It keeps
out the sun and rain, and gives all the comfort which is needed in this
climate, but nothing more.
My journey of thirty-three miles from the
coast has brought me into the interior of the State, where the Kangsa
river joins the Perak, at a distance of a hundred and fifty miles from
its mouth, and I am alone in the wilds!
LETTER XX (CONTINUED)
Mystification - A Grotesque Dinner-Party - Mahmoud and Eblis - Fun and
Frolic - Mahmoud's Antics - A Perak Jungle - The Poetry of Tropical
Life - Village Life - The Officials of the Mosques - A Moslem Funeral - The
"Royal Elephant" - Swimming the Perak - The Village of Koto-lamah - A
"Pirate's Nest" - Rajah Dris
I fear that the involvement and confusion of dates in this letter will
be most puzzling. I was received by a magnificent Oriental butler, and
after I had had a delicious bath, dinner, or what Assam was pleased to
call breakfast, was "served." The word "served" was strictly
applicable, for linen, china, crystal, flowers, cooking, were all alike
exquisite. Assam, the Madrassee, is handsomer and statelier than Babu
at Malacca; a smart Malay lad helps him, and a Chinaman sits on the
steps and pulls the punkah. All things were harmonious, the glorious
cocoa-palms, the bright green slopes, the sunset gold on the lake-like
river, the ranges of forest-covered mountains etherealizing in the
purple light, the swarthy faces and scarlet uniforms of the Sikh guard,
and rich and luscious odors, floated in on balmy airs, glories of the
burning tropics, untellable and incommunicable!
My valise had not arrived, and I had been obliged to redress myself in
my mud-splashed tweed dress, therefore I was much annoyed to find the
table set for three, and I hung about unwillingly in the veranda, fully
expecting two Government clerks in faultless evening dress to appear,
and I was vexed to think that my dream of solitude was not to be
realized, when Assam more emphatically assured me that the meal was
"served," and I sat down, much mystified, at the well-appointed table,
when he led in a large ape, and the Malay servant brought in a small
one, and a Sikh brought in a large retriever and tied him to my chair!
This was all done with the most profound solemnity. The circle being
then complete, dinner proceeded with great stateliness. The apes had
their curry, chutney, pine-apple, eggs, and bananas on porcelain
plates, and so had I. The chief difference was that, whereas I waited
to be helped, the big ape was impolite enough occasionally to snatch
something from a dish as the butler passed round the table, and that
the small one before very long migrated from his chair to the table,
and, sitting by my plate, helped himself daintily from it. What a
grotesque dinner party! What a delightful one! My "next of kin" were
so reasonably silent; they required no conversational efforts; they
were most interesting companions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 183 of 229
Words from 95807 to 96314
of 120530
