. There
+seems to be no one else here but ourselves. A great tree covered with
+glorious magenta flowers stands on one side. It is our old friend the
+bougainvillea, but here it grows into a great tree instead of a creeper.
+It is backed up by the dark foliage of many mango trees. In front of us
+is a large house which seems to rise in many storeys, and the roof of
+each storey is carved and decorated, so that it shows up like lacework
+against the sky. The house stands on legs, so that the under part is
+quite open, and a broad flight of wooden steps leads up to a verandah on
+the first floor. Stop to examine the carving on the balustrade. It is
+wonderful! Figures of tigers, dragons, peacocks, monkeys, and elephants
+are all set among foliage and cut out very deeply.
+
+When we arrived in Burma yesterday we came up the river Irrawaddy, which
+at its mouth is called the Rangoon River. What seemed like low green
+banks are really swamps filled with rushes growing high and strong; as
+we passed between them suddenly we saw afar off a gleam of gold, and by
+staring hard we made out a great tower against the sky. We are going to
+visit it presently, but just now I want you to see something else quite
+funny. Step softly on the broad wooden verandah and peep round that
+corner.
+
+There squats an old man with a perfectly bald head, smooth as a billiard
+ball; he wears a loose garment of dull yellow stuff which forms a sort
+of skirt and is draped across one shoulder as well, falling over his
+honey-coloured chest. He is all yellow, except for his round, shining
+black eyes, very like glistening balls of jet. On the ground in front of
+him, lying full length on their little stomachs, are about a dozen small
+boys. You thought they were girls? I don't wonder! Each one has a
+feathery tuft of hair in the middle of his head standing up like carrot
+tops, except for this the little skull is closely shaven all round. They
+all have skimpy white jackets and skirts from which their skinny little
+yellow legs stick out kicking in the effort to master their tasks. In a
+loud sing-song jabber they are repeating something which they read off
+the slates they hold in front of them. It would be funny to learn
+lessons lying flat on the floor, wouldn't it? But these boys have never
+sat on chairs in their lives; they will have to learn that as an
+accomplishment if they go into business offices when they are older.
+
+The old _poongyi_, or monk, is the teacher. This beautiful carved wooden
+building is the house where the monks live, and it is called a _choung_.
+In the morning, very early, the monks wander forth, dressed in yellow
+robes and carrying begging-bowls and fans. They do not beg, however,
+they are much too proud; they merely stop and stand about where there
+are houses, and the people rush to pour food into their bowls. It is a
+privilege for them to be allowed to do this, as they are supposed to
+"gain merit" by so doing. Nearly all the Burmese are Buddhists, and
+these men are Buddhist monks.
+
+[Illustration: A POONGYI, OR MONK.]
+
+You would never guess what the fans are for; they are to put up as
+screens to shield the faces of the monks when they pass a woman, for
+they are not supposed ever to look at a woman, it is too frivolous! When
+the begging-bowls are full they generally contain a strange mixture, for
+everyone pours in anything he or she happens to have; there will
+certainly be rice, both cooked and raw, peas, perhaps fish, and this may
+be wrapped up in a leaf to keep it separate, which is necessary when it
+is curried; then there will be some cakes or cucumbers; possibly, in the
+season, mangoes and plantains. One of the greatest delicacies of the
+Burmese is a horribly smelly stuff called _ngape_, made of rotten fish
+laid in salt; no feast is complete without it.
+
+The monks are supposed to live on what they get in their begging-bowls,
+but, as a matter of fact, in wealthy monasteries they don't; they empty
+it out for the pariah dogs, which explains why so many dogs always hang
+around the monasteries.
+
+The Burmese have some funny notions; one is that they do not like anyone
+else's feet to be above their heads, so they build their houses on posts
+and do not use the ground floor. It looks as if there were many more
+storeys rising above the first floor where they live, but that is a
+sham; the roof is only built to look like that, and is hollow inside. In
+most of the monasteries there are schools, and the little boys are
+taught in them, as you see here. Besides this, every boy, when he gets
+to a certain age, must spend a time, longer or shorter, in the
+monastery. It may be only a few days or weeks and it may be years,
+according to the ideas of his parents, but while he is there he has to
+wear the yellow robe and carry the begging-bowl, and what to a growing
+boy must be most trying of all, he is not allowed to eat anything after
+midday!
+
+That old fellow has caught sight of us; he is getting up and seems quite
+pleased to welcome us. It is a good thing we brought Ramaswamy with us,
+for he can speak Burmese and interpret for us; the monk knows no
+English. The little boys spring to their feet and stand gazing at us
+with wide eyes, delighted, as any boys would be, at getting an
+interruption to their lessons. They gradually come round us and begin to
+laugh and even to touch our clothes, but the old monk sends them all
+away and leads us into the wooden rooms of the monastery that open off
+the verandah. Several monks here are lying lazily about on mats
+half-asleep, but in a moment they all surround us, and for the first few
+minutes we experience rather an eerie sensation. Coming in from the
+bright sunshine outside everything seems very dim, and these curious men
+with their shaven heads and beetle eyes come close up to us and press
+upon us, pawing us and pointing to a great image of Buddha shining out
+in a ghostly way from a shrine at the end of the hall.
+
+There are many little candles burning before it, most of them sticking
+to the ground by their own grease. One of the monks takes one up and
+holds it so that we can see the image, about twice life-size, seated in
+that calm attitude of the sitting Buddha, with crossed legs and one hand
+on the lap, while the other hangs loosely down. There is a serene
+self-satisfied smirk on the marble face, which looks more like that of a
+woman than a man. Ramaswamy explains to us that this is a very specially
+holy Buddha, and that the little dabs of gold splashed here and there
+about him are the offerings of the faithful; they are simply bits of
+gold-leaf stuck on. Gold-leaf is expensive, for it is real gold beaten
+very thin, and these little bits represent much self-denial on the part
+of many poor people. A Burman's great object in life is to "gain merit"
+for a future existence, for he thinks that he will live again and again
+many times in different forms, and that as he behaves in this life so he
+will be born again into a better or worse state in the next; if he is
+very bad he runs the risk of becoming a snake or some other repulsive
+reptile. He is not afraid of overdoing the merit, as the ancient
+Egyptian was; the more he can pile up for himself the better, and the
+way in which he does this is to feed the poongyis, build choungs and
+pagodas, and set up or adorn figures of Buddha.
+
+The priests at this choung own a priceless relic; it is no less than a
+hair of Buddha! After some persuasion they are induced to show it to us.
+They bring a great casket, which is solemnly unlocked, showing another
+inside, and again another, and at last we get down to a little glass
+box with an artificial white flower in it, round which is wound a long
+and very wiry white hair. I should say many of the same sort could be
+got from any long-tailed white horse!
+
+[Illustration: BUDDHA.]
+
+On a table near are various offerings, and among them we see a rather
+greasy pack of ordinary playing-cards and a soda-water bottle, besides
+several saucers of waxy white blossoms of the frangipani flower, such as
+we saw in Ceylon, emitting a very strong scent. The soda-water bottle
+and playing-cards look rather dissipated, but they are quite serious
+offerings, given by somebody who thinks them rare and interesting. Our
+ears for some time past have told us that an extraordinary amount of
+ticking is going on, and now that our eyes have become accustomed to
+the light, we can see numerous clocks on brackets and tables; these are
+of all sorts and sizes, including a 2s. 11d. "Bee" clock, cuckoo clocks,
+and even one large "grandfather." In between and about them, on the
+floor and on the shelves, are lamps large and lamps small, some brass,
+some china, and some glass!
+
+The clocks are all going hard, ticking away as if they were running a
+race to see which could get ahead of the other. It is a funny medley!
+The monks are lazy enough and pass half their days asleep, but if they
+keep all these clocks wound up someone must have something to do. These
+are all offerings, and the more the better; no monk can ever get enough
+lamps or clocks to satisfy him!
+
+We pass down and out into the courtyard, and all the monks follow us in
+a body and gently edge us toward some ponds or tanks where fat tortoises
+lie on the banks or float lazily in the stagnant water.
+
+There is a man sitting on the side selling balls of rice and bits of
+bread. Just as we come up a graceful Burmese woman buys a ball and
+throws it into the water. In an instant what looks like a voracious army
+of huge spiders floats up from below and attacks it, and as the ball of
+rice dissolves and falls apart every grain disappears. Looking more
+closely we see that they are not spiders at all, but a curious kind of
+fish with long feelers growing out all round his mouth and nose. As he
+thrusts up his mouth to the surface, with all the feelers wriggling, the
+rest of his body is unseen, and the appearance is exactly that of a
+round spider with wriggling legs. Buy a bit of crust and see the fish
+dart at it and simply tear it to pieces; they scramble at it from all
+sides, pushing and nibbling, and in less time than you could imagine
+every crumb is gone!
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLDEN PAGODA.]
+
+The woman is laughing, and we laugh back at her. She is short and very
+neat, with her shining black hair coiled round her head and secured by
+two big pins, while a dainty spray of flower falls down on one side. Her
+face looks quite light coloured, for it is thickly covered with a kind
+of soft yellow powder, and she has a brilliant gauzy scarf across her
+little white jacket and falling down over her tight rose-pink silk
+skirt. As she walks away with a curious shuffle we see that she has on
+the quaintest shoes, with red velvet caps and no heels; but the caps are
+so much too small for her feet that she has had to leave the little toe
+outside! This is a fine dodge, and Mah Shwe can say she takes twos or
+threes in shoes with truth, even if her feet are much larger!
+
+The monks are standing in a solemn group near their staircase when we go
+back, and when I suggest to Ramaswamy we should give them something he
+disagrees vigorously. "Not touching money, Master, only food and rice,
+no money." All right, we won't tempt them, and I put back the rupee I
+had taken out. You must have noticed already that the money here is the
+same as in India. Then we climb into the miserable little box on wheels
+which is waiting for us; it is the only cab we can get here, and calls
+itself a ticca-gharry. The little rat of a pony seems a very long way
+off; it is a tight squeeze for us inside, and there is certainly no room
+on the box beside the hairy-legged native for Ramaswamy, but he hops up
+on a board there is behind for the purpose, and hangs on as we jolt away
+to the Golden Pagoda.
+
+The first thing we see when we arrive at it are two enormous monsters,
+not like any animal in existence, made of white plaster with glaring red
+eyes. They have dragons' heads and tigers' bodies and are most terribly
+ferocious. These guard the entrance to the pagoda and are called
+leogryphs. Between them there is a long ascent rising to the pagoda
+platform. The place is like a bazaar with people in their gay clothes
+coming and going, and the sun glinting through between the pillars at
+the open spaces. It is difficult to tell the difference between men and
+women, for all alike wear skirts and jackets, and you never see a man
+with a beard, hardly ever with a moustache. But the true distinction is
+that the men have a gay handkerchief called a _goungbaung_ wound round
+their heads, and the women wear no head covering, and, as you have seen,
+they never think of veiling their faces, like the Mohammedan women. The
+men's head-gear is very different from that we saw in India; it is not a
+huge and heavy erection, but just a silk or cotton scarf twisted up and
+tucked in, and very often there is a "bird's nest" of dark hair sticking
+out in the middle of it, for the men's hair is long as well as the
+women's, but they roll it up so that it is not seen.
+
+[Illustration: THE LEOGRYPH.]
+
+Everyone is very bright and friendly, and the girls who are selling all
+sorts of little tawdry things on the stalls by the stairs call out to us
+persuasively to buy from them. On the whole the place is clean, and
+there is no bazaar smell, only a certain sharp wood-smoke flavour and
+the scent of many flowers. But at the foot of every white column are
+horrible deep-red stains that look as if some little animal had been
+slaughtered there. It is not so bad as that. You remember we saw a man
+whose mouth was stained red with chewing betel-nut, which he did in the
+same way that some of the roughest men in England chew tobacco? These
+are the stains of that betel-nut, for nearly everyone here has the
+nasty habit.
+
+Up the steps we pass, higher and higher, and come out on to a great
+platform which looks like a street, for it is lined with buildings on
+all four sides and in the middle too; but rising above those in the
+middle is the great pagoda, the Shwe Dagon,--_shwe_ means golden,--and
+this is the most wonderful thing in Burma.
+
+It is so wide at the base that it takes quite a long time to walk round
+it, and then it goes up in a bell-like curve, tapering to a steeple
+little less than the height of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the very top of
+all, so high that we can only see it by cricking our necks, is an iron
+cage called a _htee_, meaning "umbrella," decorated with swinging bells.
+Listen for a moment and perhaps you can hear them as the wind sways them
+about. No, the air is too still to-day. Deep in the innermost chamber of
+the pagoda are no less than eight hairs of Buddha, besides other relics
+of other Buddhas who lived before the last.
+
+The marvel of it is that this great monument is pure gold from top to
+bottom. Much of it is covered with thin plates of real gold, and the
+rest, yards and yards of it, is plastered with gold-leaf.
+
+Did you see that red glint from the top as the sun caught the htee at an
+angle? That was probably a real ruby, for it flashed out like a sword
+blade. There are many real stones set up there, and the htee alone cost
+L50,000!
+
+Coming back to earth, look at the glitter on all these shrines that line
+the platform on both sides. Though it looks like a street it isn't
+really, for there are no houses, only shrines and temples. That one
+close to us is dazzling to look at. No, those blue and red flashes are
+not from real jewels; examine them and see. The shrine is encased with
+little pieces of looking-glass, some red and some blue and some plain,
+all fitted in together like mosaic.
+
+The next is made of the wonderful carved woodwork the Burmans do so
+well, and it is gilded all over; for my own part I prefer the dark teak
+ungilded, but still this looks very handsome among the rest. That tall
+post like a flagstaff, with streamers flying from it, is a praying-post;
+can you make out the figure like a weather-cock at the top? It is a
+goose instead of a cock, and doesn't tell the direction of the wind. It
+is the sacred goose. The brilliance of all this detail takes one's
+breath away. On every side we see the people worshipping, and yet it is
+not a festival day, for then we should hardly be able to move for the
+crowds on the platform--where there are tens now there would then be
+thousands. The worshippers drop down quite simply on the pavement before
+a favourite shrine and hold up their hands toward it, sometimes with an
+offering of flowers in them, or even a big taper. There is a woman
+passing smoking a monstrous "green" cigar. It is a huge thick roll of
+light-coloured stuff like shavings, about as long as your arm from elbow
+to wrist, and as thick as a man's finger. She has to open her little
+round mouth wide to get the end in. It is not filled with pure tobacco,
+but a chopped mixture of all sorts; even you could smoke it without any
+harm. Why yes, women smoke here almost all day, and children too. They
+do say the mothers give the babies-in-arms a whiff, but I haven't seen
+that myself!
+
+Set up everywhere are coloured umbrellas with fringes of coloured beads,
+as large as those used for tents on lawns sometimes. We peer into
+numberless shrines as we pass and see Buddhas of every sort peeping at
+us out of the dim interiors; there are Buddhas of brass, Buddhas of
+marble, Buddhas of alabaster, Buddhas coated with white paint, and
+Buddhas covered with gold. Most of them are seated, always exactly in
+the same position as the one we saw far away in Ceylon. This is
+supposed to signify Buddha as he sat under the Bo tree meditating.
+Others show him standing with one hand upraised, and this is to show
+Buddha as he was when teaching, and others are lying down, but these are
+the least common. They are supposed to show Buddha when he passed into
+eternal calm.
+
+Pink is by far the favourite colour for the people's clothes, and it is
+very vivid, like the colour seen in striped coco-nut cream, but white is
+also much worn, and there is some yellow in orange shades. Many of the
+Burmese wear a shirt of maroon check, just like a check duster; these
+are their workaday clothes, on festivals they generally manage to come
+out in silks.
+
+Come round now to the back of the shrines that line the platform on the
+outer side, here there is another open space, and on it are bells as
+large as church bells; they hang between two posts. Take up one of those
+deer's horns lying beside that one and stroke it hard. It gives out a
+clear musical note. Try now the piece of wood, that sounds different.
+Everyone who passes stops to strike one or the other of the bells, they
+want to call the attention of the "good nats," or spirits, to the fact
+that they are at the pagoda! In this shed is an enormous bell large
+enough to hold half a dozen men. I don't think you'll be able to make
+much effect with a deer's horn on that. It is the third largest in the
+world, and once was in the bottom of the Rangoon River, for the English
+were carrying it away when it toppled over and sank. Engineers tried to
+raise it, but failed, because of its enormous weight; but the Burmans,
+after some time, were allowed to try, and somehow managed to succeed,
+and not only so, but they hauled it right up here! It does look as
+though there were something weird about its positive refusal to be
+carried away!
+
+Along the edge of this part of the pagoda are a number of wooden
+platforms raised a foot or two from the ground, for the use of those who
+come from long distances, and on them many families are lying or
+sitting. On one sits a tiny boy with a quizzical intelligent little
+face. His top-knot sticks up like an out-of-curl feather. Beside him is
+a still smaller mite who cannot be more than two; he has little silver
+bangles on his fat wrists and ankles, and a strip of cotton rolled round
+his dumpy body, while papa and mamma and numerous aunts are seated on
+the platform behind gravely smoking.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE PLATFORM OF A PAGODA.]
+
+I stop to light a cigarette close to this family, and in an instant the
+elder lad holds out his hand timidly. Just to see what he will do I give
+him a cigarette; he takes it with a self-possessed courtesy and looks at
+me, politely waiting for a light. I hand him the box and he strikes a
+match and bows a little as he returns it; even the children have
+excellent manners. Drawing in a great whiff of smoke he sends it out
+through his little round nose in keen enjoyment. But the fat baby has
+suddenly become alive to what is going on, and crawling on the top of
+his brother clamorously demands a smoke more loudly than if he were
+asking for sweets. The bigger boy hands him the cigarette. He knows
+quite enough not to put the lighted end in his mouth, and in a second is
+puffing so vigorously that the cigarette burns away like a furnace; when
+his brother sees this he makes a desperate effort to recover it, but the
+fat baby pushes him off with one hand, while he clings to the cigarette
+with the other, and, turning away his head, smokes harder than ever.
+
+We are both reduced to fits of laughter by this time, and the family on
+the platform are enjoying the joke too. Seeing that there are likely to
+be difficulties, I solve them by producing another cigarette for the
+elder boy, and the fat baby is left in full possession of the first one.
+The last sight we have of him is as he violently resists a grown-up
+sister who is trying to take away the stub!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE
+
+
+[Illustration: THE GOVERNMENT SERVANT.]
+
+We are lucky! No sooner have we returned to the hotel than a gorgeous
+man, over six feet high, dressed in white, with a red sash, in which is
+stuck a tasselled dagger, greets us. He is a _chuprassie_, or messenger,
+and has come from Government House with a note inviting us to a
+garden-party there this afternoon. What a day of it! This is the result
+of my having been up there yesterday to write our names in the book kept
+for the purpose, while I left you to rest. That is the way people do
+here instead of leaving cards, so that His Excellency the
+Lieutenant-Governor may know who has come to the country. I thought
+perhaps he would take some notice of us, because his younger brother was
+my great friend at the 'Varsity, but this is very prompt. I am glad you
+will have a chance of seeing something of Government House, as most
+people in England have not an idea how things are run here. Burma is
+counted as one of the provinces of India, and is under the Viceroy of
+all India, but within his own borders the Lieutenant-Governor is the
+ruler and representative of the King.
+
+It is about four o'clock, when, having had a rest and made ourselves as
+smart as we can, we crawl up the long drive leading to Government House
+in one of the ridiculous small ticca-gharries which are the only
+conveyances one can get.
+
+We are one of a long procession of vehicles going at a foot's pace,
+stopping and starting again. Some are private carriages, there are a few
+motors, a few dog-carts, and ours is not the only little box on wheels.
+Lean out a little and you will see a flash of jewels and satiny silk in
+that one in front of us; evidently some wealthy natives are among the
+guests. The long line of vehicles comes up to the door, and when the
+occupants have alighted the drivers curve on round the lawn and go away.
+At last our turn comes. A pleasant-looking man, all in white, with a red
+sash and sword, and a wonderful bunch of tassels and plaits in gold,
+called an aiguillette, on his breast, greets us as cordially as if we
+were old friends. Notice the plume of rose-pink feathers on his helmet!
+He seems to know all about us without our saying a word, and as he leads
+the way across the short grass lawn to where our host and hostess stand
+ready to greet their guests, he tells me that His Excellency's brother,
+my old friend, is actually staying here now.
+
+His Excellency is in English costume, with a star on his breast; he
+shakes hands kindly and calls out to summon his brother, who is not far
+off, and we pass on to make way for the stream of newcomers.
+
+We could not be in better hands. Claude and I have not met for years,
+but that makes no difference; we greet each other as if we had parted
+only yesterday. He takes us over to the tables for tea and fruit. And
+when he hears this is your first visit he insists on your eating a
+mango, which is the most famous fruit in the country and just ripe.
+These are a specially good sort, not very large, with pink "cheeks";
+when you have stripped off the tough skin you find you get down to the
+big stone very soon, and there isn't much room for the fruity part
+between, still, what there is of it is excellent, and I see you
+furtively using your handkerchief to get rid of the stickiness
+afterwards!
+
+Then we sit in basket-chairs, not too near the band, and Claude tells us
+"all about it." It is a much more brilliant scene than an ordinary
+garden-party at home, because in addition to the Europeans there are a
+number of high-class Burmese. Those little ladies near us standing in a
+group are most gorgeously attired in much-embroidered fussy little
+jackets with short wings, or lappets, sticking out behind, and their
+skirts, or tameins, are woven of the richest silk. As that one turns you
+see that beside the flowers in her hair she has two big pins with heads
+the size of small walnuts; those are real diamonds, not perhaps of the
+first water, but still of great value. The ladies' faces are smooth with
+yellow powder, and there is something very neat about their movements. A
+little way off is a Burman with a pink goungbaum and very rich silk
+skirt. The grass, kept green by plentiful early morning watering, is
+quite vivid in colour, and the clear cloudless sky is of a thrilling
+blue. Government House itself is a great palace, not beautiful, as it is
+built of yellow brick and pink terra-cotta, but imposing and dignified.
+Burman attendants wearing turbans and skirts, called _lyungis_, of
+purest mauve, and dainty white jackets, glide about with the
+refreshments. Burmans will seldom take service with anyone, generally
+they leave that to the natives of India, but they make a distinction in
+the case of anyone so important as the Lieutenant-Governor.
+
+"It's all rather overwhelming to me," says my friend. "You know I am a
+quiet man; a well-seasoned pipe and a den full of books are about my
+mark. I had no idea till I came out here that my brother was such a
+boss; it makes me want to run away."
+
+"Tell us about some of the guests," I suggest. "Why does that man in the
+saffron-coloured robe have yards too much of it?"
+
+[Illustration: A LITTLE BURMESE LADY.]
+
+"That's his best garment, called a _putso_, I understand. The more stuff
+the better, all bunched up; to show he can afford it, I suppose. Doesn't
+leave much room for the tailor to display his cut. He's a prominent
+Government man. I don't know him personally. Those two ladies in the
+fussy little jackets are royalties; they wear that sort of thing because
+they're of the old royal blood, though otherwise you only see it in the
+_pwes_, or plays. They are of the house of Theebaw, the king we
+dethroned in 1885 when we took over Upper Burma. He's living still in
+India, where he was sent into exile. I don't know what relation these
+two are to him, but when every king had at least thirty sons, there was
+no scarcity of relations! It was the custom for the son who mounted the
+throne in the old days to kill off all his brothers if he could lay
+hands on them, as a precaution in case of accidents. I take it some of
+the ladies were spared, which would make for the inequality of the
+sexes."
+
+"I suppose your brother is like a king out here?"
+
+"He is the representative of the King. You should see him driving in
+state with outriders in scarlet liveries. People in England don't
+realise it. I always say how he will suffer when he retires and goes to
+England, where no one will shiko to him!"
+
+At that moment he springs to his feet to shake hands with a dignified
+short Burman in beautiful native dress, to whom he introduces us. This
+is the Sawbwa, or chief, of Hsipaw, one of the native states. The Sawbwa
+has been educated in England and speaks perfectly correct English. He
+has a passion for travel and wants to go round the world, he says, but
+he has to get permission from the Viceroy before leaving the country, as
+the English Government doesn't like the native princes leaving their
+territory. So long as he stays at home and governs his people well he is
+not interfered with, but when he wants to go away he feels the hand of
+Britain over him!
+
+After talking a little while he asks us if we have seen the football--he
+calls it football, but, as he explains, it is a native game called
+_chin-lon_, which is not quite the same.
+
+We saunter across the lawn and find that a sort of exhibition game for
+the amusement of the guests is going on. The ball is made of wicker-work
+and is kept in the air by the knees or feet of the players very
+cleverly, in fact, so cleverly that it looks quite easy to do. The young
+men who are playing turn and twist and always catch it just right,
+sending it spinning upwards very neatly. This is a game played by every
+village lad, but if you tried it you'd find it uncommonly difficult.
+
+[Illustration: "BOXING."]
+
+A little farther on two men are boxing with their feet, raising their
+legs in the high kick and sometimes smacking each other's faces with the
+soles; the way they balance is extraordinary, there are roars of
+laughter when one nearly goes over but just recovers himself. He is a
+bit of a clown, that fellow, and does it on purpose now and again,
+though really he is perfectly balanced. Then we walk on with Claude
+toward the house, where the marble steps are lined by chuprassies, like
+the one who brought us our invitation this morning; we pass into the
+hall, with its high white columns and airy spaciousness, and then we see
+masses of wood-carving like that at the choung, deeply undercut, and a
+huge pair of elephant tusks. Everywhere are tall vases with great
+orange and red flags, something of the same kind as those that grow by
+riversides, only much larger.
