JUNGLE STRATAGEMS 49 
air. Then I explained my theory. The ability of a 
snake to shed his skin might be transferred to ai 
human being if he ate snakes; and if so, the person 
would be able to shed his leprosy. Ong Si Chou 
did not care for the idea at all, but I told him it was 
worth trying and I argued that a snake is much 
cleaner than an eel. At last he consented, and I 
furnished him with a number of small pythons, 
with the instructions that they were to be killed 
and cleaned immediately before they were eaten. 
He was to eat them raw with his rice. 
I left Singapore soon after that, and, when I 
returned, I found that Ong Si Chou had died. Peo- 
ple thought it was a great joke on me because my, 
patient had not survived the treatment, but I am 
far from being convinced that the cure will not 
work—or, at least, help to throw off leprosy. Ong: 
Si Chou was in the last stages of the disease, and 
his case was not a fair test. 
After living eighteen months with the Malays in 
Sumatra, I decided that I was well enough equipped 
to leave and begin the work of collecting wherever 
I could find the animals I wanted. I went to Singa- 
pore and found that Ariff had been maligning me 
to his heart’s content. I called upon him to see 
what he had to say for himself and he prophesied 
dismal failure for all my plans. However, I engaged 
passage on a coast steamer going northward, and 
stopped off at Kelantan, Patani and Singgora, in 
Lower Siam. At those places I gathered all the 
