March 28—Walking in Hongkong last week I climbed a thickly-wooded hill, steeper than house-roof and overgrown with a tangle vine and creeper whose hanging tendrils wound Found my body and held me prisoner until 1 thought "of the statue of Lavcoon and his sons entwined by snakes; a most uncomfortable thought when it came to my mind that ma these hills are infested by snakes...anytt from an eighteen foot python to the poison cobra and deadly krite—not te mention the bamboo snake, one of the deadliest of all their winter homes....so L expressed the pious hope that the snakes really know the rules of the Keep them—and continued thrusting up that most bewildering bill. All around me were the queerest bird noises, all delivered with an air of secreey—as if the fereatures concerned were anxious not to give themselves away: Doves cooed and, being clumsy birds in restricted quarters, were occasionally
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.