+
+The passages are in the form of great arcades, and the ballroom behind
+is vast. It is indeed a palace fit for a king!
+
+His Excellency is very gracious, and when he is free for a few minutes
+he talks to us and asks us to stay with him and his wife on our way back
+from up-country, an invitation we gladly accept. He also promises to
+make everything easy for us on our tour. As we go away, after having
+taken our leave, I hear you say thoughtfully--
+
+"I think I'd like to be a Lieutenant-Governor when I grow up!"
+
+It is a good ambition, but you will have to be clever and very hard
+working to achieve it, and even then you will want a bit of luck. You
+must go into the Indian Civil Service first, and after all, of course,
+you may never get there, but with a bit of luck----
+
+[Illustration: THE PALACE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE
+
+
+"This butter is uneatable, Ramaswamy."
+
+"I wash him, Master."
+
+He takes away the dish of nasty, yellow, tinned butter and presently
+returns with it fresh and white, with much of the disagreeable taste and
+smell gone. Good! Now we know.
+
+We are sitting on a broad verandah of dark wood with a roof overhead. It
+is so wide that it is just like a room, only the outer sides are open.
+We look out over a moat filled with water and covered with leaves and
+pink flowers. These are the celebrated lotus flowers, or lilies. Behind
+rise red walls, with here and there quaint little maroon-coloured
+towers, all pinnacles and angles, showing up like fretwork against the
+sky. The moat is crossed by bridges of dazzling white. It is nearly
+midday, the hottest and stillest time of all the day, and we are
+lunching in the Circuit House at Mandalay, the old capital of the kings
+of Burma.
+
+Everyone knows Mandalay by name from Kipling's poem, even if they know
+nothing of the rest of Burma. We came up here from Rangoon by train,--it
+took a night,--and by special permission of His Excellency were allowed
+to stay in this house, which is usually reserved for Government
+officials, instead of going to the rest-house intended for visitors, and
+not nearly so nice.
+
+From where we sit we can look through into the wooden unpapered bedrooms
+behind, with the little string beds on which our own bedding lies in
+heaps. Ramaswamy has not had time to put it out yet, for he has been
+busy cooking our tiffin. In these houses the keeper, or _derwan_, will
+do everything for you if you like, and you pay him so much for his
+trouble, but if you prefer your own servant to do it you can make that
+arrangement and borrow the pots and pans. Ramaswamy has given us already
+buttered eggs, some cutlets which tasted goaty, with some excellent
+little vegetables called bringals, as well as a dish of mixed curry, and
+he has now put some fruit on the table, and is bringing in coffee. He
+cooks out there behind in the compound. I saw him just now bending over
+a handful of sticks. However he manages to get the things hot I don't
+know. These natives have marvellous ways.
+
+We must rest a while this afternoon and have an early tea before
+starting out to see the palace which lies inside that brick wall.
+
+The tea is decent, the toast smoky, and the milk very poor. Ramaswamy
+says that it is almost impossible to get milk; the Burmans don't drink
+it themselves, and he thinks we shall have to fall back upon that
+condensed stuff. However, there is excellent jam, and that is a good
+thing. Look round this bare wooden room and notice how little furniture
+one needs for perfect comfort. A couple of deck-chairs, a couple of
+small chairs, a table, a lamp, and a waste-paper basket! What a lot of
+superfluous furniture one does accumulate in England!
+
+What are you smiling at? The recollection of the bath? It's a very good
+way of bathing, I think. A wooden tub in the middle of a tiny room
+without anything else in it. You can splash as much as ever you like,
+and even if you spilt the whole bath it wouldn't matter much, because
+the water would simply run down through the cracks in the plank floor,
+and any one who knows anything here knows enough not to stand underneath
+a bathroom which is built out on wooden legs.
+
+We'll start now if you're ready! Hullo! Did you ever see anything so
+impudent? A great crow on the tea-table! Frighten him away, he's after
+those chocolates wrapped in silver paper that you brought up from
+Rangoon. The cheek of it!
+
+When we have passed over the white bridge and got inside the wall of the
+palace we see a wide space of green with a few houses scattered here and
+there, and in the middle a group of buildings, one of which has a very
+tall spire. Inside this wall at one time, the Burman time, was crammed
+the whole of Mandalay--six thousand houses, more or less. It _was_ the
+town. The British cleared out all the houses, and the town is now
+outside in wide streets,--we saw it this morning as we drove up from the
+station,--and the palace is left here alone in its glory.
+
+That tall, many-roofed spire is the King's house. Only the King was
+allowed to rival the poongyis in the number of his roofs, no other
+Burman might do such a thing. It is an empty distinction in two senses,
+for, as you know, the roofs don't mean floors, they are hollow. There
+is only one floor, for, of course, the King could never risk the
+frightful indignity of having anyone's feet above his head. At the top
+is a htee, or umbrella, as there is on the pagodas.
+
+The palace is not all one big building, but a number of buildings, or
+halls, each only one storey, grouped about with courtyards between. We
+wander in and out of them, treading on polished floors and seeing
+brilliant bits of colour framed in dark doorways. Some of the pillars
+glow a dull red, others are a wonderful gold; some of the doorways are
+set in frames of carved wood gilded all over. We see columns encrusted
+with little bits of many-coloured looking-glass, like those we saw in
+Rangoon. The halls are very dim in contrast with the brilliant light
+outside, and there is a kind of tawdriness in the decoration which makes
+one feel how different in nature these people must be from the ancient
+Egyptians who built so solidly. Here all is gay, but you feel it is
+gimcrack--it won't last. Look at that balustrade, gleaming deep green;
+examine it--do you see what it is? Nothing in the world but a row of
+green glass bottles turned upside down and embedded in cement! This
+place isn't old at all. It has not been built sixty years; before that
+the capital was elsewhere.
+
+All at once Ramaswamy, who has been following noiselessly, pushes you
+aside with a cry of "Scorpion, Master." There, on the ground, difficult
+to see in this dim light, is a round black thing about as big as the
+palm of your hand, with a tail sticking out from it. It is the shape of
+a tadpole. In another minute you would have trodden on him, and if he
+had got in above your shoe, well--it would have been unpleasant in any
+case, and might have meant death!
+
+He lies quite still, not attempting to run away until Ramaswamy's shout
+brings one of the guardians, a tall man in a dark blue uniform and red
+sash. He rushes to find a big stone. We won't stop to see it. Poor
+beggar! Doubtless they'll "larn him to be a scorpion!"
+
+When King Theebaw reigned here he thought himself invincible; the
+many-roofed spire was "the centre of the universe." He imagined he could
+treat as he liked not only his own subjects but that white-faced race
+who had had the audacity to settle down in southern Burma. He soon
+learnt his mistake.
+
+Leaving the palace we go on to see a very curious thing not far off
+outside the walls, this is the Kutho-daw, the Royal Merit-House. We
+enter by an elaborate white gateway and find ourselves in a perfect
+forest of pagodas. They are planted in rows and are all exactly alike
+and not very large. They are glittering white, and each one has a slate
+slab inside. The Kutho-daw was built by Theebaw's uncle, who acquired
+much merit thereby, and he deserved it, for there are no less than seven
+hundred and twenty-nine pagodas. On the slate inside each is inscribed
+some part of the Buddhist Scriptures. It was a grand idea thus to
+preserve indelibly on stone the whole Burmese Bible. Here it is for all
+time. Peep inside one and you will see the funny-looking Burmese
+writing, which all runs on without being divided up into words, and
+looks consequently so incomprehensible to us.
+
+What? How you jump! What is it? Another beast? Yes, I see him, that is a
+tarantula crouching in the darkest corner and looking at us out of
+wicked little eyes that shine like diamond points. He is a monster
+spider, isn't he? All hairy too, and his body striped with yellow bands
+like a wasp's. He sits still, but he is very much alive and ready to
+jump at a minute's notice. They are venomous brutes. Not quite so bad as
+a scorpion, but still the bite from one of these fellows is a very
+unpleasant thing. We will leave him, he can't do much harm here.
+
+Now we will drive round the town and see how the people live.
+
+Here is a happy family seated on a wooden platform stretching out in
+front of their house. The dust around and over them and in the roadway
+is almost as bad as Egypt, but here there is nearly always a tree or
+shrub of some sort to bring in a flash of green. The huts too are built
+of wood and mats and are raised several feet from the ground; they do
+not look so hopelessly crooked as the Egyptian mud houses. In the space
+underneath huge black pigs, like great boars, wander, and there are
+black goats too, and skinny hens and pariah dogs. Do you see that
+mother-dog lying in the roadway, too lazy to move, with six yellow
+puppies sprawling over her? Poor brute, she is a mass of mange and so
+skinny that her ribs stick out! The people here are taught by their
+religion not to take life of any kind; some of the priests strain their
+water through a sieve lest they should inadvertently swallow an insect!
+So no one kills, even in mercy. All these miserable puppies are allowed
+to grow up to a starved wretched existence, a misery to themselves and
+everyone else.
+
+Look at those two elephants stalking down the road; they move
+majestically, and when they reach the pariah dog the driver, or _oozie_,
+seated on the first one's neck, pricks him with a point to make him look
+where he is going, so that he avoids the dog. You will see plenty of
+elephants here, for elephants are to Burma what camels are to Egypt, the
+regular beasts of burden. They carry the kit and camp paraphernalia for
+the men who go into the jungle sometimes for months. They move the logs
+and trunks of the timber which is cut in the forests in large
+quantities. You remember the dark wood of the Circuit House and the
+poongyi choung? That is all teak, the best known wood in the country,
+corresponding to our oak. There are forests of it, and large companies
+exist simply for getting it out. There are still herds of wild elephants
+in the little disturbed parts of Burma, and every now and again
+Government catches them in _keddahs_ in great quantities. I wish we had
+the luck to go with a hunting-party.
+
+[Illustration: ELEPHANTS, BURMA.]
+
+The family which owns that hut is seated on the edge of the platform and
+are watching us with as much interest as we watch them. Two bright-eyed
+little girls in jackets play beside a smiling woman. You will notice
+here the girls and women have quite as good a time as the boys and men;
+no veiling of faces or hiding away for them. The Burman knows better,
+and he would get on badly without the active help and advice of his
+comrade and wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ON A CARGO BOAT
+
+
+[Illustration: DANCING GIRL, BURMA.]
+
+Did you ever see anything like it in your life? I never did.
+
+We are on a steamer coming down the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay, and
+it is our first evening on board. We are not the only passengers, there
+are also a widow lady and her daughter, a girl a few years older than
+you, but still in pigtails, whose name is Joyce. We were all four
+sitting very comfortably after dinner on the deck, which is roofed in,
+making a fine open room like a verandah, when a few large,
+light-coloured moths appeared; then, as if by magic, the whole deck was
+suddenly alive with them. They banged against the glass of the lights,
+thumped into our faces, and whirled around exactly like a thick
+snowstorm with very large flakes.
+
+"It's one of the plagues of Egypt," you yell.
+
+Joyce screams, pulls her long plaits round her face to prevent the moths
+catching in them, and dives for her cabin. Everyone follows suit, and
+soon anxious voices can be heard asking, "How many got in with you?"
+
+It is impossible to shut the port-hole, and in less time than I can tear
+off my clothes my tiny room is as bad as the deck.
+
+Luckily there are mosquito-curtains, and glad of them we are, as we can
+hear the loathsome soft-bodied creatures blundering about outside them.
+
+Lo! in the morning they are all gone, and when I get on deck, and ask
+the captain, a stern soul from Aberdeen, where they have disappeared to,
+he points to the river. "Where would they be? Overboard, of course.
+Dead, every one of them. They live but a day."
+
+Leaning over the vessel's side I see some of the gummy bodies, mere
+hollow shells now, transparent and fragile, sticking on to the black
+paint about the bows. The creatures are white ants who come out of holes
+in the ground at this time of year. Our lights attracted a new-born
+swarm. At least that must have been it, because we weren't plagued with
+them again in the same way, though the captain says that in the wet
+season it is impossible to sit on the deck at all in the evenings
+because of the multitude of winged things.
+
+"But then you haven't got any hair," I hear Joyce's cheerful voice
+saying on the deck. You evidently reply something, for she rejoins at
+once, "Oh yes, it's in plaits, but they might stick in them! I've always
+had a creepy horror of crawly things sticking in my hair."
+
+"Cut it off," you suggest brutally.
+
+This is a cargo boat. We had much to see at Mandalay; we visited the
+Aracan Pagoda and Golden Temple, we went up to the hill-station, Maymyo,
+and on to the Gokteik Gorge, spanned by one of the highest trestle
+bridges in the world, and when we arrived back at Mandalay we found that
+the passenger boat had just left, so we came on by this one, the
+_China_, which is really just as comfortable and not so crowded. She is
+fitted with bathrooms and comfortable cabins with little beds in them,
+and on the spacious upper deck are two immense mirrors so placed that
+all the sights on the shore are reflected in them. You can sit in a
+lounge-chair and watch them flash past like a continuous cinematograph.
+
+The Irrawaddy flows right through Burma, cutting it in half, as the Nile
+does Egypt; and it is rather like the Nile, but, of course, not nearly
+so long, not so long even as the Ganges, though steamers can go up it
+for nine hundred miles, equal to the length of England and Scotland put
+together! The river is wide and shallow in places, sometimes as much as
+two miles across, and at these places great care has to be taken not to
+run on sandbanks; there is much poling and shouting out of soundings,
+and when we do stick, a boat rows out with an anchor and drops it, and
+after a while we ride up to the anchor and there we are!
+
+There is far more vegetation to be seen on the banks than in Egypt, and
+the life in the villages is much more attractive. The houses are
+perfectly beautiful--at a distance. They are built of dark wood, and
+stand on posts, with wide verandahs and thatched roofs, are nearly
+always embowered in great trees, and have a luxuriant growth of
+plantains and trees around. The spires of the pagodas and the pinnacles
+and roofs of the choungs generally rise up somewhere in the picture, and
+in the evening, when the whole village comes down to the water, the
+scene is charming. The cattle stand knee-deep and the people bathe and
+wash their clothes and drink heartily of the muddy stream, and then slip
+on dry garments, after which the women and girls stream up the steep
+banks, carrying red chatties of water on their heads. All are lively,
+full of play and chaff. Their life is a happy one, because perfectly
+simple and natural; no one need starve and no one wants to be rich.
+
+All day the steamer floats along, generally winding slowly across and
+across the river wherever a little red flag stuck up on the banks tells
+that there are a few cases or barrels or packets to be taken down to the
+market. At one place it is _let-pet_, or pickled tea, though the plant
+from which the stuff is made is not really a tea-plant. Burmans love it,
+and no feast is complete without it, indeed a packet of let-pet is an
+invitation to something festive.
+
+It is early afternoon and quite hot and still as we circle toward the
+shore where the red flag hangs drooping; people in gay clothes are
+dabbed about like little splashes of colour on the whity-yellow sand.
+Suddenly there is a splash, and from our bows, which are high up in the
+air, one of the Lascars, dressed in blue dungaree trousers, drops feet
+first into the water like a stone; while he is in the air another
+follows and another, until there are half a dozen of them in the water,
+and they go across to the shore, paddling with each hand alternately as
+a dog does with his paws. They are carrying a line ashore. They always
+jump off like this at every landing-place. They shake themselves like
+dogs as they land, and the sun soon dries their one and only garment.
+But it takes a good while before the line is fixed up to the captain's
+liking!
+
+Then the people swarm across the plank into the great barge, or flat,
+tied alongside of us, and a shouting sing-song begins as men and girls
+alike hurry up and down carrying on board sacks of monkey-nuts. They
+work hard and untiringly and always good-humouredly; the popular notion
+that the Burman is a lazy fellow is based on the fact that he won't work
+if he can help it, but when he has to he does it with goodwill. A funny
+little incident occurs. The captain, walking down his own gangway, is
+run into by a coolie who is heading up the plank with a sack on his
+shoulders; wrathfully the captain sends him and his sack flying, and
+they both land in deep water. That is nothing, however, for every Burman
+can swim, and no one bears any ill-feeling about it.
+
+Crowds of little boys and girls are dancing and splashing about on the
+edge of the water with infinite glee. A mother comes down with her baby
+and goes into deep water with the tiny thing clinging to her; suddenly
+she lets it go, and swimming with one hand holds it up with the other
+while it kicks spasmodically like a little frog. The babies learn to
+swim before they can walk.
+
+Joyce is seized with a brilliant idea. "Mother," she cries, "those toys
+we bought in the bazaar! Mayn't I give them to the children?"
+
+Taking leave for granted she flies into her cabin and returns with two
+gaily painted wooden animals whose legs move on strings; there is a
+yellow tiger with a red mouth, and a purple monkey. Joyce stands as high
+as she can on the rail and makes the tiger jump its legs up and down. A
+yell of delight from the children on the shore shows that she is
+understood. They plunge into the water like porpoises, and after a
+minute Joyce drops the tiger straight down. It is a good distance to
+swim, some fifty yards, perhaps, and the little black heads bob up and
+down frantically as the youngsters make desperate attempts to get
+through the water.
+
+Good! Go it! Two little boys about equal size are well ahead of the
+others and rapidly nearing the prize. It is just a toss-up which gets
+it; they grab simultaneously, but their fingers close on empty water.
+The tiger has disappeared, sucked down by something into the depths! Has
+it been eaten by a fish?
+
+No, there it is, having risen to the surface again some yards distant,
+grasped by a thin little arm. The owner of the arm emerges the next
+instant, shaking back her long black hair. It is a small girl, who
+actually dived under the boys and snatched the prize away! She deserves
+it, and holding it on high lies on her back and kicks her way back to
+land with her legs. She is a magnificent swimmer. They all follow her
+and crowd around her on the shore while she dangles the treasure in the
+sun, but no one attempts to take it from her.
+
+[Illustration: BURMESE BOYS.]
+
+At the moment everyone has forgotten that there may be more forthcoming,
+and when Joyce holds up the purple monkey only one tiny podgy fellow
+sees it, and slipping silently into the water exerts himself
+tremendously to get well out before the others discover him. He swims
+slowly, for he is very small, and when he is half-way across the others
+are after him like a pack of hounds; but he gets the monkey, and turns
+his bright eager face up to us radiant with delight. One of the elder
+boys carries his treasure back for him, and by the way the little fellow
+yields it up readily it is quite evident that he is not in the least
+afraid of its being taken from him. His faith is justified, for he gets
+it back directly he lands, and then the children dance round the two
+lucky ones, singing and making such a noise that a troop of anxious
+parents hurry down to find out what is the matter. Those toys will be
+treasures for many a long day.
+
+The steamer screeches and we are off once more. Soon we see a great
+sugar-loaf hill in the distance, also a perfect forest of pagodas of all
+shapes and sizes along the river bank. This is Pagahn, a celebrated
+place, now deserted and melancholy. Imagine a strip of ground eight
+miles long and two broad, covered by hundreds of pagodas; it is said
+there are nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, but no one could
+count them, for half of them are mere heaps of stones, so possibly there
+may be one more to make a round number! Pagahn was once a capital city,
+and the then Burman king pulled down some of the pagodas to build up the
+defences of his walls when he heard that a Chinese king was coming to
+attack him; but of course he got the worst of it after such an impious
+act, as anyone would guess, and since then the place has been deserted.
+Some of the largest pagodas have been restored, which is rather a wonder
+in Burma as restoration does not make for "merit." You can see the
+snow-white outlines rising gracefully in the middle of the rough line of
+uneven buildings. Unluckily, instead of stopping here we go across the
+river and anchor at Yenangyaung, where there is a very strong smell of
+something. "I know," Joyce declares, wrinkling up her smooth little
+nose. "It's lamp oil."
+
+She is right, it is petroleum; there are here wells of it, from which it
+bursts up with great force sometimes, like a geyser.
+
+If we had been on a tourist steamer we should have visited Pagahn, but
+then we should have missed seeing much human life.
+
+An evening later the captain comes up to say that there is a pwe, or
+play, going on in the village near which we have anchored for the night,
+and wouldn't we like to go to see it? This is a grand chance, because
+Burmese pwes are very funny things indeed. The people have them at every
+chance,--births, weddings, deaths, and festivals, none are ever complete
+without a play!
+
+We dine early, and, accompanied by the captain, set out afterwards, all
+four of us, for the village. The moon is getting up but is not bright
+yet, and we can see the trees standing up against a deep blue night sky,
+with the big bright stars winking at us through the palm fronds. The
+village street is deserted, and long before we reach the end of it where
+the pwe is going on we hear an exciting clash of cymbals and bang of
+drums which sets you and Joyce dancing.
+
+At last, right in the roadway, between the thatched houses, we see a big
+crowd, and coming up to it find every man, woman, child, and baby
+belonging to the village seated on the ground or lying in front of a
+small platform. The platform is simply a few loose boards standing on
+some boxes, and when anyone walks across it the boards jump up and down.
+In front are the footlights, a row of earthenware bowls filled with oil,
+with a lighted wick floating in each one.
+
+The Burman who is giving the pwe and has sent us the message about it
+comes forward and leads us to the front courteously. He is a portly man
+with a dress of rich silk so stiff it would stand by itself, and a large
+fur cape, like those worn by coachmen in England, over his shoulders,
+for the evenings are sharp. In following him through the crowd we find
+great difficulty in avoiding stepping on arms and legs which seem to be
+strewn haphazard on the bare earth, the owners being partly covered up
+with mats or rugs. Most of the men are squatting gravely with
+bath-towels over their shoulders--they make convenient wraps. Men and
+women alike are smoking either huge green cheroots or small brown ones.
+Our seats are right in front of the stage and consist of a row of
+soap-boxes. Joyce's mother clutches me in horror. "I can't sit down
+there," she says with a gasp; "I shall fall over." The captain
+misunderstands her and gallantly tries one himself, saying, "It holds
+me, Madam." As he is at least sixteen stone in weight this sends Joyce
+off into fits of irrepressible giggles, luckily drowned by the band,
+which is making an ear-splitting noise--"La-la-la, la-la-la!" One man
+bangs an instrument like those called harmonicons, with slats of metal
+set across it all the way up. Another is seated inside a tub, the rim of
+which is entirely composed of small drums; another cracks bamboo
+clappers together in an agonising way, while clarionets do their best,
+and a pipe fills in all the intervals it can find.
+
+A girl with a very coquettish gold-embroidered jacket, which stands out
+behind like two pert wings in the same way as those worn by the
+princesses at the garden-party, is rouging her face close to us; she
+gets it to her liking by leaning over the footlights and gazing in a
+little hand-mirror, then she takes up an enormous cigar which lies
+smoking beside her and puffs away contentedly till her turn comes.
+
+Two clowns are taking their part; we can't understand a word they say,
+but their humorous faces and comic gestures are irresistibly funny.
+Suddenly Golden-Jacket puts down her cigar, springs to her feet, and
+gets across the shaking boards with marvellous serpentine movements in a
+skirt tighter even than a modern one, literally a tube wound around her
+legs. Then, waving her long thin hands and arms so that ripples seem to
+run up and down them, she sings in a thin shrill voice a long song,
+while one of the clowns breaks in with "Yes, yes" and "Come on," meant
+for us and greatly appreciated by the audience. As the song wends toward
+its end, Golden-Jacket looks behind her more than once, and at last
+stops and says something out loud.
+
+"She's telling the villain to hurry up or she won't wait for him,"
+explains the captain, who understands Burmese. "She is in a forest. You
+see the branch of a tree stuck between the boards there? That's the
+forest. She went to meet her lover, the prince, for she is a princess,
+of course, but the villain has done his job, and now he's going to catch
+her."
+
+[Illustration: IN THE PLAYHOUSE.]
+
+The princess trills out some more lines, and the villain, who has
+apparently been having great difficulties with his costume at the back
+of the stage, in full view of the audience, steps heavily forward,
+making the boards bounce right up. When she sees him she shrieks and
+faints in his arms. He makes a long speech holding her. The clowns
+appear again. The heroine shakes herself free, and with great
+self-possession squats down once more on the edge of the stage and
+resumes her cigar until her turn comes again. The branch of the tree is
+pulled up, and in its place is put a box with a piece of pink muslin
+over it, while three men in long robes come in and sit down, one on the
+box and the other two on the boards beside him, and they all talk
+interminably. The band, which has only stopped impatiently while the
+actual speaking was going on, clashes in wildly at every possible
+interval and now drowns the voices altogether for a few minutes, just to
+remind us it is there. The men on the stage continue repeating their
+parts, whether it plays or not, and apparently they are so long winded
+that the plot does not suffer at all from the sentences which are lost
+in the noise.
+
+"That's her father, the king," explains the captain. "He is taking
+counsel from his ministers how to recover his daughter and punish the
+villain. She's a boy, of course--they all are."
+
+We can hardly believe it! The slender form, the graceful movements, the
+long thin fingers, the wonderful management of that terrible skirt, the
+coquettish movements! You can hardly imagine any British boy doing it,
+can you?
+
+We are beginning to have about enough of it after a couple of hours,
+though the Burmans themselves comfortably settle down all night, and
+there are pwes that go on for days. What with the clashing music, the
+thick smoke in the air, the strange language, and a kind of dreaminess
+over everything, it is too much for Joyce, and she suddenly flops her
+head down on my shoulder in a profound slumber, hugely to your delight.
