Hung Long Tom read the book to Scobee and many of the pages they almost committed to memory. Never had Scobee run across a travel book that was more alluring. Here are a few sentences from it chosen at random: "It will hardly be credited by those who have never visited a hill country in the tropics, that soon after sunrise the noise of awakening beetles and tree-loving insects is so great as to drown the bellowing of a bull, or the roar of a tiger a few paces off. The sound resembles most nearly the metallic whirr of a hundred Bradford looms. . . . Even in China we find red a token of rejoicing (the bridal costume), while over India and China, and all Buddhist countries, the sacred priestly robes are yellow; and with a number of the races of India and Indo-China the yellow golden skin is
esteemed the highest attribute of female
