* ''For Richer for Poorer' ' 3 5 



the chance to do a little collecting of reptiles, although 

 the season was unfavorably dry. Occasionally, moreover, 

 we shot ducks to vary our everlasting diet of curry, and 

 we did pick up a fair number of lizards and the like. 



Rosamond had a regular busman's hoHday when we 

 stopped at Thaybeitkyin, which is the river port for Mogoc 

 where the famous ruby fields are located. Of course the 

 officials in charge of the mines take great care to see that 

 bootlegging of rubies does not take place; nevertheless, 

 the natives are very shrewd and it is possible to pick up 

 tiny but lovely colored stones at low rates. And this place 

 was sufficiently remote so that there was little danger of 

 having imitation stones offered to us. 



We stopped in many strange little towns. I remember 

 particularly Mingoon, where there is the largest hanging bell 

 in the world. (The great bell in Moscow is a little larger 

 but has a chunk knocked out of it and it is set down on 

 the pavement in the city.) The great bell at Mingoon is 

 about two feet clear of the ground and as you creep under 

 it and look up twelve feet or more into the beautiful pol- 

 ished inner surface, you can but wonder what would hap- 

 pen if it dropped while you were inside. In the East great 

 bells are usually struck with staghorns or with a heavy 

 billet of teakwood hung in the middle with a tail of rope 

 that you can haul back and then let go. The noise is not 

 overwhelming when you are right beside the bell, but it is 

 tremendously impressive at the distance of a mile or so. 



One day while sitting on the lower deck — and this was 

 but a few inches above the water level — away out ahead 

 I could see a good-sized snake swimming out from shore. 

 I figured that we should probably meet at the rate we both 



