THE PINJIH RHINO. 37 



appeared to be a double cutting had developed into 

 something more like a tunnel, through which it was 

 necessary to make our way on hands and knees. 

 It was impossible to see more than a foot in any 

 direction, impossible to stand, and, except with one 

 hand on the ground, impossible to fire. I therefore 

 again gave the order to retreat, and for another half 

 hour we waited on the edge of the thicket. Then 

 we heard an uproar among some monkeys on the 

 far side of the scrub. " They are chattering at the 

 rhinoceros," I said. 



" Let us see," said Malias. And on we went again. 

 Happily the tracks led straight on through the scrub ; 

 and as there was none of the twisting and turning 

 we had met the day before, we were emboldened by 

 the calls we had heard from the monkeys, and pushed 

 on in hopes that the rhinoceros was now in more 

 open country. Suddenly a few heat drops, generated 

 from a steaming ground and a blazing sky, fell pat- 

 tering around and on us. Malias at once seized my 

 coat and looked on every side with perturbation. 

 " Hujan panas" he whispered, for "hot rain" is the 

 sign of a bloody death. 



" Perhaps," I suggested, " it is a sign that the 

 rhinoceros will die to-day." 



" That is not certain," he retorted. " It may be 

 the rhinoceros that will die, and perhaps it may not." 



And then he added, very slowly and sententiously, 

 " It is the Malay custom to be very careful when 

 this happens." 



His nerve seemed shaken for the moment, and 

 more carefully than ever we crept along on hands 



