Bidding us our course to stay.
Shall we at their bidding turn,
Fearful of their aspect stern?
No: for patiently we may
Round, or through them, win our way.
The little incidents seen on the banks of the river as we move along are eminently picturesque, and give life and reality to what we should otherwise almost imagine to be a dream of beauty, rather than real actual scenes, where toil and labour are at work. Such foregrounds, too, for artists! Here is a woman mowing: further down, one impels a heavy boat along by means of a pole: there red cows stand, half in the water, half on a grassy slope, with the reflected green of which their red contrasts. Again, as we approach a village, some of the maidens are seen drawing water; while others, in groups and attitudes that present endless studies, wash their gay clothing, or bleach long strips of brownish linen.
Boat-building is carried on at nearly every village, and the smoke from the accompanying fire wreathes among the walnut-trees. In reality, the people work hard; but it is difficult to divest our minds of the idea that they are merely sauntering about, and forming groups for their own amusement and the delight of others. All is so complete in loveliness, that it seems unreal.
The ribs of the great flat-bottomed boats look like skeletons of some curious animal, which the apparent loungers are examining at their ease; and the nearly completed barge seems to be a sort of summer-house, in which the idler can sit, or under which he may smoke his pipe in the shade,—for, of course, all smoke. Usually the long stem with the earthenware or china bowl is the medium by which the fragrant weed is inhaled, but sometimes a few inches of coarse stick (in appearance) is the substitute.
