220 JIN ABU FINDS 



precaution to always carry on my East Indian 

 hunting trips. 



The amazement of that community, particu- 

 larly over the revolver, and the discussion around 

 the dead bat, lasted late into the night; and the 

 more they talked and smoked, the more firmly es- 

 tablished became the reputation of the white hun- 

 ter in that simple community. They cleared out 

 an end in one of the houses, to which I was es- 

 corted ; and here they brought me fruit and sago ; 

 and fish that once upon a time, long past, had been 

 fresh. Evidently I had made a hit, for some rea- 

 son or other. But I was not to be taken off my 

 guard by blandishments, so I kept my guns in 

 sight and my revolver in my belt; and I did not 

 sleep in the house as my hosts insisted, because I 

 remembered the pleasingly quiet and effective 

 method Malays have of putting out of the way 

 those whom they cease to love. At such a time, in 

 the still of night, they visit the abode of the erst- 

 while beloved, and, standing beneath his open 

 rattan floor, they prod inquiringly— and strenu- 

 ously—upward (after the manner of testing a 

 roasting fowl), until the warm blood-trickle down 

 the spear shaft signals that their dear enemy has 

 been found— and stuck. 



I had no apprehension of trouble— my attitude 

 was simply the cautious one I always take when 



