JUNGLE HUNTER 243 



idly laboring to win Uda over from the faith of 

 Mohammed. Now Uda was only a boy in his 

 teens, but he was a clever youngster, and it was not 

 long before it dawned upon him that he always fed 

 better on the days when the Church of England 

 prevailed than on the days when rope-ending occu- 

 pied the otherwise unemployed time of the severe 

 sailor-missionary. So it followed naturally in due 

 course that Uda " professed Christianity," accept- 

 ing the faith in exchange for an extra portion of 

 rice and currie, a brass-backed comb and two un- 

 dershirts of doubtful ancestry, which the pious, 

 and now much elated first-mate gave him. The 

 articles of the new faith provided, that in addition 

 to feeling the strong right arm of the first-mate, 

 Uda's share of rice and currie was to be greatly 

 reduced every time he broke the eighth and ninth 

 Commandments. As currie and rice are meat and 

 drink to the Malayan, it came about that Uda grew 

 gradually out of the habit of lying and into the 

 habit of truthfulness; and by the time he had 

 reached manhood, the habit had become fixed. 



I fell across Uda through the good offices of Jin 

 Abu, on returning from our successful elephant 

 hunt. With a naked kiddie prattling around, he 

 was clearing up a piece of rattan, and I camped 

 nearby for a few days, while Jin Abu told him of 

 our hunting experience after elephant, and of my 



