AFTER THE ADJUTANTS. 27 



Paroquet [Palaornis magnirostris) 5 in parties of four and five, 

 skimmed with wild shrill screams swiftly from bauk to bank, 

 while lower down large numbers of crows (Corvus insolens) with 

 lazier flight, were winging their way to their hunting grounds 

 in the city. Corvus insolens, by the way, is a strictly town bird ; 

 you only meet with him in the towns or large villages where 

 in mischief, insolence, and the ability to produce diabolical 

 noises, when a fellow wants to sleep or work, he equals if not 

 surpasses his paler brother of India. 



On either side, as seen from our boat, the banks seemed lined 

 with thick jungle stretching away unbroken on the right to the 

 Tongwine hills, and on the left to the limestone peaks of Dal- 

 matteah on the Gyne river, while above and beyond these, and 

 lost in the faint morning haze, rose the far distant ranges on 

 the Upper Gryne and Houngraw Rivers. 



Admiring scenery from a Kalah or Chittagong boat is a 

 difficult matter. You cannot sway your body the slightest bit 

 to the right or left, but the boat lurches and wriggles about in 

 a most annoying manner. They are heavy unweildy crafts 

 these boats, and yet they are the chief means of transit on the 

 long-winding rivers in Tenasserim. 



Immensely long, narrow, and round-bottomed, they are 

 hollowed out of single solid logs of Thengan (Hopea odorata), 

 and have their sides raised by a planking of teak. From near 

 the stern to about half way they are boarded so as to make a 

 sort of deck with lockers underneath ; while as protection from 

 sun and rain, a low awning of bamboo matting, supported on 

 half hoops of strong cane, covers over the whole of the boarded 

 portion. In front of this deck, and nearly to the prow, thwarts 

 are placed across, and one lengthways for the rowers to sit on, 

 a small bit in the extreme front being also formed into a locker 

 by boarding above. Our boat crew consisted of five men, four 

 to row and one to steer and direct, the rudder used being a 

 clumsy heavy paddle. The oars also are long, heavy and mas- 

 sive, being passed through loops of cane on the gunwale and 

 not over rullocks. 



Ordinarily the crew of one of these boats consists of three 

 men, but I had specially bargained for four rowers, and it was 

 well I did so, for before we arrived abreast of the village of Kyl- 

 myan eighteen miles up, the tide turned against us, and it was 

 only by hard pulling we got within sight of the Needong rocks 

 by 12 o'clock, and we did not get ashore till past 1 o'clock. 



As we passed under the hill overhanging the left bank of the 

 river, I was delighted to see the Adjutants in full force, two or 

 three crowned each pinnacle, and here and there through the 

 green foliage showing white against the blue rock, I could see 



