"The most peculiar part of the arrangement of these vessels is in the spars and rigging. The mast consists of two spars; it is, in fact, a pair of shears, bolted and lashed to two posts rising out of the keel-piece, so that it can be let down, or unshipped altogether, with little difficulty. Above the mainyard the two pieces run into one, forming the topmast. Wooden rounds run as ratlines from one spar of the mast to the other, forming a ladder for going aloft.
"The yard is a bamboo, or a line of sliced bamboos, of enormous length, and, being perfectly flexible, is suspended from the mast-head by numerous guys or halyards, so as to curve upwards in an inverted bow. A rope runs along this, from which the huge mainsail is suspended, running on rings like a curtain outwards both ways from the mast. There is a small topsail of similar arrangement.
"The sail-cloth used is the common light cotton stuff for clothing. Of any heavier material it would be impossible to carry the enormous spread of sail which distinguishes these boats. At Menh'lá one vessel was lying so close to the shore that I was enabled to pace the length of the half-yard. I found it to be 65 feet, or for the length of the whole spar, neglecting the curve, 130 feet. The area of the mainsail in this case could not have been very much less than 4,000 square feet, or one-eleventh of an acre.
"These boats can scarcely sail, of course, except before the wind. But in ascending the Irawadi, as on the Ganges during the rainy season, the wind is almost always favourable. A fleet of them speeding before the wind with the sunlight on their bellying sails has a splendid though fantastic appearance. With their vast spreading wings and almost invisible hulls, they look like a flight of colossal butterflies skimming the water."
DANCING DERVISHES.
