204 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



the poles. As was usual in the Archipelago, espe- 

 cially in the inland districts, the spears and krises 

 were poisoned, and our only hope of victory lay 

 in that fact. I knew that the poison would kill a 

 man in a few minutes and I had seen smaller ani- 

 mals die of it, but I did not know what effect it 

 would have on so large and powerful a brute as a 

 seladang. 



Next we gathered leaves and stuffed a sack, made 

 from a sarong, full of them, and tied it with a string, 

 so that we could dangle it in front of the beast. 

 Then three of us armed with the krises took posi- 

 tions so that we should be above the seladang when 

 he charged, and we lowered the sack. He snorted 

 and drew back; then he put his strength into his 

 legs and lunged forward. I drove downward with 

 my kris, tearing a wound in his back near the hump; 

 he whirled and charged again, and this time one 

 of the natives blinded him in one eye. 



He withdrew a few yards, snorting, bellowing 

 and pawing. He turned again on the body of poor 

 Ali, as if to vent his anger on it. Presently we 

 lured him back with the bundle of leaves, and he 

 charged again. I scored another cut near his hump. 



This charging and jabbing went on for fully an 

 hour, and we seemed no nearer success than when 

 we started. It was impossible to get in a death- 

 stroke, and the poison apparently was having no 

 effect upon him. In any event, I thought, we were 

 winding him, and, if we could last out another 



