182 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



silence for a moment, and then another thud, followed 

 by a crash. The noise was coming straight towards 

 me, and I shook my elbows free of the coat-sleeves. 

 Then came a crash within twenty yards of me, and 

 then oh, horror and disgust ! a big, black, long- 

 tailed monkey hurled itself into sight. It landed 

 with a tremendous thud on a bare rock within 

 a few yards of me, and then nearly collapsed with 

 fright on finding my solemn eyes returning its stare. 

 It flung itself on to the nearest rock, and thence, 

 with a wild leap through space, swung into a tree. 

 The moment that it caught its breath it uttered a 

 series of piercing, hysterical whoops, and, screaming 

 and crashing through the trees, it passed out of 

 earshot. 



There was some time to wait after this, and then 

 on the heights in front of me I heard a sound as if 

 some one had dropped a pebble. Tpp ! that was all. 

 A few seconds later there was the same sound again 

 tpp ! After a few moments again the same sound 

 nothing more ; each time the sound seemed to come 

 closer. I could not imagine what the cause might be, 

 but had a vague idea that it might be a small monkey. 

 Then I saw something on the higher elevation to my 

 front left drop a distance of some six or eight feet and 

 land lightly on a rock. Tpp ! It was too far for me 

 to see what it was, and the bushes and tree-trunks 

 hid it almost entirely. Again it leapt down a sheer 

 fall of rock and landed among some boulders about 

 thirty yards away from me. And then I saw that 

 it was a goat. It was only a young one not more 

 than a third grown, I imagine. From the glimpse 



