112 HUMAN TREE-DWELLERS 



the Perak River and over the range, laboriously 

 journeying toward Kelantan, a native state which 

 pushes into Patani, which again reaches northward 

 into Lower Siam. 



I had set out, in the first instance, for a rhino 

 that differs from known Malayan varieties in 

 having fringes of hair on its ears— the Malayan 

 itself being the smallest of the single-horned spe- 

 cies—and which was said, on occasion, to wander 

 down from Siam into the northern border of 

 Malay. But my hunting had been unrewarded, 

 and by now I was not particular whether my rhino 

 had hair on its ears or on its tail. So I was making 

 my way toward the Telubin River, which runs 

 down to the China Sea on the east, and where, I 

 had been told at Singapore, rhino were reported 

 to be plentiful. We had left roads, and the pack 

 elephants, half way down on the other side of the 

 range, and were pushing forward through the jun- 

 gle with five Malay packers, a Chinese cook, and 

 a Tamil— eight of us all told. 



It was my first experience packing elephants, 

 and their agility and handiness, and the intelli- 

 gence with which they accepted and overcame 

 unusual conditions in travelling, amazed and inter- 

 ested me. Without seeing it I would not have be- 

 lieved that so large and apparently clumsy an 

 animal could be so nimble, even shifty, on its feet, 



