finer than that of his neighbours, and the man himself
differed in no respect from them, save in this, that
he was the responsible head,' and obliged therefore,
by the laws of hospitality and of the Government, to
make himselt useful and attentive.
The. chief peculiarity of the village lay in its complete
lack of young people over ten years of age. There
were some old men and women, and a number o f
babes at the breast, and urchins at the monastery ;
the rest were grown men and women, neither girls
growing into full womanhood nor boys within reach
of manhood. This peculiarity was clearly due to the
age of the village. The ten years that had passed
since it had been founded (by an old man, at the time
of my visit sixty years of age, and still living in the
village), had, it seemed to me, been well spent. There
was an air of homeliness about the little settlement ;
the jack-trees had grown taller than the* houses; the
kwins had multiplied f herds of buffaloes grazed in
its precincts ; and three miles away, the village, I was-
told, had thrown out a hamlet of five houses, which
was itself extending.
Exploring in this way, and talking to a villager
as I went, I returned at last to the rest-house, and
passed away an hour or more beside the river. It was-
pleasant to sit there smoking and watch idly the flight
of water-fowl high overhead ; to trace the five-pointed
foliage and the scarlet bloom of the cotton-trees,
patterned against the blue sky to follow the passing
glory of the sunset, and the ceaseless monotonous.
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