scrambling, falling, laughing, and following us the full length of
the street, which was made up of about twenty such boats on either
side. And none of these innocent little things at all realized the
fate in store for them. In one place we saw two very old women in
the front room. In another, a woman knelt before the idolatrous
shrine engaged in her devotions. At one point there was a very
large boat brilliantly fitted up for music, dancing, smoking
opium, and feasting. At the far end of the street was a
'kitchen-boat,' from which supplies of food, ready cooked,
could be bought. All the way along we saw little girls with the
unmistakable signs of their destiny upon them. Our interpreter
said the girls were usually made to stay upstairs during the...