attered along a
lovely stream and inhabited by slow, solemn elephants, building
stockades for their own diversion. There was a strong scent of freshly
sawn teak in the air--we could not see any elephants sawing--and
occasionally the warm stillness was broken by the crash of the log. When
the elephants had got an appetite for luncheon they loafed off in
couples to their club, and did not take the trouble to give us greeting
and the latest mail papers; at which we were much disappointed, but took
heart when we saw upon a hill a large white pagoda surrounded by scores
of little pagodas. "This," we said with one voice, "is the place to make
an excursion to," and then shuddered at our own profanity, for above all
things we did not wish to behave like mere vulgar tourists.

The _ticca-gharies_ at Moulmein are three sizes smaller than those of
Rangoon, as the ponies are no bigger than decent sheep. Their drivers
trot them uphill and down, and as the _ghari_ is extremely narrow and
the roads are anything but good, the exercise is refreshing. Here again
all the drivers are Madrassis.

I should better remember what that pagoda was like had I not fallen
deeply and irrevocably in love with a Burmese girl at the foot of the
first flight of steps. Only the fact of the steamer starting next noon
prevented me from staying at Moulmein forever and owning a pair of
elephants. These are so common that they wander about the streets, and,
I make no doubt, could be obtained for a piece of sugar-cane.

Leaving this far too lovely maiden, I went up the steps only a few
yards, and, turning me round, looked upon a view of water, island, broad
river, fair grazing ground, and belted wood that made me rejoice that I
was alive. The hillside below me and above me was ablaze with
pagodas--from a gorgeous golden and vermilion beauty to a delicate grey
stone one just completed in honour of an eminent priest lately deceased
at Mandalay. Far above my head there was a faint tinkle, as of golden
bells, and a talking of the breezes in the tops of the toddy-palms.
Wherefore I climbed higher and higher up the steps till I reached a
place of great peace, dotted with Burmese images, spotlessly clean. Here
women now and again paid reverence. They bowed their heads and their
lips moved, because they were praying. I had an umbrella--a black
one--in my hand, deck-shoes upon my feet, and a helmet upon my head. I
did not pray--I swore at myself for being a Globe-trot