Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-03
v0YAG|AC TO ! linda
Watching the Ship 'Goaling
and Making Ready
PLAINTIVE CHANTING
DISCOMFORTS CAUSED BY THE
HEAT IN THE CABINS.
The First Sight Of Bombay and Its
Fine Water
Front.
PLAINTIVE CHANTING
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
In making the voyage to India it is con-
sidered quite the thing to get ones tickets
through the firm of Grindley, agents for the
P. and o. line, and send ones luggage to
them to be forwarded, why 1 cannot mag.
Inc, for not only did we ourselves have a
sad experience in not getting our things
till we reached Marseilles and of paying a
bill of one pound ten simply for having
them forwarded from the Grindley place in
London to the docks, but almost every one
else aboard our ship was complaining of
the same thing. The business-like thing to
do would be to send the baggage to the P.
and o. Office direct, or to King, King &
Co., in either Of which cases one would
have far less trouble and more than haive
the expense.
Not knowing what we had to expect In
regard to luggage, we drove cheerfully to
Liverpool street and watched with great in
terest the arriving herd" who were to be
our fellow-passengers; and were very well
satisfied when we found that our compart-
ment was to be shared by very distin-
guished looking and gracious old lady and
her devoted daughter. At the end of an
hour we reached Tilbury, and boarded the
small tender which was to take us out to
the steamer. Having, a short time before,
come from America in a steamer Of 1900
tons, we were rather amazed when we
found that the boat in which we were to
cross so many seas was of only 1000 tons,
and not very large did she look. The decks
were alive with dark-skinned Lascars,
whose red sashes and bright-colored tur-
bans gave an air of picturesqueness to the
scene, and we were grateful to the p and
O.'s for employing them as sailors, for
they certainly add color and variety to the
monotony of the voyage. We found the
cabins very fair size, and the one in which
n 20 kn hn ltl
holding four people, to be occupied by only
three. We had been told so many dread
full things about the bay of Biscay that
we were greatly surprised to find it quite
as smooth as the channel and warmer, and
the seven days voyage to Marseilles, which
we had so greatly dreaded, proved one of
comfort, the glimpse of Gibraltar and the
entrance to Marseilles harbor more than
making up for all we had dreaded. None
OF the young women who came aboard at
Tllbury looked froward to any gaiety until
after Marseilles, as the men do not ap-
pear until then, preferring to spend that
week on shore, rather than at sea. We
sped away down the Mediterranean in q
stlff breeze. and in course of time We're told
that we were approaching Sicily. That
morning we stayed on deck only long
enough for far-distant sight of Strom-
bolts fires. We were standing in the bow
OF the ship in the darkness and quite silent,
When the Lascar, whose place Is atone
side Of the signal bell in the extreme bow
OF the ship. said something quickly to the
English sailor on the other side. and then
banged the heathenish-sonnding bell VIC
lently, while at the samef time the second
sailor called down a speaking tube, and we
heard the distant thunder of an answer a
moment later, in the loud. distinct tones.
Stromboli on the port bow,nsir." We with
DINNER eyes, could see nothing until a mo-
ment later, when a red light fared out in
the distance. After that about every ten
minutes Stromboli lighted up the horizon,
a Cplf NFi
for nearly an hour when we succeeded in
just distinguishing its shape, blacker than,
the blackness which surrounded 1t. At
Port said, where number Of our passen-
gers left us, we went ashore for an hour
and walked up the hard mud street, lined
with gorgeous eastern shops, and through
the shops, where one is, in true eastern
1asnlon, asked an enormous price for ev-
erything, and then presented with the OBJ
ject at whatever price one Offers
Coaling and Lighting.
The inevitable coaling was begun while
we were ashore, and when we came up on
deck after dinner, that which in daylight
had been black and unsightly scene had
become thing of great interest, for the
four enormous coal barges, with their crews
of natives covered with coal SCOT from head
TO loot, were all lighted by pans of blaz-
ing Oil fastened high up on a pole at either
end OF the barge, and the long line of sooty
men chanted as they passed the heavy
baskets from one to another. Later on
one OF the empty barges wishing to go
back to land, sent a small boat ahead with
a hawser, and when it had been fastened
to the bow of the ship they pulled them
solver hand over hand as far as they could
go, chanting loudly all the time, as they
Stood black and nearly naked, under the
faring torch
The Allah Chant.
The chant was odd and plaintive in tones,
the head man, in deep voice, sang 'Allaaa
1llaliiiii!' and then all the rest, in higher
note. took up the chorus. 1t was a most
and interesting sight In the
meantime the ship had been swathed from
head to foot in awnings, and even then the
decks and rails were black with SCOT The
next morning early we made our slow way
past the docks, full Of big ships, East In
diamen, some coaling and some waiting
their turn to enter the Suez canal, and on
into the wonderful canal, Of which, Of
course, we had heard and read all our lives,
but which is necessary to see to appre-
ciate, and impossible to describe The
long splendor Of silver, sometimes straight
at times undulating. stretching away as
far as one can see between pale fawn-
colored banks. which on either side become
vast tracts Of perfectly fiat desert; the
strings of camels. heavily laden. stalking
slowly along the desert path, roaring HORT
bly,; the mirage In the distance, q lake
shimmerng and shaded by trees; the
fiocks of pink f1amingoes flying away over
the sun-baked land, and here and there the
oasis of ''gare" or station, with a mud
house, few trees and a general look Of
GOODNESS amid the never ending glare Of the
sun; nothing could have been more en-
chantingly strange and Interesting, viewed
from under the bow awning shaded and
cool, unless 1t was the ending of the same
day. AS the sun went down over the desert,
geamingly crimson, the whole heavens
glowing with the intense coler, and the
canal a thread of scarlet ahead Of us, two
big East Indiamen were oeSpied some dis
lance away, slowed up and were
moored to the bank. as We happened to be
in wide enough part Of the-canal to al
low Of their passing u.s. There are 'gares"
here and there along The lehgth Of the
canal where 1t is widern and swhere there
are posts on either side to MOOR the ships
for just such occasions but this time there
proved to be none in view. There we wait
ed, the glory of the skies turn to a glowing
darkness, and listening to the throbbing of
the engines Of the approaching ships, Of
which, as they came up, We could see only
the brilliant lights and the outline Of two
dark shapes. --- ~,
AS they passed quite close to us. we
found one to be Liverpool ship, the other
a Messageries steamer. and looked at them
with as much interest as they evidently did
at us. r
The Tasf NooJ nov