THE FOREST. 3 



in which the forest hems in the cultivated area. The 

 settlement is generally situated on the banks of a 

 river. By the water's edge are the houses, built under 

 the shade of fruit-trees, and behind them are the flat, 

 irrigated padi-fields. On all sides this area is shut in 

 by a dark heavy line that uprears itself, around and 

 above it, like the walls of a prison. This line is the 

 forest edge; and thence the forest spreads in every 

 direction, miles upon miles, until some other village 

 is reached; there it opens out again, and sweeping 

 round the clearing, as a wave encircles some ocean 

 rock, closes in again behind it and continues, over 

 mountains, over plains, until the sea is reached. 



But it is when he views it from a mountain peak 

 that the stranger can best see the extent of the forest. 

 He will then discover, what the Malay can never for a 

 minute forget, that he lives his life in the midst of a 

 forest which is as much apart from him as it is around 

 him. The fact that it extends, interminable, far 

 beyond the horizon on every side, then for the first 

 time makes its indelible impression upon his mind. 



This other wonderful thing he will perhaps first 

 realise : the forest is an evergreen ; the season, whose 

 changes in the cultivated area turn brown soil to the 

 tender green of the young padi shoots, to the richness 

 of the colour of the swelling plants, and to the golden 

 wealth of the ripened grain, fails to touch the forest. 

 Neither the season, nor the flight of time, leaves a 

 mark upon the forest ; virgin in the days of which we 

 cannot guess the morn, virgin in our days, virgin it 

 will remain in the days of generations yet unborn. 



On the slopes of the nearest spur each individual 



