There was much of savage African rhythm in these boat-songs, and instead of the drum of the Zulus came the regular _thump-thump, thump-thump_, of paddles on the thwarts. They were paddling slowly, weary and tired after a long day of portaging, passing with the tide down to Bartica. Then on to a short, exciting period of affluence in Georgetown, after which they would return for another six months in the gold bush. They were realizing their little El Dorados in these very waters more successfully than Sir Walter Raleigh was able to do. I have said that the wonder windows would take one to the Far East; and hardly had the gold-boat passed out of hearing when the never-to-be-forgotten _beat-beat-beat-beat_ of a tom-tom rose without hint or introduction, and straightway the cecropias became deodars and the palms dwarfed to _pîpuls_ and _sal_, and the smells of the Calcutta bazaars and the dust of Agra caravans lived again in that sound. A voice in soft Hindustani tones was heard below--the low, inarticulate phrases framing themselves into a gentle _honk-honka, honk, honk-honka_. Then, still out of sight, came a voice on the stairway: "Salaam, sahib, will sahib come see dance and see wedding?" The sahib would; and I followed the wavering lantern of the bride's father down the steep, rocky path which, at the water's edge, turned toward the half-dozen huts of the East Indians. For a week the coolie women had done no work in the fields, but had spent much of their time squatted in chanting circles. I learned that a marriage was to take place, and, to my surprise, the bride proved to be Budhany, the little child who brought us milk each day from the only cow south of the Mazaruni. Another day, as I passed to the tent-boat, I saw the groom, naked save for his breech-clout, looking very foolish and unhappy, seated on a box in the center of the one short street, and surrounded by six or eight women, all who could reach him rigorously slapping him and rubbing him with oil from head to foot. Every evening, to the dull monotone of a tom-tom, the shrill voices of the women were carried up to Kalacoon; but tonight a louder, more sonorous drum was audible and the moaning whine of a short, misshapen Hindi violin.