234



S. Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



or trailing streamers, slip unobtrusively away on some old “ tramp ”

steamer to far distant lands. To leave thus without fond farewells

or fuss is best, for it seems only that we say au revoir to the grimy

old city instead of “ adieu ”, and in so many months or years we

steal back again and slip once more into the every-day round with

just a memory that seems like some far away happy dream.


The first part of this chapter opens in Penang, that fascinating

island which is the first stepping-stone to the Far East. To the newcomer

it satisfies all the mental pictures that one has conjured up about the

Orient. The writer had travelled thence by “ intermediate steamer ”

which is a polite name for a cargo boat or “ tramp ” on which there

are few passengers ; on these “ lines ” there are usually few if any

women or children to disturb one for “ just a look at your pretty

dickey birds ”, there are no cocktail parties, or endless rounds of deck

sports or bridge parties to distract one’s attention from one’s feathered

charges. Only those who have had to get up at 6 a.m. after a cocktail

party the night before to start attending to one’s birds know what

a relief it is to be on a ship where there are no such distractions or

temptations.


The object of this trip was to see something of Northern China

and Manchukuo, and not in any way a bird-collecting trip, in fact

I was told “ to bring no more birds home, the place is full of them

now ”, but unknown to the family I did manage to sneak in a few

cage fronts, and a little “ soft-food, just in case ! Quite why I went

to such God-forsaken places as North China and Manchukuo in the

winter time I don’t know, I suppose the papers must have fired my

imagination with their stories of wars and bandits, etc. ; but I thoroughly

repented my folly later on.


On the first day in Penang my friend, a resident in Malaya of

many years standing and who spoke Malay fluently, and I, paid a

visit to the bird market, not so much with the object of purchasing

any birds but just to have a look round, for Penang was but the first

of many places to be visited in the course of four or five months of

leisurely drifting about the Far East. But it is as bad as putting a

monkey into a fruit store and expecting it not to touch anything as

to put an aviculturist into an Eastern bird market and expect him



