Ah! there are some priests. I feared we should not meet any of these yellow-robed gentry. How strange they look with shaven heads and eyebrows! Such as these are the religious teachers of the country. A few years ago there were ten thousand in Bangkok alone and some thirty thousand in the kingdom――a perfect army (with few exceptions) of self-conceited idlers; but I am happy to tell you that their number has now greatly diminished. They live on the charity of the people, going about every morning from house to house among their parishioners, with their alms-bowl, and with a fruit-bag slung over one shoulder. The old mother or grandmother is up at an early hour to have rice cooked and ready for them. She puts a ladleful of hot rice into the bowl of each as he passes, and a handful of fruit into his fruit-bag. Do they thank her? By no means. She ought rather to thank them, for they have given her an opportunity to make merit. They collect sufficient for their morning and noonday meal. Their religion forbids them to take food after midday. Notice the boats. Some, used for trading, are loaded with rice, sugar, salt, cotton, oil, dried fish, or dye-woods, as the case may be. Some are at once boat, shop and dwelling. In the distance is a nobleman’s boat, propelled by a dozen or two paddlers. What an odd little house in the centre! Do you see how much at his ease His Lordship is reclining, with two or three attendants down on their elbows and knees before him? Look yonder at that small boat paddled by a little child five or six years old. How unconcerned the little fellow seems as he moves about entirely alone, his boat hardly larger than himself, the edge scarcely two inches above the water! Men, women and children in this country can swim; should this child upset he would look out for himself and think very little of the matter. Many smaller craft are market-boats, with fruits and vegetables for sale. Notice some of the fruits as they pass. That one nearly as large as a child’s head and resembling a huge orange is the shaddock or pomelow. This large one, which smells so very disagreeably, and which is so completely encased in spines as if to say, “Touch me not!” is the far-famed durian, which the natives consider the king of fruits. It weighs from five to ten pounds. This small round mahogany-colored fruit is the delicious mangosteen――that golden one, the luscious mango. Then there are the rich custard-apple, the refreshing orange, the blushing rhambutan, the pineapple, the banana, etc.