Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/108

68 whole crew scramble on board, throw themselves upon the huge sweeps, ten men to each, and screaming and shouting like pandemonium let loose, drive the boat slowly forward, the wild refrain of their songs harmonising with the stroke of the oars and echoing backwards and forwards between the encircling walls of rock. Sometimes when the trackers are on shore the tow-rope gets entangled in some intervening rock. The mate on deck leaps up and beats a wild tattoo on the ship's drum. The tow-rope immediately slackens, the deck crew, including the ship's cook, who have been perfectly quiet for an hour past absorbed in Buddha-like contemplation, or perhaps in slumber, spring up with a start, and becoming suddenly galvanised into an extravagant vitality, hurl themselves on to the sweeps with frenzied fury. They shout and shriek and stamp, all the while doubling themselves into extraordinary contortions, the cook especially, who by reason of the exaggerated slant of his eyes and eyebrows has a Mephistophelian appearance to start with, rapidly assuming the demoniacal