Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/82

64 to protect it from the inclement weather to which it might be exposed, looked more like the wigwam of an Indian chief than anything else. On all sides were innumerable boxes, portmanteaux, and flower-pots, with their drooping and almost withered plants; besides cages of birds, turkeys, ducks, geese, and fowls, the latter keeping up a constant chorus of recognition with the condemned inmates of the opposite hen-coop. Baskets of potatoes hung threateningly over the heads of passengers in all directions, while plantains and cabbages of a pale yellow hue swung to and fro in clusters of four and five. Chinamen sprawled on mats, smoking, and drinking insipid tea, without sugar or milk; Javanese sailors, in appearance not unlike dressed-up monkeys, ran backwards and forwards, climbing the rigging, and, at the shrill whistle of the sarang, darting down again with the speed of an arrow. Gentlemen's boys also were constantly ascending and descending the cabin