OF KELANTAN 155 



awakening of beetle and general insect life in the 

 hill country of the tropics is a startling first expe- 

 rience. It begins with one particularly loose 

 jointed, crackling beetle, followed by the creaking 

 tree and the squeaking bush and ground insects 

 until there arises a buzzing, and a humming, and 

 a vibrant, confusing whole, not unlike the song of 

 the looms and the shuttles of a cotton mill. 



Yet this was altogether the most pleasing coun- 

 try I had seen in Malaya up to that time. Here 

 and there the forest was comparatively free of 

 the progress-checking thorn-covered bushes, and 

 stretches of more or less open country accentuated 

 the jungle edges, where one tree sent its umbrella- 

 like top far above its surrounding neighbors. 

 Always and everywhere was a rank growth of 

 grass, called lalang, at its coarsest. And in such 

 places animal and bird life abounded, compara- 

 tively speaking, of course, for nothing living really 

 " abounds " in the Malayan jungle except leeches. 

 There were no birds of especially brilliant plumage 

 or a song note which impressed me ; I did have the 

 luck to see a white-winged jay and several oppor- 

 tunities of which I did not avail myself of again 

 shooting the larger sambar deer; and scarcely a 

 day passed that we did not hear the barking deer. 



One noon after we had crossed the mountains 

 and were skirting the jungle hills which make 