+
+Her mother's cry of "Joyce!" brings her to herself with a crimson face,
+and I see you get a surreptitious kick for giggling, which you richly
+deserve!
+
+We make a move, thank the Burmese entertainer, explain we have to be off
+early in the morning, and try to get out without setting our feet on
+anyone's head!
+
+[Illustration: A BURMESE PLAY.]
+
+"Why, it has been snowing!" you cry in amazement as we get clear. It
+does look like it. The moon is full and white, high in the heavens, and
+shows up the dust which lies thickly over the village in a mantle of
+white.
+
+I think Joyce is asleep most of the way back. "I feel as if I were
+drugged," she says as we haul her up the gangway.
+
+Next day at sunrise we are off.
+
+After golden hours of placid slipping down the shining waterway we pull
+up at about five for the night, and having finished tea we four sally
+forth for a walk, little dreaming what is going to happen.
+
+Joyce's mother is a most attractive woman. She is well read, very keenly
+alive, and has travelled a great deal. She and I have much in common,
+and, I must say, as I help her across the paddy fields I forget all
+about you two.
+
+It is not until we turn to go home that I miss you.
+
+"They can't be far," I say reassuringly, and give a loud cooee, but
+there is no response.
+
+"They can't possibly come to harm here," I say. "There is nothing to
+hurt them," and I shout again.
+
+"Perhaps they have circled round and gone back to the ship another way,"
+Joyce's mother suggests, and we turn. Darkness falls very quickly here,
+and it is dark before we get on board, but in answer to our anxious
+questions we find no one has seen anything of you.
+
+Joyce's mother is very brave and sensible, but I can see that her heart
+is torn with anxiety. I try to comfort her by telling her that you are
+as good as a man, and have been brought up to look after yourself, but
+it makes little difference. She agrees, however, to remain on the
+steamer while the captain and I and a couple of Lascars with lanterns go
+forth again.
+
+What a night we have of it! We wander far and wide, calling and waving
+the lights with no result, and when we come back in the grey dawn, with
+troubled hearts, there is still no news.
+
+"Someone has taken them in," says the captain. "They're queer fellows,
+these Burmans; they daren't go out at nights for fear of spooks. You'll
+see they'll bring them safely back in the morning."
+
+And he is right, for, as the sky flashes rosy red, we see you afar off
+coming across the fields. A sight you are, indeed, as you come nearer,
+with your torn clothes and scratched faces! But Joyce's mother gives a
+cry of joy and precipitates herself across the flat and along the
+gangway, hatless, and clasps her daughter in her arms as if she would
+never let her go again. You and I are not so emotional, but I'm jolly
+glad to see you again!
+
+You shall tell your story in your own words. I wrote it down exactly as
+you told it to me, so that your people might have it.
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST THING WE SAW WERE TWO HUGE ELEPHANTS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+JIM'S STORY
+
+
+Joyce's a brick. She can do most things boys can, and we soon began
+racing each other along those little raised bits of earth between the
+beds in the paddy fields. I splashed right in once or twice and we
+shrieked with laughter. By and by we found ourselves through that and
+out on a flat place covered with thorns. They weren't very high mostly,
+and we didn't feel them through our shoes, but now and again one caught
+us on the ankles and then didn't we hop! By the time we had reached the
+road I suppose we had lost sight of you altogether. I didn't think about
+it. I just had a feeling we must scramble on in that fizzing red sunset
+light, and then when we got tired turn plump round and go straight back
+to the ship the same way. I didn't really think about it, though.
+
+The road? Yes, it was a sort of a road, at least it was a clear space
+marked all over with deep ruts and lined by little trees, and it ran
+ever so far both ways, as Euclid says a line does. The first thing we
+saw were two huge elephants, striding along with a wooden thing on the
+neck of one, banging and rattling as his head went up and down. A man
+was sitting on his neck and he took no notice of us at all, but
+they--the elephants, I mean--just loped along in that swinging way they
+do; I think it must make anyone sea-sick to be on their backs. We stared
+at them till they got far away. Then I discovered that the little trees
+were mimosa, which shrivel up when you touch them. They had dropped
+seeds on the ground, I suppose, for under them were tiny little mimosas,
+not trees but scrub stuff. Joyce had never seen any, and when I rubbed
+my hand across them and she saw them wither up, she cried out, "What a
+shame! Dear little things, don't be afraid of me!" and plumped herself
+down beside them to cuddle them, but they withered more than ever. How
+we laughed! The ones I had withered first were just beginning to come
+right again, and I was going to make them shut up once more, and she had
+caught my hand to stop me, when we heard a noise and looked up, and
+there was a great buffalo coming right at us with his nose stuck up
+straight in the air as if he smelt something nasty. You never saw
+anything so comic! Joyce cried out, "Oh, what a darling!" But into my
+head, quick as lightning, came what you told me about buffaloes, who
+hate Europeans savagely, though a Burmese child of four can drive them
+with a twig. I grabbed Joyce's hand and pulled her up, and then I saw he
+was coming for us and no mistake, with his nose up in that absurd
+fashion, and his great horns sticking out. We made a bolt for the
+nearest tree just as the buffalo plunged across the place we had been,
+like a runaway motor-car. Then he stopped and looked funny. All at once
+he caught sight of my topee, which had fallen off and rolled away a bit,
+and up went his nose again, and when he reached it down went his head
+and into it like a battering-ram; and didn't he make the clods fly as he
+spiked his horns into it. The trees were not very high, and had smooth
+stems so far up, and then a lot of branches. If we could get up there
+we'd be all right.
+
+[Illustration: ALL AT ONCE HE CAUGHT SIGHT OF MY TOPEE.]
+
+"Get up the tree, Joyce," I whispered. "I'll boost you."
+
+So I did, shoving her up for all I was worth, and she hung on as high as
+she could reach, and there she stuck; even the best girls aren't quite
+like boys.
+
+"Swarm up it," I urged.
+
+"I can't," she said in an agonised voice, and I saw it was true, her
+petticoats were to blame, of course; any boy would have been up before
+you could say "knife."
+
+Down she came again with a thud, and old Mr. Buffalo heard it and made
+for us like a fiend. We ran for the next tree and dodged him round it;
+it was a bit too exciting! He made rushes at us dead straight, and we
+tried always to keep the trunk of the tree between us and him as if it
+were the leader in Fox and Geese. When he came past like a bolt we ran
+the other side, but once or twice he nearly spiked us, and if he had
+knocked one of us down, or we had stumbled, it would have been all up
+with us. It was exhausting too. I was fearfully out of breath myself;
+being on a steamer a fellow can't keep in training, and as for Joyce,
+she was panting so that she couldn't speak.
+
+Then I noticed that across the road was a jungly thicket; it was not
+open ground, as it was on the side we had come from, and I thought if we
+could reach that we might perhaps lose the gentleman, or he would lose
+us.
+
+So I explained to Joyce in gasps that the next time he charged we must
+run behind his back and bolt across the road; she nodded and clutched my
+hand tighter than ever.
+
+So we did it and were half-way over the road--it was very wide--before
+he found it out.
+
+All the time, I must tell you, he had been making a funny little noise,
+a bit between a grunt and squeak, quite ridiculous for a huge black
+hairy beast like him; if I had had any breath to waste it would have
+made me laugh.
+
+Now we heard that funny little noise--Uweekuweekuweek--just like that,
+coming over the road; we hadn't time to look. Never did any road I ever
+crossed seem so long; it was like a bad dream. We slipped and stumbled
+and didn't seem to make any headway, and every moment I expected to
+feel that great head in the flat of my back sending me sprawling ready
+to be spiked. At last we reached the line of bushes, and I gave Joyce a
+great pull with all my strength to pitch her to one side, for he was
+close on us then, and she went headlong and fell full length into the
+bushes, and I dropped on the top of her just as his majesty thundered
+past.
+
+We lay there quiet as mice, though it was awfully uncomfortable; I was
+squashing Joyce to bits, and great thorns seemed running into me all
+over. Then a dreadful thought occurred to me--there were probably snakes
+there! Which was worst, snakes or the buffalo? And I asked cautiously--
+
+"Have you been stung, Joyce?" and she answered so gravely, "Not yet,"
+that I exploded, and, would you believe it, that old animal that had
+been rootling about in the bushes to find us, heard it and came at us
+again. We scrambled up and ran, tripping and tearing and crashing on
+into that wood, and I think he found some difficulty in following us,
+for after a while we couldn't hear him any more.
+
+We stopped and listened with all our ears, but it seemed as if we were
+safe, for he wasn't a crafty animal and didn't know enough to come along
+quietly and surprise us. It was very dark there in that jungle, and for
+the first time I thought of you and how anxious you and Joyce's mother
+would be. So I said, "Come along home now," and pulled hold of Joyce.
+But she resisted and said, "It's not that way, silly; it's just the
+opposite."
+
+I was positive and so was she.
+
+I tried to think of all the things one tells by: the stars, but there
+weren't any, and I couldn't have done much with them if there had been;
+the moss on the north side of the trees, but there didn't seem to be
+any. I guess it's different in Burma. However, there was just a
+yellowish glow still, and I knew that must be in the west, and as the
+river runs north and south, and we were on the left bank, I guessed the
+way I wanted to go was about right. When I had proved it to Joyce she
+gave in and said she had said it all the time, just as women always do!
+
+So we walked and walked, but we never came to that old road again. Once
+I thought I'd found it, but it was only some open, flat, thorny ground.
+It was very dark then, the dark comes on so fast here. Suddenly we both
+began to run as hard as we could, hand in hand; I don't know why,
+something set us off and I felt just as if I must, and I suppose Joyce
+did too, and then--crash!--before we knew where we were--smash!--we were
+flying, slipping, tobogganing down through some bushes, with our feet
+shooting out under us, and at last we reached the bottom. It was a steep
+gully, a kind of nullah. When we did get down we arrived separately, for
+we had had to let go to save ourselves. I was awfully sore, I know, and
+I wondered what had happened to her, being a girl and so much softer.
+But she didn't seem to mind much, for when I sang out, she answered
+quite cheerfully, "I'm sitting in the middle of a bramble bush like a
+bumble-bee. Do they sit in bushes, though? I think I'm getting a little
+mixed!"
+
+A girl like that is a jolly good pal, I can tell you!
+
+It was a snaky place and that is what I was afraid of. We trod carefully
+along the bottom and made noises to scare them off. Then I had a happy
+thought; I had a box of matches with me, and I kept on striking them
+till we found a handful of dry twigs which burnt up finely. It was so
+still there that they blazed straight and steady, and I used them as a
+torch and flourished them about low down as we walked.
+
+I don't know if we really did see any snakes. Joyce is quite positive
+she counted fourteen, sliding away in front of the light at different
+times; but then she sees things much quicker than I do.
+
+[Illustration: WE HAD TO PLUNGE THROUGH MARSHY GROUND.]
+
+It took us a long time to get out of that nullah, and we tried all sorts
+of different ways, but the sides were too steep. Often we had to stop to
+get more twigs, and once, just as I had got a handful, Joyce said, "Why,
+there are little plums growing on them." We ate quite a lot, and they
+were refreshing and bitter, but it didn't mean much, for they were all
+skin and stone.
+
+The nullah sloped up at the end, and after a good deal of hard work I
+hauled her up. It was jolly cold, I can tell you, and when we saw a
+light moving about ahead we made a bee-line for it. Joyce thought it
+was a will-o'-the-wisp; she had never seen one, but she had read of
+them, and she said they moved up and down just like that. We had to
+plunge through a lot of very marshy ground before we got to it, and
+sometimes we lost sight of it altogether; but it came again, and then it
+went out for good. We arrived at a high thorny hedge and I shouted, and
+then there was such a noise you would have thought the world was coming
+to an end,--dogs barking, cocks crowing, people chattering, and at last
+a man with a lantern crept out from the hedge--it must have been his
+light we had seen--and he was followed by heaps of others, all Burmans,
+and they waved the light about; and when they saw who we were, and that
+we were alone, they were very kind and took us in through an opening in
+the hedge, and kicked the dogs away. We couldn't see much inside, for
+the moon wasn't up then, but they led us to a house, and made us go up a
+ladder on to a verandah and into a nice wooden room, where there was a
+civilised oil lamp on a bracket, and several women and children sitting
+and lying about on mats on the floor.
+
+Joyce looked at me and I at her and we both knew what sights we were,
+all scratched and torn and muddy. Her dress had been white when we
+started, but you could hardly tell that now. I don't know how she felt,
+but I was glad to drop down on to a mat they gave us. We tried to
+explain who we were, but no one understood any English. Then they
+brought us some water from a great jar in the corner; they handed it to
+us in half a coco-nut, but it smelt so that we couldn't touch it, though
+we were awfully thirsty. So one of the men who had followed us in took
+up a round green thing with a smooth shell outside (I never knew
+coco-nuts looked like that before), and with his great knife made four
+cuts across the top in a neat square, and took out the piece as if it
+were a lid, and offered us the nut, making signs we were to drink it.
+Joyce tried first and nodded with pleasure. "It's good," she said, and
+it was! A sort of sickly sweet stuff came out like sugary water, and
+when you drank a lot of it it made you feel very full inside suddenly.
+When I read about coco-nut milk in _Swiss Family Robinson_ I always
+thought it was really like milk.
+
+Then they opened a great tubful of cooked rice and put some on two
+plates and gave it to us, and they put beside us two little bowls filled
+with smashed-up sardines, at least I thought it was that, but oh----You
+would have known it was there a mile off! I would have stood it, because
+I didn't want to hurt their feelings, as they meant to be polite, but
+Joyce stuffed her skirt into her mouth and held her nose, and they all
+laughed and took it away quite easily. There were no forks or spoons,
+but we were very hungry, so we just fell to with our fingers on the rice
+and it wasn't at all bad, I can tell you. When we had done they gave us
+some very good bananas--I could have done with more of them--and then
+they tried us with a lump of stuff that was simply a bit of wood; it
+came from the Jack-fruit tree. I saw one growing right out of the trunk
+on a little stalk by itself next day, but how anyone ever eats it I
+can't imagine.
+
+When we had finished they poured water over our fingers to clean them, a
+very unsatisfactory sort of wash it was, and the water ran away between
+the boards, quite convenient that!
+
+When we were satisfied we began to take more notice of what the house
+was like. The walls were made of very coarse mats, and there were no
+tables or chairs. There were a number of people; the father of the
+house, who had brought us in, had a kind shrewd face, so that you
+couldn't help liking him, and the mother was a very thin, plain, little
+old woman, with twinkling eyes. Joyce thought first she was the cook,
+for she had no jewellery on at all and no fine clothes, while the two
+girls, the daughters, were quite smart. They were all ready to laugh and
+smile, but the two girls were the most friendly; they sat down by Joyce
+and fingered her skirt and examined her very dilapidated shoes. "I wish
+they wouldn't, Jim," she said, trying to pull them up under her very
+short skirt, which was no use at all. At last she took them off because
+they were so wet, and one of the girls put her little brown toes into
+them, and then they all shrieked with laughter again. You couldn't help
+laughing too, they were so jolly nice.
+
+I put my finger on Joyce and said "Joyce," then on me and said "Jim,"
+and then pointed at the two girls; they understood at once and said Mah
+Kway Yoh (Miss Dog's Bone) and Mee Meht (Miss Affection). Then they
+pointed to a young man at the back and said Moung Poh Sin (Mr.
+Grandfather Elephant).
+
+I tried to make them understand we wanted to get back to the ship, but
+nothing would do it. "Draw it," suggested Joyce. She had a wee gold
+pencil on her gold bangle, but we had no paper and there was none
+there--there wasn't anything, in fact, except a box. "On your cuff,"
+Joyce suggested, but I hadn't any cuffs, only a soft shirt.
+
+"On the floor," she said then.
+
+I tried, but of course the lead broke. They all gathered round, much
+interested, pushing their shiny black heads close together. It's funny
+that they all have just the same sort of hair, isn't it? They followed
+everything I did with the deepest interest, and then went into fits of
+laughter, and so did we.
+
+Just then a boy came in, not much older than me. He had on very few
+clothes, and his legs looked as if they were stained dark blue. When he
+came near to me and saw me looking at them with very much interest he
+showed them to us. They were tattooed all over like a pair of breeches,
+and the pictures on them were very well done; there were tigers and a
+kind of dragon, like those we saw at the pagoda steps, and many other
+animals, and each one was in a kind of scrollwork which made a little
+frame. He spoke a few words of English and pointed at the two men and
+said, "Them too," then, "All Burmans." It is odd they should go through
+all that pain; what's the use of it?
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE TATTOOED ALL OVER LIKE A PAIR OF BREECHES.]
+
+I tried to explain to him about the ship. I called it "ship," "steamer,"
+"vessel," "craft," and everything else I could think of, but he shook
+his head. At last Joyce suggested "big boat," and then he understood,
+and got quite excited and told the others. Partly by gestures he made us
+understand that we were a very long way off, and that no one could take
+us back that night, but that we could go early in the morning. I wanted
+to know why not now, but he waved his arms and said, "Nats, beloos," and
+looked quickly over his shoulder.
+
+"Nats are spirits," said Joyce. "I know all about it. The Burmese are
+frightened of them, and put little bits of rag at the top of the posts
+in the houses for them to live in, so that they won't come inside.
+Mother read that to me out of a book."
+
+We looked for the little rags, but couldn't see them, though I expect
+they were there. Joyce knows a lot for a girl.
+
+Well, we couldn't go home by ourselves, so presently we lay down on our
+mats and went fast asleep, and I suppose everyone else did too. Anyway,
+it was morning when I woke. Perfectly glorious it was! I shall never
+forget that morning. Joyce was out on the verandah already, and I went
+and stood beside her. The moon was there still, but every moment growing
+paler and paler. The air was full of that burnt-wood smell which is
+clean and rather nice. The sun seemed simply to rush up, and in five
+minutes from a world of black shadows and no colours it turned to a
+world of green and blue and yellow. The houses were all like ours, built
+on legs with thatched roofs, and there were great shady mango trees and
+plantains growing beside them. The dogs were everywhere, and the people
+were squatting in the sun to warm their backs. We ate more rice and
+drank more coco-nut milk, and then we shook hands all round and thanked
+the people, and went away with the boy to guide us. His name was Moung
+Ohn (Mr. Coco-Nut) he told us. We made him write down his own and his
+sisters' names on a piece of paper in Burmese on the ship afterwards, so
+that we could always keep them.
+
+It was quite a long way, as he had said, but it was so beautiful we
+wanted to dance and jump all the time. Moung Ohn scolded off the beastly
+pariah dogs and led us out of the hole in the great stockade and through
+a grove of palms. He pointed to two different sorts, one was the usual
+kind, feathery, and coco-nuts grew on that. He pointed to himself and
+grinned, but we didn't understand till afterwards that his name was
+"Coco-Nut." The other sort of palm had leaves like the great fans people
+sometimes have in drawing-rooms, at least Joyce said they were. A man
+was walking down the long, straight stem of one, and I could see, as
+Moung Ohn had said, that his legs were tattooed too. He just walked
+down. He had a band round his waist and round the tree, so he leaned
+against it and pressed the soles of his feet against the tree. I longed
+to try, but Joyce was wanting to get back to her mother. When the man
+came down he had a little iron pot filled with juice, and he offered it
+to me to drink, but when I looked in and saw dead flies and insects by
+the dozen I declined politely. He had hung up other little pots on the
+tree near the stalks of the great leaves in which he had cut gashes, so
+the juice dripped out into them. I found out this makes a strong drink
+called toddy.
+
+We passed over rice fields, where many of the people were at work
+already, and then, after going a good distance, we got on to the road,
+but it was not the same part where we were the day before. I'm beginning
+now not to be quite so sure that my direction was right after all, but
+don't say so before Joyce.
+
+Just then we heard a most awful noise like a hundred demons groaning and
+shrieking together.
+
+"Nats!" exclaimed Joyce, standing stockstill. Moung Ohn laughed and
+shook his head. Then there came into sight a slow lumbering bullock-cart
+with the wheels screaming enough to give you toothache. Why on earth
+don't they grease them?
+
+"Perhaps they prefer them like that," said Joyce, and I expect she is
+right.
+
+It wasn't long before we reached the steamer, and then what a scene!
+When I saw how Joyce was smothered I was glad men don't kiss. You just
+shook hands with me and told me I was an object to scare crows with!
+
+When we offered Moung Ohn some money for his trouble he refused to take
+it, and went away saying good-bye so gracefully, bowing and touching his
+forehead with his hand.
+
+[Illustration: SAMPANS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS
+
+
+In every long journey there comes a time when one feels a little dreary.
+So many new things have been seen that the mind and eye are tired. Then
+maybe there is just a touch of home-sickness mingled with it, and when
+one gets to a part less beautiful than what has gone before all at once
+there is a longing to turn and fly back to all that we are accustomed
+to. It seems to me that you and I are suffering from that now. We have
+left Burma behind, and for two days have ploughed down the Gulf of
+Martaban toward Penang in the Straits Settlements. We did not want to
+make friends with anyone on board, and were just a trifle grumpy even
+toward each other. We felt the parting from Joyce and her mother, who
+had made Burma so enjoyable, and we weren't ready to begin making new
+friends all at once.
+
+Burma forms the western part of a great peninsula, and stretching out
+southward from it is a long arm, the shape of an Indian club, narrower
+in the neck and broadening out, to run up finally to a point. Alongside
+of the broadest part is the great island of Sumatra, belonging to the
+Dutch, who are our principal rivals in this region of the world.
+
+"The captain's compliments, and we're going to set off some rockets to
+scare the sea-birds," says one of the officers, suddenly appearing
+beside us. "We're passing close by that little island there--Pulo Pera."
+
+Now there is something to see we wake up at once. Sure enough there it
+is ahead, a little island rising like a cliff out of the water. It is
+evidently deep close in, for we go quite near to it. Just as we are
+abreast off goes rocket after rocket, and in a moment the scene is
+transformed as if by magic. A dense mass of shrieking, screaming birds
+springs to life. The moment before the sun was shining in a clear sky,
+now in an instant it is obscured as by a thick cloud. You never saw
+anything like it! The birds on the Bass Rock are fairly thick, but
+here--day is turned to night and the commotion and uproar are wildly
+exciting, like the clash of legions in the sky.
+
+Long after we are past we can see them thinning down gradually as some
+keep dropping back on to their island home, while the more restless,
+nervous spirits still circle and swoop in loops and curves.
+
+A marvellous sight!
+
+Penang itself is an island, and as we swing round to the capital town,
+Georgetown, on the inner or land side, we see an astonishing mass of
+green, with a great hill clothed almost to the summit rising behind the
+town. We can go up there to-morrow if you like, as we have a day to
+spend here owing to a change of steamers.
+
+As we come to anchor in the bay a perfect swarm of small boats, called
+sampans, dance round the ship, and the owners offer their wares with
+astonishing noise. Looking down you can see the yellow faces of the men
+who have narrow eyes and pigtails coiled round their heads under
+enormous hats. It looks as if we had tumbled into China by mistake, for
+these are nearly all Chinamen, and yet the inhabitants of this country
+are Malays. The Malay, however, is like the Burman in that he does not
+care to exert himself if he can help it, so he lets the Chink, as the
+Chinamen are familiarly called, do all the business. The rich earth
+yields a hundredfold, and the Malay has only to scratch a very little of
+it very gently, and plant or sow a small quantity of something, and he
+is provided for for a year! The Chinaman is an industrious soul and an
+uncommonly good market-gardener, so he grows vegetables for sale and
+makes a good thing out of it; half these boats are full of vegetables
+grown by the very men who are selling them.
+
+Soon we are in a sampan, being rapidly rowed shore-wards. The man works
+the boat standing up and faces the way he is going; he does it very
+easily, with the ends of his long oars crossed over and worked almost
+entirely by wrist play. We are right under a high, old-fashioned-looking
+trading ship now; do you see that great eye painted on the bows? There
+is another on the other side. That shows it is a Chinese ship; the men
+have a superstition that the ship cannot see without these eyes. They
+say, "No got eye, no can see; no can see, no can savee."
+
+Great rocks stick out from the foliage on the hillside, and nearer is
+the town, with its pretty thatched houses and palatial mansions and
+avenues of greenery. It is all slightly different from the countries we
+have seen already, and yet it is difficult to say quite where the
+difference lies. Here is our old friend the rickshaw man, only he is a
+Chinaman, of course, and some of these rickshaws are two-seated, so we
+can both get into one; the man who pulls starts off gently as if it were
+no trouble. He wears nothing above the waist, and we can see the
+well-developed muscles moving under his sun-browned skin. On the road we
+meet many Chinese women dressed in trousers; you must have seen some in
+Hyde Park, I think, for people often bring them over to England as
+nurses for their children, they are so clean and reliable. They all wear
+trousers like that, just plain, straight down, shapeless trousers, with
+a tunic falling over them; it is a neat and effective dress.
+
+[Illustration: CHINESE LADY IN TROUSERS.]
+
+Whew! It's hot! I don't feel inclined to move a limb; this steamy heat
+is so much more trying than the heat we had in the dry zone of Burma,
+where you and Joyce got lost; there the nights were always cool, almost
+sharp sometimes. That building you are pointing at, with the dragons
+over the doorway, is a Chinese temple, and I don't suppose they would
+mind our going in at all. It looks nice and cool, anyway. We stop the
+rickshaw man and pass through several courtyards enclosed by high walls.
