As the day wears on, incident after incident contributes
to the general character of the world through
which I am travelling. Monkeys swim in long files
across the river;, a snake writhes up the steep bank,
only to be caught in the unpitying talons of a hawk ;
and a small red deer, picking his leisurely way amongst
the dead trees of the foreshore, darts instantly to cover
on seeing us approach.
After hard straining at a rapid, we enter long
passages of calm river, winding through forest avenues
of the most stately character. Sheer walls of forest,
two hundred feet in height, shut us in. Creepers hang
over the water from lofty boughs-; masses of silver
leaves adorn the trees !fjike flowers ; palms that would
grace the garden of a palace grow here in waste
profusion. What a picture it is at once of crowded
life and individual beauty !
Men glide down on bamboo rafts, strung lightly
together for the short journey ; pole in hand, muscles
that quiver in the sun, a bag of meal at their feet.
In a flash my mind is carried back three thousand
years by the Hellenic grace and simplicity of it all.
The white moon-like bloom of the wild gourd; the
secret gleam of water on the tree-trunks ; the flight of
starlings across blue bays and estuaries of sk y ; the
rustle of wildfowl in the jungle ; the insistent czde-ade
of water, where, passing swiftly over a hidden stone,
it breaks against itself in music; in the clear dawn,
peaks that show "beyond the near hills of the river,
cutting the blue heayen into Alps; wild-eyed buffaloes,
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