270 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



when they learn to read the Koran. One night came 

 a rap at the door of the house, which, like all Malay 

 dwellings, was built upon posts some ten feet above 

 the ground. In answer to a demand from the father 

 as to who was at the door and what was wanted, a 

 voice replied, "We ask for a light, our torches are 

 extinguished, and we have still some distance to go to 

 the house where we are expected." Now, it is well 

 known that this is a common device of jins and evil 

 spirits to obtain admission to a house, and one should 

 always beware of opening the door to give a light to 

 a stranger who pretends to be belated. Well, the two 

 boys, while the father was questioning and cross- 

 questioning the stranger, slipped out of the house by 

 the ladder behind the kitchen. Excited by the visit 

 of a stranger at such an hour, they moved silently 

 along the ground under the bamboo flooring to peep 

 upwards at the threshold. There, on the rung of the 

 ladder next below the door, stood a man talking to 

 their father ; but even while he spoke a tail striped 

 in black and yellow dropped down behind his legs, 

 and then up and down his lower limbs ran successive 

 ripples of change and colour. The toes became talons, 

 the feet turned to paws, and the knee-joints, already 

 striped with the awful black and yellow, were turning 

 from front to back. 



And all the time the human face of the creature 

 was giving specious explanations to the questions of 

 the master of the house. Half in fascination, half in 

 desperation, the two boys seized the tail that dangled 

 before them, and shouted to their father to kill the 

 thing. But before he could reach for his spear the 



