194 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



house-boat, I heard old Ahman telling Sleman and 

 the other boatmen stories that deserve to be recorded. 

 This is one way to kill a rhinoceros. 



Take a piece of hard wood (lengapus for choice), 

 eight inches long and two inches thick, and sharpen 

 the two ends to as fine a point as possible. Armed 

 with this, follow the rhinoceros. When you come 

 upon it, shout and boldly advance. The rhinoceros 

 will thereupon rush at you. As is the custom of the 

 animal, it will charge at you with its eyes shut and 

 its mouth open. When it approaches, step aside, and 

 taking the stick between your thumb and first 

 finger so hold it out perpendicularly, and put it 

 in the animal's open mouth. The rhinoceros will 

 snap upon it, and the pointed ends entering the 

 upper and lower jaws will close the mouth for 

 ever. As it cannot eat it will starve, and all 

 that you have to do is to follow it until it drops 

 down dead. 



The system employed by a friend of Ahman's for 

 killing elephants also has much to recommend it. 

 Elephants, it is well known, move on from one feed- 

 ing-ground to another in a regular rotation and at 

 fixed times. Ahman's friend could go to any place 

 where elephants had been feeding and tell from the 

 appearance of the trampled ground and the con- 

 dition of the new grass and leafage how long it 

 would be before the herd would return. When the 

 elephants were due at any place he would arm him- 

 self with a long iron spike and a mallet, and climb 

 up into a convenient tree. When the elephants came, 

 of course they came, he waited until a tusker 