+In one is an open upper storey like a first-floor room with a wall
+knocked out; this is a stage. You may well ask how anyone in the
+courtyard can see the play--they can't! Only the favoured few who sit in
+the galleries get a good view!
+
+In all the courts a few Chinamen lounge about on the steps; they are
+probably half-stupid with opium, for they are not naturally lazy.
+Passing on to the inner shrine we see a much-decorated screen, behind
+which an image is hidden, but we are not allowed to pull it aside. The
+room in which it stands is crowded with hideous figures, squat devils,
+grinning dragons, and other disagreeable forms. Before them are empty
+tin biscuit-boxes full of sand, in which are stuck messy little tapers.
+There is a funny smell of incense mixed with tallow in the air. It is a
+creepy, uncomfortable place, and the Chinese religion is not one that
+would attract a stranger; I expect you would have to be brought up in it
+to understand it!
+
+Unfortunately next day our expedition to the mountain is spoilt by
+torrents of rain which stream down unceasingly, and time hangs heavy on
+our hands.
+
+"It always rains here, all the year round, more or less," says a
+friendly Englishman in the hotel. "If you like I'll take you to see a
+well-to-do Chinaman who is a friend of mine. The Chinamen are all rich
+here, lots of them keep motors." We gladly accept and go off under
+borrowed umbrellas to the outskirts of the town. The house stands by
+itself in a clump of trees and is very imposing with its great white
+marble pillars; as we get near we see huge gold letters in weird
+characters all across the front. Then before we have time to notice any
+more we are in the hall looking at a great bowl of gold-fish, and in
+another minute our host is bowing before us. He is wearing a very
+magnificent embroidered coat of red silk with great wing-like sleeves;
+the embroidery is a marvel, dragons in blue and gold, and fishes of
+rainbow hues disport themselves all over it. Under it is a short black
+satin petticoat, rather like a kilt, and black boots with thick white
+felt soles. The gentleman is tall and well made, a fine figure of a man,
+and on his head is a little round black cap, from which escapes his
+pigtail. He stands bowing before us and shaking hands with himself,
+which, as a method of greeting, is perhaps better than our own way. He
+takes us into a dark gloomy room full of cabinets of black lacquer
+richly decorated with gold and mother-of-pearl. There are sombre carved
+wood chairs set back against the wall. It is all very costly, but to us
+it seems uncomfortable and funereal. The chief things that attract us
+are rows of little red pieces of paper of odd lengths hanging over
+strings from the ceiling, as if they were drying after a washing-day.
+The Englishman explains that the Chinaman is very proud of these, for
+they are all New Year's greetings from his friends, and the number of
+them shows what a popular man he must be. As the Chinese New Year's Day
+is on April the first, and that was only a week ago, these are all new;
+but if we had arrived at any time of the year we should have seen them
+just the same, for they are left hanging all the year round till the
+next lot arrives.
+
+[Illustration: A CHINESE GENTLEMAN.]
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CHINESE HOUSE AT SINGAPORE.]
+
+On the whole we are not sorry to leave Penang; we have felt limp all the
+time, worse even than we did in the Red Sea. The steamer we board this
+time is the _Khyber_ of the P. & O. Company. She belongs to the
+Intermediate Line, which comes right out to Japan from England, taking
+about six weeks on the way. For anyone who wants change and rest and no
+worry that's a fine voyage, as the boats stop at many places. We shall
+go on with her to Japan. As we are starting on the steamer we hear
+various cracks and snaps from the boats near, where crackers are being
+exploded. The captain happens to pass on the way to the bridge and
+smiles as he hears them. "They're not firing salvos in our honour," he
+says; "they think the ship is full of devils, and in case a few have
+escaped and might land in their blameless boats, they're frightening
+them back again before it is too late." It makes a great difference to
+have a captain who takes an interest in his passengers and bothers to
+tell them incidents as they happen, though to him they may be dull as
+ditch water, as he has been through them all dozens of times already.
+The next time we meet the captain it is growing dusk, and he points
+ahead to what looks like a black rock looming up sheer from the sea.
+"Curious thing that," he says meditatively; "it's an island, Pulo
+Jarrak,--islands are all Pulo here,--and owing to the quantity of rain
+which falls here the vegetation grows so thickly it makes the island
+stand right out; even on a dark night you can see it ten to twenty miles
+off. It looks quite black."
+
+We have only one stop on the way to Singapore, exactly midway between it
+and Penang, at Port Swettenham.
+
+As we pass southward the Straits narrow and we can see the hills of
+Sumatra on one side, and sometimes funny little villages built on piles
+out over the water on the other. Pretty good sport to be able to drop a
+fishing-line out of one's front door, isn't it?
+
+When the land gets very close on both sides we swing round suddenly, and
+behold! we are at Singapore, which, like Penang, is an island, and
+stands at the extreme south point of the long peninsula. It guards this
+useful passage where all the traffic between China and Japan on the one
+side comes to India on the other, just as Aden guards the Red Sea and
+Gibraltar the Mediterranean. Great Britain manages somehow to pick up
+all the lucky bits, and it is not by design either, it just happens that
+way. I can tell how this one happened; it was because there chanced to
+be a Man out here--a Man with a capital letter!
+
+We go ashore and get into rickshaws and start for the town, which is a
+long three miles off. We shan't have time to do more than look round.
+The road runs by the docks at Singapore, which are enormous and extend
+all along the coast up to the town. On the way we pass men of all
+nations. There are natives of India, companies of Sikhs, Madrassees like
+Ramaswamy,--who is well on his way back to his master now,--Cingalese,
+Tamils with frizzy heads, little Japanese ladies in rickshaws, plenty of
+Chinese, and many Malays. The Malays are yellow rather than brown; they
+have just that slight narrowing of the eyes which tells they are akin to
+the Chinese, and they are, as a rule, well-made neat men, wearing loose
+blue skirts, with orange or red sashes, and large hats; some of them
+have short white jackets which are the universal top garments out here,
+when there are any at all.
+
+The town itself is astonishingly well built; electric trams run
+everywhere, and there are splendid public buildings. As we trot along in
+our rickshaws we enter a large square. Do you see the name up there?
+Raffles Square. Sir Stamford Raffles was the man who made Singapore. In
+his time, the first part of the nineteenth century, Great Britain was
+very anxious to give away everything she had in the East to the first
+person who asked for it, as she did not want to fight about it, and
+could not see what use it could be, for the idea of Imperialism and
+Empire had not been developed. The Dutch asked largely and always got
+what they asked for, whether they had a right to it or not; this enraged
+Raffles, who happened to be out here, and so he looked around and
+noticed that the island of Singapore was placed in a wonderful position
+for trade, that it commanded the Straits, and that no one as yet had
+made any claim on it. He settled down here and put up the British flag.
+It was years before his country finally decided to acknowledge him and
+not give his territory up to the Dutch, who immediately asked for it;
+but in the end they did, and now here stands Singapore, a mighty city
+with miles of docks, a colossal trade, and a teeming population. There
+is a statue to Sir Stamford Raffles, as it is right there should be. The
+Botanical Gardens are worth seeing, and we can get tiffin in one of the
+palatial hotels, and then we must go back to the ship.
+
+[Illustration: A VILLAGE BUILT ON PILES, SUMATRA.
+
+LITTLE BROWN BOYS PLAY ABOUT AND FISH.]
+
+The scene in the bay as we depart is most lovely; ships of every nation
+are at anchor there, and as we pass out slowly we see island after
+island all covered with that rich green growth which is the result of
+the constant rain and warmth. Blue and green and gold is the world, and
+the little brown boys play about their water-built villages, tumbling in
+and out of the water, and living in the warm sea as much as on land day
+by day. Shoals of them come round us in their catamarans and dive for
+money, catching the silver bit as it twinkles down through the water,
+even though they make their spring from many yards off. As we get
+farther out we feel the difference in temperature at once, for now we
+are heading north, and the night is cold and rough--it is like passing
+into another climate.
+
+[Illustration: PIGTAILS.]
+
+These are wonderful seas, and dearly should I like some day to bring you
+on a cruise in and about this group of great islands to the south, which
+is like nothing else in the world! There is Borneo, that gigantic
+island, twice as large as the British Isles, which belongs partly to the
+British and partly to the Dutch. The story of Sir Stamford Raffles is
+outdone by the story of the Rajah of Sarawak, which shows that even in
+our own times the blood of Drake and Cook runs in the veins of
+Englishmen.
+
+Hong-Kong is another island and also belongs to the British; it was
+given to them by treaty in 1841. As we sail in under the lee of the
+island by the narrow entrance to the bay between it and the mainland, we
+see what a splendid natural harbour this is. High above on the island
+rises what is called the Peak, and up and up and up it, in rows and
+terraces, are the houses of the people who live here. We can go up the
+Peak by a tram-line if we have time. The city is called Victoria, and is
+actually built on the rock or, rather, on terraces cut out of the face
+of it, one above the other. It is strange to find this little British
+colony isolated here on a bit of China, separated from the real China by
+half a mile of sea. As the steamer comes to rest on the mainland side at
+Kowloon Wharf we must take a ferry over to the city.
+
+Once we are there we find a well-built town with wide roads, tree lined
+and very clean; there are many quite English-looking buildings of stone,
+and in the shops a strange mixture of wares, European and Eastern. Some
+of the shops are piled with the rich Eastern silk embroideries, ivory
+and lacquer work, carvings and fans, silver and metal work, paintings
+and furniture.
+
+We have time to run up to the top by the tramway, and higher and higher
+as we go, houses still, houses all the way, and even at the very top
+there are some houses where the governor and other important people live
+in summer. It has been gloomy and cloudy all day, threatening rain, but
+just as we reach the summit the sun comes out in yellow glory, dropping
+to the West, and all the innumerable inlets and bays are turned to gold.
+The land between stands up in capes and cliffs and headlands, rather dim
+and misty, with the golden water flashing between.
+
+We are off once more and up the coast to Shanghai, the last Chinese port
+we touch before going over to Japan.
+
+Next morning we come up on deck to find a wet, clammy fog--we might be
+back in England again--how astonishing!
+
+Now and again appearing out of the folds of swathing mist we see little
+islands and gaily painted fishing-boats, the owners of which seem bent
+on committing suicide. The boats sometimes are junks, with the square
+brown sails that we have by this time seen so often, or they are tiny
+little boats; whichever it is, they seem as if they deliberately tried
+to get under our bows, as you have seen village children run across in
+front of motor-cars. Again and again we feel the steamer sheer off a
+little to clear them, and sometimes she just succeeds in doing so. I
+expect the captain's temper is being pretty severely tried up there on
+the bridge. He stays there while the fog lasts, but when it clears a
+little in the evening he comes down for a hasty dinner.
+
+Then we get at him and make fresh demands on his patience by questions.
+He seems to have a stock left, for he laughs good-humouredly when I
+speak of the native boats. "They _do_ do it on purpose," he says; "they
+think it's good joss, as they say,--good luck that is, just to cross our
+bows. It means a never-ending look-out all along this coast, and nothing
+cures them. All the same they're some use when one gets fogged here, for
+you can generally tell where you are, to some extent, by the
+fishing-boats; they run in different colours and patterns at places
+along the coast, each part has its own special fashions in paint and
+rig."
+
+He has hardly time to swallow his dinner before he is back on the
+bridge. It's a ticklish bit of navigation here.
+
+We still thread our way close inshore through innumerable islands. One
+of them stands up stiff and straight, pointing like an obelisk to the
+sky. It is called the Finger Rock. We notice, too, very frequently, the
+white lighthouses, kept very clean. Then we go through a pass, two miles
+wide, called "Steep Island Pass," and are into the mouth of the
+Yangtsekiang River. Up this we go for a hundred miles before reaching
+Woosung, the Gravesend of Shanghai, which is still twelve or thirteen
+miles farther on. Then a turn and we are in sight of Shanghai with its
+factories and chimneys and great sheds called "godowns" with galvanised
+iron roofs. It is a disappointing place, but as we go farther on we see
+a public promenade and some clean, well-built stone houses. The
+Europeanised part of the city is, however, uninteresting, and we don't
+care to go into the native part by ourselves, so our chief amusement is
+watching the Chinese coolies loading and unloading the ship. Notice,
+they never push things on trollies, as our men do; they always carry
+everything slung on a bamboo. Even that great lump of iron, which must
+be part of some machinery, there it is, surrounded by a shouting horde
+of men, all slinging it up by their own little ropes, all giving a hand
+to carry the great mass along.
+
+We have gathered very little of China in our short time at the ports,
+but we shall be able to get a better idea of Japan. Our first idea of it
+is when we stop at the island of Rokwren two days later and take on the
+pilot who is going to run us through the far-famed Inland Sea. At the
+same time two or three smart little Japanese doctors in European dress
+come on board to inquire into the health of passengers and crew, and
+give us a permit, for the Japs are most particular about not letting any
+foreign germs be landed on their shores, and at every port doctors come
+on board to make quite sure everyone is free from illness.
+
+The next thing we know about Japan is her coal, for 1500 tons of it are
+brought on board, in little baskets, handed from one to another of long
+rows of men, women, and children, all working equally hard.
+
+[Illustration: CHINESE PORTER.]
+
+The narrow strait that leads into the Inland Sea is only a quarter of a
+mile wide, and after passing through it we steam along quietly amid the
+most beautiful scenery we have passed since leaving England. Everywhere
+are little islands, well cultivated, woody, and rocky. Rocks and hills
+and capes break up the vistas, and every time we turn a corner we see
+something better than before. The ship stops at Kobe, but, unluckily,
+you have got a touch of the sun and the doctor strictly forbids you to
+go on shore. Never mind, we'll soon be at Yokohama, which is far better.
+
+By that time you are quite yourself again, and when the captain calls
+us up on deck you are eager to go. He points to a solid triangle of
+rock, sticking up out of the sea not very far distant, and as we look at
+it a flash of red flame spurts out into the air and something red-hot
+rolls swiftly down the scored sides. What does it remind you of? It is
+another Stromboli, of course!
+
+"That," says the captain solemnly, "is the safety-valve of Japan. If it
+were blocked up there's no knowing what might happen." Then he swings
+round and points in another direction. Clear against the soft blue of
+the sky we see a sharp-pointed white cloud of a very curious shape, like
+an opened fan upside down. It seems quite detached from everything else,
+merely a curious snowy fan hanging in mid-air. "Why, it's Fujiyama, of
+course."
+
+So it is! The famous Japanese mountain seen in thousands of the
+country's drawings and paintings; in fact, it has come to be a sort of
+national signboard. Now that we know where to look we see that the white
+fan part is merely the snow-cap running in large streaks downward, and
+that this rests upon a base as blue as the sky. Henceforward we shall
+see Fujiyama at many hours of the day--never a wide-spreading view but
+Fujiyama will be there, never a long road but Fujiyama at the end of it,
+never a flat plain without it. So odd is the great mountain, and so much
+character has it, that we feel inclined to nod good-night or
+good-morning to it when it greets us.
+
+Then we enter the magnificent harbour of Yokohama with its hundreds of
+sampans, junks, tugs, ships, steamers, and every other craft. The
+smaller craft surround us clamorously, and looking down upon them we see
+that in almost every case there is a cat on board the junks, many of
+them tabby or tortoise-shell.
+
+"'Cat good joss,' as the Chinamen would say," remarks a man standing
+near us, "specially three-coloured cats. They wouldn't give a fig for
+our lucky black ones without a white hair."
+
+Hundreds of coolies are now clamouring for jobs all round. They are
+almost all dressed in blue, and those that wear upper garments have huge
+hieroglyphics of gay colours on their backs--these are the signs of
+their trades, or trades unions, as we might say, and each man wears his
+with pride.
+
+So, with a fleet of attendant boats, gaily-dressed coolies, and
+complacent cats surrounding us, we come to our anchorage, say good-bye
+to the captain with great regret, and make our plunge into this new
+land.
+
+[Illustration: GATEWAY, JAPAN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE
+
+
+We are standing in front of a mysterious gate which is yet not a gate.
+You must have seen pictures of Japan many a time, and in some of them
+there must have been one of these curious erections. Yet how can one
+describe it? The Greek letter [Greek: Pi] is most like it. Imagine a
+giant [Greek: Pi] with a second cross-bar below the top one. In Japan
+this is called a Torii. The one in front of us, rising like a great
+scaffolding far above our heads, is made of wood, but they are often of
+stone or metal too. They are always to be found before the entrance to a
+Shinto temple. There must have been some meaning in them once upon a
+time, but it is lost now, and they remain decorative but useless.
+
+We have left our rickshaw and are climbing up a long, long flight of
+steps to a Shinto temple not far from Tokyo, the capital town of Japan.
+Very many of the Japs are Buddhists, but it is a strange sort of
+Buddhism, not pure like that of the Burmans, and is mixed up with
+another religion called Shinto, and many of the people are Shintoists
+altogether. This religion is vague and mystical, with much worship of
+spirits, especially the spirits of the elements--earth, air, fire, and
+water. Everyone who is dead becomes in some degree an object of worship,
+and the Jap thinks more of his parents and ancestors than his
+children--his dead ancestors especially being much venerated.
+
+When we reach the top of the steps we find ourselves suddenly in a blaze
+of loveliness. To the right, to the left, and all around are cherry
+trees, covered thickly with blossom which hangs in wreaths and rosettes
+and festoons as if moulded in snow. The time for the best of the blossom
+is a little past, and the ground at our feet is as white as the trees,
+indeed whiter; for just here and there the fairy display on the trees is
+slightly browned. The scent is very sweet, and hangs in the air like
+delicate perfume. In the time of blossom there are many outings and
+festivities in Japan; people make up parties to go to the orchards, and
+thoroughly enjoy their beauty. Come right underneath the trees and look
+up, we can see the thick, heavily laden branches against the soft rich
+blue of a cloudless sky, and in our ears is the hum of a myriad bees. It
+is as if the freshness of early spring and the richness of full summer
+were mingled together.
+
+As we wander on over the scented ground we notice, a little way off, a
+rather pathetic-looking Japanese in the national costume, with a flat
+board or book in his hand. He is looking at us earnestly, and follows on
+at a respectful distance behind us.
+
+Next we come upon a quaint little garden on the lines of what we should
+call a landscape garden in England, but it is all on a tiny scale, as
+if made for dolls to walk in. There is a pond as big as a tea-tray,
+walks the breadth of one's foot, wee trees, gnarled with age and twisted
+and fully grown, but no higher than your knee. It is all so delicate and
+dainty and tiny that we are afraid to walk in it for fear we should
+spoil it; we feel thoroughly big and clumsy as Gulliver must have felt
+among the Lilliputians, and we expect every minute to see the rightful
+owners, wee men and women the size of a man's fingers, rushing out from
+the little summer-house with the curved roof at the end, and crying
+shrilly to us to go away!
+
+Treading carefully, a foot at a time, along the miniature paths, we pass
+through this and go on toward the temple which now appears amid a grove
+of deep dark pines. The steps are worn and hollowed, and on each side of
+them is an astonishing red figure of a man-monster in a very ferocious
+attitude, like that of the lions rampant seen on crests. These figures
+are a dark hot red and are dotted all over with white dabs; as we draw
+nearer to them we see that these dabs are doubled up bits of white paper
+sticking irregularly here and there without any arrangement. We cannot
+imagine what they are for, but as we stare we hear a foot crunch the
+gravel gently, and the little Jap with the board creeps up and salaams
+deeply, making at the same time a curious hissing noise as if he sucked
+in his breath. He must be very nervous.
+
+"If the honourable sirs will allow this humble servant to explain," he
+begins in fluent and perfect English.
+
+We are only too glad of his help, and not to be outdone in politeness we
+simultaneously raise our hats to him. He then tells us that all these
+paper pellets are prayers or wishes. People write down what they want on
+them and then moisten them in their mouths and spit them out against the
+images; if the paper sticks it shows the wish will be granted, if it
+falls to the ground then fate is against it. It is not a very beautiful
+custom, but perhaps not quite so bad as betel-nut chewing!
+
+Then the Jap coughs nervously, and with an overwhelming apology for
+daring to presume so far, explains that we ought to remove our
+"honourable shoes" before entering the temple. Of course we do it at
+once, though English shoes are not meant to take off and on at every
+turn, and while we struggle with our laces he knocks on the woodwork of
+the temple, and the sliding doors slip back along grooves, showing a
+very aged priest who smiles and beckons us in; so we pass on, feeling
+all the while conscious of the mystery of a country so utterly unlike
+our own. Inside, the floor is covered with thick mats, so we do not miss
+our shoes, though we step cautiously at first. It is very dim, but
+gradually our eyes grow accustomed to the want of light and we see
+lacquered screens, and little recesses, and bronze lamps, and curious
+images. Though it is spotlessly clean, very different from the Hindu
+temple, there is a strong smell of incense or burnt flowers or something
+rather odd. Our friendly Jap has gone down on his knees and is bowing
+his forehead to the ground, but we are not expected to do that
+evidently.
+
+Two weird figures in peaked caps, fastened under their chins by tapes,
+have drifted out silently from somewhere and follow us as the priest
+leads us round. There does not seem to be any one special shrine with a
+central figure for us to see; perhaps there is one, but it is not shown
+to foreigners. It is all vague and rather meaningless, and the carving
+and decoration are unsatisfying. After a while, as there does not seem
+to be anything more forthcoming, we drop a few coins into a bowl held
+out to us and prepare to go. Just as we reach the door another strange
+being in a peaked cap appears with tiny cups of clear amber-coloured tea
+on a tray, and holds them out to us. The little cups have no handles,
+and there is no milk in the tea, but on the tray are several rather
+nice-looking little cakes, only, unfortunately, they are all the colours
+of the rainbow--violet and green and scarlet. I utterly refuse to touch
+them, but the English-speaking Jap assures me they are "nice," so you,
+declaring that you are "jolly hungry," eat several and pronounce them
+"jolly good." We sip the tea, which tastes utterly different from that
+we have at home, and bowing all round again we put on our shoes and
+descend the steps. I'm sure if I lived here long I should be quite fit
+to take a position at court, my "honourable" manners would be so much
+improved. There is nothing brusque or rough or rude about these people,
+you couldn't imagine them scrambling or pushing to get in front of
+others even at a big show.
+
+A voice behind us says timidly, "Will the honourable sirs be pleased to
+employ this humble servant as interpreter?"
+
+We stop and look at him. It is not a bad idea. We have felt already this
+morning, even in coming straight from our very Western hotel here, how
+helpless we are in this land where the chair-men do not speak a word of
+English, and where even the street names are in Chinese characters. This
+little man is quite unassuming, he would certainly be no trouble and
+might be very useful. When we stop he deprecatingly opens his flat book
+and shows us drawings in freehand of scrolls and animals that he has
+made. He explains that he tries to get a living by offering such designs
+to the shops, but that he would like better to be interpreter to us, as
+he wishes to perfect his English. The terms he asks are absurdly
+moderate. Yes, we will have him.
+
+We engage him then and there, and he enters our service at once; there
+is no need for delay, for he is apparently not encumbered with anything
+beyond his drawing-book. He brightens up wonderfully when we say "yes."
+Poor little chap, I expect he is half starved. In most countries it
+would be rash indeed to engage a man at sight without any sort of
+written "character," but there is a simplicity and honesty about this
+one which gives us confidence in him. I am sure he would never cheat us
+deliberately, anyway, I am quite ready to risk it.
+
+[Illustration: RICKSHAW.]
+
+We tell him that what we want is to see something of Tokyo to-day, and
+then to go off into the country and try to get a glimpse of the real
+Japanese life, un-Europeanised, in some small village where we could
+stay at a little country inn for a day or two. He enters into the scheme
+at once and says that he will have the plans all ready to suggest to us
+this evening. Meantime he takes command, and after seeing us into our
+waiting rickshaws, calls up another for himself, gives the three men
+directions, and off we go.
+
+As we run back to the town we notice the houses standing by themselves
+in the suburbs, quite good, large houses, some of them, surrounded by
+their own gardens, shut in by high walls so that only the sloping
+red-tiled roofs, curved up at the end, are visible. Some of these are
+two storeys high, but when we get into the town we see at first only
+rows and rows of one-storey houses. There are frequent earthquakes in
+Japan, and to build many-storeyed blocks would mean frightful disaster
+and loss of life. As it is, the people can rush quickly out of their
+little homes into the streets at the first signs of a shaking.
+
+What do you notice about the streets that strikes you most particularly?
+To me it is the colouring--blue. You remember that in Burma there was
+practically no blue; the people wore red and pink and magenta and
+orange, but they seemed one and all to avoid blue. I used to think it
+was because they knew that blue would not suit their sallow, yellowish
+complexions; but the Japanese are just as yellow, in fact more so, for
+the Burmese yellow is a kind of coffee colour, and theirs real saffron,
+and yet the Japs are very fond of blue. The coolies and work-men all
+dress in it, with those astonishing signs on their backs that we noticed
+first at Yokohama, and the shops have blue banners hanging out beside
+them. These are for their names--they are signboards, in fact. Instead
+of running across horizontally, as our writing does, the Japanese
+writing--which is the same as the Chinese, though the spoken language is
+different--runs vertically. A Jap does many things exactly the opposite
+way from what we do. He begins to read a book from what we should
+consider the end, backwards, and instead of going along, he goes up and
+down a line; and the long thin strips, with those mysterious cabalistic
+signs on them, are the shopkeepers' names and businesses. The shops are
+all open to the street, without glass, in this quarter; they are just
+what we should call stalls; most of them seem to be greengrocers' or
+fruiterers'. And in the first there are always prominently in front huge
+vegetables like gigantic radishes or elongated turnips; the people eat
+them largely, though to a European both the flavour and the smell are
+nasty. In the fish shops the funniest things to be seen are great black
+devil-fish, or octopuses, with their lumpy round bodies and black
+tentacles stretching out on all sides. They are loathsome to look at,
+but the Japs are not the only people who use them for food; in parts of
+Italy the peasants eat them as a staple dish whenever they can catch
+them.
