is kept open, though it is very
crooked; and these things regulate themselves."

"These houses are no better than card-boxes. They seem to be built of
bamboos, with wicker-work and plants. Each of them has a veranda in
front, which is a nice place to sit and read, with a kind of ell at each
end. I think I should like to live in one of them for a week or two,"
continued Morris.

"You would not like it," said Achang, who had come with them to act as
interpreter.

"This is a walled town, with six miles of fortifications around it."

"A little less than two miles across it; and we shall not have to take
any very long walks, for I have read that carriages are seldom seen
except among the palaces, and probably belong to the nobility," said
Louis; "but we are good for six miles this afternoon."

"The river is the great thoroughfare for business and for pleasure. It
is covered with boats of all sorts and kinds. The walls of the city are
from fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve feet thick; but I suppose
the heavy guns of modern times could knock them down in a very short
time," added the professor.

"What is that opening into the river?" asked Felix, who had kept his
tongue very quiet so far.

"That is a canal," replied Achang, as the professor did not reply. "I
have been here three times, and once I went up that canal. There are
only a few good streets in the city, and inside business is carried on
by the canals."

"As Paris is to France, and Paris is France, so Bangkok is Siam; and
that is the reason why the commander goes no farther. Now we have come
to the wall, and you can see the outside town."

"The houses here are all on stilts, as in Sumatra and Borneo," observed
Scott. "Some of them are built over the water."

"It is said here that the city suffered terribly from the ravages of
cholera; and when the king found out that the disease was caused by the
bad drainage of the houses, he ordered his people to build on the river,
where the drainage would dispose of itself," said Professor Giroud.
"This story was told me by a Frenchman here, but I cannot vouch for the
truth of the statement."

"Can you tell me, Achang, why they build their houses on piles in this
country?" asked Morris.

"Because they have waterations here."

"Have what?" demanded the questioner, while all the party laughed except
the Bornean. "I never heard of waterations before."

"When the water rise up high," Achang explained.

"Inunda