24 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



longs to that unhappy class, whether in this world 

 or the other, of creatures who mean well : his in- 

 tentions are excellent, but he is powerless for good 

 or evil, and the consideration he meets with is, 

 therefore, such as might be expected. Little was 

 asked of him, and he could tell us less : beyond 

 saying that if our quarry were wounded near water 

 it would come to life again (a pleasing prospect, as 

 we had to seek it in swamp and marsh), he could 

 not help us. He remained but a few minutes, and 

 then craved leave to depart. When he left, Che 

 Mat was nearly fainting, and to allow him to recover 

 there was a long interval of playing and singing by 

 Pa' Senik. Che Mat's wife, herself no unskilled 

 disciple in witchcraft, in the meantime occupied her- 

 self in attending to her husband, breathing upon 

 him, rubbing, kneading, and massaging him. When 

 attention was called and the proceedings resumed, 

 Che Mat fell into a fourth frenzy, more violent than 

 any that had preceded it. He had undergone his 

 previous attacks in silence, but this time he gave 

 vent to scream after scream, short sharp yells of 

 pain. When the succeeding exhaustion had some- 

 what passed, he declared that he was the Jin Kepala 

 Gunong Api the Jin of the Volcano's Summit 

 one of the Jin Tanah, the Earth Spirits, whom we 

 had to fear in this enterprise. He was most violent 

 at first, but soon became quiet, and then friendly, 

 and finally asked what we would give him if he 

 allowed us to " take " the rhinoceros. Various gifts 

 were suggested, but rejected as valueless in the 

 Spirit World, until finally the offer of an egg, some 