+
+There are no pavements here, and the streets are very muddy after last
+night's heavy rain, but it doesn't seem to matter a bit to the numerous
+inhabitants. All those who can afford it go in rickshaws, which pass us
+every minute, and the others wear clogs which lift them high out of the
+dirt. These clogs are called _geta_, and they are the funniest footwear
+to be found anywhere. You would find it more difficult to get about on
+them than on roller-skates, but the Japs are so much used to them that
+they trip along morning, noon, and night in them without being the least
+tired. They are simply little stools of wood, one flat piece being
+supported by two smaller ones at the toe and heel, and they are held on
+by straps across the foot. Men, women, and children are thus raised
+inches out of the mud, and patter about, ting-tang, ting-tang, all day
+long. Some of the women have coarse white stockings made with a separate
+stall for the big toe, on the model of a baby's glove, so that the geta
+strap can go through.
+
+[Illustration: GETA CLOGS.]
+
+We have now got into the middle of the town where the more populous
+streets are. You ought to notice how the colours of the clothes differ
+for the different ages of the people: the grandmothers and grandfathers
+wear dark purples and sombre hues; the middle-aged people have soft
+colouring, grey greens and palish shades; and the children are very gay,
+in every imaginable colour and often all mixed together. The girls have
+all a broad sash called an _obi_, humped up in a funny way behind their
+bodies; in the children this becomes a great bow like the wings of a
+butterfly. The people are small, and were it not for the clogs they
+would look smaller still; their country is not little, for Japan is
+larger than the United Kingdom, but the people are rarely tall, and they
+are slenderly built, with small bones, so that being among them makes an
+ordinary fair-sized Englishman feel clumsy and long-limbed. Now we are
+in the main street of all. Here comes a tram filled with Japanese, all
+smiling and chattering and looking happy; they take life with a smile.
+The houses here are larger than those we have passed, and some are just
+European buildings of stone, and the shop-windows are filled with glass,
+and show as fine a display as in the best London shops. There are many
+entirely for the sale of Western things, and others for the things of
+the country--the beautiful embroideries and silks, and silver-work and
+lacquer-work and carving, which you know so well by sight at home, for
+it is sent over in large quantities now, and anyone can buy it in London
+as cheaply as here.
+
+As we near our hotel we tell the interpreter, whose "honourable name" we
+have learned is Yosoji,--everything belonging to other people is
+"honourable" here,--that we would like to see the palace where the
+Emperor lives; so he gives an order to the rickshaw man, and we set out
+once more.
+
+On the way we see many open spaces and pass through a park, but when we
+get to the palace we find that no one is allowed to go in, and we can
+only drive round by the walls and moat. The Mikado, or Emperor, is
+worshipped by most of his people; he is in the position of a god, and it
+is no mere expression of speech to say that every schoolboy would be
+proud and glad to die for him. There is no country in the world whose
+people are more passionately devoted to their fatherland than the Japs.
+The idea of prominent Japanese going about in foreign countries trying
+to belittle their own, or undermine her power in the countries she has
+won by the sword, is unthinkable.
+
+Later in the afternoon, coming out again from our hotel, we find Yosoji
+waiting for us, and we tell him we want to walk about on foot to look at
+some of the shops. He protests, and we can see he thinks us almost out
+of our minds to suggest going on foot. He pleads earnestly that
+rickshaws are very cheap. We have to explain that it is not the money we
+are thinking of, but that we really prefer to go on foot. He doesn't
+believe it--he can't, because no Japanese would prefer to go on foot
+when he could ride. So we take no further notice of him and just walk
+away, leaving him to follow humbly and despairingly. We have not taken
+many steps when a whole flight of rickshaw men swoop across the road and
+are on our heels, crying out, "Rickshaw, rickshaw, shaw, shaw, r'sha,"
+like our old friends the pests of Egypt. We pretend not to hear, and
+walk on with what dignity we can, but they follow persistently, almost
+trampling on our heels, and reiterating their cries all the time. They
+can only imagine we must be deaf and blind. The crowd grows greater, the
+street is getting blocked. We pass a Japanese policeman in a stiff and
+badly made uniform, and are seized with sudden hope that he will send
+the offenders flying, but he does nothing of the sort; he fumbles in
+his pocket, brings out a little text-book Of English, and laboriously
+reads out, "Please secure me a good rickshaw," and looks at us
+triumphantly as if he had solved the difficulty!
+
+I have no moral courage; I don't know if you have more, anyway, let us
+take two and then they can follow us if they like, and the others will
+go away. Accordingly we give orders to Yosoji, who bows, only
+half-satisfied, and interprets our orders. The plan works, the other men
+slink off, and the two selected ones follow us limply at a foot's pace.
+
+What I am really making for is a little print shop I saw as we passed
+along here this morning, with a number of Japanese drawings in the
+window. They are so queer, so well done, and yet so conventional that
+they have a charm of their own. Here it is! Look at that extraordinary
+picture of the great fish breaking through a hole in the blocks of ice!
+The ice _looks_ cold, it is very well done, but the little bits of spray
+loop up round the fish in a stiff frill of a regular pattern. Then there
+is that one of the sea. It gives one a tremendous idea of a heavy
+lowering storm with the great indigo waves curling over that doomed
+boat, yet the edge of every wave has a sort of lace frill on it exactly
+alike! I must have those to take home; they won't take up any room.
+
+As we enter the Jap lady who is selling the prints gives a long hiss.
+She bows profoundly, and so do we. They won't know us when we get home!
+
+"But why did she hiss?" you ask Yosoji. He says it is a sign of respect.
+Oh! I thought they were nervous! How funny! As long as they don't expect
+me to do it back again--I can manage the bowing when there is no one
+there but you to see, but if I tried to hiss I should break down in the
+middle! I take out my purse to pay for the print. The money here is
+confusing, because there are yen and sen. A yen is equal to two
+shillings and a halfpenny, and a sen is only the hundredth part of a
+yen, or about a farthing. In order to reckon the change the old lady
+takes up a frame with beads strung across it on wires; I believe it's
+called an abacus, and they use them in kindergarten schools to teach
+children to count. She must be an ignorant old dame, and yet she looks
+wholly respectable. I wonder what Yosoji thinks of it. When we look at
+him he is quite demure and solemn and doesn't seem to notice anything
+odd.
+
+Coming out of the shop we find the dearest trio of children gazing at
+us. Of all the sights in Japan the children are the most fascinating.
+They are so funnily dressed, like the odd little Jap dolls English
+children buy. These three are clad very magnificently in kimonos of silk
+crape, very soft, and brilliantly coloured, with huge coloured sashes.
+Their little heads, with straight all-round fringes of black hair
+sticking out like brushes, are deliciously comic. They regard us gravely
+and without any fear or shyness.
+
+It is getting dark; suddenly someone lights a Chinese lantern across the
+street, and almost as if it were a given signal another pops out and
+another and another. Chinese lanterns with us are used for decoration,
+and it is impossible to help feeling as if it were a festival when we
+see them gleaming along the street among the coloured streamers.
+
+Altogether the lanterns, the gay dresses, the smiling faces, the funny
+shops, the clear deep blue of a perfect evening sky seen overhead, make
+a glorious picture. Shut your eyes and "think back" a moment. Think of
+Oxford Street on a wet night when the shops are shut and the high
+arc-lights shine down coldly on rigid lines and bleak grey walls!
+
+[Illustration: A JAP VILLAGE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+IN A JAPANESE INN
+
+
+If we received a slight shock when we saw the woman in the shop adding
+up by the help of beads, what about the booking-clerk at the station? He
+seems unable to give the simplest change without this sort of reckoning.
+Comic, isn't it? Picture the clerks at Euston fumbling away at their
+beads while an impatient throng elbowed one another before the
+pigeon-hole!
+
+The station is quite small, merely a shed with a wooden roof set on
+posts. We are going second-class and taking Yosoji with us, so that we
+shall see some of the native life.
+
+The trains are corridor, with the seats lengthwise and across the ends.
+Many of the Japs are sitting sideways on them with their feet tucked
+under them,--they are not used to have them hanging down,--but one grand
+gentleman, directly opposite to us, is quite European in his top hat
+and long coat, and his feet are on the floor as to the manner born.
+
+We have not been long started before he begins to fidget and shuffle,
+and presently he hauls up a wicker basket beside him, undoes it, and
+fishes out a very nice dark purple kimono. His top hat goes into the
+rack. His collar, tie, and stud disappear. His coat comes off and is
+carefully folded on the seat. We watch the gradual unpeeling with an
+absorbed interest, wondering how far it will go. Luckily there are no
+ladies present! We can stare as much as we like without being rude,
+because everyone else in the carriage has their eyes fixed with a
+straight unwinking stare upon us. It is difficult to realise that we are
+more entertaining to them than the gentleman who is disrobing himself
+with ineffable dignity in public, is to us.
+
+He has now slipped on the kimono over his remaining garments, there is a
+little twist, and a slight, a very slight struggle, and in some
+miraculous way the rest of his European outfit glides off underneath the
+kimono, neatly folded. It is like a conjuring trick! Last of all come
+off the boots also, and with his stockinged feet tucked up under him he
+sits transformed into the Complete Jap. Judging from the lack of
+interest taken in the performance by his fellow-countrymen, it must be
+quite a usual thing to undress in trains.
+
+Having finished his task the gentleman on the seat turns to us and asks
+innumerable questions. Where have we come from? Where are we going to?
+How do we like Japan? Is it not a very poor, mean country compared with
+the glorious and august land we belong to? All this is interpreted by
+Yosoji, who no doubt puts our answers into the flowery language Japanese
+courtesy demands; for instance, when I say that I like Japan very much,
+I am sure, from the breathless sentence that follows, that he is saying
+that the strangers think the honourable country of Japan far more
+beautiful and wonderful than their own poor land. The man opposite does
+not for a moment think really that England is to be compared with Japan,
+but in Japan people are taught to talk like that, and must often think
+us very rude and abrupt.
+
+It is not a long journey, and after an hour or so of passing through
+pretty, hilly country, with many bushy pine trees dotted about, we stop
+at a station which Yosoji says is our destination. It is a good thing we
+have Yosoji with us, for certainly we could never have discovered the
+name of the station for ourselves. We see a long scroll covered with
+Chinese characters, and other smaller scrolls ornamented in the same
+way, these are, of course, the name of the station and the inscriptions
+on various waiting-rooms, but they leave us none the wiser. I ask Yosoji
+how any European travelling alone could discover where he had got to,
+and he smilingly points out a board at the extreme end of the station
+with some of our own lettering on it. No one could possibly see it from
+the incoming train.
+
+We still feel absurdly big as we get out of the little train on its
+little narrow gauge line and wait while Yosoji captures our luggage from
+the van. It is packed in great baskets which fit into each other like
+two lids; we see them in England often, but there they are rather looked
+down upon, here they are quite the correct thing. Indeed, among all the
+luggage in the van there is no trunk or wooden or tin box at all, only a
+great pile of such baskets of all sizes, mingled with a few bundles
+simply tied up. When our belongings are rescued and identified they are
+stowed away in a rickshaw by themselves, while we three mount in three
+others and set off for far the most interesting part of the journey. At
+first the road is quite good, and the men trot away contentedly, the
+big hats bobbing up and down before us. What do these hats remind you
+of? To me they are exactly like the lids of those galvanised dustbins
+you see put out in streets for the dustmen at home.
+
+[Illustration: PORTERS, JAPAN.]
+
+The air is brilliantly fresh and sweet; we pass along by pine trees of
+many sorts, and between them see the fresh green of the feathery
+bamboos; these two colours, the dark blue-green of the pines and the
+brilliant yellow-green of the bamboo, are seen everywhere in Japan. Then
+there are avenues of red-stemmed trees called cryptomeria, we should say
+cedars, with dark heads spreading out at the top of their immense
+branchless stems. We see squirrels leaping about and scuttering up the
+trunks. Then we go across open spaces, which are like an emerald sea,
+for they are the brightest green you can imagine, the green of the
+growing paddy, which is cultivated here as in Burma. There are men
+dressed in garments of glorious blue, like those we saw in Egypt, hoeing
+and watching the important crops. Then we plunge into cool woods and
+follow little paths up and down, and when we want to get out and walk,
+feeling lazy brutes to sit still and let a fellow-creature haul us
+uphill, Yosoji says no, it would hurt the feelings of our men, who would
+imagine we thought them poor weak things and scorned them.
+
+We twist down to a wooden bridge, dark maroon in colour, and built in
+one single span across a raging, leaping stream that dashes and splashes
+merrily far below. At the other end is one of the picturesque roofed
+arches or gates that the Japanese are so fond of, with its rich red
+tiles curved up at the corners. Not far on we catch a glimpse of a
+waving sheet of blue, a mass of flowers growing wild on a hillside, and
+in sight of it, but still in the shade of the trees, we sit down for
+lunch and to give the coolies a rest.
+
+Several times during the run we have noticed shrines with images of
+little foxes before them, some clean and new, but some weather-worn and
+grown over with lichen. As Yosoji unpacks the lunch he tells us these
+are Shinto shrines put up in honour of the god of rice. It seems very
+appropriate to hear this now, just as we are going to fare merrily on
+hard-boiled eggs, a tiny chicken, and plenty of rice, finishing up with
+those astonishing bright-coloured cakes, which we have learnt to eat
+without fear. We rest a long time, and all except you smoke contentedly,
+watching the blue films curl upward under the still foliage; and then up
+and on once more.
+
+[Illustration: OUR DINNER IN A JAPANESE INN.]
+
+It is nearly five o'clock before we reach our destination, a little
+village, with a rather famous inn, not very far from the sea. In fact,
+as we approach we can see the blue water shining out only about a mile
+away across a flat expanse broken by hummocky sandhills. The village is
+one long straggling street of thatched huts, rather like huge beehives,
+with broad eaves. Our rickshaw men, who have been showing signs of
+exhaustion, make a gallant effort at the last, and run us up to the door
+of the inn in fine style. The inn stands on legs raised a foot or two
+from the ground, and is well built, with solid wooden posts and a tiled
+roof. It is two storeys high and has verandahs round both floors.
+
+As our men let down the shafts of the chairs for us to alight, two women
+and a man in native dress come out on to the verandah, and immediately
+fall down on their faces before us, with their foreheads on the ground.
+I don't know how you feel about it, but not having been born in the
+purple this sort of thing is embarrassing to me, and I wish they
+wouldn't! I have a vague idea that I ought to rise to the occasion by
+taking their hands and saying, "Rise, friend, I also am mortal," or
+something like that!
+
+Yosoji, of course, does all the talking, and with a great deal of bowing
+and volumes of flowing language, arranges for us to stay here the night,
+requesting us to pass on into the house. In the porch it is evidently
+expected that we should take off our boots, so we do, and they are
+stowed away in a little pigeon-hole, while we are offered instead large
+and awkward pairs of slippers like those we had at the mosques. You
+reject them, preferring stocking feet, and you have the best of me, for
+the next move is to go up a very slippery ascent like a ladder that is
+trying to grow into a staircase. While you hop along gaily I leave one
+slipper behind on the last rung, and in trying to recover it slip and
+bark my shin! However, when it is retrieved, I take off the other and,
+carrying them both in my hand, mount quite easily.
+
+[Illustration: FUJIYAMA.]
+
+The room we go into is specklessly clean, and through the wide sliding
+panels, which are open on to the verandah, we see a glimpse of the blue
+sea. The floor is made of mattresses in wooden frames neatly fitted
+together, and is quite soft and comfortable to the feet; boots with
+heels would certainly be out of place here. In a little alcove on one
+side is a miniature tree such as those you sometimes see offered for
+sale in England now, and behind it a quite beautiful sketch of Fujiyama
+on a scroll. There is no other furniture at all, but when our luggage is
+brought up we can sit on the baskets. We explain to Yosoji that we would
+greatly like--first, a hot bath, after the heat and dust of the journey,
+and next some food. Presently in comes the little Japanese maid whom we
+saw on her face at the door in company with her master and mistress.
+She prostrates herself at once, and with her forehead against the floor
+says something, indrawing her breath in a most accomplished hiss. Do you
+think we ought to do it back again?
+
+[Illustration: IN COMES THE LITTLE MAID.]
+
+Yosoji interprets that with great good luck the hot water is ready, and
+if we go down now we can have a bath. Our things have been brought up,
+so selecting a few clean garments we go once more along the polished
+passage and down that dangerous ladder, then through a room, presumably
+the kitchen, which is quite full of people, on to a covered-in verandah
+on one side of the house, where two large shining brass basins stand on
+a sink, and an iron tub stands on the floor, with its own fire beneath
+it like a copper; clouds of steam arise from it. But what catches our
+attention most quickly is an amiable Japanese man, who, clad in a very
+slight garment, has evidently just had a bath. We can see he has been
+pouring the contents of the basins over himself, and letting the water
+run away between the wooden slats of the floor, so we wait for them to
+be refilled for us. All the people who were in the kitchen have by this
+time drifted in here, and stand in interested contemplation of our
+proceedings. "Which is the bath?" I ask Yosoji. He motions toward the
+tub of boiling water. "But that's too hot; we shall be boiled sitting on
+the top of a fire," I explain. Thereupon a great commotion ensues,
+embers are raked out, and there is much running about and chattering.
+The Japs themselves take their baths at a temperature which would peel
+the skin off our bodies. As the water is still too hot, even when the
+fire has been removed, we wait for it to cool, and meantime I ask where
+is the other bath, as there are two of us? This produces great
+consternation in Yosoji; who ever heard of each person having a bath to
+himself? The notion is absurd. He knows the ridiculous prejudice of the
+English, who do not like to use the same water as the Japanese, but, as
+it happens, this water is perfectly clean, for even the gentleman who
+has just gone out did not use it. Is it possible we can't use it, one
+after the other? I ask him what state the water gets into when half a
+dozen people have been boiled in it, one after another, and he tells me
+that it is in no state at all, for, of course, etiquette does not allow
+them to use soap actually in the bath! Well, we must manage somehow;
+when they clear out we can tip some of the hot water into that second
+basin and use it afterwards. Meantime they all stand, gaily expectant,
+smiling affably. I explain to Yosoji that we can't undress before the
+crowd, and he seems to think my ideas most extraordinary. In Japan
+people always bathe in a garment and have not the least objection to
+doing it in full view of the street.
+
+With considerable difficulty our absurd scruples are made clear to the
+assembled company, who reluctantly depart, defrauded of their fun, and
+draw close the sliding screen.
+
+Then--yah--it _is_ hot! We manage to tip out two good basins full and
+fill up with cold water from a tin pail which stands near. Well, we both
+find it very refreshing. You go first, and while I am revelling in the
+hot water I hear a dismayed exclamation, "Oh, the towels!" and see you
+holding up a tiny thing no bigger than a table-napkin, embroidered in a
+wandering blue pattern. There are two for each, and though they are
+little more than pocket-handkerchiefs we must make them do.
+
+When we get back to our rooms in a more or less steamy condition, we
+find that the screens, which are made of paper framed in wood, have been
+drawn, and outside them wooden shutters have been fastened. The room is
+very close, and there isn't an inch open for ventilation. After a long
+expostulation with Yosoji we are allowed to have the outer shutters open
+an inch or two, though he explains they must be shut and bolted before
+we go to bed at night or the police will be down upon us. There are two
+loose, flowing Jap gowns lying ready for our use, and very delightful
+they are. As they are quite clean we slip into them instead of coats and
+laugh across at each other. In comes the little maid, once more
+prostrating herself, then she goes out and returns with a lacquered tray
+on tiny legs a few inches high. This she sets on the floor, and after a
+considerable interval, during which she has brought up many tiny dishes
+and bowls, she suddenly seats herself on one side of the tray and
+motions to us to begin.
+
+We wriggle across the floor inelegantly and squat opposite to her. The
+first thing we see are two steaming bowls of soup; we make short work of
+these, drinking from the bowl, and find at the bottom some tough-looking
+bits of something. Then we discover all at once there are no knives,
+forks, or spoons, only chopsticks, like forks with one prong. We try to
+fish out the bits of something, but even when we have caught them the
+result is not satisfactory; it is like eating leather. Next comes bowls
+of rice, and if it was difficult before, it is doubly so now. I should
+certainly never be able to pick up grains of rice with a chopstick while
+that solemn little maid sits opposite; it would take a Cinquevalli to do
+it! I make a desperate attempt and explode suddenly, the maid giggles,
+you roar, and even Yosoji, who is somewhere in the background, begins
+tittering. After this the ice is broken; we entreat Yosoji to get the
+maid away without hurting her feelings, and when she has departed we
+finish the rice with our fingers. There are various other things--beans
+which can be skewered on the chopsticks, and funny little bits of stuff
+like mixed pickles, but even when we have eaten everything we are as
+hungry as when we began. Just as we are realising it our little friend
+appears again with a decent-sized fish on a dish, decorated with onions,
+and we quickly fall to, using a funny kind of bean-paste made up like a
+cake, instead of bread. By the time we have finished we are rather fishy
+but very much more satisfied.
+
+The meal taken away, our handmaiden slides back a panel in the more
+substantial side of the room, which is of wood, and produces various
+stuffed rugs which she spreads on the ground--these are called _futon_,
+and are very like our useful friend the _rezai_; we have some of our own
+to add to them, and altogether the beds look so comfortable that we are
+quite ready to get into them at an early hour. Having lit a Chinese
+lantern at one end of the room before the little picture recess, a
+sacred place in every Japanese household, the maid retires for the
+night, and so does Yosoji. Only then do we discover that for pillows
+they have given us tiny wooden stools, not unlike the national clogs,
+only slightly larger! These we are supposed to place in the crick of the
+neck; having tried it you declare that if you slept at all that way you
+would certainly dream you were lying on the block to be beheaded, so
+instead you choose the lid of one of the baskets, which, being yielding,
+makes not half a bad pillow.
+
+Good-night!
+
+After a profound sleep I am awakened by a flood of light, and sit up
+with a start, to find myself in bed before an admiring crowd. The
+sliding panels opening on to the verandah have been pushed back, and
+there stand my landlord and landlady, and the little maid-servant, and
+several other persons, bowing and prostrating themselves and asking
+innumerable questions, to which, as there is no Yosoji, I can give no
+answers. Everyone in Japan asks questions, I find; it is supposed to
+show a polite interest in you. I feel rather awkward sitting up there
+among my futon and making a series of little jerks meant to be bows, and
+I am glad when you wake up too and help me a little. You are not so shy,
+it seems, for you hop out of your rugs and dance to the verandah,
+revelling in the light and sunshine.
+
+An hour later we have had a sluice down with cold water from the brass
+basins, eaten a most unsatisfying and unsubstantial breakfast, much like
+the dinner the night before, minus the fish, and are out to visit the
+village schools, at the suggestion of Yosoji, before going on.
+
+They are worth visiting! I never saw anything quite so quaintly pretty
+as these rows of little dolls in their brilliantly gay garments, tied up
+with their big sashes. They are sitting on the floor and laboriously
+making strokes with a paint-brush. That is to say, they are learning to
+write. The Chinese writing is not an alphabet like ours, but each
+complicated symbol stands for an idea, and there are thousands and
+thousands of them. It takes a child seven years even to learn fairly
+what will be necessary in after life.
+
+These little mites are not making complete signs, but just doing one
+stroke again and again, all over a large sheet of paper, and when they
+have learnt that they will go on to another, until one complete symbol
+is mastered. The writing is done by brush-work instead of with a pen,
+and is more like artistic painting than stiff writing. Suddenly the
+teacher gives a signal, and the tiny tots rush out into the air, and
+dance and play and run and twiddle each other round and round like
+little kittens; they are so gay and so bright it is quite evident that
+Japanese children are not ill-treated.
+
+It is with great reluctance we pick up our luggage, pay our very
+moderate bill, and leave this dear little village. Whatever else fades
+out of our minds as time goes on I am sure the picture of those gay
+children will never be forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: AN INDIAN RESERVATION.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THOUSANDS OF SALMON
+
+
+We dawdled so long in the quaint and charming country of Japan that it
+was full summer when we left. As the inverted fan of Fujiyama faded
+gradually into nothingness against the illimitable spaces of the sky, we
+said again and again _sayonara_, which is the musical Japanese word
+meaning good-bye, for we felt we were taking leave of an old friend.
+Japan is on the other side of the world from England; shall we ever get
+there again?
+
+Then came the voyage across the Pacific and the landing at Victoria, the
+chief town on the great island of Vancouver, which lies off the west
+coast of Canada. It is always a little confusing to people who have not
+visited this part, because there are two Vancouvers: one the great
+island which blocks the western coast of Canada, and the other the town
+lying on the eastern side of the narrow straits, on the mainland.
+
+Well, here we are in Victoria, and the astonishing homeliness of it
+gives us both a warm feeling of delight. It seems as if we really had
+got almost in touch with our own country again. As we wandered through
+the town to-day we saw in the outskirts red-brick creeper-covered houses
+that might have been in an English market town. In spite of all its
+trams and docks and general go-aheadness Victoria is old world. We
+visited a place called Esquimault, by tram-car, and saw there British
+ships of war and many other kinds of craft. Now we are back in the
+hotel, and in our cosy bedroom there is little to remind us we have
+still a continent and ocean between us and our beloved little island.
