It keeps
out the sun and rain, and gives all the comfort which is needed in this
climate, but nothing more.
My journey of thirty-three miles from the
coast has brought me into the interior of the State, where the Kangsa
river joins the Perak, at a distance of a hundred and fifty miles from
its mouth, and I am alone in the wilds!
LETTER XX (CONTINUED)
Mystification - A Grotesque Dinner-Party - Mahmoud and Eblis - Fun and
Frolic - Mahmoud's Antics - A Perak Jungle - The Poetry of Tropical
Life - Village Life - The Officials of the Mosques - A Moslem Funeral - The
"Royal Elephant" - Swimming the Perak - The Village of Koto-lamah - A
"Pirate's Nest" - Rajah Dris
I fear that the involvement and confusion of dates in this letter will
be most puzzling. I was received by a magnificent Oriental butler, and
after I had had a delicious bath, dinner, or what Assam was pleased to
call breakfast, was "served." The word "served" was strictly
applicable, for linen, china, crystal, flowers, cooking, were all alike
exquisite. Assam, the Madrassee, is handsomer and statelier than Babu
at Malacca; a smart Malay lad helps him, and a Chinaman sits on the
steps and pulls the punkah. All things were harmonious, the glorious
cocoa-palms, the bright green slopes, the sunset gold on the lake-like
river, the ranges of forest-covered mountains etherealizing in the
purple light, the swarthy faces and scarlet uniforms of the Sikh guard,
and rich and luscious odors, floated in on balmy airs, glories of the
burning tropics, untellable and incommunicable!
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