142 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



" Custom encompasseth all," innovations are not 

 welcomed. 



The next Sunday we did not start until midday. 

 At about three o'clock the tracks brought us to a 

 little gravelly stream not more than knee-deep. We 

 crossed this, and followed up a well -beaten path that 

 the tapir had used regularly in coming to and going 

 from the sulphur spring. On the hard ground it was 

 very difficult to track ; there was a number of foot- 

 prints, leading in both directions, and of every age 

 days old, weeks old, months old. And from these 

 we had to distinguish the lightly superimposed fresh 

 prints that we were following. Before long we both 

 suspected that we had lost the fresh tracks, and 

 were following up a stale trail. We accordingly went 

 back to the little stream, and cast round to discover 

 where the tapir had left its usual path. We could 

 discover no other tracks, however, and therefore 

 returned to the beaten path. Soon we saw that 

 we had undoubtedly lost the fresh tracks, and again 

 went back to the stream. We walked in its bed 

 down-stream for some little distance, and then dis- 

 covered that we were doing exactly what the tapir 

 had done. 



Lower down we found the tracks where it had left 

 the water, and hurried up the bank to follow on, for 

 we had lost some little time on the stale trail. We 

 had not gone more than a hundred yards when we 

 heard the well-known sound of the tapir crashing 

 through the forest. 



We stood still to listen. 



Then Malias gasped. " He is coming this way ! " 



