So from that day poor Chang was banished from civilized society; not but what I consider--I speak reservedly--that his steerage companions were infinitely the more entertaining.
What a strange collection they were! First, the Burmese--quiet, gentle, brown-eyed creatures. They were on their way to the Indian Exhibition, where I afterwards saw them selling cigars and going through their various performances. At first they did not know me; but when I mentioned a certain yellow dog named Chang they remembered at once, and were much delighted at hearing of their old board-ship companion.
Then there was the Buddhist priest in his quaint garb, likewise on his way to the Exhibition; some Cingalese rickshaw coolies--merry, indolent-looking fellows, who seemed to take life very easily; also several Chinamen, who sat all day long smoking their long pipes or playing cards. I must not forget those most uncanny-looking ourang-outangs, too, which, as the weather became colder, were dressed up in some cast-off sailors’ clothes, and looked more horribly human than ever; nor that dear little white bear, which was always curled up fast asleep--and such heaps of small, chattering monkeys; fowls, birds of all descriptions--a true ‘happy family.’
I would often go down to pay Chang a visit and find him the centre of an admiring group, looking rather melancholy, but patiently submitting to the unconscious teasing of those pretty little Burmese children who so adored him.
Sometimes he would be ‘down below’ in the butcher’s quarters in company with a Siamese cat. ‘Friends in affliction’ they certainly had become, sitting close together, puss purring away contentedly, and rubbing her brown head against her companion’s yellow coat as if they had been chums all their lives, and the Siamese cat’s mistress and I would watch them both unperceived, and wonder at the sight.
CHAPTER XII
PAUL AND VIRGINIA
Life on a tea-estate--My animal friends--Two brown bears--Brutus, the monkey--Always in mischief--The Brazilian Macaw.
At Colombo I basely deserted Chang, leaving him to the charge of his kind friend the butcher, who dispatched him, on the steamship Kaiser’s arrival at Southampton, to my cousin at Aldershot; and for some weeks I heard no more of my old favourite.
We stayed a few days at Colombo, and from there took a small steamer up to Assam, where my father had a tea-estate, which needed his personal supervision for a time. The change after my gay and busy life in Japan was very great. My father was away riding all day, and I was left alone at the bungalow except for the natives belonging to the estate, who could hardly be considered companions.