28 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



out doubt the heart of the Jin had been softened, for 

 we had not gone more than two or three miles before 

 we came on tracks made early the previous evening. 



Pa' Senik had explained to me overnight that his 

 " work " of the evening I have described would re- 

 main effectual for a month, and that an offering each 

 time we entered the forest anew was all that was now 

 required. He was provided with his censer and pro- 

 pitiatory gift, and in half an hour we were ready to 

 proceed. Malias and I then went on alone, instruct- 

 ing Pa' Senik, Hussein, and another local Malay, to 

 follow us slowly, and to keep, so far as they could 

 judge, a quarter of a mile behind us. We followed a 

 well-beaten track, and it seemed from the manner in 

 which the animal had walked steadily on, without 

 stopping to feed on the way, that he was making for 

 another part of the country, and that many miles lay 

 between him and us. We were therefore taken en- 

 tirely by surprise when, before we had gone more 

 than half a mile, a turn in the path brought us 

 suddenly upon him. He was lying at full length in 

 a wallow ; but I was unable to make use of the dis- 

 advantage at which we held him, for as I threw up 

 my 10 -bore a hanging creeper caught the barrels, and 

 I had to lower the rifle and disengage it before I 

 could bring it fairly to my shoulder. By this time 

 the rhinoceros had lurched out of the pool, and I only 

 had time for a hasty shot at his shoulder, hitting him, 

 as I subsequently discovered, too high up and too far 

 forward. The thick smoke of the black powder pre- 

 vented me from getting a second shot before the 

 animal disappeared in the dense forest growth. An 



