CIRCUS DAYS 13 
at him to be convinced of the fact. His forebears, 
Gaylord told me as we were going to his house, 
were pirates, and he was the chief of a clique of 
Samgings (the native gangsters), composed of na- 
tives who would commit any crime he ordered. It 
was by using such methods that he held his mon- 
opoly of the animal business; the natives were 
afraid of him, and no European or native had 
dared to interfere with his trade. His head was 
shaven and his lips and chin were stained crimson 
from chewing betel-nut. He had little bullet eyes, 
set in a fat face. My impression of Mahommed 
Ariff was that he would be a bad man to have as 
an enemy, but it naturally didn’t enter my head that 
he was to become a sworn enemy of mine a few 
years later. He greeted us cordially, for he had 
done business many times with Gaylord, and we sat 
down with him to talk animals. His religion was 
“to do all Europeans,” but he could not help being 
honest with us. If any man knew the value of 
animals, it was Gaylord, and old Mahommed Ariff 
was well aware of the fact. That day we bought a 
tiger, several monkeys and a pair of leopards. 
Several times during our stay in Singapore, I 
went to see Mahommed Ariff. He spoke a little 
English and he was usually willing to talk with me, 
hoping, perhaps, that we would buy more animals. 
From him I learned something of the work of 
collecting as it was done on the Malay Archipelago, 
