to the conclusion that this was once a man. But every
drop o f blood had been sucked out o f his body.
There are other tales, certified to by gentlemen of
veracity and honour ; tales which are among the commonplaces
of life, in this beautiful country of great rivers,
and bellying sails,
and tropic luxury;
and yet I am reluctant
to repeat
them, lest in other
lands they should
meet with a foolish
incredulity.
A p a r t from
mosquitoes, Mau-
bin, built on the
TH E MAIL PACKET FROM MANDALAY
edge of a winding river, and immersed in the rich metallic
beauty of the south, has qualities that make for attraction.
Here there is no sense of isolation, for the river is the
main highway of the Delta. All through the dry
season, from the ceasing of the rains in November to
their coming again in June, big steamers pass down it,
and up it, to the number of a score a week.
And when they come at night, they fling their searchlights
up the winding avenues, and transform the world
of dark cumulose trees, of swaying forests of cane, of
red-roofed houses, and spired pagodas glittering with
gold, into a stage-land of extraordinary picturesqueness.
The trees look as if they were cut in stiff velvet, the
people as if they were actors in a play. Movement is
personified as the coolies swarm up the gangways, and
the lascars plunge into the flame-lit water, and strain
at the hauling-ropes as they race along the grass-covered
banks.
Some of the steamers that come this way are of the
largest s iz em a ile r s on their way from Mandalay ;
cargo-boats with flats in tow, laden with the produce
of the land ; and when they come round the bend of
the river into full view of Maubin, the great stream
shrinks and looks strangely small, as if it were being
overcome by a monster from another world. Three
hundred feet they are in length, these steamers, and
with flats in tow, half as wide, and they forge imperiously
ahead as if all space belonged to them, and swing round
and roar out their
an ch o r ch a in s ,
while the lascars
le ap , and the
skipper’s white face
gleams in the heavy
shadows by the
wheel—the face of
a man in command.
And when you
LOADING A CARGO OF RICE
see this wonderful
spectacle for the first time, you step on board the great
boat expecting to find an imperious man, with eyes
alight; with power, and the consciousness of power, and
the knowledge that he is playing a great part. But
you are disappointed, for you find a plain man, very