THROUGH THE MALAY JUNGLE 33 



ever, that government elephants might be secured 

 from the British Resident at Janing; and trusting to 

 be able to send them back for the luggage, we set 

 out to cover the twenty-odd miles on foot. This was 

 no easy task; the highway had become a veritable 

 quagmire into which one sank at every step, and 

 since we had neglected to carry sufficient drinking 

 water, thirst came on with painful intensity. Dark- 

 ness found us with our bearings completely lost, as 

 we had missed the right road and taken one which 

 apparently led nowhere; we were much too fatigued 

 by the twenty- two mile tramp to hope to reach 

 Janing, and the prospect of a night in the open 

 jungle, with no means of guarding against the 

 beasts which might happen to be there, was not 

 pleasing. But by good chance we stumbled upon 

 the small village of Kwala Kinering, where an Eng- 

 lish tin miner, prospecting alone in the interior, 

 brought tea and rice, the first food we had had since 

 morning, and made us comfortable for the night. 



It gave us somewhat of a start, however, when 

 we learned the next day that a native had been 

 killed and eaten by a tiger at a spot on the same 

 road which we had passed but an hour or two 

 earlier on the previous evening. 



Janing, which we reached at noon on the follow- 

 ing day, proved to be a pretty little town on the 



