3.02 A TJilP TO GUNONG BLUMUT. 



that for the present at all events, Logan's assertion cannot 

 be unreservedly accepted. There were plenty of subjects 

 for conversation with the Dato ; but I was obliged to 

 reserve them for such opportunity as I might get on my 

 return. After dinner our men told us some Malay tales, 

 and we in return gave them Little Red Riding Hood and 

 other stories, to which they listened with much interest and 

 amusement, some of the incidents eliciting roars of laughter, 

 the unexpectedly tragic fate, however, of little Red Riding 

 Hood, according to our version, cast a shade over the audience 

 who speedily retired to forget their grief in slumber. The next 

 day (BOfch) we succeeded, contrary to our expectations, in gett- 

 ing our party oif at 11.30 a. m. "We were 16^in all, 12 men, 

 besides ourselves and the boys. I had to give up my native 

 mattress, there not being enough carriers ; the Malays 

 consider 15 to 20 kati sufficient load for a man in an 

 " ambong" (the basket they carry on the back with straps 

 passing over the shoulders); Chinaman would carry much 

 more in his two baskets on a kandar-stick, but they could 

 not pass along a great portion of the path we had to 

 travel, which was in many places only just wide enough for 

 the head and shoulders to squeeze through. After 

 starting we had to cross a stream by means of some unplea- 

 santly ricketty branches; and then our course, there could be 

 hardly said to be a path, lay through jungle which was all 

 under water, sometimes up to the knees and occasionally 

 deeper still, with muddy holes and invisible roots and 

 stumps, so that our progress was not rapid. After an hour 

 or two of this sort of work we came upon a larger stream 

 with rushing current, a medium-sized tree stem lay across 

 it, but some inches under the surface, and though the 

 natives with their prehensile feet crossed it safely, we did not 

 feel quite equal to the occasion, and our men soon had a few 

 uprights stuck in the bed of the stream secured to each 

 by horizontal bars, and so we got over. On the other side 

 all was equally under water and we continued to wade, oc- 

 casionally up to the middle, along the banks of this stream, 

 which was the Lenggiu, till 3 p. m. or so, when we got on to 

 higher ground, only now and again having a swamp or small 

 stream to cross. By 4 p. m. we had reached still higher 

 ground with a delightful clear sandy-bedded brook flowing 

 at the foot of a steep rise; here, above the stream, we de- 

 cided on taking up our quarters for the night, being told 

 that Mr. Hill's first resting place could not be reached till 

 after dark; one of our men moreover, who had been taken 



