56 THROUGH THE KLAWNGS 



ings. And the people hurry to feed them, for it 

 is written that no priest must go hungry, be his 

 numbers never so large. 



Often where we stopped for the nights there was 

 music and dancing by young girls painted after the 

 Chinese manner, but much better looking than the 

 girls of Bangkok. Saw appeared to think so at 

 all events, and by the time we reached Eatburi I 

 grew to look upon him as an authority. And the 

 girls danced as well as any I saw— the usual Far 

 Eastern hand and shoulder action; the body-pos- 

 turing of India and Polynesia is not seen in this 

 part of Asia. To me the music, Burmese and Sia- 

 mese—it is practically the same— is delightful be- 

 cause of its entrancing melody, its scale of soft 

 mellifluous notes, barbaric withal, you would 

 believe impossible to metal cups. 



For the first days of our travel the banks of the 

 klawng were so low that our boat frequently rode 

 higher than the land adjoining; and at night the 

 fireflies made the trees and brush immediately at 

 hand electrical and beautiful. The jungle on the 

 klawng bank seemed aflame with the pulsations 

 of light, which come with instant brilliancy and 

 died as suddenly. By day or by night, klawng 

 travel unfolded a panorama of tropical foliage. 

 Sometimes there were the high cocoanut trees, 

 sometimes the betel-nut trees, which are not quite 



