IN THE SWAMPS 173 



patrician. I came to be good friends with these 

 children before I left them; and they brought 

 others until my group of little acquaintances grew 

 to half a dozen; and never, I declare, have I met 

 such lovable children, not even in South America. 



The girl, by the way, was instrumental in letting 

 me into the secrets of sarong-making ; for one day 

 she took me to an aged relative, who was weaving 

 one of silk, with threads of gold and silver running 

 through it, that was to be the child's gala garment 

 at a festival soon coming. The old woman said 

 it took a month to complete such a garment, and 

 about twenty days to make the less elaborate ones. 

 They are all woven of cotton or silk, or cotton and 

 silk mixed, invariably a check of gay colors, and 

 there is almost no house outside of the towns that 

 has not its hand loom. Over the sarong the well- 

 to-do women wear a looser garment, extending 

 below the knees and not so low as the sarong, that 

 is fastened at the front with an oval-shaped silver 

 buckle four inches deep by six long. Although all 

 of the same style— an oblong cloth from two to 

 four feet in width and about six feet in length, 

 sewn together at the ends like a bag with the bot- 

 tom out— yet an ingenious twist at the waist, or 

 other touch of the eternal feminine gives the 

 sarong individual distinction. 



Aboo Din seemed thoroughly to enjoy the frank 



