"Captain Ringgold told me to take the party up the river, to show them the boats and houses," replied the coxswain.
"That is a good idea, Mr. Scott," added the professor.
"The houses here are all afloat," said Morris. "They are three or four deep."
"Everybody is not allowed to build his house on shore; for that is a royal privilege, doled out to a few of the highest nobility," said the professor. "I suppose there is not room enough in the city for much besides the palaces and the temples, but beyond its limits we shall find plenty of land-houses."
"But I should think these floating houses would be smashed to pieces in a heavy blow; and I see there are plenty of steamers and tugboats in the river, which might bump against them," Morris objected.
"You see that the middle of the river is kept open, though it is very crooked; and these things regulate themselves."
"These houses are no better than card-boxes. They seem to be built of bamboos, with wicker-work and plants. Each of them has a veranda in front, which is a nice place to sit and read, with a kind of ell at each end. I think I should like to live in one of them for a week or two," continued Morris.
"You would not like it," said Achang, who had come with them to act as interpreter.
"This is a walled town, with six miles of fortifications around it."
"A little less than two miles across it; and we shall not have to take any very long walks, for I have read that carriages are seldom seen except among the palaces, and probably belong to the nobility," said Louis; "but we are good for six miles this afternoon."