132 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



day might bring forth, and heedless of the signs 

 upon the ground, one had passed, and overlooked, 

 these self -same tracks. We found no fresh signs, 

 however, and after a while left the little path. 

 Malias pointed out the general direction that we 

 were to take, and I gently opened a way for our- 

 selves through the tangle of the forest undergrowth. 

 Soon we came upon a path made by the tapir, and, 

 following this cautiously, found the ground open 

 suddenly into a narrow, swampy valley. Through 

 a marsh, in which thick reeds and heavy grasses 

 grew, a little stream wound a tortuous way. At 

 our feet, under an overhanging rock, it ran through 

 an unsavoury, inky-looking sludge. This was the 

 sulphur spring of Jenali. It seemed a fetid little 

 pool. The leaves that had fallen in it were heavy 

 with a black, slimy deposit, and a sulphuretted odour 

 clung to the soil, and even to the surrounding trees. 



Here we found fresh tapir tracks. The animal 

 had come down in the early evening, and then, after 

 drinking and wallowing, had fed through the swamp 

 grass in circles, returning three^ or four times in the 

 night to seek in the strong mineral deposit a correct- 

 ive to the rich lush vegetable diet. The tracks 

 were like a tangled string: loops of various sizes 

 were drawn into a tight knot at the sulphur spring, 

 and we had to find the end of the skein, that is, 

 the route by which the tapir had left the place. 

 We spent some time in following tracks that ap- 

 peared to be taking us directly away, only to find 

 that the tapir, unable to resist the temptation of 

 the sulphur spring, had turned once more to its 



