16 THE OUT-STATIOJS; OR, 



or a pair of tusks, come upon a party of half-a-dozen 

 Veddahs, and sent them scampering off in mortal 

 dread of their lives, and chattering for all the world 

 like so many apes. 



On one occasion, having penetrated further than 

 usual into the jungle, where I had followed the recent 

 track of a herd of elephants, I suddenly pounced upon 

 a party of Veddahs at feeding time. Having estab- 

 lished their " salle-a-manger" in a corner of a ravine 

 with high rocks all around them, except at the spot 

 where I made my unwelcome appearance, there was 

 no possibility of escape. 



Entertaining for a moment a doubt on my own 

 part (in which my Malay gun-carrier evidently joined 

 me), whether it would not be more prudent to exercise 

 the better part of valour, and cut and run as fast as 

 my legs would carry me (after a very brief apology 

 for the intrusion), my resolution to remain was decided 

 by witnessing the superlative state of alarm into which 

 we . had thrown the dinner-party. Some began to 

 jabber and screech, others to bury their faces in the 

 grass, whilst one or two stared stupidly at us, think- 

 ing, no doubt, that their hour was come, and possibly 

 the arch-enemy also (for niggers always paint him 

 white) to square accounts with them. 



There was one old fellow amongst them, whose 

 hairs were quite grey, and whose looks were more 

 pacific and less perturbed than the others, and to him 

 I first addressed myself by every imaginable sign and 



