"You sabe six
o'clock? When them long arm catch them place, and them short arm
catch them place, you call me in the morning time." Exit from
saloon - silence - then: "You sabe five o'clock? When them long arm
catch them place, and them short arm catch them place, you call me
in the morning time." Exit - silence - then: "You sabe half-past
five o'clock? When them long arm - " Oh, if I were a watchman!
Anyhow, that five o'clocker will have the whole ship's company
roused in the morning time.
June 7th. - Every one called in the morning time by the reflex row
from the rousing of the five o'clocker. Glorious morning. The
scene the reversal of that of last night. The forest to the east
shows a deep blue-purple, mounted on a background that changes as
you watch it from daffodil and amethyst to rose-pink, as the sun
comes up through the night mists. The moon sinks down among them,
her pale face flushing crimson as she goes; and the yellow-gold
sunshine comes, glorifying the forest and gilding the great sweep of
tufted papyrus growing alongside the bank; and the mist vanishes,
little white flecks of it lingering among the water reeds and lying
in the dark shadows of the forest stems. The air is full of the
long, soft, rich notes of the plantain warblers, and the uproar
consequent upon the Move taking on fuel wood, which comes alongside
in canoe loads from the Fallaba.
Pere Steinitz and Mr. Woods are busy preparing their respective
canoes for their run to Fernan Vaz through the creek. Their canoes
are very fine ones, with a remarkably clean run aft. The Pere's is
quite the travelling canoe, with a little stage of bamboo aft,
covered with a hood of palm thatch, under which you can make
yourself quite comfortable, and keep yourself and your possessions
dry, unless something desperate comes on in the way of rain.
By 10.25 we have got all our wood aboard, and run off up river full
speed. The river seems broader above the Fallaba, but this is
mainly on account of its being temporarily unencumbered with
islands. A good deal of the bank we have passed by since leaving
Nazareth Bay on the south side has been island shore, with a channel
between the islands and the true south bank.
The day soon grew dull, and looked threatening, after the delusive
manner of the dry season. The climbing plants are finer here than I
have ever before seen them. They form great veils and curtains
between and over the trees, often hanging so straight and flat, in
stretches of twenty to forty feet or so wide, and thirty to sixty or
seventy feet high, that it seems incredible that no human hand has
trained or clipped them into their perfect forms.
