120 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



before we could realise that they were not the lamps 

 of Chinese miners clamouring far below us outside 

 the distant police-station, two great balls of light 

 sped by within fifty feet of us. To say that we were 

 frightened is to put it lightly. I gave a gasp, and but 

 for the support at my shoulders would, I believe, have 

 fallen backwards out of my seat. The suddenness 

 of the assault was overwhelming. From our lonely 

 eminence we had watched the lights making their way 

 down the valley, my interest tempered with thoughts 

 of the court case they might portend for the next 

 morning ; and in a second, even as we watched them, 

 the tiny lights had turned to fiery globes of the size 

 of a man's head, and their speed had become almost 

 that of a cannon-ball. However, as our visitors passed 

 us, we saw that they were natural phenomena, and 

 either chemical gases or electric fluids that is to 

 say, they were either of the nature of a Will-o'-the- 

 wisp or of a St Elmo's light. 



These two lights seemed to us to have arisen from 

 the marshes above the village. Thence they were 

 gently borne by currents of air down to the river- 

 bank, where they were caught by the night breeze 

 and carried up to where we sat. Soon after several 

 more came drifting down from both sides of the 

 valley towards the river -bank, and all, as they 

 reached it, were seized and whirled by the wind 

 in all directions. Before long these were over a 

 hundred to be seen. The wind was fickle and vari- 

 able, and sometimes a dozen of these balls of light, 

 which were now all round us, would fly down the 

 river together and meet others floating lazily by : 



