" We sailed over perfumed waters plumbago coloured, that pale
cool blue of the sea when no breath stirs "—and so on. There is a good deal of this rather opulent style of writing in Islands of Queen Wilhelmina, by Mrs. Violet Clifton (Constable, 18s.), varied with details like—" Sometimes we rode, and Talbot's feet were only three inches off the path on either side of the pony." But then there are people who like rhapsody with a decent admixture of small-beer chronicle. The plain man grows at times a little tired of the high note of ecstasy, but even he (dull fellow) will find in this volume, which chats prettily about Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, much that will interest in the way of Malayan custom and folk-lore, and especially natural history. The author, however, is in error when she credits her husband with having been the first Englishman to get a sapi-utan (Bos anoa) ; Guillemard got two as long ago as 1884. For the rest a pleaiant humour ip-ots-thc - volume : as when Occidental discourtesy was well rebuked by a Chinese who, being addressed by a Dutch offiCial letter as " Wang—Chinaman," sent his answer directed to " Mynheer-. Dutchman."
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