April i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



227 



THE AMUSEMENTS COMMITTEE. 

 ON H. M. s. " HIMALAYA." 



volcanic island Jebel Tair, and later Mocha, Mt. Sinai having 



been passed in the night. Then with a glorious setting of the 



sun over Somaliland, we passed through the straits of Bab-el- 



Mandeb, by the barren island 



Perim, and the next morning 



cast anchor in the harbor at 



Aden. 



It must have been 2 o'clock 

 in the morning when I awoke 

 and found that we were at an- 

 chor. The sound that brought 

 me to a sense of my surround- 

 ings, and the insufferable heat 

 of the cabin, was the chanting 

 of a gang of coolies who were 

 warping a huge freight scow 

 up to our steamer. Their song 

 was the iteration of two 

 phrases that sounded like 

 " Esco darn ye ! Perri go darn 

 ye 



there was a constant chatter from a half hundred boatmen 

 that drove me on deck, where wrapped in a rug, and lying in 

 the scuppers, I got a few more winks. Aden is as uninterest- 

 ing as it is unhealthy. It is well called "the white man's 

 grave," as hundreds lie buried on its rocky slopes. 



It is built on a flat sandy treeless plain, hemmed in by hills 

 arid and barren to the last degree. It rains here regularly 

 once in three years, and the water is stored in huge tanks five 

 miles away up in the hills. Anyone who wishes to enjoy a long 

 cool drink, and then another, should seek this thirstiest of all 

 thirsty spots. It was here that the passengers whose destina- 

 tion was India were transferred to another steamer. And sorry 

 we were to have them go, for many friendships had been 

 formed that were of the sort that should continue. 



Here left too, a young man who had not only been my part- 

 ner at deck quoits, but who had given me much information 

 about America. Shall I ever forget the evening, just after our 

 excellent course dinner, when he said to me, with the kindest 

 of intonations : 



" Don't you miss the sweets [candy] between the courses? " 



" What sweets ? " was my bewildered query. 



" Why, you know in America, at a course dinner, they serve 



BREAKWATER AT COLOMBO, CEYLON. 



!" with each "darn" they all gave a pull. Beside this 



sweets after the soup, and the fish, and the entree, and right 

 through the dinner." 



I had no vivid remembrance of that custom myself, but his 

 faith in the exactness of his information was so great that it 

 would have been a sin to upset it, so I agreed that I was pining 

 for chocolate creams after the consomme, and molasses candy 

 as a chaser for the fish, and it made him my friend for life, for 

 which I am exceeding glad, as in spite of that one absurd idea, 

 he was one of the finest chaps I ever met. 



Speaking of the people one meets in distant lands, it is sad to 

 say that one's own countrymen are often the biggest freaks. I 

 met one of the freak sort later. He had not been in the smok- 

 ing room ten minutes before he had told his whole history, and 

 got every Briton and European there white hot by his com- 

 parisons, invidious and startling. In the midst of it I was 

 pointed out to him as a fellow countryman, and he tried to get 

 me into the fight, but I balked. Then he started in to impress 

 me with his importance : 

 " I come Irom God's country," he said, " but I've been all over 



everywheres. I used to be consul at A . I lecture, too. 



When I was consul at A I often used to go aboard a man- 

 of-war and lecture, sometimes for two or three hours, and I 

 always got seven guns ; what do you think of that ? " 



" Mighty poor shooting, so far, but they will get you some 

 day," I said with conviction. 



After leaving Aden I was 

 able to secure an upper deck 

 cabin, which was much cooler 

 than those either on the main 

 or spar decks. Now that we 

 were in the Indian ocean the 

 sea grew much smoother, and 

 early in the morning, after a 

 salt water bath, the men prom- 

 enaded the deck in pajamas 

 until 8 o'clock, after which or- 

 dinary clothes were required. 

 We now began to feel the 

 breath of the monsoon, while 

 the water took on an even 

 bluer blue, and flying fish in 

 shoals fled to right and left 

 from the onrushing ship. The heaviest sort of showers also 

 began to come with more or less regularity, the ship's officers 

 came out in white duck suits, prawn, fish, and other currys 

 appeared at dinner, and we knew that we were in the tropics. 



BULLOCK HACKERY AND RICKSHAW, COLOMBO- 



