54 Naturalist at Large 



godas against the sky line. I don't think we saw a tree 

 during the entire journey. This long-overpopulated land 

 has been deforested for ages and we often saw women out 

 on the river in sampans gleaning sticks and even straws 

 from the flotsam and jetsam of the river for fuel. 



The little stern-wheeler on which we traveled made 

 many stops. I remember one place of some importance, 

 Sam Shui, which apparently was greatly famed for its culi- 

 nary art. Long before we arrived there our Chinese pas- 

 sengers were lined up along the rail licking their chops, 

 and no sooner had we tied up to the bank than swarms of 

 sampans came out, each with one man to row and another 

 to dispense the chow. Each carried a hook on a long rope 

 which they threw up for one of the passengers to hang 

 over the hand rail. The chef stood aft surrounded with 

 innumerable little dishes sizzling over a charcoal brazier 

 like a battery of tiny stoves, and with a big tub of rice, 

 which was the foundation for each meal served. In re- 

 sponse to yells from the passengers, he would grab a large, 

 grayish, and rather thick pottery bowl, throw into the 

 bottom of it a handful of rice, and then toss in on top little 

 dabs and gobbets of bean curds, bean sprouts, diced ome- 

 lette, diced eggplant, fried duck, fried pork from chit- 

 lins to diced ears and bits of crisp fried pigskin, white 

 grubs, and what looked like fried angleworms blanched, 

 evidently having been kept in water until they were clear 

 of grit. Not infrequently a little frog would be added, too 

 small even, to my notion, to be worth sucking, but it must 

 be remembered that all food in China has to be prepared 

 for use with chopsticks. As we were leaning over the rail 

 one of the Malay guards said to me, ''Sabaya tida mau 



