2 The Call of the Red Gods 
all the strange forms of tropic vegetation—I changed on to 
the British India boat for Rangoon, where we arrived three 
days later, and I spent a week in making preparations to 
go up country. It is not a really fascinating city, though 
the glory of the Shwe Dagon compensates for everything, 
and the gorgeous colouring of temple and lake, of earth 
and sky—here at last was the Oriental splendour of 
romance—rivets the attention of the newcomer. What it 
is all like during the south-west monsoon I do not know, 
but I imagine that the sunshine is all in all to Lower 
Burma. During the rains the dripping black skies must 
smudge the whole landscape with dreary greyness in spite 
of the vivid green vegetation springing to renewed life. 
At last, my business completed, I entrained for Bhamo 
nominally three days’ journey by rail and boat, and having 
a few hours to wait at Mandalay, I took the opportunity of 
visiting some of the sights in the ancient capital, a city of 
shops and temples. Thebaw’s palace, now Fort Dufferin, 
to this day presents a crude but despoiled magnificence, 
mirrors and throneless daises being the only conspicuous 
articles of furniture. After inspecting these and other 
glories of Mandalay in a sufficiently lethargic manner, 
for it was the hottest day I can remember, I returned to 
the station in time to catch my train. 
Then northwards once more, past lovely meres where 
the wild-fowl wheeled in hundreds before settling down to 
rest, till the sun went down in a fog of crimson behind the 
purple hills, and we sped on into the darkness of another 
night. Early on the following morning we changed into 
the local train bound for Katha, on the Irrawaddy; and 
there we found awaiting us the steamboat which was to 
complete this tiresome journey to Bhamo. 
There was little water in the river now, the spring rise 
not having commenced, but the fact that we ran aground 
in the middle of the afternoon and remained there till nine 
o'clock next morning, when we were pulled off, incommoded 
us not in the least; for it was all part of the journey and 
quite delightful after two nights in the train. 
Late on the following afternoon we saw the white 
houses of Bhamo show up over the trees which fringed the 
river bank, and presently we tied up a couple of miles 
