of making myself known to the agent, because I 

 foresaw future commissions. He, like many others, 

 was tired of doing business with Mahommed Ariff, 

 who took every possible advantage of his customers, 

 and he was pleased to find a white man in the field 

 of collecting. 



We re-crated the python and shipped him off to 

 Liverpool, after feeding him twelve ducks each day 

 for five days. With that stomachful, he could last 

 out the entire voyage and arrive in England with a 

 good appetite. 



It was difficult to get the Malays from the coast 

 to go up into the jungle. They fear it and have 

 superstitions about the hantu that live there. Most 

 of the men refused point-blank when I asked them 

 to accompany me, and others thought of various 

 things they had to do at Palembang. Ali was will- 

 ing, however, and he developed into an expert jun- 

 gle-man. Boatmen from the coast poled us up the 

 rivers, but they returned to the coast immediately 

 because they were unwilling to remain away from 

 their families. 



It was after my return to Palembang that I be- 

 came acquainted with the inland of Sumatra and 

 with the Orang Ulu, who are quite different from 

 their brothers on the coast. They are more indus- 

 trious and have not lost their simplicity and honesty 

 by coming into contact with Chinese business 

 methods. They received us kindly and I had no 

 difficulty in making friends with them. During the 



