CHAPTER XII
THE KAREN VILLAGE
Whilst detained in the Karen village, Mr. Gilchrist and Ralph wereinvited to the christening feast given by the principal man in theplace.
They were surprised one morning by a visit from five young ladies,dressed in their best silk "tameins" of rich pattern, with white muslinjackets drawn on above them, and very gay silk handkerchiefs thrownloosely over their shoulders.
They were bedizened with a quantity of jewels, roses nestled in theirsplendid black hair, cheroots were in their mouths, and each carried ahandsome lacquered tray, heaped with little parcels done up in giltpaper.
They advanced to the verandah, where the gentlemen were sitting--verymuch to their own comfort--in free and easy costume suitable to theintense heat. Ralph coloured scarlet, conscious of his shirt sleeves,bare feet thrust into slippers, and generally loosened attire; but, thegirls having come upon them suddenly, nothing could be done except afrantic effort to button his shirt at the throat, which resulted indropping the stud, and seeing it maliciously roll out of reach.
"Never heed them, maister," whispered Wills, who was in attendance."They'm used to wuss, you may take your davy. Ef 'ee don't take nonotice, they maids won't nother."
An overpowering desire to laugh took possession of the boy at this, themore impossible to control as all the girls advanced giggling andsmiling at each other.
Mr. Gilchrist was vexed. "Behave yourself, Ralph," said he sternly, veryanxious to maintain his dignity.
He rose, took off his hat with a flourish, and bowed low. Ralph tried toimitate him; and one of the girls became spokeswoman for the rest.
"My little sister's head is washed to-morrow, at sky shutting-in time,"said she. "Will the royal selfs lords be good enough to join the feast?"
"We shall be pleased to do so, Mah----?" replied Mr. Gilchristinterrogatively.
"Mah Ngway Khine" (Miss Silver Spring), said she, understandingperfectly that he meant to ask her name. The other girls all laughed,and each gave her own name, pointing each to her own face to indicatethat this meant herself. Miss Pretty, Miss Naughty, Miss Loveable, MissBeyond Compare.
Mr. Gilchrist bowed to each; then, pointing to Ralph, introducedthemselves.
"Moung Ralph Denham,--Moung Alexander Bruce Gilchrist."
The girls thought this an excellent joke, and laughed heartily, tryingto pronounce the names as hopelessly as ever Wills himself had failed inmastering Burmese.
Mr. Gilchrist then handed to each girl a cigar from the box lying besidehim, which seemed to give great pleasure.
"I am going," said Miss Silver Spring, after that. "Be pleased to eatthis pickled tea," and she handed to each one of the little packets uponher tray. The party then went gaily off to give their invitationsfurther.
"Ralph," said Mr. Gilchrist, "we must see what we can find for presentsto our hosts to-morrow. We had better visit the bazaar."
"Lord, zur," quoth Osborn, "they du knaw the cost of all the old tradethere better nor we. They can get all that whenever they want. Give 'emsommut what they doan't zee every day."
"But what have we to give of that sort, Osborn?"
"English money, zur,--more particularly ef 'ee will stand goold. Englishthings at after. 'Ee've got tin canisters painted up smart, haven't 'ee,with coffee and thiccee like in 'em; and pots, with picturs a-top of thelids, with potted meat?"
Mr. Gilchrist thought this good advice, he purchased some gay silkhandkerchiefs of native make in the bazaar, a silver betel-box or two;looked out the newest sovereign in his possession for the infant,polished it up till it glittered finely; and then searched his stores.
There was not much of the ornamental among them; nor was he willing topart with a great deal of his potted meat; for he could buy so littleanimal food of other descriptions in these country parts, where thepeople objected even to selling them live poultry for their own eating,or even eggs for them to cook.
The Burmese will devour raw the eggs of any creature, fowls, turtles,crocodiles, or iguanas,--but they will cook none.
A little fish was to be got at times, but in such small quantities as tobe very unsatisfying; nor was milk to be procured, as the people neitherkept cows nor used milk themselves.
