SEA TRAGEDY OF THE JUNGLE FOLK 125 



population was on the banks to welcome us. Omar 

 came forward and announced that he had recruited 

 seventy men Malays and Dyaks for the hunt 

 and that he would vouch for all of them. That 

 made a crew of a hundred, counting the thirty who 

 came with me, and we examined one another curi- 

 ously. I was the first white man that most of them 

 had seen. 



Leaving instructions that the council was to be 

 called for the next morning, I went to the house 

 that Omar had prepared for me. AH and the 

 Chinese boy accompanied me with my personal 

 equipment, and I sat talking with Omar while I 

 waited for my bed to be prepared, so that I could 

 get my afternoon nap. The men loitered outside 

 the house apparently waiting for something. I 

 knew what they wanted more magic. At last a 

 deputation came with the request. Would the 

 white man perform magic such as he had per- 

 formed at the village of Mahommed Munshee? 



Crocodiles were less plentiful so far up the river, 

 and I was rather afraid that they might be dis- 

 appointed if I did not at least equal the former 

 exhibition. The story, as I have remarked before, 

 had grown wonderfully in traveling up-country. 

 But they were determined to see the "drunken 

 fish," and I decided that, before beginning work, 

 I should do well to give them some sort of 

 amusement. 



With the two headmen they were delighted to 



