128 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



proficiency, because there were numerous chances 

 of failure through little miscalculations. Elephant 

 driving is, after all, largely a matter of simple 

 strategy combined with endurance; and capturing 

 leopards is about on a par with setting mouse-traps 

 when compared with getting full-grown orang- 

 outangs into cages. 



I squatted before the council and talked long and 

 earnestly about the work that lay before us. I told 

 the villagers that I had left important business in 

 Singapore at the request of their headmen, to come 

 and help them; that I had hesitated about making 

 the trip and had been persuaded only by the prom- 

 ises of Omar and Mahommed Munshee that every 

 assistance would be given me. I explained that I 

 had the permission of the Resident-General and that 

 he had offered me men, but that I had refused, be- 

 cause I knew I could depend on the men of this 

 kampong they knew everything that was to be 

 known about the jungle, and the whole world knew 

 that they were brave and cool-headed. I impressed 

 upon them that such work was not to be taken as 

 play, and that it was a dangerous enterprise. The 

 natives nodded sagely. "You must be guided by 

 what I say and do," I told them, "for I have made 

 plans. If you do as I tell you to do, we shall be 

 successful." 



Then I called upon the men who had been sent 

 out to locate the orang-outangs. They had found 

 them about two hours' distance from the village; 



