Page 233 - Malay sketches

WITH A CASTING-NET

eggs. Anything over twenty-five is considered a
satisfactory find.
By the time all the nests have been rifled, the
sands are growing so hot under the rays of the
sun that bare feet can endure what
fiery hardly is
little short of torture. There is an almost hurried
return to the boats, the finery is exchanged for
simpler garments, and all the men and many of the
ladies take to the river, and there disport themselves
in a manner that is refreshing to sun-scorched
bodies and the eyes of the Western spectator who
is fortunate enough to see how it is possible to be
unconventionally natural and yet perfectly modest.
It is only on such occasions as this that a
strange man can see these ladies unveiled and even
so he is not to look at them or
expected go very
near them ; but their bathing-costume differs hardly
at all from that which they commonly wear, and
they thoroughly enjoy this opportunity of revelling
in the clear waters of the sand-bedded stream.
Then every one scrambles back into the boats,
which are pushed off into deep water, the rowers
seize their paddles and with beat of gong and the
musical notes of the silver with
serunai, jest and
and
laughter, pennons waving, bright eyes sparkling
behind the rainbow-coloured blinds, the picturesque
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