OF SIAM 57 



so high as the cocoanut, and have a small leaf ; at 

 times only the atap covered the bank in dense 

 growth, impenetrable to the eye and fifteen to 

 twenty feet in height; and always monkeys chat- 

 tered in the trees at each side— monkeys of all sizes 

 and of many different expressions of face. 



Finally we left the klawngs as we reached the 

 river that was to take us direct to Ratburi, and 

 here the banks attained to a height of three or four 

 feet above the water, and the country became more 

 open, with fairly largish trees— the handsome 

 mango, the feather-duster-looking cocoanut, the 

 tamarind, with its fine out-spreading limbs like 

 the oak, and bamboo clumps, of which there were 

 many of especially fine quality. Now on the 

 broadening, open river, occasional pieces of culti- 

 vation began to appear, and at intervals we passed 

 rest houses, where Buddhist priests stop the night 

 to replenish their exhausted larder from the 

 slender resources of the near-by inhabitants. Here 

 and there I noticed a muslin fish, or cloth lizard, 

 floating from poles stuck in the bank, for good 

 luck to the fishing boats; and frequently we en- 

 countered set nets which we had more difficulty in 

 avoiding than the busy craft of the klawngs. 

 There is bad blood between the boatmen and the 

 fishermen, and often Saw dug an oar into a net- 

 fastening when he thought I could not detect him. 



