THE BLAT ELEPHANT. 187 



running up this afternoon. If we start at five o'clock 

 in the big house-boat we shall reach Kuala Sol by 

 eight o'clock, and can start tracking the first thing to- 

 morrow morning. May I give orders accordingly ? " 

 A few questions and a little consideration showed that 

 Ahman had thought the whole matter out, and that 

 nothing was left for me to do but to acquiesce. 



He went away to make the necessary arrangements, 

 and a few minutes later Sleman, another of my boat- 

 men, came up to put my 10-bore rifle in its case. He 

 was the youngest of my crew, and always accompanied 

 Ahman and myself upon our shooting expeditions, his 

 special duty being to carry the sandwich-case and 

 water-bottle. An exceedingly nice youngster of about 

 nineteen, he came from one of the northern unpro- 

 tected states of the Malay Peninsula, and being new 

 to the ways of the white men was, when he first joined 

 my service, somewhat shy and awkward. He was 

 very keen, however, to learn all that he could about 

 every form of sport, and under Ahman's tuition was 

 going through a regular course to " obtain courage." 

 Abstinence from certain kinds of food, ghee in par- 

 ticular, seemed to be the most important condition, 

 but there were many charms and invocations to jins 

 and legendary heroes to be learnt, and there were 

 some rather extraordinary observances to be kept. 

 Both men looked upon the course as a very serious 

 matter. 



Punctually at five o'clock everything was ready ; 

 the house-boat pushed off from the landing-stage at 

 the bottom of my garden, and the incoming tide 

 bore us smoothly up the Kuantan river. Ahman 



