s of interest, of which not the least is
the market.

I had never seen tropical fish before, and was somewhat surprised by
the curious shapes and varied colors of the hundreds and thousands of
fish exposed for sale. I do not think there was a single color scheme
that was not carried out in that harvest of the sea. Fruits and flowers
were there, too, in heaps and masses at prices absurdly low. With the
chatter of the natives and the shrill cry of the fishermen as they
came in with their heavily laden boats, the scene was one never to
be forgotten.

The natives have a time honored custom of crowning their friends at
leave-taking with "Lais" (lays). These garlands are made by threading
flowers on a string about a yard and a half long, usually each string
is of one kind of flower, and, as they throw these "Lais" over the
head of the friend about to leave, they say or sing, "Al-o-ah-o,
until we meet again."

This musical score is the greeting of good-day, good-morning, or
good-bye; always the greeting of friends. They chose for me strings
of purple and gold flowers. The golden ones were a sort of wax begonia
and the purple were almost like a petunia.

Instead of sitting on the deck of the steamer by myself, as I had
purposed, I had one of the most delightful days I have ever spent
in my life. It was with deep regret, when the boat pulled from the
wharf, that I answered with the newly acquired song, "Al-o-ah-o,"
the kindly voices wafted from the shore. We had taken on board many
new passengers, and were now very closely packed in, so much so,
that to our great disgust one family, a Chinaman, his wife, children
and servants, fourteen in number, occupied one small stateroom. It is
easy to believe that that room was full and overflowing into the narrow
hallways. Though he had eight or nine children and one or two wives,
he said he was going to China to get himself one more wife, because the
one that he had with him did bite the children so much and so badly.

I had never before seen so many various kinds of Chinese people,
and it was a curious study each day to watch them at their various
duties in caring for one another and preparing their food. Strange
concoctions were some of those meals. They all ate with chop-sticks,
and I never did find out how they carried to the mouth the amount
of food consumed each day. One day we heard a great commotion down
in their quarters, and, of course, all rushed to see what was the
matt