208 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



mountains, and throws long horizontal shafts of light 

 and warmth that dance upon the sparkling river, and 

 set coursing anew the blood of man and beast. 



The morning breeze blows down the river, and 

 gently wafts to one side the vapours that all night 

 long had lain upon the surface of the water. A 

 great bank of mist a most beautiful thing maligned 

 by the hateful names of miasma and malaria now 

 stands upon the river bank. A cloudy mass, its base 

 rests upon the plain, and its summit makes a straight 

 line against the background of a mountain-range. As 

 the rays of the morning sun permeate it, it gently 

 rises, still one mass, from the plain, and not many 

 minutes later lies half up the mountain side, hori- 

 zontal, like a great grey sash that cuts the mountain 

 in two. There it remains a few minutes, rapidly 

 dissolving into thin streaks like wind-blown smoke, 

 and almost before one realises that it is disappearing 

 it is gone. 



On one of the house-boats, whose Union Jack at 

 the stern shows that she carries the District Officer, 

 the servants are laying breakfast, and preparations 

 of a similar nature are going on in the next house- 

 boat, whose flag of royal yellow betokens the presence 

 of a member of the Sultan's family. 



It was known that there was a tiger in the linker, 

 or secondary forest, behind the village. For the past 

 week it had been heard roaring day and night, and 

 the sound had always come not only from one direc- 

 tion, but from one place. The Malays said that it 

 was a tigress which had taken up its abode in one 

 particular part of the forest, under some shady 



