convert a nation of artistic philosophers into disciplined
policemen is a comedy of fine flavour. In the village
the peopl e crowd at their doors and under the swaying’ J O
palms, to see the procession go by ; the clerkly postmaster
beside his letter-box, scarlet with the imperial
cypher blazoned upon it ; the Chinaman before his
liquor shop, also an imperial care ; the girl fresh from
her silk-loom; the old man, too old now to totter
more than a few feet from his door.
Past the house in an opposite direction, there runs
a pathway to the river’s edge. Down this way, as the
afternoon wanes, the people pass to bathe. Madame
comes along in a dark green skirt and breast cloth ;
only a single garment, wrapped about her, and tucked
in with a simple twist over her bosom. Her feet and
ankles and her soft shoulders are free to the air ; and
as she comes swaying along, with the peculiar gait of
the Burmese woman, half waddle, half swagger, wholly
different from the statuesque pose of the nearer East, she
looks comely and attractive enough. Holding one hand,
and tripping beside her, two steps to her one, is her
little daughter, a pretty laughing child with the voice
of a happy tom-tit. The sun, as they reach the pebbled
edge of the river, is nearing the horizon, and the whole
width of water is turned to red-gold, freighted with
the shadows of distant trees. The child slips her small
garment swiftly to her feet, and tumbles into the water.
Her mother and her grown-up sisters are obliged to
proceed with more discretion ; but a woman is old
indeed, who does not presently behave like a child in
6 3 2
the water. Here, in her native element, the most
affected belle—though affectation is far from these people
—speedily forgets herself. She splashes about, and
flops suddenly into the water, which fills the only
garment like a balloon ; and by dint of this she contrives
to swim a yard or two. The air exhausted, and Madame
EVENTIDE
being nearly out of her depth, she rises again to her
feet with laughter, shakes the fresh ; water from her
face, and renews the joy. Then she reaches out an
arm for her spare garment, lets it fall over her dark
Japanese head and soft shoulders, rises, and in a trice
is into it, and out of the old one; all coram populo, but
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