Escape to Pagan (14 page)

“We headed for the thick dry scrub belt. Once on the other side of the tall cactus plants, we could not be seen from the main bullock track. The scrub jungle and the prickly pear
[cactus plants]
were difficult and painful to enter and move through, but at least we were out of sight.

“The ripe sweet prickly pear fruit on the cactus plants were protected by sharp thorns and out of our reach. This was a shame, as our throats were parched and the fruit at this time of year contained sweet juice. In a patch of open ground ahead of us, personal items and clothing where scattered in the dust and my mother went to see if anything useful could be found lying abandoned. She quickly came back empty-handed and red-faced.

“'My God Kate – quick!' Mother exclaimed, ‘we must get away from here – that nulla
[small ravine]
is full of civilians who have been cut up by dacoits. Some are still alive – there is nothing we can do – they are beyond help!' Above us vultures circled cautiously afraid to land.

“'If vultures are afraid to land, they can see danger nearby. We must leave now!' said my mother. We moved away as quickly as possible. As we walked, we came to higher ground and could see to our joy in the far distance, through gaps in the jungle, the glimmer of a river below us. This was no mirage. The river promised our salvation.”

The river Mum refers to could have been any tributary of the Irrawaddy or the Sittang River; we were certainly somewhere between both. From what I can tell Grandmother often changed direction by instinct without consulting my mother.

“We headed towards the thick riverine jungle, so thirsty and tired we could hardly speak. I was afraid to enter the jungle as I had heard so many stories of wild animals attacking people. But the thought of drinking water made me desperate and dulled my fears. Entering the jungle, we rested in the shade. I was terrified of venomous snakes. A terrible thought occurred to me. If one of us was bitten, there would be nothing we could do except wait for death. My mother said that after a bite from a Russell's viper, internal organs would haemorrhage. Painful death would take days. A bite from a cobra would be much quicker and relatively painless; however, this was little comfort to me.”

Being bitten by a venomous snake in rural Burma where there was no anti-venom available became a case of “wait and see”. Chances of survival were slim, however, sometimes venomous snakes (for reasons of their own or to conserve precious venom) did not inject their protein poisons. This was known as “a dry bite” or “a warning bite”.

“'When we reach the river and quench our thirst, we will follow the path along the bank'” said my mother ‘It will lead us deeper into the wilderness. We will always have water to drink, water to wash and cook with. There are sure to be some edible water plants, vegetables and fruit trees growing on the riverbank. This is also the time when fresh water turtles lay their eggs, just before the rains; if we are lucky we will find turtle eggs in the sand banks.'

“I hoped we might find some sweet water melons full of juice. Burma has so many different types of delicious fruiting trees and plants, too numerous to mention. My mother said that due to the annual flooding caused by the South-west monsoons, all kinds of seeds are washed into the river; a few seeds take hold and germinate at the high water mark, providing the young seedlings are not eaten by grazing animals. Burmese river turtles lay many soft rubbery-skinned eggs deep in the sand. The young quickly disperse during the monsoon. All turtle eggs are white and round just like snake eggs. I would never buy or eat them before the war, but turtle meat and their eggs were widely enjoyed throughout Burma. All the same I was determined to frighten away any turtles we saw to stop my mother killing them. Saving small animals from my mother during the war made her so angry and she often threatened to murder me.

“It took us a long time to reach the river through the jungle as the light was dim under the canopy of the trees and trailing vines. We had to look first before placing each foot down because of Russell's vipers. These large beautiful, aggressive snakes did not move or give any warning before striking.

“As we got nearer to the riverbank, we recognized papaya and banana trees by the shape of their large distinctive leaves. We were desperately disappointed when we reached the riverbank to find the water out of our reach, so we sat in the shade of the broad-leaved fruit
trees to rest. Only a few wild bananas could be found but we had to be careful of eating wild bananas. We were too thirsty to eat. My mother cut down a young banana tree to get at the heart which was full of insipid liquid that we could drink. Still desperately thirsty, we carried on along a narrow footpath right on the edge of the high and steep riverbank. I was afraid a crocodile might knock one of us into the river with its tail.”

This is a common myth believed by many throughout Burma. Although a large crocodile can launch itself two thirds of its length out of the water (head first) to grab prey on the riverbank, it cannot use its tail as Mother believed.

“Finally we reached the water. We were so desperately thirsty that we could not wait to boil the water first before drinking. Then we lit a fire with dry sticks and boiled some water and added powdered milk for you. You were a big heavy child – not a big eater, but you would drink anything
[I still do, Mother].
Thank God you could walk most of the time in the baby shoes I had brought for you.

“There were many sandbanks in the middle of the river. The water was quite shallow, but flowing and clear. My mother began to search for turtle eggs, looking first for signs of where monitor lizards had been digging. I kept begging my mother to find a Burmese village so we could spend a night off the ground, and have a roof over our heads and the protection of a door. But my mother would always say: ‘Humans are far more dangerous to us than wild animals.' We washed ourselves under the shade of trees where it was cooler and we could not be seen from the opposite bank, and then rested. It was so nice to feel clean.”

Most Burmese villagers were now anti-British; they had lost all respect for their former masters. The Japanese after all, were Asiatic Buddhists
and rice eaters like themselves. The Japanese promised the Burmese independence and both races held a deep dislike for the Chinese.