66 THE BABOON PA SI BAGOK AND THE GIRL. 



" If you use a pen every day where is. it 7 " 



" I left it in my box. If I left it in the box no one will 

 know." 



" Why do you sit like that, Pa Si Bagok ? " 



" Because I am used to sitting on a mat every day." 



" If you do so, where is the mat ? " 



" The mat is in a princess' house where nobody knows." 



After that the baboon carried her away to the top of a 

 Tok Allang tree. The girl cried. After the girl had been 

 carried away by the baboon her father and mother came back 

 from their clearing and found that their daughter had 

 disappeared. They too wept. 



" Alas my daughter, where can you have gone to ? Who 

 can have carried you off '? What evil spirit, what jin, can have 

 had the heart to carry you away ? " 



Both her father and her mother were very very sorry 

 that their daughter had disappeared. 



The baboon made a small hut on the top of the Tok 

 Allang tree for his wife. Every day he went to find food and 

 water for her and also to find clothes. After a time the girl 

 became pregnant and bore a son. The child was half man and 

 half baboon. Two months after this the girl thought of a 

 plan by which she could escape back to her father and mother. 

 So she ordered Pa Si Bagok to look for a joint of the betong 

 bamboo. 



He said, " What are you going to. use it for ? " 



"I want to bathe our child. Just think for what a long 

 time it has never been bathed." 



Pa Si Bagok thought that this was all right so he went 

 to look for a betong bamboo and in a short time he found one. 

 So he came back with a joint. Then his wife took it gently 

 and made a hole in the bottom. Then she said. 



" Pa Si Bagok, go and fill the bamboo full of water. If it 

 is not quite full it won't do." 



So Pa Si Bagok took the bamboo and went to a place 

 where the water was beautiful and clear, and filled the bamboo 

 there. Then he went away for a moment. When he came 

 back he saw that it was no longer full. Then he filled it to 



Jour, Stra its Branch 



