-107 
solid wall along the waterfront. There was no curt? in of privacy 
between us and the Siamese and Chinese going about their daily 
concerns - cooking, washing, eating, on the raised platforms of their 
little wooden houses. Steps led down to the river from each house, 
and sampans of all sizes were moored in front of each dwelling. 
Men, women and children were bathing, brushing their teeth, doing 
their laundry, washing dishes, cleaning vegetables in the brown 
fluid that we would be afraid to touch. Williams dipped his hand 
over the §dge of the boat to see how dirty the water really was, and 
Minnegerode exclaimed in horror: ?t Heavens, man, don f t do that: Think 
of the cholera germs! " A little later a passing motor boat splashed 
both me and Minnegerode, so if there were cholera germs, it was a 
bit difficult to avoid them. We were glad that we had had anti- 
cholera serum before we left Medan. 
One of the klongs led through the ?f floating market % one of 
the most amazing sights in the world. The canal was packed solid 
with little boats, so that I wondered how we would ever get through. 
For a couple of miles sampans clogged the vmtew canal like so many 
water hyacinths, a solid mass of them, but they parted to let us 
through, much as water weed does for a canoe. All sorts of fruits 
and vegetables were for sale, and although it seemed as though 
everybody was selling and nobody was buying, there must have been 
a real and organized market idea in back of it. u §fu 
#v i £ ' r 0 / 
On our way back, we stopped at the Wat Arun, A and climbed from 
the boat up the rather rickety and very steep steps to the temple 
grounds. A central tower, or phra prang, rises to a height of 
150 feet, and is surrounded by four smaller towers. Stone steps 
lead up the front of the tower, and there is a walk or terrace 
around it, from which one can see the niches, and the statues in 
them, that decorate the four smaller towers. High above one ! s 
head are other statues, some of the Moon God riding on a white 
horse, others of Indra, King of the Gods, on a three-headed 
elephant . The buildings are constructed of brick covered with 
plaster, and the whole thing is decorated with pieces of porcelain. 
When the temple was being built - it took twenty years - there was 
not enough money for the decoration, and the faithful were called 
on to give their porcelain ware for this purpose. Set into the 
plaster, therefore, are thousands of plates, saucers, little bowls 
of the kind used for tea, and fragments of larger porcelain pieces. 
Some of the blue china known as willow ware is there, and pieces 
of rose and yellow and green. Close up, the effect is merely 
curious, but from even a little distance, so * artistically was 
the placing planned, the effect is flower-like and lovely. From 
considerable distance the whole place looks as though it might have 
been built of cloisonne. In the 150 years since the temple was 
built, pieces have been broken and others taken away by curio 
hunters, but this method of decoration has survived time and the 
elements remarkably well. 
Later in the day we went to the Pasteur Institute, where 
serum is made for the treatment of snake bite. Three large pits 
contain king cobras, ordinary cobras, and kraits and Rus sells vipers. 
fimtsxririK* Two attendants, dressed in white, but wearing no gloves 
or high boots or any sort of protection, put a ladder down from 
the wall, and climbed into the first pit, that of the king cobras. 
They lifted the dome-like shelters off the ground, and the horrible 
long reptiles came wiggling out. The men showed absolutely no 
