Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/386

294 Chinese garden laid out in terraces with balustrades of turquoise blue and green porcelain. There are also public gardens, the paths and grass bordered with miniature white railings a few inches high, which had a quaint and pleasing effect.

I had made a long tour of the island and was trundling along peacefully by the edge of the sea when my coolies suddenly stopped, exchanged remarks, and one said to me, " You killee me."

" Well, you silly old thing," I replied, " why do you let yourself be killed? "

So I alighted, gave them cigarettes, and we all sat on the shore to rest. When we resumed our return journey I told them to go quietly, and the consequence was they walked all the way! A rickshaw when the coolie walks is a foolish business. We stopped near the town to watch the funniest football match I had seen for long. Portuguese, English, and a Chinaman were playing. The latter, in his wide flapping trousers and his pigtail flying, was very comical.

Then, as usual with me, I discarded the rickshaw and walked everywhere—I always thought it was what legs were for. When strolling under the banyan trees on the Praya Granda—where, by the by, there is a Military club and a Union club—one of my coolies in attendance, a band of three Portuguese police with a Chinese prisoner caught up to us. The four of them and my coolie entering into an animated conversation, I asked what it was about, and learnt that the Chinese prisoner was being taken there and then to execution—to be beheaded. We accompanied them part of the way, whilst I asked questions, I bestowing cigarettes on them all, including the condemned man—who was perfectly at ease and quite cheerful, and smiled upon me in the most friendly way in thanking me for the cigarettes. They