268 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



commerce, and the Malays imagine that each plant 

 has a spirit. At night-time, they say, spirit calls to 

 spirit, making inquiry as to the length of the cane 

 between the joints : panjang ? belum ? " is it long ? 

 not yet ? " cries a high resonant voice, throwing the 

 accent of the question sharply on the second syllable 

 of each word; then, after a pause, another voice is 

 raised in a different key, and with the accent and 

 falling intonation of the sad response, panjang, belum : 

 "it is long, not yet." 



The call is really that of an insect, but the sound 

 is weirdly voice-like, and the vibrations of the ques- 

 tion and reply awake a corresponding thrill in the 

 listener. 



We also heard, two or three times during the night, 

 the trumpeting of some wild elephants that had been 

 alarmed by meeting our tracks. The next morning 

 we continued our journey, which lay through dense 

 forest the whole day, and emerged at nightfall upon 

 a little village on the bank of the river we sought. 

 Here we requisitioned a dug-out, and the next 

 morning started down- stream. 



The pleasant easy progress of the boat, which was 

 carried by the swift current and only required the 

 gentlest paddling to give it steering way, was a 

 welcome rest after the days of laborious poling and 

 travelling. To'Kaya and I sat under a little awning 

 made of palm-leaves sewn together, and talked the 

 long day away, while reach after reach the bends of 

 the river opened a gleaming way before us, and reach 

 after reach the forest-clad banks closed in behind us. 

 The small Malay clearings that appeared at intervals 



