96 A COLLECTING TRIP 
Bhamo and found two other couples on board and we 
all six became intimate friends. We played bridge 
and took walks on shore when the boat stopped, which 
was very often. The scenery was perfectly beauti- 
ful; it was just hke going from one lake in the 
Adirondacks to another, only with superb tropical 
vegetation on all sides. The people at the various 
stops which we made between here and Bhamo were 
exceedingly interesting. It was only a few years ago 
that many of the places we landed were very danger- 
ous to set foot on. The men all carried huge knives 
and bows and arrows. The women had the biggest 
holes in their ears you could conceive of and instead 
of wearing earrings they stuffed enormous cheroots 
in them and wads of colored cloth. We took many 
photographs which I do hope will come out well and 
Tom did a good deal of collecting with excellent re- 
sults. One day he caught a python which was swim- 
ming the river which he still has alive. He also went 
ashore evenings and shot wild ducks which made a 
fine addition to our menu. The boat tied up to the 
river bank every night. 
We spent Christmas in a very jolly way. A Mr. 
and Mrs. Jack, two very charming English people, and 
I arranged a kind of surprise ‘‘pudding’’ for dessert. 
It consisted of a basket covered with green paper and 
orange peel and inside of it were presents which were 
bought from the native bazars on board; there was a 
present for every one with appropriate verses for each 
which Mr. Jack wrote. Tom had a small deer given 
him and these were the verses which he had to stand 
up and read before every one : 
