50 THROUGH THE KLAWNGS 



wardly, carefully, and yet with consummate skill. 

 Always we were meeting peddlers' boats somewhat 

 of the rua chang type, sunk almost to the gunwales 

 under their loads of fruit or betel-nuts or cocoa- 

 nuts, and darting alongside of and among the jour- 

 neying craft of the klawng. But the boat most 

 commonly met is a short, narrow dug-out, flat at 

 both ends and shallow. The life on the boats is 

 as interesting as the boats themselves. As a rule 

 Chinamen furnish the motive power with here and 

 there a Tamil (native of Madras, India), for all 

 types except the peddling rua chang and the dug- 

 outs, which are generally manned by Siamese, and 

 as frequently as not by women, who form a large 

 part of the floating population in the smaller craft. 

 Another boat, a little longer than the dug-out, but 

 of the same character and very numerous, was 

 almost always propelled by women, of which we 

 saw a great many. It seemed to be the house-boat 

 of the poorer native, and I often passed one with 

 its little charcoal stove, in full blast, boiling the 

 rice, on the tiny deck at the stern, while a lone 

 woman managed the paddle and the domestic econ- 

 omy of the establishment simultaneously, and a tot 

 of a baby toddled about, apparently in danger of 

 toppling overboard every instant yet never did.. 

 Although the boat had not more than two or three 

 inches freeboard and often rocked and jumped 