+
+What are you doing? Putting your boots out to be cleaned? Well, that is
+one thing you won't get done here, it is not the custom; you will have
+to go down to the basement and have them cleaned on your feet, and tip
+the man who does them then and there. I'll come too, because we have to
+make a very early start to-morrow. I wish we hadn't, for some things.
+There is capital shooting and fishing here, though a great deal of the
+island, which, by the way, is more than twice the size of Wales, is
+covered with impenetrable forests. It is difficult to get about at all
+in the interior, but we could have gone around by the coast and explored
+the inlets, and with luck we might have seen something of the moose and
+the bear, to say nothing of wild fowl and salmon and trout, but we can't
+manage it this time. A friend of mine, who is in charge of a
+salmon-cannery on the coast of British Columbia, is going to put us up
+for a day or two, and he has arranged that we shall cross over on the
+cannery steamer, the _Transfer_, which leaves so early that we'll have
+to be up at half-past four in the morning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ugh, I'm sleepy! But I see the sun is already up and shining in a
+cloudless sky. It is a trifle cold when we get out at first in the
+morning, but as we walk briskly down to the steamer we feel warmed up.
+The wharf shows a busy scene; there are numbers of blue-clad Chinamen
+rushing backwards and forwards loading boxes on to our little steamer,
+which floats by the wharf, and what a comic steamer she is! She is like
+nothing so much as a great fan-tail pigeon sitting on the water! That is
+because her immense paddle-wheel is tucked away at the back. There is a
+very good reason for this too! The steamer gives an agonised scream from
+her siren, the Chinamen on board chatter and gesticulate frantically to
+their comrades left behind, there is a terrific commotion, and for the
+moment no one could help believing that something has gone wrong; but
+no, this is only the way the Celestials say good-bye, for when we are
+fairly off all the noise stops and a great calm falls on board.
+
+[Illustration: "ONE PIECY EAT BREAKFAST."]
+
+The view from the deck is glorious; in this brilliant light we can see
+the mountains rearing up behind the town. While we are admiring them a
+voice says, "One piecy eat breakfast, Master," and turning we see a
+Chinaman in spotless white bowing before us. We gladly accept and go
+below, where we find other Chinamen gliding about in felt slippers
+serving hot baked buckwheat cakes and maple syrup; the cakes are
+beautifully flaky and about the size of a saucer; we soon dispose of
+them and some decent coffee too, and return to the deck quickly not to
+miss anything.
+
+It seems no time before we are gliding along close to the land on the
+other side, startling myriads of water-fowl, who fly up in front of us
+in an endless cloud, or dive just as we get near enough to see them
+well. Then a tall white lighthouse heaves into sight and we round a
+corner into that famous salmon river, the Fraser. There are red houses
+peeping out between the trees, and boats begin to pop up here and there,
+but we don't seem to be getting on very fast, for we are zigzagging this
+way and that across the water, almost more crookedly than we did on the
+Nile or Irrawaddy to avoid sandbanks.
+
+"See the nets?" asks one of the ship's officers, coming to a halt beside
+us and pointing to a line of corks on the surface of the water; "we've
+got to keep clear of them, and that's no job for a sleepy-head, I can
+tell you." He goes on to explain that the nets are sixty feet long and
+weighted with lead on the low side in the usual fashion. At this time of
+year the salmon are all trying to get up the river. Salmon have queer
+ways. They are born far up, in the head waters of the Fraser, or any
+other great river, and come down as quite little fellows to the sea,
+where they live a free bachelor life, enjoying themselves in the open
+for three years; but at the end of that time an irresistible desire to
+return to the fresh water seizes them, and in thousands and thousands
+they press up the wide mouth of the river, tumbling over each other in
+their eagerness to get there; this is the time they are caught. The nets
+are made with wide meshes, and the fish in their struggle to get
+forward run their blunt heads through, but when they try to withdraw
+them they are held by the gills and remain fixed until they are hauled
+out to meet their fate. But from six in the morning on Saturdays till
+six in the evening on Sundays the law forbids netting, so a certain
+number always escape and get up the river to lay their eggs, after which
+they return to the sea and leave their families to hatch out; but their
+life-work is finished, and they either die on the way or soon
+afterwards. All this the officer tells us as we meander across the
+smooth water.
+
+We stop once or twice where the flag calls, just as we did on the
+Irrawaddy, to take up or put down some freight, and then we sight Lulu
+Island, where we are to stay as the guests of Mr. Clay for a day or two.
+Hullo! there he is! That tall fellow in a flannel shirt and blue
+trousers. Oh no, it isn't--it's another Englishman; but among the
+multitude of Chinese one Englishman looks very like another! This man
+greets us as we get off at the pier, and says that Mr. Clay is expecting
+us, and he pilots us into a great shed at the end of the pier. My word,
+what a sight! There are thousands and thousands of salmon lying on every
+square foot of floor, and not only covering it, but covering it
+knee-deep, as they are piled one on the other. There are Chinamen wading
+about among them, and every minute fresh boats arrive at the wharf with
+their cargoes, and the men in them throw up the fish to the other men on
+the wharf. The salmon we see here, our new acquaintance tells us, are
+called "sock-eye," and weigh about ten pounds each. The great rush comes
+every fourth year, one of which was 1913, when about thirteen million
+fish were caught in the season. The men in the boats are Japs; we feel
+quite friendly toward them. Mixed with them are some others with rather
+Eastern faces too, but quite different from anything we have seen yet.
+Notice their greasy straight hair, their flat, broad, good-humoured
+faces and little stocky figures; what race do you think they are?
+Esquimaux? That is not a bad shot; they are very like the pictures one
+sees of Esquimaux, but these fellows are Siwash Indians, who live along
+the coast hereabouts. Here is Mr. Clay, who has been watching the
+reckoning of the caught fish. He is dressed exactly like the man who met
+us, and a useful working dress it is too. He greets us with the greatest
+hospitality and says he'll take us right up to his house for breakfast
+first, as we must be starved, and we can see all we want to afterwards.
+When we are clear of the sheds we see a long, low, wooden building
+standing by itself; to reach it we have to pass over several wooden
+platforms raised on legs. These, Mr. Clay explains, are necessary,
+because in winter the whole island is pretty well under water. As we
+cross the verandah we are warmly welcomed by Mrs. Clay, and taken into a
+charming wooden room in the middle of the house, on to which all the
+other rooms open. Here is laid out a splendid home breakfast of bacon
+and eggs and porridge, and after a wash it doesn't take us very long to
+fall to! How long is it since we had bacon and eggs for breakfast? It
+seems to me to be so far back I can't remember! We are both rather thin
+after living on Jap diet so long, and are quite ready to wind up with
+more buckwheat cakes when we have finished the other things. All the
+servants are Chinamen you notice, and very well they wait too.
+
+While we eat, Mr. Clay tells us much about his kingdom. He and his wife
+have another house which is in New Westminster, not far off up the
+river, and they go there for the winter, only staying here in the summer
+when the work is in full swing. He is the manager of only one cannery
+here, and there are several others all working amicably together.
+
+[Illustration: A SIWASH INDIAN.]
+
+Then we stroll out, feeling blissfully satisfied, a condition we have
+long been strangers to, and as we smoke Mr. Clay points out the other
+houses round. There is the house for the white men who assist him, the
+houses for the Japs, and the Chinese house. At the back of his own
+premises are sheds where he keeps a couple of horses and some cows for
+his own use. Then there is the Stores, a big building full of tinned
+meats, sacks of rice, tobacco and tea, and all sorts of underclothing,
+as well as the other little things men are likely to want.
+
+Afterwards we stroll through the Chinamen's house. It is a queer-looking
+place, with bunks ranged along the walls and a huge wooden table down
+the middle, where just now numbers of complacent Chinamen are sitting
+down to a midday meal of rice with cooked fish. As we pass along we see
+that each man keeps his little treasures beside his bunk, for, though so
+impassive, the Chinaman is a home-loving creature; there are little
+images of carved ivory and other small treasures. Do you see that white
+rat with pink eyes restlessly doing sentry-go in his cage?
+
+Behind the house, and some distance off, is the Indian village, where we
+see great barn-like buildings; here the Siwash Indians live, and several
+of their flat-faced, broad-nosed children are tumbling about and
+playing; as we come up one sturdy youngster raises a heavy stick and
+flings it with all his force at a wretched little seal tied up by a
+flapper. Mr. Clay goes quickly forward and catches hold of the little
+Indian boy, and the women all rush out and talk at a tremendous rate; it
+ends in the manager giving a trifle for the seal and making a signal to
+his men, who take up the poor little beast and carry it off to put an
+end to it mercifully. He does not put it back in the water, because
+seals do much mischief in breaking the nets. The Indian children don't
+mean to be cruel, but they have no imagination.
+
+Then we go on a voyage of inspection all round the place. We saw the
+fish when they were first landed from the nets, and the next proceeding
+is when they are slit open by the Indian women, who cut off their heads
+and tails and throw them into vats of salt and water. After this they
+are fished out and chopped into round pieces to fit the tins. This is
+done by Chinamen, who get so clever at it that they can judge exactly
+how much to put into each tin to make just one pound weight; the tins
+are weighed as they pass on, and all those not right are sent back to be
+done again. The tins which pass the test roll down an inclined shute.
+Look at them, one after the other, exactly as if they were alive! As
+they run they roll in soldering stuff, so that their lids are sealed on
+the way. But they have many other processes to go through before they
+can be shipped off. Immense care is taken to get all the air out of the
+tin, because if any were left in the fish would go bad. They are tried
+and tested time after time at every stage. The salmon is cooked when
+already in the tin, and the heating is so severe that all the bone
+becomes soft too. You know this well in tinned salmon, don't you? You
+know, too, the look of the tins, with their gaudy-coloured labels, as
+they are sold in shops in England? These labels are stuck on after they
+leave the cannery, which deals with the insides, not the outsides, of
+the tins. There is a sarcastic saying at the canneries, "Eat what you
+can and can what you cannot," but this is not fair, for the very
+greatest trouble is taken to ensure the fish being quite good. When all
+is ready, sailing ships come and are loaded up and carry off the
+season's catch to all parts of the world. And this is going on all along
+the coast at many and many a cannery, day after day, week after week,
+during the fishing season.
+
+There is so much to see that when we leave the last shed the day is
+almost gone. At that moment two Chinamen pass us carrying a pig
+suspended from a pole by its four feet tied together. The poor little
+beast is going to be killed, for the Chinese are very fond of pork.
+
+When we sit on the verandah after dinner, trying vainly to keep off the
+mosquitoes by smoking strong tobacco, we are joined by one of the
+assistant managers, a man named Jones, who has fiery red hair and, I
+should judge, a peppery temper. He is very angry about something, and
+several times Mr. Clay tries to argue with him and calm him down; it
+seems that he has had a row with a Chinaman. This morning he spoke
+sharply to the man, who went stolidly on with his work without seeming
+to notice it, but later on, meeting Mr. Jones outside, the Chinaman
+drew the knife which they all carry in their belts, and muttered
+something threatening to his superior. This evening Mr. Jones keeps
+saying again and again in an excited way, "Leave him to me, I'll settle
+his hash," and Mr. Clay repeatedly tells him that he can report the man,
+who can be fined, but that it would be rash to tackle anything of that
+sort single-handed, as the Chinamen all stand together and are like an
+enraged swarm of hornets if any one of their number is touched.
+
+However, next day we hear nothing more and spend a lazy morning
+wandering about a little and sitting on the verandah until Mr. Clay
+turns up about midday and says, "Come and see all the men leaving work
+for dinner; you missed that yesterday, and it is quite a sight."
+
+So we go across with him to the big shed. Just as we reach it we hear a
+furious noise like the buzz of hornets, and coming quickly round a
+corner we run into an angry and excited crowd of Chinamen rushing this
+way and that, and stabbing at random in the air with their knives.
+
+"That fool!" ejaculates Clay. "He's done something!" and before we
+realise what he intends to do, he is right in among the mob of Chinamen,
+knives and all, without a sign of fear. You and I are too much
+interested to go away, but we keep well on the outskirts of the crowd.
+The roar redoubles as Clay is seen, but after a while it dies away a
+little, and then a small party emerge from among the rest, carrying one
+of their number, unconscious, between them, and as they pass on down to
+the house where they live, the others hurry after them, still chattering
+and brandishing their knives.
+
+Clay is much upset. "That fool!" he says again, and there is a deep fold
+of anxiety on his forehead. "This morning he took down with him to the
+sheds a piece of lead-piping, and stood by the door there, and as the
+men came out one by one, he marked the one who threatened him yesterday
+and dropped him with a stunning blow on the back of the neck. I don't
+think he's killed the fellow. Luckily it takes a lot to kill a Chinaman,
+but we'll have no end of a shindy over this; they'll lose days of work,
+and the worst is, Jones has disappeared--no one knows where he is."
+
+All the afternoon the place is in a blaze of excitement, and, as Mr.
+Clay foresaw, no work is done. Every now and then we can see, from where
+we are sitting on the verandah, a band of Chinamen burst out of their
+house flourishing knives and shouting and rushing about and then
+quieting down and slinking back. If Jones shows himself now his life
+won't be worth an instant's purchase! I try to get out of Clay what he
+means to do, but he won't tell me, yet I am sure, from something he let
+fall, that he has discovered the whereabouts of his junior, and I should
+not be surprised if the man was in this house.
+
+When we turn in at last to our beds nothing more has happened, and Jones
+has not appeared. I have been asleep for a little while when I hear a
+subdued whispering on the verandah outside my window, and jumping up I
+put my head out. There stands Clay in his pyjamas with a man I recognise
+as the night-watchman, a European. Clay sees me and waves his hand, and
+as the watchman disappears he comes over to me. "Strang has just been up
+to tell me that the Chinamen have carried the poor beggar out of the
+house and laid him on the bank of the river," he says in a low voice;
+"that means to say they think he's dying, and they wouldn't have him in
+their house, or his spirit would settle down there. That's a good job
+for us, or by the morning he'll be spirited away! There's the little tug
+ready, and it will soon run him up to New Westminster hospital. I'm just
+going down to see the poor chap aboard."
+
+"What about Jones? Aren't you going to send him off too?" I asked.
+
+"No fear! He'll have to swallow his gruel. We can't spare him. Where
+would I get another man from at this time of the season? Besides, that
+would look as if he were afraid of them. We've lost hours of precious
+time with his foolery already," he adds savagely, and I can guess the
+headstrong Jones has "caught it" from his chief!
+
+Next morning still no Jones, and all seems as usual; work is resumed,
+the Chinamen ask no questions as to their wounded comrade, and peace
+reigns. About eleven o'clock Clay comes up from the works hurriedly and
+gives a whistle, and from one of the bedroom doors emerges Jones,
+looking rather like a schoolboy who has been in disgrace and means to
+carry it off with swagger.
+
+When we get out on the verandah we find the rest of the white men
+belonging to the place all gathered together with revolvers in their
+hands, and with one consent they move off toward the big shed. For the
+life of me I can't keep out of it, and it would be rather hard to stop
+your going. I wouldn't miss seeing Jones reintroduced to his friends the
+Chinamen for anything. Come on, but let us keep behind where we shan't
+be noticed, or Mr. Clay would send us back at once.
+
+There is a busy hum surging out of the factory as we approach, and the
+noise of it rings out on the still air; then, as the white men appear in
+a little knot in the doorway, there is a dead pause, a silence so sudden
+and dramatic that it seems as if one's heart must stop beating. The
+half-dozen white men stroll up the gangway carelessly, but you note they
+all keep together, until Jones, who doubtless has got his orders,
+separates himself from the others and walks briskly ahead. His face is
+very white as he bends over a Chinaman and glances at his work in as
+natural a manner as he can command, then he looks sharply at another and
+tells him to go ahead and not waste time. Hands grow busy, the noise
+recommences, and in a few minutes the buzz rises again to concert pitch.
+The critical moment has been safely passed. We follow the others into
+the building and walk the whole length of it and back, and by the time
+we get to the doorway again no one could tell that anything unusual had
+happened.
+
+However, I shouldn't care to be Mr. Jones on Lulu Island, and if I were
+he I should apply for a job elsewhere at the end of the season!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE GREAT DIVIDE
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We are now in the train running toward the great ridge of mountains
+which rises like a backbone through the country from north to south,
+cutting off the territory of British Columbia from Alberta, though both
+are provinces of Canada. The Rockies! What ideas of grizzly bears and
+Indians and scalps and trails the name brings up before me! I don't
+suppose you have anything like the same feeling about them, because you
+weren't brought up on Fenimore Cooper and Ballantyne and all those other
+writers who are old-fashioned nowadays. Perhaps you have never even read
+_The Wild Man of the West_, or _Nick o' the Woods_? It makes me sorry
+for you!
+
+The Clays were good to the last; they brought us up on the little launch
+by river to New Westminster, and then we went by electric cable-car to
+the mighty town of Vancouver on the Pacific Coast. What a town! Wide
+streets, huge buildings, tram-cars, and much bustle and life. But what
+struck us most was the splendid playground of Stanley Park which covers
+all the ground at the end of the peninsula stretching out into the sea.
+This is not an Englishman's idea of a park at all, for we think of the
+rather stiff green expanses, with a few trees scattered here and there,
+that we are used to at home. Stanley Park is just a bit of primeval
+forest with roads running through it. There are immense trees rearing
+their crowns on stems twelve feet in diameter. There are thickets and
+wild creatures and rich undergrowth. The inhabitants of Vancouver are
+lucky indeed, and they have another park on the other side of the town
+too. Stanley Park overlooks the harbour, where lie ships of all nations,
+from the liners of China and Japan to the tiny tugs of the Cannery
+Companies. The amount of trade coming here is immense. The ships carry
+cargoes of tea, rice, and silk and oranges, with skins from Siberia, and
+take away grain, timber, fish, machinery, cattle, and manufactured
+goods. There are some sailing ships, you still see them in this part of
+the world, and these are loading masses of timber baulks from the great
+pine woods inland. Lumbering and logging are the two great occupations
+of the Western Canadian winter, and what you see here is the fruit of
+that work. Terribly hard work it is too. Swinging an axe all day among
+the great giants of the forest requires knack as well as strength, and
+when a man first starts that game he quickly finds he is as weak as a
+baby till his muscles get hardened to it. When cut down the trunks are
+dragged to any stream, or creek, as they call them here, to be drifted
+down to the coast. It is a wonderful sight to see a river about half a
+mile wide literally covered with tree trunks wedged against one another
+from bank to bank. When the logs get jammed, and have to be released, it
+requires a great deal of courage to go right into the middle of the
+stream and find the key-log, the one which holds the whole together,
+like the keystone of an arch; most exciting work this is, many a man
+loses his life or his limbs over it. In Burma, where the teak companies
+run their business on the same lines, elephants are taught to do this;
+they feel around with their trunks and draw out the right log, and then
+make for the banks at full speed, to get out of the way before the whole
+mass of tons' weight breaks loose and comes down upon them. But here
+there are no elephants; dogs are the beasts of burden, and fine work
+they do in teams, drawing laden sleighs over the frozen snow,--but dogs
+can't pull out timber when it is jammed. A lumber man has to be a bit of
+an engineer too, and learn how to dam up the stream to make enough water
+to float his logs; he is a jack of many trades, and generally a fine
+fellow too.
+
+If we had come straight on from Victoria in the Empress steamer from
+Japan we should have landed at Vancouver. The Empress Line belongs to
+the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, which has its terminus there. This
+is one of the most miraculous railways in the world. We are on it now.
+When first it ran out to the Western end, after surmounting
+indescribable difficulties in crossing the mountain country, it stopped
+at that little place we passed through when we came to Vancouver from
+New Westminster. You remember we saw a deserted town, solitary and
+silent, on the inner curve of the bay? It is called Port Moody, and the
+name suits it to a T. It has a right to be moody, for when it was known
+the railway was going to end here the town sprang up in a week or two,
+in the way Canadian towns do; but the very first winter was so terribly
+severe that ice was driven up into the bay and blocked it completely,
+preventing vessels from getting to the terminus at all, and so the
+directors saw they must carry their line on farther round the bay to the
+northern point, and here Vancouver arose; but the irony of it was that
+no such winter has ever been known again! It only came that once, just
+to blot out Port Moody's chances. So the place lies mouldering away,
+with the lumber houses falling to pieces and the wharves rotting, and
+only a few wooden crosses and headstones on the hill to mark the graves
+of those who stayed behind when the others went.
+
+[Illustration: NEGRO ATTENDANT.]
+
+This is a very fine train, the cars are open all the way down, so we can
+walk from end to end, the seats face in the direction we are going, and
+the backs can be swung over to the other side in the same way as on a
+tram-car. I know you have already noticed the very spruce negro
+attendants, because I saw you staring at the first one who appeared with
+all your eyes! There is an observation car with huge plate-glass windows
+at the end of the train, and we will go there to-morrow when we get into
+the mountains. I saw that there was a placard saying the negro attendant
+will answer _all_ questions! I hope he gets a very high salary!
+
+It was eight o'clock at night before we left Vancouver, and as there is
+a capital dining-car on the train, we had better get dinner at once.
+But the fun begins when we go to bed. I send you along first and say
+I'll turn in after a last smoke, but I have hardly settled down to an
+interesting conversation with a man in the smoking-car before I see you
+standing beside me looking very troubled. Well, what is it? In a low
+whisper you say--
+
+"I can't go to bed there; there's a lady in the same car."
+
+"Never mind! She has her own bunk, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, but----" a long pause--"she drops her hairpins on to me!"
+
+My laugh makes the man beside us very inquisitive. Never mind, old man!
+Pick them up and return them to her in a neat little packet to-morrow,
+but whatever you do don't go to sleep with your mouth open!
+
+It certainly is funny. When I join you I find that the lady is in the
+upper bunk above that which you and I are going to occupy together. The
+curtains hang straight down and it is a very tight fit indeed to wriggle
+into my place without pulling open the top part, and a still more
+difficult job to get out of my clothes lying in a space like a ship's
+berth.
+
+In the morning I take care to get up early and rouse you, and as we
+vanish out of the compartment we hear a little giggle, and looking back
+I see a long lock of brown hair hanging down over the edge of an upper
+bunk. I hope you gave her back her hairpins!
+
+We are surprised that the train is standing still, and want to find out
+why. We saunter along to the observation car and breathe the glorious
+freshness of the air, chilled by the great white peaks which rise
+shining up against a clear sky. Seeing that several of the men
+passengers have climbed down on to the track and are wandering along it
+we follow, and round the next corner come upon a cattle-train off the
+lines and blocking the way. She was just turning on to a siding to wait
+for our coming when the disaster occurred, and now she lies helpless,
+with twenty cars filled with cattle who are lowing in a disconsolate
+questioning way. Just look at the poor beasts, they are packed tighter
+than ever we see them in England, simply jammed up against each other
+like sardines in a tin. One of them has fallen, and the others bulging
+out over the space thus made are trampling on him. A fine-looking
+fellow, six feet high, in a blue shirt and cowboy hat, with a red
+handkerchief twisted round his throat, comes along with a pole, and
+skewering it under the fallen ox very cleverly levers it on to its feet
+again, holding it up until it forces its way upward itself. He jabs at
+it once or twice to make it move, but not unkindly. He looks a rough
+specimen and has a two days' growth of beard, but we go up to him, as I
+want to ask questions about the cattle. To our astonishment the moment
+he speaks we know him for an educated Englishman. "Oh, they're not badly
+looked after," he says; "they've all been out at Kamloops for twelve
+hours to get rest and food and water. They were only put on the cars an
+hour since."
+
+Looking at him keenly I find something very familiar in his face. "Are
+you a Winchester man?" I ask.
+
+"By Jove!" he says, "Mitton!" and simultaneously I cry "Wharton!" and
+our hands are locked.
+
+"Got a rough job?" I ask.
+
+He laughs. "It's all in the day's work," he says. "I've done worse
+things. It's a man's job, anyhow."
+
+"Are you going to live out here permanently?"
+
+"No; not good enough. I've been knocking about now two years, and unless
+you've got capital you can't make a start; a man can always keep
+himself, of course, and you see something of life too, but for a
+permanency, no, it's not good enough! I wrote to my people only last
+week I'd be turning up next fall to settle down again."
+
+He has to go to help the men who are raising the wheels of the truck on
+to the line again with jacks. It has been a queer accident altogether.
+The train was running down in the early hours of this morning when a
+huge boulder, which had been loosened by the vibration of its passing,
+fell with terrific force against this particular car, and knocked it off
+the rails; the coupling-pin connecting it with the next one in front
+broke, and the engine and first few trucks ran on a little. Luckily the
+derailed truck ploughed the ground and stopped within a foot or two of
+the awful gulf yawning below, though those following, which had kept on
+the track, gave it a shunt forward.
+
+It is not long before all is shipshape again, and we draw slowly past,
+waving to Wharton, who stands up in his caboose, or van, a handsome,
+healthy figure of a man. He was one of the best short-slips Winchester
+ever had. For some time after this we pass waiting trains at every
+siding, for all the traffic has been held up by the accident.
