148 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



banks on either side. Then the great trunk road was 

 made, and hundreds of yards of pontoon bridging 

 connected the two banks ; and now, on huge frames 

 of iron-work, the fire carriages screamed as they 

 crossed the river safe above the highest flood level. 



But all this progress had passed by Alang Abdullah 

 and had left him on one side. He did not under- 

 stand the white men, and he knew that they did 

 not understand him. He was afraid of the Govern- 

 ment offices with the punkahs, the peons, and the 

 police, the Court-house where they shouted " silence," 

 and the Land Office, where even the officials were 

 hot and hurried. 



He knew that his lot was far better than it had 

 been. The days of slavery, of forced labour and 

 forced contribution, were over : he recognised that 

 the ways of the Government were good, but he did 

 not in the slightest degree comprehend them. 



In his mind (so far as he thought of it), he rec- 

 ognised the Government as a fact in exactly the 

 same way in which he recognised the existence of 

 telegraphic communication. But the ways of the 

 Government were as much beyond his understanding 

 as was the working of the telegraph. 



His second son was a forest guard in the Forest 

 Department, and his youngest son was learning 

 English and qualifying for an appointment in the 

 clerical service. Only Alang Abdullah was himself 

 too old to learn the ways of the new regime. "A 

 new custom and an old man," he would say, shaking 

 his head. 



The scene he looked upon called forth reminis- 



