to the singing. Nor is it customary in the East to
scoff at the display of religion. And to the only
Englishman on board, as he sits alone in the foreways’
of the ship, there is a subtle attraction in these
voices sin g in g
some old familiar
hymn, the first
music of his youth.
A s we a p proach
Pha-an the
lim e s to n e h ills
come nearer to the
river. The Kaw-
gun caves lie at
the end of a narrow
water on our left,
and at Pha-gat, a
little higher up,
the width of the
r iv e r co n tra c ts .
T h ro u g h th e se
gateways there is
ent r y into a
KAW-GUN
dreamy world of
wide, calm, waters, ol wooded islands and distant peaks :
and the splendid Titanic form of Zway-kabyin. Here
we are very near the turning point of the range, and
its form changes completely within a few hundred yards
of ascent up the river.
C H A P T E R X X X I I
PH A -AN
AT Pha-an one may well come to a pause, for there
are few more beautiful places in Burma than this
small village, struggling to be a town, on a cliff-top
above the Salwin. There is a house here for the
European traveller, built on a promontory that juts like
a great ram into the river ; and every vista from it is
one of beauty. Looking up, there is the wide splendour
of the Salwin, a great island in its arms ; and behind
it is the ruddy peak of Pha-oo, whose shadow at dawn
and evening lies mirrored in the stately water. On the
western shore is the pyramid of Pha-boo, with a little
white-and-gold pagoda on a hillock at its feet. The
river runs by it under high banks, rich with grasses
and plantain-groves, to the gateways of Pha-gat. Below
the house on the east, and.first lit by the day, is a
sheltered harbour, in which the cargo dinghies lie, and
the white masts of sailing vessels rise straight up from
the water. Here, at all hours, there is life : bullock-carts
wait to ship and unship their burden, while the red cattle
browse under the trees; women and girls come down
to laugh and bathe; Burmans squat on the sloping
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