chap, xv.] FEAR OF MYSELF. 349 



vate a little sirili (the pungent pepper leaf used for chewing 

 with betel-nut) and a few vegetables ; and once a year 

 rudely plough a small patch of ground with their buffaloes 

 and plant rice, which then requires little attention till 

 harvest time. Now and then they have to see to the 

 repairs of their houses, and make mats, baskets, or other 

 domestic utensils, but a large part of their time is passed 

 in idleness. 



Not a single person in the village could speak more 

 than a few words of Malay, and hardly any of the people 

 appeared to have seen a European before. One most 

 disagreeable result of this was, that I excited terror alike 

 in man and beast. Wherever I went, dogs barked, children 

 screamed, women ran away, and men stared as though 

 I were some strange and terrible cannibal monster. Even 

 the pack-horses on the roads and paths would start aside 

 when I appeared and rush into the jungle ; and as to 

 those horrid, ugly brutes, the buffaloes, they could never 

 be approached by me ; not for fear of my own but of others' 

 safety. They would first stick out their necks and stare 

 at me, and then on a nearer view break loose from their 

 halters or tethers, and rush away helter-skelter as if a 

 demon were after them, without any regard for what might 

 be in their way. Whenever I met buffaloes carrying 

 packs along a pathway, or being driven home to the village, 

 I had to turn aside into the jungle and hide myself till 



