MY HOME IX THE FOREST. 261 



no desire myself to try tlie flavor of such questiona- 

 ble meat. A small path, leading a mile through the 

 forest, brought me out on to a large open field or 

 prairie, covered \^dth a coarse grass as high as a man's 

 shoulders. Beyond this was another forest, and 

 there I was informed was a settlement of two or 

 three houses, the farthest place inland inhabited by 

 any of the coast people or common Malays. Beyond 

 that point there is not the slightest footpath. All 

 the hills and high mountains, which I could see tow- 

 ard the interior of the island, are covered with one 

 dense, unbroken forest, and only on some of the lower 

 lulls, bordering the bay, are there open areas of 

 grass. What a nice thing it would be to live out 

 there for a week in the midst of that forest ! My 

 mind was made up to do it. I retui'ned and ex- 

 j)laiiied my plan to the controleur, and the next day 

 WQ set off to hii'e one of the distant huts. The far- 

 thest one from Kayeli, and exactly the one I wanted, 

 chanced to be unoccupied, for the native who OA\Tied 

 it had found the place so lonely that he had deserted 

 it and taken up his abode in the village. The rent 

 for a week was agreed to without much parleying. 

 The owner further agreed to send his son to bring 

 VN ater and keep house while I and my hunter were 

 away, and to be generally useful, which he inter- 

 l)reted to mean that he would only do what he could 

 not avoid. Another man was engaged as cook, and 

 my domestic arrangements were complete, for I pur- 

 posed not only to live in a native house, but to con- 

 form entirely to the Malay cuisine. Our cooking- 

 apparatus consisted of a couple of shallow kettles 