Our friends were growing very tired of vegetable diet, and were obligedto trust to their own stores for everything else.
However, a tin canister of coffee, decorated with gay paper, wasselected; and a pair of earthenware pots full of potted meat, on one ofwhich was a representation, in bright colours, of Jack Sprat and hiswife, sitting on either side of a table, with the joint of roast beef onthe platter between them; while the other displayed the time-honouredportraits of Uncle Toby and the widow.
Happy in the hope that pleasure was to be the meed of these gifts, Mr.Gilchrist and Ralph dressed themselves in clean white suits, and set offfor the entertainment at the hour specified.
The baby was a very small one, only about a fortnight old. Ralph thoughtit looked like a little goblin changeling, with its dark skin, leanbody, and twinkling black eyes; but it was displayed with great pride.
"A very--very--nice little girl," pronounced the bachelor Scotsman, withsudden inspiration succeeding his utter ignorance as to what he ought tosay.
"Very like his father, ma'am," said Ralph with great solemnity. "Has itany teeth yet?"
Wills, marching behind his masters, with the presents arranged amongflowers upon a tray, burst into a great guffaw at this moment, and triedto cover his misdemeanour by a most unnatural cough. Mr. Gilchristlooked daggers at him over his shoulder.
"'Ee should have stopped at half-way, Maister Ralph," whispered Osborn,on the broad grin.
"Don't Burmese babies get teeth?" inquired Ralph innocently. "I am surethat I have heard dozens of old women ask my mother that question whenthey used to come and see our babies at home. I thought I was all rightthere."
"This little maid be too young, zur," said the sailor, who had his ownquiver full at home.
"Oh! that's it, is it?" cried Ralph.
Perhaps he had not been understood, for none of the Burmans appeared tobe surprised; but they were all much taken up with the pride of thecompany of these distinguished foreigners at their feast.
The father related to them that the child was born on a Thursday, so shewould prove to be of a mild, gentle disposition; also that Thursday wasthe day represented by the elephant without tusks; and he pointed tosome red and yellow waxen effigies of this animal, prepared forofferings to be presented on his daughter's behalf upon the steps of thenearest pagoda.
The astrologer, an old phoongyee, had cast the infant's horoscope, whichwas a most favourable one.
Mr. Gilchrist listened to all this with gravity, and then presentedtheir offerings, laying the bright sovereign upon the baby's breast.
This evidently gave great delight; as did the packet of choice cigars tothe father, the silken kerchiefs to the elder daughters, the betel-boxesand sweetmeats to the sons and younger children; but something wasnoticeably wrong about the jars of potted meat brought for the mother,nor could the Englishmen understand what was the matter.
That offence was taken was evident; and Mr. Gilchrist, seeing one of thepots hurried out of sight, begged, in much distress, to be told what hehad done wrong, assuring the head of the house that no offence wasintended; he had hoped that the English jars might, when empty, beuseful to the lady for holding betel nut.
After some difficulty, it appeared that Uncle Toby's attitude, withregard to the fair widow, was not considered proper.
"No Burmese gentleman would smell his wife's cheek in public," explainedthe phoongyee, scandalised; but willing to overlook the ignorance offoreigners who made such handsome presents.
To "smell a lady's cheek" is Burmese for kissing her; and Mr. Gilchrist,a most punctilious man in his deference to all the fair sex, colouredhighly, as he explained that the gentleman in the picture was onlyremoving from the lady's eye a bit of some extraneous matter which hadblo
wn into it.
This being perfectly understood, harmony was once more established.
Miss Silver Spring and her sisters handed round cheroots; all seatedthemselves, and began to discuss a suitable name for the child; whilethe nurse washed the little one's head in a decoction of the pods andbark of the soap acacia tree; which was afterwards carried to each guestin turn, with an invitation to lave his hands in the same lather.
