Our food and the
wages of those servants whom we should not have required at the hotel came
to approximately 80 rupees per month, making a total of 140 rupees, or L9,
6s. 8d.; whereas our hotel bill would have come to 12 rupees per day,
without extras--or 360 rupees (L24) per month--a clear saving in money as
well as in comfort.
Our new habitation--the house dounga _Moon_--was owned and partly worked
by Satarah, an astute old rascal, whose "tawny beard," like Hudibras'--
"Was the equal grace
Both of his wisdom and his face;
In cut and dye so like a tyle
A sudden view it would beguile:
The upper part whereof was whey,
The nether orange mixt with grey."
His costume consisted of a curious sort of short nightgown worn over white
and flappy trousers, below which were revealed a pair of big, flat naval
feet. The first lieutenant, Sabhana--sleek and civil-spoken, but
desperately afraid of work--was, we understand, son-in-law to the Admiral
Satarah, having to wife the Lady Jiggry, eldest daughter of that worthy,
who, with her younger sisters Nouri, Azizi, and "the Baba," completed the
ship's company.
The _Moon_ differed from an ordinary house-boat in being narrower, and
possessing a long bow and stern which projected far enough from the body
of the boat to enable men to pole or paddle with ease; a house-boat can
only be towed. On embarking by means of a narrow gangway--a plank
possessed of an uncontrollable desire to "tip-up" at unexpected and
disconcerting moments--one entered first a small vestibule, or
"ante-cabin," which held our big boxes and opened into the
drawing-room--quite a roomy apartment, about fifteen feet by ten feet,
fitted with a fireplace, a rough writing-table, and overmantel, surmounted
by a photograph--something faded--of Mrs.
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