TAMIL GIRL—CEYLON.
I found in China that the notes issued by a bank in one city would be discounted when presented at a branch of the same bank in another city. Throughout the Malay states the Chinese are conspicuous as money lenders, but at Singapore they come into competition with the Indians, who are their superior in this line of business. At Colombo we saw no Chinese at all.
We have found the American missionary everywhere, but his work among the Malays is less promising than anywhere else. Missionary work has been quite successful among the Chinese in the Malay archipelago and among the Tamils at Singapore, but nearly all the Malays are Mohammedans, and while they believe in one God and recognize Christ as a great prophet, they believe the author of their religion to have been a superior teacher.
In traveling, one has an opportunity to study human nature in all its phases, and in an extended trip meets representatives of all the nations. The North German Lloyd has a line running from Yokohama to Bremen. (This line, I may add, makes it possible for one to go from San Francisco to New York within two months, with but two changes of boat, and still stop long enough at the principal ports to learn something of the cities and the people.) We went from Singapore to Colombo on one of the boats of this line. Besides a few Americans, Germans and Hollanders, and a still larger number of English, there were several Japanese en route for Europe, and Russian officers and soldiers returning from Japan. We made some agreeable acquaintances among the company, as it is possible to do on every voyage, but just before leaving the boat at Colombo we came into contact with a tourist who belonged to the genus hog. Our boat arrived between eight and nine in the evening, and the porters informed us that the hotels were full, but that we could obtain rooms in the morning, as a number would leave on our ship. I stated the case to the captain, and he assured me that we were welcome to remain on board until morning. Just as my wife and daughter were retiring, a man came on board, followed by a lot of baggage, and directed his porter to put it in our room. I explained to him that not being able to find accommodations on shore, we had obtained permission to occupy the room until morning, but he brusquely replied that he had engaged the room two months before and must have it. I called his attention to the fact that the boat was late in reaching port and would not leave until nearly noon the next day, and suggested as politely as I could that the captain was the proper person to decide whether he was entitled to claim the room under the circumstances. Without consulting the captain he went to the steward and demanded that the ladies be moved to another room, although another room was placed at his disposal for the night. It required some plain, straightforward and emphatic language to bring him to the point where he was willing to occupy a different room temporarily, and I am afraid that he still regards Americans as very rude and uncouth creatures. He is, however, the first man whom I have met so far who would claim as a right that to which he was not entitled, and then demand the enforcement of the assumed right without regard to the convenience of others.
On the last mentioned trip we witnessed a burial at sea, the first that has occurred during our voyage. One of the passengers died after we left Singapore, and we learned of it while the funeral services were in progress. The corpse was enclosed in a black (weighted) coffin in which several holes were bored. The ship slackened its speed, and as the band played a funeral dirge, the body was slowly lowered. Upon reaching the water it floated back for a short distance and then disappeared. It was a sad sight to see the remains of a human being consigned to a watery tomb with nothing to mark its resting place; and yet he does not sleep alone, for in this mighty ocean sepulcher myriads lie buried and the waves moan above them a requiem as sweet as that sung by the trees to those who rest upon the land.