Many were the names suggested for the child; some being discarded as notbeginning with the same letter of the alphabet as that of the day of theweek upon which it had been born. Others met with disfavour fromdifferent reasons. But at last, with an evident desire to honour Mr.Gilchrist, and make up for the misunderstanding which had taken place,he was entreated to propose a name--an English name.
"Madam," said he, "I think there is no name ever borne by an Englishlady so sweet as that of Lily."
He took a beautiful lily from among the flowers heaped on every side,and laid it in the tiny hand, which closed upon it. All regarded this asa favourable omen,--the child's butterfly spirit had accepted theflower, and Lily must be her name.
More cheroots--more betel for chewing--more fruit--more sweetmeats--thena grand feast--after that a pwe, or theatrical play. Money was given tothe nurse, to the phoongyee, and all went merry as a wedding bell.
Ralph soon made friends with the boys of this village, a set of merryfellows, who taught him to play at ball in their way, and were muchimpressed by his accounts of the games played in England. He showed themhow to play at hockey, and delighted in their skittles, played with thegreat flat seeds of a jungle creeper.
Wills instructed the blacksmith in the art of making quoits, to thethrowing of which both men and boys took very kindly, and many a merryhour was thus passed among them.
Osborn whistled melodiously, and considered himself a dab at singing"The Death of Nelson," "The Bay of Biscay," and other sea-songs, withwhich he often favoured his new friends; and Mr. Gilchrist, who wasmusical, gave them songs of a different type.
Ralph knew one air, and one only, which he sang for ever, and which theBurmese boys soon caught up from him, so that it became quite popular.It was--
"I'll hang my harp on a willow tree, I'll off to the wars again," etc.
On the Sunday evenings, Mr. Gilchrist gathered his own party around him,and conducted the evening service, which amazed the villagers greatly.They would gather around the worshippers in a ring, listening, andtrying to join in when they sang the evening hymn, or "Abide with Me,"but never interrupted the prayers.
Mr. Gilchrist was particular in giving alms to the begging monks everymorning, and the phoongyee became fond of talking to him, and askingabout his religion, relating to him pious sentences and precepts whichoften contained great beauty. He, on his side, liked to hear theEnglishman repeat the beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, and various texts,which he could understand, but evidently linked on to the sayings of thelord Guadama in some strange fashion.
Mr. Gilchrist often wished that he possessed more teaching power; but hewas a wise man, and thought it best to offer a little, chiefly of simpleBible words and broad principles, which might sink in if repeatedfrequently, rather than attempt what he did not feel qualified toexplain thoroughly. He likened himself to Apollos watering the good seedextracted from the Christian's safe storehouse--the Word of God. Hewould give the increase in His own time and way.
So they lived for several weeks among these poor simple people, in greatharmony; collecting many rare and valuable plants, some insects, andmuch experience in the language.
When the people learnt what was wanted, they would go themselves intoplaces of which they knew, sometimes at great distances, and bring themplants; for which liberal payment was always offered, but in many casesthe flowers were insisted upon as gifts,--expressions of goodwill.
After waiting for some time, and despairing at last of finding asuitable buffalo with which to pursue their journey farther, Mr.Gilchrist made up his mind to return to Moulmein by the route he hadcome. His store of provisions was much lessened, he had very littleleft, and his gharrie was pretty well laden with jungle spoils.
Teak shingles, with orchids nailed upon them, were fastened all roundthe head of the vehicle--or what the sailors insisted upon terming "theprow." The bamboos which supported the awning were festooned with slightbaskets, in which were planted other specimens. It was hopeless to thinkof preserving their skins, feathers, or insects from the ants andbeetles without better appliances than they had at command there, forall which they had brought of carbolic soap, Keating's powder, andcamphor, was used up. So they made presents of all the tins and jarswhich remained, bid their friends farewell, and set off upon theirreturn journey, accompanied for the first stage by many men and boysupon forest ponies, and followed by lamentations from a crowd of womenand girls who went no farther than the village boundary.