+
+For the rest of that day it is difficult to spare thoughts for anything
+but the scenery. It is grander than anything I have ever seen in my
+life. Very few people in England realise that there is not one but three
+ranges of mountains to be crossed from the coast. We are through the
+first now and into the Selkirks, and we have to climb right up these and
+down again before starting on the heights of the Rockies, which is the
+only range most people know by name. The peaks, which rise majestically
+round, are often tree-clad far up; we see huge pines, centuries old,
+towering out of a tangle of undergrowth that has probably never been
+trodden by any human foot, not even those of the Indians. There is a
+great deal of dead wood to be seen, and this hangs out in banners of
+brown among the sombre green, and here and there are long strips of
+brilliant emerald, which stand out like streaks. We apply to the
+long-suffering attendant, who tells us that they are the new growth on
+some great gash, cut possibly by a fall or landslide in the winter, and
+as we go along he shows us some of these bare patches, yet unhealed,
+torn by an avalanche of stones and mud and snow.
+
+[Illustration: INDIANS IN MODERN CLOTHES.]
+
+We pass on long trestle bridges over foaming torrents far below, and it
+makes us shudder to think what would happen if the train went over. That
+man in the smoking-car last night told me a story of what happened to
+himself on this line, some twenty years ago, when he was crossing over
+the barrier. The train he was in was trying to get up a tremendously
+steep incline on a dark and stormy night. The worst of these inclines
+are not used now, for the way has been engineered round them. The wheels
+were slipping on the greasy rails, and the engine was snorting and
+sending up showers of sparks, and inch by inch, foot by foot, the driver
+manoeuvred her up, till he reached one of these bridges. There is a
+man stationed on duty at each of them. There, notice his hut as we
+pass--they have to guard the road and see to the safety of it and signal
+to the train if anything happens to the bridge. The driver communicated
+with the man on the bridge he had reached, and asked him to wire for an
+engine to meet him at the next bridge and help him up. Engines are kept
+in certain places ready for an emergency like this; so the wire was sent
+and the train struggled on, but when they got to the next bridge there
+was no engine. The message had gone through all right, and the man in
+charge there had received a reply that the relief engine had started,
+and it ought to have arrived by then, but there was no sign of it. The
+line is a single one you notice, all the way, except at certain places,
+where there are loops to allow trains to pass each other in the same way
+as on some tram-lines. After waiting some time the engine-driver steamed
+slowly ahead. He climbed on and up, and went very slowly, expecting at
+every turn to meet the relief engine, or find it waiting for him, held
+up at a bridge. But no, there was no sign of it, and yet every
+bridge-keeper gave him the same message--it had been sent out and should
+have been here by now. At last he reached the depot itself, but there
+was no engine! What had happened to it? It had been dispatched on the
+single line, full steam up, into that stormy night, and it had vanished
+completely! A search-party was sent out in the morning, and found at one
+of the loops a slight fracture in the line; close to it the ground had
+been ploughed up, and there, far below, lay a shattered mass of iron
+and steel in the narrow valley, with the torrent plunging over it. For
+some unexplained reason the engine had left the rails and pitched
+straight over the precipice, carrying with her the two men in charge,
+who were, of course, killed outright.
+
+Beside the bridges there are tunnels and snow-sheds frequently on this
+line. Our puny tunnels in England are nothing to these; a new one which
+is just being bored through the Selkirks and fitted with electric light,
+is five miles in length! The snow-sheds are very peculiar; they are
+built out over the line with sloping roofs, so that when the avalanches
+of snow and stones and ice come flying down as the grip of winter
+relaxes, they are carried off right over any train that may happen to be
+passing, and thunder on into the valley below. For the line is for the
+most part laid on a mere shelf hewn out of the rock, with a precipice on
+the one side and the towering wall of the mountain on the other. We are
+not likely to get avalanches or snow-slides now, but in the spring it is
+an extraordinary experience to be in the train and hear the roar and
+rattle, as of big guns, followed by a hail of bullets, as tons of stuff
+come down, and most of it goes shooting into space, though a good deal
+is left on the sheds.
+
+These deep narrow valleys through which the rivers foam are called
+canyons, and the narrowest point we pass through is called Hell's Gate.
+Here the rigid walls of the cliffs come so near together that you could
+easily throw a stone across, and the tossing, foaming water careers
+along hundreds of feet below. The marvel is how any engineer could have
+made a line here at all. Think of the blasting and of the machinery
+which had to be used; how did they ever manage it? For before the track
+was cut there was nothing to rest on. The engineers must have rigged up
+some sort of scaffolding, I suppose, but it seems incredible. They had
+no choice but to do it, for there was no other way to get the line
+through, except by these narrow valleys, already occupied by a
+tempestuous river. The railway never would have been made at all but for
+that grand old man, Lord Strathcona, who died so recently. It was he who
+inspired people with his own enthusiasm and indomitable perseverance,
+and he at last who had the honour of driving in the spike which joined
+up the two ends of the line, that coming up from the Pacific slope, and
+that which had run across the plains from the Atlantic, and thus he
+bridged the continent. One of the finest peaks in the mountains is
+called after him. And the great "park" of 830 square miles, now being
+formed on Vancouver Island, is to be called Strathcona Park.
+
+The loops which the line makes are another thing to notice. Far up we
+can see another train crawling about on the mountain-side, which seems
+impossible! How did it get there? The negro attendant sees us staring,
+and grins, showing his set of splendid white teeth, "Soon see him
+below," he says, and he is right; in a comparatively short time we have
+passed that train at a siding, and afterwards, on looking down, see it
+deep below us in the valley. The line makes the ascent in a series of
+great loops, and the sides of these, seen from above or below, appear to
+be straight lines.
+
+Revelstoke is one of the interesting places we pass; here a branch goes
+off to the Kootenay country, where there is splendid land and climate
+for fruit-growing alongside the great lakes.
+
+You ought to be beginning to know something about Canada now. First the
+salmon-fishing, then the lumbering, next the cattle-export, and now the
+fruit-growing. It is a fine and prosperous country.
+
+It is the wrong time of year for the fruit, or we might have made an
+excursion to the south to get a look at it, for we could go down the
+great lakes, through the Crow's Nest Pass, and back again to the main
+line in a loop. But the blossom will all be over, of course; in spring
+it is as great a sight as it is in Japan, with the flowers springing out
+all along the trunk and branches like the hackles of a cock! Cherries
+are one of the chief exports, and then there are peaches, pears, apples,
+and plums, with other things such as strawberries and potatoes to fill
+in. But many a man's heart must sink when he comes out first from the
+old country and sees the wilderness he has to start on, for even if it
+is "cleared" there may be stumps of huge trees sticking up all over, and
+stones everywhere; it is all much rougher than our neat, tidied-up
+country. But then, on the other hand, the land is far cheaper, the soil
+is much more fruitful, and consequently the yield greater. After
+Revelstoke we pass Glacier, where the line runs round in a kind of
+amphitheatre, showing a magnificent range of peaks in solemn grandeur
+rising above the fringe of fir trees.
+
+We have come down from the Selkirk range and now rise to the Rockies,
+where the track is even steeper and more twisted; here the snowy peaks
+lifted into the region of eternal snow are higher, but the scenery is
+not so easily seen, as we are more hemmed in by even narrower canyons.
+The main interest is in going through Kicking Horse Pass; but here even
+the negro attendant fails--he cannot tell us how the name arose! His
+spirits droop, but rise again when he comes eagerly to tell us we are
+approaching the "Great Divide." We have been running through many
+tunnels in and out of the "Cathedral Rocks," and now we reach the
+water-shed of the country, where sparkling streams fall away in opposite
+directions, one running down to the Pacific, and the other to Hudson's
+Bay in the north-west. At last we reach Banff, a well-known place, with
+a huge hotel of the most luxurious kind, belonging to the Canadian
+Pacific Company. Near Banff is the Canadian National Park, a park
+indeed, of 5732 square miles, including mountains and forests! You
+simply can't imagine it; it is a great tract of country, preserved in
+its natural state, and the haunt of wild things. Here are herds of the
+buffalo of the West, the bison, a very different fellow from the
+domesticated Eastern buffalo who so rudely chased you and Joyce. The
+bison are fine to look at, with their extraordinarily large chests and
+heads, out of all proportion to the rest of their bodies. Their great
+shaggy fronts and humped shoulders make a peculiar outline. In years
+past they were cruelly hunted and killed, but are now protected and
+encouraged. Now the Government is doing its best to save the remnant.
+
+The amount of land yet wholly untrodden in the heart of these great
+mountains is difficult to realise; even the Indians only pass through
+some of it, and no white man's foot has ever touched more than a tithe.
+Grizzly bears, cinnamon bears, deer, wild sheep, and goats live still in
+these fastnesses, quite undisturbed by the little line that threads
+through from sea to sea.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ON A CATTLE RANCH
+
+
+Do you remember your first sight of the sea? I've not forgotten mine,
+though it must have been many years before yours. I suppose I wasn't
+more than four, and kindly patronising elder brothers and sisters had
+tried to describe it to me beforehand, but the most I pictured was a
+very, very big pond, with water as flat and uninteresting as that of
+most ponds. No one can have any real notion of the sea before seeing it;
+and it is the same with the prairie. I have often imagined it, but now
+that we are actually on it, driving over it, I find that all my
+mind-pictures are lifeless compared with the reality. It gives one a
+feeling of freedom, as if one had been living always in rooms and
+suddenly got out. It is not flat like a table, but full of gentle curves
+and sweeps, as if it were always just going to reveal something unknown,
+and yet it reaches on for ever on all sides. It makes us feel quite
+insignificant as our conveyance crawls along the centre of a gigantic
+circle which appears to move with us. But the thing which is most
+surprising is the beauty of it. The grass is growing freely and is very
+fresh, and mingled with it, like poppies and cornflowers in a
+wheatfield, are innumerable flowers, red and blue and yellow, shining
+like jewels in the brilliant sunlight--some are like sunflowers, and
+others, growing singly, are tall red lilies. There are clumps of trees,
+too, here and there, little round islands of them, bluffs, they are
+called. We have left the mountains now and descended into the great
+plains once only inhabited by wild tribes of the Redskins and mighty
+herds of buffalo, but now for the most part taken up by white men for
+grazing-ground.
+
+[Illustration: A LEAN SUNBURNT MAN.]
+
+When our engine ran into Calgary station, with a great clanging of the
+big bell, we found a sunburnt lean young man of twenty or so, in the
+shady hat, blue shirt, breeches, and leggings we have become accustomed
+to now. He greeted us very shortly: "For Mr. Humphrey's ranch?" and when
+we said "Yes," led the way outside to where an odd kind of waggonette,
+drawn by two horses, was waiting. We gather it is called a "democrat,"
+for we heard the stationmaster say, "Put 'em in the democrat" as sundry
+square wooden boxes were gathered up from a storehouse. Our luggage was
+a mere trifle compared with the miscellaneous mass of sacks and boxes
+and bundles that were piled in behind. We were six hours late, as we
+were due at two this morning and it is now eight. I remark on it to our
+silent young driver when he gathers up the reins. He laughs shortly.
+"You never can tell, sometimes it's as much as a day----"
+
+[Illustration: LONE PINE RANCH.]
+
+The trail out on to the boundless prairie, after getting clear of the
+town, is merely marked by two deep ruts. When we meet another "rig," as
+conveyances of any sort are called here, the driver usually goes off on
+to the grass to make way for us, as we have a heavy load, a courtesy our
+young driver acknowledges by raising his whip.
+
+It is very, very hot, and as we jog along in silence it is difficult not
+to fall asleep. It seems a long, long time before the driver points with
+his whip to a distant herd of cattle.
+
+"They belong to the Lone Pine Ranch," he volunteers. That's the ranch we
+are going to stay at. Then a group of log buildings, with a few trees
+near, rises out of the plain, and we draw nearer and nearer steadily and
+realise this is our destination.
+
+The principal house is built entirely of logs and has a sort of verandah
+around. Mr. Humphrey himself is waiting outside, and at a shout from him
+a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked woman in a pretty pink cotton dress and
+sunbonnet joins him, followed by a tiny toddling child.
+
+Their welcome is as warm as all the others we have received in Canada.
+To our surprise the young driver turns out to be the Humphreys' son!
+
+His father and mother laugh heartily as he disappears round the corner
+of the house to unyoke the horses.
+
+"Edmund is the best man at holding his tongue I ever came across," says
+Mr. Humphrey; "seems to have been born that way; he doesn't get it from
+either of us!"
+
+Mrs. Humphrey is doing all the work of the house herself, for her
+husband, five children, and three hired men, with the help of an Indian
+woman for the rough scrubbing.
+
+"You can't get servants here," she says; "and if you brought them out
+from England they'd get married in the first week."
+
+Edmund reappears for dinner, followed by three other young men dressed
+precisely alike. They sit down in a lump at one end of the wooden table
+and solidly consume immense helpings of boiled beef and dumpling, which
+Mrs. Humphrey carries in, disdaining any help. When we have finished she
+smilingly produces half a dozen jam tartlets from a cupboard.
+
+"I made them for you," she says, looking at you. "I'm proud of my
+pastry, but I had to hide them, for Edmund and his father have an awful
+sweet tooth, and if I'd put them out there wouldn't have been one
+left."
+
+There are gurgles and nudges from the lower end of the table, and I see
+you grow scarlet as the plate of tartlets is solemnly put in front of
+you. I'll help you out. I have a "sweet tooth" too, and the toddler will
+do his best, as he has one bestowed on him by his mother.
+
+There is a crash in the little scullery opening off the room we are in,
+and as the mistress of the house jumps up with an exclamation the round
+moon-face of an Indian woman appears for a moment in the doorway.
+
+It seems she has upset the coffee which she was going to bring in. Some
+of it is saved from the wreck, though the "boys" have to go without. As
+they file past, back to their work, Edmund follows last and snatches a
+tartlet while his mother's back is turned, winking at you as he does it.
+Mr. Humphrey immediately bolts another rather guiltily, so one, looking
+very small, is left alone in the plate.
+
+I'm afraid Mrs. Humphrey thinks we have gobbled them up!
+
+This room has nothing to hide the bare wooden walls except a few
+pictures from illustrated papers and a photo or two pinned up. The great
+stove is a very ugly thing, and its pipe goes out through the roof. Our
+room, which opens off on the same floor, is the merest slip of a place,
+with hardly room for the couple of camp-beds side by side. From the
+photos I guess it is Edmund's room, and that he has gone off to sleep
+with the men in their quarters near the barn meantime. We have the
+luxury of an enamel basin on a tripod, but, as Mr. Humphrey explains,
+it's much easier to get a wash down with a bucket outside.
+
+While we sit on the verandah he explains that he has three other
+children now at school; they will be back presently, and almost as he
+speaks a waggonette with a roof over it appears in the distance, and
+soon three rosy-faced girls, aged about seven, nine, and eleven, tumble
+out, waving good-byes to a few friends who go on in the conveyance,
+before they run in to get their dinner.
+
+"The authorities send the children from the outlying farms to school,
+and fetch them again free now," says Mr. Humphrey. "It's the latest
+thing, and a good thing too, or they would have to go without education
+when they live as far away as this."
+
+"The marvel to me is how Mrs. Humphrey manages to do it all," I say.
+
+"You haven't heard the half!" he ejaculates. "She does all the washing,
+looks after the pigs and poultry you see around here, milks the cows,
+and finds time to go to every dance within twenty miles. She's a great
+deal keener on dancing than Edmund is, though she makes him go with her.
+That's not all, either; she'll show you herself her prizes--albums and
+things she has won--that very rocking-chair you are sitting in is one of
+them; those are for winning ladies' races, there isn't one that can beat
+her. The finest day she ever did was two years ago, when Harry, that's
+the little one, was only ten months old. She got up and did the family
+washing at five, milked the cows, drove into Edmonton with the kid--she
+hadn't anyone to leave it with you see; she did her shopping, turned up
+at Poplar Lake Fair in the afternoon, and got someone to hold Harry
+while she won the ladies' race there, giving a handicap to the field!
+She's the finest dancer in the country round and has won things for that
+too."
+
+Yet she looks not much more than a girl now!
+
+Next morning we are up early, as Mr. Humphrey has asked us if we would
+like to go with him to see some cattle "shipped" by rail at Red Deer,
+thirty miles away on a branch of the main line between Calgary and
+Edmonton.
+
+The "boys" have been off with the beasts long before.
+
+[Illustration: INDIANS AS THEY ARE NOW.]
+
+We reach Red Deer by half-past nine, and see from afar the great herd of
+cattle, standing lumped together, while the young men, including our
+silent friend, Edmund, sit motionless as statues on ponies surrounding
+them.
+
+As we get nearer we see kraals, or enclosures, close to the railway
+line, and on a siding some empty cattle-trucks ready. We are left to sit
+in the buggy--another name for a conveyance--while Mr. Humphrey gives
+orders and the boys begin to round the cattle up. It is a sight to see
+them, for they seem simply to flow round the herd in a continuous
+stream, they gallop so fast and handle their long-lashed whips so
+cleverly. The outer gate of one of the kraals has been unbarred, and the
+beasts are run through the opening into the kraal without the slightest
+hitch.
+
+Mr. Humphrey walks across and seats himself on the high railing of the
+kraal near the trucks. Then a bar is taken out on this side, the first
+opening having been closed, and the cowboys send the cattle through this
+on to the slanting gangway leading to the first truck. The truck holds
+just nineteen beasts, and when nineteen are out of the kraal Mr.
+Humphrey drops the bar behind the last.
+
+It is a difficult job to get the nineteen into the truck, for they are
+frightened and suspicious and there is only just room enough for them
+all to pack in. But at last it is done, the door is fastened, and the
+truck moved on so that the next one comes abreast of the gangway. When
+all the trucks but one have been loaded, we count and discover that
+there are twenty-two cattle left. Mr. Humphrey shouts out that a certain
+white steer must go in any case, and he indicates the three beasts which
+can be left.
+
+But, of course, when the whole lot come through in a bunch the white
+steer remains till the last! They are sent back again and brought
+forward once more; the three unwanted ones press forward, and the white
+steer remains by himself in the kraal, refusing to come out at all. It
+is exactly as if the beasts had understood what had been said and were
+determined to give as much trouble as possible.
+
+The boys do their work admirably. This time they "cut out" the three
+unwanted ones and send them careering off across the prairie, to make
+their own way homeward. The remaining eighteen are fitted into the
+truck, and then they turn to tackle the steer, who stands in the middle
+of the kraal waiting.
+
+Two or three of them, including Edmund, sidle up to him on their ponies
+and try to edge him toward the gangway. But he only paws the ground and
+throws his head up in the air. Just as Mr. Humphrey shouts out a
+warning, everything happens all together in a second.
+
+The steer makes a mad rush. Edmund, who is nearest the gate, is through
+it like a flash. The second man gallops for the other gate leading out
+of the kraal on to the prairie, but the third, who is in the middle of
+the green space, hesitates for an instant and is lost. The great beast
+is at him, the pony wheels, slips, and falls, and his rider is shot off.
+Another minute and the steer is on to him, pommelling at him with its
+great horns. Edmund, however, has snatched up a lasso and is back into
+the kraal like a streak of light; without ever checking his gallop he
+flings the lasso round the enraged beast's head, and drags him away in a
+great semicircle through the now open gate on to the prairie. We see him
+with a sharp turn jerk the animal off its feet, and then a revolver shot
+rings out; there is a convulsive kick or two and the great steer lies
+dead.
+
+Meantime the others have run to lift up the unconscious man in the
+kraal. Luckily he is not much the worse, for he has only a fractured
+collar-bone and a broken arm. He was stunned by his hard fall, but soon
+comes round. Nobody seems to think much of this, but they all
+congratulate him on having escaped with nothing worse. These accidents
+are daily risks in a cowboy's life.
+
+It is late before we get back, and we have no time to wander round the
+homestead that day. Next morning you are up and out early to investigate
+something for yourself. I know quite well what it is, for you talked
+"gopher" in your sleep.
+
+In coming across the prairie we saw here and there colonies of odd
+little beasts that looked a cross between a squirrel and a rat. They
+jumped up and sat on the tops of their holes to see us pass, and then
+disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box when we got near. When I go out a bit
+later I find you in fits of laughter at the inquisitive little
+creatures. They can't resist peeping, and when they have popped into
+their holes, back come the little heads and bright eyes to watch what
+you are doing. I am pretty tired, as I was kept awake most of the night
+by a bird in a tree near the window which kept saying, "Whip-poor-will"
+over and over again at intervals. I understand that's its name, and it
+is hated by the ranchers. No, it is not the bright little black and
+white bird like a small magpie which pecks around, that is a
+Whisky-Jack.
+
+I spend a gloriously lazy morning watching you crawling around behind
+the holes and trying to grab the gophers! Needless to say you never get
+one!
+
+At dinner-time Mr. Humphrey is much amused at your game. "They drive
+dogs just frantic," he says, "especially young ones that don't know
+them. Rabbits aren't in it!"
+
+After dinner he suggests driving us round the ranch, and invites you to
+come and help him to yoke up. A minute or two later you both reappear
+without the horses.
+
+"A brute of a skunk," says Mr. Humphrey tersely; "we'll have to wait a
+while."
+
+It seems that one of these awful beasts has got into the shed among the
+harness, and till he chooses to move nothing can be done. Naturally I
+want to see him.
+
+"You'll have to be as quiet as a mouse," you say, guiding me round on
+tiptoe. "Mr. Humphrey says that he has a store of acrid fluid that
+stinks like rotten eggs, and if he's disturbed he lets you know it. It's
+weeks and months before any place is free from the smell."
+
+So we peep cautiously and see an animal about the size of a large cat,
+with bright black and white markings, lying harmlessly on a pile of
+harness. It has no sting, no formidable claws or beak, and yet it is
+able to keep any number of men from disturbing it while it chooses to
+lie on their possessions. No god could receive more respect from his
+believers. It is after tea-time when you, creeping to report, tell us
+the good news that at last Mr. Skunk has gone away!
+
+A day or two later Mr. Humphrey says he will take us to see an Indian
+reserve, as he thinks we ought not to leave the country without seeing
+one.
+
+You know the Indians are now looked after by the Government. There are
+certain pieces of land kept for them, and no one else may live on them.
+As the white men have spread over the land, and used it for corn and
+cattle, the Indians have been driven farther back, and find more
+difficulty in getting a living, so now Government agents are appointed
+to manage these reserves; they know all the Indians in their charge, and
+deal out to them certain amounts of stores and look after them.
+
+The settlement we are to visit is at Battle River, about forty miles
+south of Edmonton. The day chosen is the one when the Indians come in
+from the country to get their rations. They are a shabby-looking crowd
+as they gather up near the lumber houses where the agent lives and where
+the stores are kept.
+
+These are men and women of the tribe of the Crees, a very quiet,
+peaceful tribe, not troublesome, like the Blood Indians. If you imagined
+we should see them with feathers sticking out round their heads and
+fringes of scalps on their leggings you will be terribly disappointed.
+All these men are in European clothes, with round black felt hats,
+soiled coats, and blue overalls for trousers. The only thing Indian
+about them are their moccasins, the soft leather foot-covering they wear
+instead of boots. They have broad faces, lanky hair, dark reddish skins,
+and rather a sullen expression mostly, and look dirty and untidy, like
+old tramps. The squaws, who wear old shawls and skirts, sit solemnly
+smoking all the time; they nearly all carry on their backs papooses
+(babies) tied up tightly like little mummies. There are endless numbers
+of lean cur dogs, yapping and snarling at each other as they prowl for
+scraps.
+
+The Indians go in single file past the counter in the store and get rice
+and tea and flour dealt out to them, and then each one receives a
+portion of meat. The agent speaks to each of them by name, calling them
+Jim, Dick, or Charlie. Such grand names as "Sitting-Bull" or
+"Swift-as-the-Moose" are mostly discarded now in favour of something
+more European, which is considered more fashionable. The Indians hardly
+speak and never smile, the expression on their faces does not alter in
+the slightest when the agent chaffs them. When they leave the store they
+carry their provisions over to where a lot of rough-looking ponies are
+grazing. Do you see what a simple arrangement these ponies drag? It is
+made merely of a couple of long sticks, which run on each side of the
+pony like shafts; at the back the ends are crossed and tied together and
+trail on the ground. The goods are fixed on to these sticks, and then,
+seating themselves on the top of the bundles, the Indians set off
+homeward, followed by their patient squaws, who trail along after them
+on foot, carrying the papooses.
+
+[Illustration: CROSSING LAKE SUPERIOR.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE GREAT LAKES
+
+
+If we found the prairie astonishing even when uncultivated, what of
+this? Corn, ripened in the sun, and spreading over mile after mile on
+both sides of the railway line! There are no neat little fences to cut
+it up into fields, and it does not grow unevenly, but all at one height,
+so the effect is a flat and boundless plain, yellow as the desert sand.
+Everyone has heard of the grain fields of Canada, the great stretch of
+land, about a thousand miles in width, from whence corn is shipped to
+the remotest ends of the earth.
+
+We lingered on so long with the Humphreys that already the harvest is
+ready for cutting. On leaving Calgary we passed through some towns with
+astonishing names. The first we noticed was Medicine Hat, which Mr.
+Kipling has written about as "The Town that was Born Lucky," because gas
+was discovered in great quantities below the surface, and when holes are
+bored for it huge jets spring forth and can be used in countless ways;
+even the engines of the C.P.R. make use of it.
