So the revel progresses, sometimes dying down into a slow movement in which only the hoarse breathing of the men, the tap-tap of female heels, is heard; and anon breaking into a kind of gallop, punctuated with shouts of "Bravo" "Hip, hip, Hurrah" and the queer dental shriek, which our friendly serang tells us is the peculiar note of the African reveller.

As we turn the corner into Ripon Road, we catch a final glimpse of our bemedalled serang executing a fandango on the door-step, and of the Sidi Patel with a cup of hot coffee in his hand shouting in broken English, "Good-night, God Save the King!" XIV.

The singer was invisible, but around the words of her song one could conjure up pictures of the sturdy serang asleep in the foc'sle of some westward-flying steamer, or haply of the bearded trader afare through the passes of the North-West Frontier, the while his wife in the small upper room waited with prayers for his home-coming, even as the lady of Ithaca waited for the man of many wiles.

When able to speak, he told the serang of the lascars that he was the sole survivor of a bunder-boat which had turned turtle and sunk.

A serang of lascars, with whistle, chain, shawl, and fluttering blue clothes, was at work on the baggage-hatch.

The serang called him a name unlovely in itself but awakening delightful memories in the hearer.

'O Serang, is that man a fool?' 'Very foolish, sahib.

The serang grinned; the Surtee man grinned; the winch began again, and the voices that called: 'Lower away!

Serangs used to be very kind to little white children below the age of caste.

The serang said that, for his part, he had noticed no difference in twenty years.