SLADANG. 93 



On one occasion I was able to take advantage of 

 some Government holidays, and as the long, hot, lazy 

 hours of the afternoon were wearing away my house- 

 boat gently drifted alongside a landing-stage at the 

 village of Pulau Tawar. 



There we tied up, and as soon as we had made 

 fast my old friend the district chief came on board 

 to hear my news and tell me his. I had intended 

 to go on farther to Padang Tunggal, a plain some 

 distance farther down the river, but he suggested 

 that instead of that, the next morning I should go 

 to a plain, some three miles inland on the opposite 

 bank, which was periodically visited by a herd of 

 sladang. As soon as I had decided to act upon his 

 recommendation, he sent for his two local Malays, 

 brothers named Saleh and Yusuf, who had some 

 reputation for tracking and shooting deer, to go 

 with me as guides. The discussion which followed 

 their arrival abundantly proved two things, first, 

 that we ought to arrive upon the plain at the 

 first dawn, and secondly, that in order to do so 

 we ought to start about two hours before daylight. 

 This being the case, the two men, after some 

 expostulations and promises, acquiesced in my de- 

 mand that they should sleep the night upon my 

 house-boat. 



At three o'clock the next morning the alarum went 

 off just as I was striking a match to see what the 

 time was. I tumbled the blanket off me for, though 

 we were little above sea-level, and only three or four 

 degrees north of the equator, the nights in the Malay 

 Peninsula are cool all the year round and pulled 



