212 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



slumber, until the boot-process was repeated, and 

 during the moments of the punkah's action one 

 managed again to fall asleep. 



On August 26 I sailed on the British India 

 Company's S. S. Gwaliorfor Rangoon, arriving there 

 four days later after a hot but pleasant voyage. In 

 contrast to the burnt and barren plains the verdant 

 jungle-growth of Burma and the spicy tropic smell 

 strike pleasantly on one's senses. Rangoon, to my 

 mind, cannot compare in beauty with Colombo, 

 but it possesses at least the cocoanut palms, banana 

 trees, and other shady verdure of Ceylon, and here 

 the gaiety and brightness of eastern life is at its 

 best. The Burman, if the laziest, is surely the most 

 cheerful of all races, and one would guess this, if 

 in no other way, from the brilliant clothes he wears 

 and from his ever smiling face. His sarong is gen- 

 erally of bright yellow, green, or pink, and the wo- 

 men wear silk skirts and scarfs either combining 

 yellow and green, or all of pink, which contrast 

 pleasantly with their jet-black hair. The Burmese 

 girl, unlike the Hindu, does not veil her face with 

 a shabby head-cloth when you pass, but is quite 

 willing to let you see her beauty ; and she generally 

 gives you a smile into the bargain. She is graceful 

 and usually pretty, and never by any chance, one 

 might almost say, is she without her enormous cigar 



