42 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



next year I spent much of my time inland, in hunt- 

 ing and fishing, and I discovered that Sumatra was 

 not the field for collecting that I had expected it to 

 be. But it served my purposes of learning the 

 language and becoming acquainted with the people 

 quite as well as any other part of the Archipelago 

 would have done ; and I was too busy studying jun- 

 gle-craft from the Orang Ulu to think of leaving. 

 Ali, who was always with me, was an invaluable 

 aid. He was a first-rate spear-thrower, but he 

 wanted to be a good shot. He took great pride in 

 my 50-110 express gun, which he carried behind 

 me. He had a trait peculiar in Malays he was 

 always busy. And he spent a great deal of his 

 energy in cleaning and polishing the gun, hoping 

 for the great reward of being allowed to shoot it. 

 Eventually he became a good marksman. The other 

 servant who accompanied me on my trips into 

 the jungle was a Chinese coolie. He had been my 

 rickshaw boy and I promoted him to the position of 

 cook and store-keeper. Ali was intensely jealous of 

 him but they worked well together. 



Though the natives made a sport of spear-throw- 

 ing, they had given over that method of hunting. 

 They were armed with guns that I honestly believe 

 dated back to Revolutionary times old, muzzle- 

 loading flintlocks. Where they got them I have 

 never been able to discover. They were fascinated 

 by my 50-110, of course, and, when Ali cleaned it, 

 they squatted about him, wide-eyed. Whenever I 



