C H A P T E R X X X IV
TO S H I V E G U N
FROM a faint shark streak, glinting white on the
river’s horizon, to a puffing monster of fire and
iron ; from faint paddle-throbs, like the humming of
distant bees on a summer’s day, to a loud roar and
shriek ; the steamer comes to take all the travelling
world of Pha-an on its way. It is in great solitudes
that the poetry of swift motion makes its finest
appeal. Englishman, Shan, Panthay, Indian, Taungthu,
and Karen—all who are waiting here—embark; and
we are borne away on this new, throbbing carpet of
Solomon, in a manner that delights us all. Past the
shadow of Pha-boo, we enter the left channel of the
river, skirting an island in our course, and Pha-nwe
is soon lost to sight behind us. The route we are
following is in a sense historic, since the names of all
these peaks and precipices are associated with the
bygone tribulation of the Karen race. The story of
their own struggles is told under the guise of a legend
of the frog (J>ha).
The place of Pha-nwe is taken, as we advance, by
new masses of rock on our left, each duplicated in the
620
-»i To Shwegun
satin calm of the river, until we come to a great cliff,
and are face to face with a majestic spectacle; for
the sheer face of it rises up to stupendous heights
from the river, and the boats on the water look
like little flies under its shadow. Its magnetism is
such, that one looks at all human objects in its
neighbourhood in a new perspective. Three hours
yet remain to sunset, and we are only seventeen
degrees from the equator, yet the eastern face of the
cliff, and all the gardens at its feet, are already deprived
of light.
TH E SALWIN
In a little while this splendid passage is also of
the past; the ship takes her relentless course, and
the great mass" of cliff and mountain grows smaller
and ever smaller in our wake. Other and stupendous