"I quite agree with you, Captain, though there is one with a big stick of bamboo in her hand, who looks more graceful and pretty than any we saw in the village we visited," replied Louis.
"I wonder what that cane is for," added Scott.
"That's to contain some kind of liquid; and she may have four feet of tuak in it," answered the millionaire, laughing at the idea of measuring a fluid by Long Measure. "I think the girl comes nearer to being a beauty than any girl I have seen before."
"She is hooped with brass like all the rest of them," added Scott, as the boat proceeded beyond the group on the shore.
In another half-hour great trees, with an abundant undergrowth of bushes, extended down to the river, and in places some distance into the water.
CHAPTER XI
STEAMBOATING THROUGH A GREAT FOREST
Although there was a wall of green on each side of the boat, and the river was not more than sixty feet wide, the explorers found that everything close to the earth was under water. If the dense jungle had not prevented, they might have sailed inland, they knew not how many miles. As the stream became narrower the current increased in force. The trees were full of monkeys, and hundreds of them appeared to be in sight all the time. They were of the most common kind to be found in Borneo, and the yacht created no excitement among them. They were so tame that any number of them could have been brought down by the hunters.
"The water is not so dirty as it has been everywhere below," said Captain Scott, as the Blanchita stemmed the current without any difficulty, where paddling a sampan must have been a laborious occupation. "It is tolerably clear along here, and we might take our morning bath very comfortably."