+
+Then we came across Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Indian Head, and Portage
+La Prairie. I forget at which of these it was we saw Indians in all the
+gaudy finery of their ancestors, with feathers sticking up on their
+heads, buckskin shirts covered all over with beads and decorated with
+tassels, in which coloured grasses were twisted. As the Indian may not
+take scalps now he has to find other trimmings! These men dress up like
+this to attract tourists, because they want to sell buffalo horns,
+bead-work moccasins and bags, and many other things.
+
+Then we got to Regina, the headquarters of the Royal North-West Mounted
+Police, and were lucky enough to catch sight of one or two of the force
+in their neat work-manlike khaki, with their round broad-brimmed hats
+which the Boy Scouts have imitated. These men are hard as nails and
+absolutely fearless; the story of the adventures of the force would make
+a thrilling book.
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN IN ANCIENT FINERY.]
+
+At every station we notice tall odd-looking buildings which form no part
+of an English station. These are grain-elevators. When the farmer has
+threshed his corn he can bring it here and receive a receipt for it,
+and have it stored; then it is run up to the top of one of these places
+by endless ropes, and thence can be easily poured down out of a
+funnel-like shaft into the waiting trucks for shipment.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE.]
+
+At last there is a farm where the corn is being cut! I have been
+watching to see one. That row of machines following each other, in what
+seems from here to be a line, are cutting and binding the corn and
+turning it out in neat sheaves. The Canadian farmer is often very much
+ahead of us in the way of machinery. He has to be, for sometimes he has
+furrows four miles long and a farm the size of an English county. There
+is, for instance, a steam-plough which takes twelve fourteen-inch
+furrows at once! What would an English yokel, meandering along at the
+tail of his two slow horses, say to that? His little job would be done
+before it was time for breakfast! Hullo! there is another field, all in
+stooks already--look across the boundless plain to the horizon. There is
+nothing to be seen but stooks and that thin telephone wire running like
+a line in the sky in the far distance. When you look at any map of
+Canada you can't help noticing how straight the boundaries of the
+provinces are, just as if ruled with a ruler; as a matter of fact they
+run usually on lines of longitude or latitude, and are thus very
+different from our county boundaries, which have grown up anyhow. This
+province we are now in, Manitoba, has recently been increased by an
+immense area of land in the north, so that it now has a seashore on
+Hudson Bay, but before that it was nearly square. The farms are measured
+out in the same exact way too; men have land given to them in sections a
+mile square, and a man can take more than one section, or he can have a
+part of one, but every bit of land granted is marked out evenly like the
+squares on a chess-board.
+
+The days of our journey east seem to be just a succession of endless
+cornfields and grain-elevators, with glimpses of busy towns and small
+stations. And in the evening we see a yellow glow of sunset lighting up
+the uncut fields in a splendour of light that is worth coming far to
+see. There is a very striking difference about the twilight here and in
+the East. You remember there how night seemed to shut down close upon
+sunset, here the light remains on in the sky for many hours, even at
+nine o'clock we can see the hands of our watches.
+
+Every now and then we discover our watches are an hour slow, and we have
+to jump the pointers on. This is because Canada and the States are
+divided up into strips by north and south lines, which mark off the
+time to be kept in each. As I explained long ago--how very long ago it
+seems!--America is too vast a continent to keep one set time from shore
+to shore, as we do in our little country, so it was found convenient to
+make definite lines, each one hour apart, all the way across.
+
+Then we arrive at Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba and the largest
+corn-market in the world. The town is almost exactly half-way across
+Canada. But we are not going to stop here, for towns do not interest us
+so much as nature, though if we could have had a peep into the wide main
+street, with its towering buildings, remembering it was a prairie trail
+thirty years ago, it would have been worth while.
+
+The rest of that day we run through much prettier scenery than the
+cornland, which has become very monotonous, and at night-time arrive at
+a place called Port Arthur, where we are going to leave the train and
+explore the Great Lakes. Well may they be called "Great"! In Lake
+Superior, the largest of the five, you could put the whole of your
+native land, Scotland, and have nearly two thousand square miles left
+over! This is the largest fresh-water lake in the world. There are five
+lakes here lying together, and the three largest--Superior, Michigan,
+and Huron--spring from a common centre and stretch out just like the
+fingers of a horse-chestnut leaf, but you will find out all this
+to-morrow.
+
+It is a glorious afternoon the next day when we first catch sight of the
+steamer waiting to take us across Lake Superior. She is more like an
+ocean liner than anything else. She is called the _Hamonic_, and is
+indeed as large as many of the ships of well-known lines running out to
+the East from England, for she is five thousand tons, with accommodation
+for four hundred first-class passengers. On the upper deck is an
+observation room with windows along the whole length of each side. For
+all we can see, when once we are out of sight of the shore, we might
+have left Canada for ever and be taking our final plunge across the
+Atlantic homeward. And it is the same thing all the next day. We see no
+land and might as well be on the broad ocean, until, after luncheon, we
+come to the great lock, or canal, which joins the two lakes of Superior
+and Huron. It is nine hundred feet long, and had to be made because the
+levels of the two lakes are different, and no steamer could have come
+through the rapids which the Indians used to love to shoot in their
+canoes. When we are through the lock we stop at a large and flourishing
+place called Sault Ste Marie, and then get into far the prettiest part
+of the route among the islands, where we see fine trees already turning
+crimson and gold. Right across Lake Huron we go, passing the entrance to
+Lake Michigan, and reach Sarnia at one o'clock the next day. Sarnia
+stands on a narrow strait, and just opposite is part of the territory of
+the United States of America.
+
+If Canadians are sons and daughters of Great Britain, the Americans are
+first cousins, for there is no other country in the world, outside the
+British Empire, of nearer kin to us than the mighty nation which leads
+in the van of progress in all manufactures and enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: A GATEWAY IN QUEBEC.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+OLD FRIENDS AGAIN
+
+
+Supposing that some of our friends in Britain, who are expecting to
+greet us at home in a week, could see us now, suddenly, I wonder where
+they would think we had got to! Covered in borrowed oilskins, we stand
+in a mighty cavern, whose vast stone roof reaches up to a hundred feet
+or more, though in width it is comparatively narrow, like a long shelf.
+In front of us is a wall of water so thick and overwhelming that it
+resembles a curtain of giants; the roar of the falling water and the
+howl of the never-ceasing wind mingle in a great turmoil, and the air is
+thick with dashing spray. Fitting is the name of the Cave of the Winds!
+For we are standing in a cave right beneath one of the wonders of the
+world--the Falls of Niagara, on the American side. We have only had a
+glimpse of the gigantic waterfall so far, for we came straight here, and
+presently are going round outside on an electric tram.
+
+[Illustration: THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.]
+
+These Falls lie between the two least of the Great Lakes, Erie and
+Ontario, and on one side of them is America, and the other Canada. We
+crossed on a bridge from the American side to an island in the middle
+called Goat Island, and then dived downward to this gigantic cave right
+below the American Fall. It gives one a mighty idea of power, doesn't
+it? The world can't afford to waste power nowadays when it can be
+harnessed up for use in generating electricity and a hundred other ways,
+and not long before the end of the last century power stations were
+started on both sides of the Falls to use this force. People cried out
+at first, thinking that the stupendous sight might be spoiled, but not a
+bit of it. What man has used is but as a few spoonfuls compared with the
+vast energy of the tons of water flowing resistlessly and ceaselessly
+day and night down these precipices and onward to the sea. Put out your
+finger and thrust it into the wall of water; the force of it sends your
+arm down to your side like a railway signal. We are not alone in the
+cave; there are many other people from all parts of the world. We heard
+French and German talked as we came across, though there is no chance of
+hearing any conversation now. As we climb up again and put off the wet
+oilskins, kept for the use of visitors, the roar becomes less, and when
+suddenly someone takes hold of my arm in a friendly way, and calls out
+my name, I wheel round to face the "nice" American who saved us from
+starvation in the train in Egypt! He has recognised us at once and grips
+our hands heartily. When we emerge on to the bridge he is full of
+questions about our trip, and wants to know what we have seen and what
+we have done. He has with him a boy who looks several years older than
+you, and he tells us that this is his son, who is studying at Harvard,
+but off on the long vacation. So we all go together back to Prospect
+Park, on the American side, and get into an electric car, which swings
+over a bridge just below the Falls, where we can see the whole grand
+panorama and both Falls. The Canadian one is called the Horseshoe Fall.
+Often you must have seen pictures of Niagara; but pictures do not convey
+much, and this is one of the few sights in the world that runs beyond
+expectation. As the torrent pouring over strikes the water below, the
+foam flies up in a vast frothy mass into the air; we, from our height,
+look down upon it and upon a tiny steamer in the basin just below. The
+reason why the steamer is able to sail so near the Falls without being
+swept down is because the falling water descends with such force that it
+goes right below the surface of the bay and does not agitate it at all.
+On the other side, away from the Falls, farther down the river, there
+is a high suspension bridge belonging to the Grand Trunk Railway of
+Canada, with a place for carriages and foot-passengers below the lines.
+A carriage crawling over it looks like a small beetle. There was an
+awful scene here not so long ago in the winter-time, when the river was
+frozen from shore to shore. Some people were on the ice, which began to
+break up in large blocks, and in the very sight of hundreds of their
+fellow-creatures, who vainly tried to save them by throwing ropes,
+several were swept away, including a man and his wife, who were on a
+floating hummock. The man actually got hold of one of the ropes, but his
+wife had fainted, and in trying to support her the rope slipped through
+his fingers, and together the two black specks on the white ice-block
+were borne by the current to their doom. A never-to-be-forgotten
+tragedy!
+
+[Illustration: THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.]
+
+After we have crossed the water we run along on the Canadian side close
+to the edge of the cliff, high up, following the course of the current
+downward; we go round a great curve, where it boils in a whirlpool, we
+pass by a tall monument, and then, much farther down, we cross another
+bridge, and are brought back on the American side, where the line runs
+at first low down and gradually mounts till, after passing below the
+suspension bridge, we reach our starting-place. While we are close to
+the surface of the water we see the Rapids splendidly. This is where the
+swift water from the Falls has come again to the surface, and, hemmed in
+by the walls of the gorge, it tosses in fury; long sprays leap up from
+below like grabbing fingers clutching to drag men down; miniature
+whirlpools boil, and in the centre the water is forced up higher than at
+the sides.
+
+All the time our American friend and his son, who seems quite a man of
+the world, and has been to the Falls several times before, are trying to
+persuade us to go home by New York and pay them a visit _en route_.
+Unfortunately we cannot. Our passages are booked by a steamer belonging
+to the Allan Line, which sails from Montreal the day after to-morrow.
+But I think perhaps sometime we may come back and make a tour of the
+States!
+
+[Illustration: THE ST. LAWRENCE.]
+
+It is hard to say good-bye and tear ourselves away from our hospitable
+friends, but it must be done. The next day sees us at the fine city of
+Montreal, having come by way of Toronto, the capital of Ontario.
+
+Montreal is a very bright city, with trees lining the streets and the
+mountains rising at the back, and all the inhabitants seem cheerful and
+good-natured. The great liner waiting to carry us homeward can only get
+as far as this up the St. Lawrence in the summer; in winter she sets
+down her passengers at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, right out on the ocean.
+
+As she steams slowly up the beautiful river we see the trees bursting
+out here and there into a perfect flame of colour. The maple is Canada's
+special tree, and it is the maples that make those crimson flame-like
+patches among the other foliage. We notice, too, what an unusual
+quantity of dead wood is left standing; this, in a small country like
+England, would be cleared out or cut away, but here the forests are so
+vast that it is left to rot.
+
+Then we pass Quebec on its heights, where Wolfe won his great victory,
+and so made Canada British for ever. It is odd, however, to notice,
+especially during the last part of our journey, how very French the
+people are in their ways and customs. At one small station I remember
+hearing a man chatting away in French and gesticulating like a
+Frenchman, and as he turned to go another called after him, "Ha,
+MacDougall!" The truth is that the original settlers here were mostly
+French, but after a while many emigrants came over from Scotland and
+intermarried with them, and the children, who naturally bore their
+father's surnames, learned their mother's native tongue!
+
+Once out of the St. Lawrence we begin to feel the roll of the great
+waves, but we need not at this time of year expect anything very bad,
+and we shall see no icebergs. The early summer is the worst time for
+them, for the warm currents have loosened them from the icefields in the
+north, and they float southwards. The voyage is uneventful, and,
+seasoned sailors as we are, we never miss a meal during the week that it
+takes to cross before we sight the chimneys and wharves of grimy
+Liverpool.
+
+As we step on to British soil once more, on the wharf we turn and look
+at each other.
+
+Has it come up to expectation? You are not sorry you went with me?
+
+As for me, I have never had a pleasanter companion and never wish for
+one. Hullo! here are your people, ready to carry you off, rejoiced to
+find you safe and sound after not having seen you for nearly a year,
+during which time you have spanned the world and travelled somewhere
+about twenty-five thousand miles.
+
+Good-bye!
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abu Simbel by sunrise, 109.
+
+Acre, 147.
+
+Aden, 165.
+
+Africa, 51.
+
+Albert, Lake, 55.
+
+Amenhetep II., tomb of, 90.
+
+Amenhetep III., 79.
+
+Ants, white, 278, 279.
+
+Anuradhapura, 194.
+
+Apes, Barbary, 27.
+
+Arabs, 128.
+
+Asia, 120.
+
+Assouan, 102.
+  dam at, 118.
+
+
+Babel Mandeb, Straits of, 165.
+
+Bakshish, 70, 181.
+
+Banff, Canada, 369.
+
+Barbary apes, 28.
+
+Battle River, 380.
+
+Bazaar, an Indian, 228.
+  at Jerusalem, 129.
+
+Benares, 242.
+
+Betel-nut chewing, 258.
+
+Bethany, 137.
+
+Bethlehem, 137.
+
+Bisharin tribe, 105.
+
+Bison, Canadian, 370.
+
+Bitter Lake, 157, 160.
+
+Bo tree, the sacred, 200.
+
+Bombay, 203-208.
+
+Bonito, the, 168.
+
+Borneo, 313.
+
+Boxing in Burma, 269.
+
+Brahmans, 214, 231.
+
+Brazen Palace, Ceylon, 198.
+
+Buddha, 186, 196, 254, 260, 261.
+
+Buddhists, 186, 244, 252, 321.
+
+Buffalo, a Burmese, 292.
+  North American, 370.
+
+Burma, 250.
+
+
+Cairo, 53, 56, 58.
+
+Calcutta, 218.
+
+Calgary, 372.
+
+Camels, 68, 104.
+
+Canada, 345.
+
+Canadian Pacific Railway, 360.
+
+Canyons in the Rockies, 367.
+
+Caste, Indian, 214.
+
+Cathedral Rocks, 369.
+
+Cattle ranch, a Canadian, 371-381.
+
+Cattle train, a Canadian, 363, 376.
+
+Cawnpore, 235.
+  Well of, 236.
+
+Ceylon, 179.
+
+Cheops, King, 61, 62.
+
+Child-widows of India, 231.
+
+Chinamen in Malay, 306, 308.
+  in Vancouver, 347.
+
+Chinese temple, 307.
+
+_Chuprassie_, a Burmese, 264.
+
+Cingalese, the, 180.
+
+Circuit House, Mandalay, 272.
+
+Clogs, Japanese, 327.
+
+Colombo, 179.
+
+Colossi, the, 87.
+
+Corn-growing in Canada, 382, 384.
+
+Cotton-growing in Egypt, 68.
+
+Crees, 380.
+
+Customs house, French, 10.
+
+Cyclone, a, 175, 176.
+
+
+Dagoba, a, 194, 195.
+
+Dead Sea, 136.
+
+Delhi, 218-234.
+
+Delta of the Nile, 54.
+
+Der El Bahari, Temple of, 92.
+
+Desert, the, 157.
+
+Dolphins, 172.
+
+Dover, 5, 7, 8.
+
+Dragoman, the Egyptian, 85, 87.
+
+Dutugemunu, King, 197.
+
+
+Earthquakes, 50.
+
+Edmonton, 380.
+
+Edward, Lake, 55.
+
+Egypt, 53.
+
+Egyptian gods, 82.
+
+Elala, story of, 197.
+
+Elephants, Burmese, 276, 292, 360.
+
+Esquimault, 346.
+
+Etna, Mount, 49.
+
+
+Fakir, a, 244, 245.
+
+Fellaheen, Egyptian, 69.
+
+Figs, Indian, 45.
+
+Fire-flies, 201.
+
+Fish, deep-sea, 170.
+
+Flying fish, 168.
+
+France, journey through, 8-19.
+
+Fraser River, 348.
+
+Fruit-growing in Canada, 368, 369.
+
+Fruits preserved, 16, 17.
+
+Fujiyama, 318, 338.
+
+
+Galilee, Sea of, 145.
+
+Ganesh, the elephant-god, 247.
+
+Ganges, the, 242, 243.
+
+Garden party in Burma, a, 264.
+
+Gateway, Japanese, 320.
+
+Gendarmes, French, 16.
+
+Georgetown, Penang, 305.
+
+Geta clogs, Japanese, 327.
+
+Gethsemane, Garden of, 136.
+
+Ghurkas, 220.
+
+Gibraltar, 27-32, 50.
+
+Gizeh, Pyramids of, 60, 62.
+
+Glacier, 369.
+
+Golden Pagoda, the, 257.
+
+Gophers, 379.
+
+Grain elevators, 383.
+
+"Great Divide," the, 369.
+
+
+Haifa, adventures on way to, 146, 147.
+
+Hatshepset, Queen, 92.
+
+Herculaneum, destruction of, 40.
+
+Hindus, the, 244.
+
+Holy Land, the, 120.
+
+Hong-Kong, 314.
+
+Huron, Lake, 387.
+
+
+India, 203.
+  travelling in, 208-217.
+
+Indian corn, 66.
+
+Indian Ocean, 168.
+
+Indians, North American, 350, 352, 380, 383.
+
+Irrawaddy, the, 251.
+  the voyage by cargo boat on, 278.
+
+Ismailia, 156.
+
+Israel, the land of, 123.
+
+Italy, in, 36.
+
+
+Jaffa, 121.
+
+Japan, 320.
+
+Japanese gateway, a, 327.
+  inn, in a, 332-344.
+  porters, 335.
+
+Jerusalem, a walk about, 120-138.
+
+Jews, the, 121, 128, 134.
+
+Jews' Wailing-Place, 134.
+
+Jim's story of his adventure with Joyce, 291-303.
+
+Jordan, the river, 137.
+
+Joyce, 278-289.
+  her adventure with Jim, 291-303.
+
+
+Kandy, 184.
+
+Karnak, Temple of, 83.
+
+Kashmir Gate, Delhi, story of, 224.
+
+Khartoum, 106, 115.
+
+Kicking Horse Pass, 369.
+
+Kishon, the river, 149.
+
+Kobe, 317.
+
+Kootenay, 368.
+
+Kutab Minar, Delhi, 227, 228.
+
+Kutho-daw, Mandalay, the, 275.
+
+
+Lakes, the great African, 55.
+  the great American, 382-387.
+
+Lascars, 157, 281.
+
+Leogryphs, Burmese, 257.
+
+Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 52, 153, 154.
+
+_Let-pet_, 281.
+
+Lulu Island, salmon cannery on, 349.
+
+Lumbering, 359.
+
+Luxor, 65, 75.
+  Temple of, 78-84.
+
+
+Macaroni, 39.
+
+Malays, 306, 312.
+
+Mandalay, 272.
+
+Mangoes, 266.
+
+Manitoba, 385.
+
+Maples, Canadian, 393.
+
+Marseilles, 16-19.
+  strange bridge at, 18, 19.
+
+Mecca, 159.
+
+Medicine Hat, town of, 383.
+
+Messina earthquake, 47-49.
+  Straits of, 47.
+
+Mikado, the, 329.
+
+Mimosas, 292.
+
+Mohammedans, 107, 159.
+
+Monkeys, grey, of Ceylon, 195.
+
+Monks, Burmese, 252.
+
+Monsoon, the North-East, 175, 176.
+
+Montreal, 392.
+
+Moses' Well, 161.
+
+Mosque of Omar, 132, 133.
+
+Mosquitoes, 57.
+
+Mount of Olives, 134, 135.
+
+Mummies, Egyptian, 89.
+
+
+Naples, 37, 50.
+
+Nazareth, 138, 140-146.
+
+Negro attendants on C.P.R., 361.
+
+New Zealand, 166.
+
+_Ngape_, 253.
+
+Niagara Falls, 388.
+
+Nile, the, 53-56, 77.
+  voyage by steamer up, 95-108.
+
+North-American Indians, 350, 352, 380, 383.
+
+Nubia, 103.
+
+
+Ocean, depths of the, 168-178.
+
+Olives, Mount of, 134, 135.
+
+Orient line, the, 6, 20.
+
+
+Pagahn, Burma, 284.
+
+Pagodas, Burmese, 257, 284.
+
+Palestine, 120.
+
+Paris, 14.
+
+Parsees, 207.
+
+Penang, 304.
+
+Persian, a, 206, 207.
+
+Pharaohs, the, 79.
+  tombs near Thebes, 85.
+
+Phosphorescence, 174.
+
+Policemen, French, 16.
+
+Pompeii, story of, 39, 40-45.
+
+_Poongyi_, a Burmese, 252.
+
+Port Moody, 360.
+
+Port Said, 52, 153.
+
+Porters, Japanese, 335.
+
+Potter, an Indian, 232.
+
+Prairie, the Canadian, 371.
+
+Pulo Pera, sea-birds on, 305.
+
+Pwe, a Burmese, 285.
+
+Pyramids, the, 60.
+
+
+Quebec, 393.
+
+
+Raffles, Sir Stamford, 312, 313, 314.
+
+Rameses II., 79, 80, 194.
+  statues of, 110, 111.
+
+Rangoon River, 251.
+
+Red Sea, 162.
+
+Regina, 383.
+
+Revelstoke, 368, 369.
+
+Rice-growing in Ceylon, 184.
+
+Rickshaws, Ceylon, 180, 182.
+  Japanese, 325.
+  Malayan, 307.
+
+Rocky Mountains, 358.
+
+Rokwren Island, 316.
+
+Roman Empire, the, 50.
+
+Rosetta Stone, 79.
+
+Ruanveli dagoba, 196-198.
+
+Russian Pilgrims, 131, 137.
+
+
+_Saddiyeh_, a, 98.
+
+St. Lawrence River, 392.
+
+Salmon cannery on Lulu Island, 349, 352-353.
+
+Salmon in Fraser River, 348.
+
+Sampan, in a, 306.
+
+Sarnia, 387.
+
+Sault Ste Marie, 387.
+
+Sawbwa of Hsipaw, the, 268.
+
+Scarabs, Egyptian, 93.
+
+Scorpion, a, 274.
+
+Selkirk Mountains, 304.
+
+_Shaduf_, a, 96.
+
+Shanghai, 316.
+
+Sheep-farming in Australia, 166.
+
+Shinto Temple, 320.
+
+Shintoism, 321.
+
+Ship, life on board, 21.
+
+Shiva, the god, 247.
+
+Shwe Dagon, the, 259.
+
+Sicily, 47.
+
+Sikhs, the, 221.
+
+Sinai, peninsula of, 161.
+
+Singapore, 311.
+
+Siwash Indians, 350, 352.
+
+Skunk, 379.
+
+Snake-charmer, a, 180-181.
+
+Snakes, 202.
+
+Solomon's Temple, 132, 134.
+
+Soudan, the, 106, 114.
+
+Southern Cross, 164.
+
+Spain, 26.
+
+Sphinx, the, 62.
+
+Storm on the Indian Ocean, 174-178.
+
+Straits Settlements, 304.
+
+Strathcona, Lord, 368.
+
+Stromboli, 45.
+
+Suez Canal, 153-161.
+
+Sugar-cane growing in Egypt, 69.
+
+Sumatra, 305.
+
+Sunrise at Abu Simbel, 109.
+
+Superior, Lake, 386.
+
+Sydney, 166.
+
+
+Tailor, the Indian, 230.
+
+Tamils, 180.
+
+Tarantula, a, 275.
+
+Tea-plantation, a visit to, 179-191.
+
+Temples, Burmese, 257, 284.
+  Chinese, 307, 308.
+  Shinto, 320.
+
+Thebes, 77.
+
+Theebaw, King, 268, 275.
+
+Thunderstorm, a tropical, 179-191.
+
+Time, alteration in, 172, 385.
+
+Tokyo, 321, 325.
+
+Tombs of the Kings, 85.
+
+Tooth, Temple of the, 185.
+
+Torii, a Japanese, 320.
+
+Tortoises, sacred, 193.
+
+Toulon, 32, 50.
+
+Towers of Silence, Bombay, 208.
+
+Tripoli, 38.
+
+Typhoon, a, 176.
+
+
+Vancouver Island, 345.
+  town of, 358.
+
+Vesuvius, Mount, 37, 40.
+
+Victoria, Lake, 55.
+
+Victoria, Vancouver, 345.
+
+Volcanoes, 36, 50.
+
+Vultures, 207, 208.
+
+
+Wady Halfa, 114, 116.
+
+Weaver, an Indian, 231.
+
+Wheat-growing in Canada, 382, 384.
+
+Winnipeg, 386.
+
+
+Yokohama, 318.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Round the Wonderful World, by G. E. Mitton
+
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:40:19 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:40:19 -0700
commit	b29c134c0f9a1b8749bd60fb85fd18b0be5f7481 (patch)
tree	0093f9940b11af4c5839a8e434a08ba9b5c4a1ac