CIRCUS DAYS 13 



at him to be convinced of the fact. His forebears, 

 Gaylord told me as we were going to his house, 

 were pirates, and he was the chief of a clique of 

 Samgings (the native gangsters), composed of na- 

 tives who would commit any crime he ordered. It 

 was by using such methods that he held his mon- 

 opoly of the animal business; the natives were 

 afraid of him, and no European or native had 

 dared to interfere with his trade. His head was 

 shaven and his lips and chin were stained crimson 

 from chewing betel-nut. He had little bullet eyes, 

 set in a fat face. My impression of Mahommed 

 Ariff was that he would be a bad man to have as 

 an enemy, but it naturally didn't enter my head that 

 he was to become a sworn enemy of mine a few 

 years later. He greeted us cordially, for he had 

 done business many times with Gaylord, and we sat 

 down with him to talk animals. His religion was 

 "to do all Europeans," but he could not help being 

 honest with us. If any man knew the value of 

 animals, it was Gaylord, and old Mahommed Ariff 

 was well aware of the fact. That day we bought a 

 tiger, several monkeys and a pair of leopards. 



Several times during our stay in Singapore, I 

 went to see Mahommed Ariff. He spoke a little 

 English and he was usually willing to talk with me, 

 hoping, perhaps, that we would buy more animals. 

 From him I learned something of the work of 

 collecting as it was done on the Malay Archipelago, 



