140 THE TROTTING BHINO 



tempt his compatriot who falls into the ways of 

 the white man or becomes a convert to the white 

 man's doctrines; the comparatively rare Malay 

 policeman, for instance, becomes a thing apart to 

 be treated with elaborate and chilling courtesy. 

 He is a fatalist, and views imprisonment as a mis- 

 fortune to be classed with the catching of fever; 

 purely a matter of caprice, which, together with 

 the jail where he may lodge with comparative com- 

 fort, he accepts with composure. 



Nor is the Malay strong intellectually; they have 

 practically no literature and are without apparent 

 desire to acquire knowledge. Yet despite the in- 

 significant part taken in the industrial develop- 

 ment of the Peninsula, his speech is the lingua of 

 the country— the Italian of the East. The nature 

 of the Malay is poetical; to him the sun is mata- 

 Jiari—eje of day; the brook is anak sungei— son 

 of a river. Midnight is the noon of the night in 

 his tongue; and when he wishes to tell you that 

 he is sorrowful or angry, he says he is sakit hati— 

 sick at heart. He likens a pretty young bride unto 

 " a sarong not yet unfolded." And, as may be 

 supposed, he is very superstitious with good and 

 bad luck signs of many kinds, one of which pro- 

 claims it ill luck to start on a journey in the rain, 

 because rain signifies tears, a superstition more 

 honored in the breach than in the observance, how- 



