WE OBTAIN FRESH WATER.

269

This fellow's confidence in his chief amused me. I asked him if Datoo Mahomet Alee was at Kangah.

"No," he replied, "he is on his march to Quedah!" "How about the Siamese ?" my interpreter asked. "Pish!" said the sentinel; "the Siamese! they will all be destroyed!"

We did not wait for further information, and, shortly afterwards, finding the water perfectly fresh, we being then about eighteen miles from the sea, we laid on our paddles, and filled our casks, bathed, washed, and drank water, with all the abandon of men who had long been strangers to the luxury of fresh water in large quantities.

270 THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING.

CHAP. XX.

The Ladies of Kangah bathing.-Halt to lunch at Kangah. —Kangah, its Situation.—Mode of constructing Malay Houses.-The Mosque.- The Bazaar and its Occupants.— Arrival of armed Men. - Return to the Boat. - Praiseworthy Fidelity of the Malays. - Malay Independence of Character. — The Pleasures of Memory.—A Malay Family Scene. Return to Parlis. — Pulo Quetam. Trade during

Blockade.

OUR casks filled, we turned our head down the stream and dropped down to Kangah, where I purposed having our noon-day meal, and waiting for the tide to have ebbed sufficiently to ensure us a rapid passage down to the gun-boats. At a point just above the town, where some lofty trees threw a pleasant shade half across the stream, all the female population of Kangah, as well as the children, were enjoying a bath. We passed through the scene of their enjoyment; and, to say the least of it, it was amazingly novel, and carried one back to the days of Captain Cook in a very abrupt manner. The married women had on dark-blue cotton dresses, but the

THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING. 271

rest were in that cool attire which artists usually represent our first parents to have indulged in in Paradise. Gallantry compels me to allow that conscious innocence formed a very charming mantle to the young ladies. ladies. A contrary and depraved state was fully exemplified in Tom West, who actually blushed through his bronzed cheeks, and expressed his opinion with "Dang ye! you're a rum lot. I wonder what my old mother would say, if she could only see ye. I wish Parson Hawker* was here!" My Malays, however, paddled through these waternymphs, without uttering a word or making a gesture which could be construed into anything like disrespect. Whether this propriety arose from a proper and generous feeling at intruding upon the privacy of the women, or from a knowledge that any insult, real or imaginary, would be quickly resented by the ready creeses of the kinsmen of these ladies, I know not; but whatever the motive, it was equally a source of gratification to myself, and the comparison I drew in my own mind as to what would have been the conduct, under similar circumstances, of six of

*Parson Hawker is an imaginary clergyman, who, the westcountry sailors assert used to marry them, per force, to the Devonport lasses, and exact his fee in savings out of their naval rations such as flour, pork, &c.

272

KANGAH, ITS SITUATION.

our own English seamen, was not in favour of the latter. Choosing a convenient part of the river bank opposite "Kangah," we made our sampan fast, and proceeded to cook rice for lunch. A moderate crowd collected to look at the white men, who were Tom West and myself; but they were civil, and behaved very differently from those of Parlis.

Some person in the town sent me down a basket of delicious mangoes, and others lent us some mats to shield ourselves from the rays of the sun, which poured down with equatorial fierceness upon our exposed boat. All the inhabitants were most anxious to know how they would be treated by our blockading force, if obliged to fly before the Siamese ; and it was very evident, the description my Malays gave them of our kindness to those who fled from Quedah and Tamelan made a favourable impression.

Kangah stands on the north bank of the Parlis river, and, like other towns in this country, has only just enough clear ground round it, to afford room for the growth of such rice, fruit, and vegetables as were required for the consumption of the inhabitantsthe unreclaimed jungle sweeping round the cultivated land and orchards in a great curve, whose radius might possibly be a mile and a half.

The houses were for the most part detached,

CONSTRUCTION OF MALAY HOUSES. 273

standing in little gardens, or amongst pretty clusters of cocoa-nut and Penang (or beetle-nut) palms, as well as many other trees peculiar to this country : not the least pleasing of these was the graceful bannana which overshadowed almost every abode, and its deliciously cold-looking dark-green leaf was very grateful to the sight.

It is almost impossible to convey a good idea of the beauty and neatness of abodes entirely constructed of wood, bamboo, and matting or leaves. Those of Kangah, although far above the river, were, according to the constant rule, built upon piles three to four feet high; possibly this might be a necessary measure for the rainy season, but at that time, when the earth was baked as hard as rock, it seemed an act of supererogation. They, however, were generally oblong in the ground-plan, having a gallery extending along each of the long sides, to which a primitive ladder gave access from the ground. The floor (for each house was only one story high) consisted of strips of bamboo, sufficiently strong to bear the weight, but giving a pleasant spring to the tread; over these bamboos, which were perhaps an inch apart, and kept so by a tranverse "snaking” of strips of ratan, neat mats were spread, their number, fineness, and beauty depending upon the

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