AN ELEPHANT 219 



ing these two days ; and about one hundred yards 

 from its mouth found quite a little fleet of canoes 

 tied up in front of several houses and a dozen or 

 more natives with spears and krises in hand gath- 

 ered on the bank in an obvious " state of mind." 

 Paddling toward them, it really looked as if we had 

 a fight on our hands; and I must say I did not 

 much care, for, if the truth be told, I was exas- 

 perated by the surly reception we had received all 

 along from the river natives, whom I found the 

 most uncivil of any I ever encountered in any fron- 

 tier section. We slowed, but kept moving toward 

 the land, and while yet in midstream my Malays 

 sent out a hail to which those on the bank re- 

 sponded; and forthwith followed much and ani- 

 mated conversation between them, which seemed 

 to please my Malays increasingly as it continued. 

 I could not understand what information my 

 Malays imparted to the natives, but I seemed to 

 be the object of increasing curiosity, and, when I 

 went ashore, of marked attention. My guns ap- 

 peared to create great wonder, and I gathered 

 from my Malays' sign talk that it was the shooting 

 which had caused so much alarm in the settlement, 

 and that the natives wished to see the rifle work. 

 So I brought down a flying fox from out of a 

 nearby tree, and then shot it dead as it lay on the 

 ground with a .38 pocket revolver w 7 hich I took the 



