A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER. O38 
acquaintance, Wan Monsry, who had visited me in the character . 
of an envoy only a few days before, now came hurrying down a . 
sidepath in a very bad temper carrying a Snider rifle in his hands. 
He made no salutation, and did not reply to my polite greeting. 
Evidently he did not approve of our presence in Kernei, but this 
mattered little as the Chief’s permission had been obtained. His 
wrath had a visible effect on the villagers, however, who would not 
enter into conversation with my men or tell them anything. At 
the other end of the village we met some Malay acquaintances, 
British subjects of Province Wellesley, of whom some were here 
on a quest similar to ours and others were temporarily settled in 
Patani territory. British law occasionally obliges even prominent 
citizens to remove for a time from the shadow of the British flag, 
and to seek an asylum in lands where more liberal views are enter- 
tained on the subject of penal legislation. A polite and hospitable 
outlaw supplied us with green cocoanuts, and sent us on our way 
refreshed. 
Kernei is on the river Rui, which runs into the Perak river some 
-distance above Kuala Kendrong. For the rest of the day we tra- 
velled up the right bank of the Rui, crossing several minor streams 
which run into it. For some way the country was open and shewed 
signs of considerable cultivation. Acres of lalang grass had in 
some places covered ground formerly cleared for upland padi, but : 
in others there were promising plantations. Rain overtook us at 
Kampong Jong soon after we quitted Kernei, and left me little 
inclination to observe beauties of scenery. A range of seven peaks 
(Bukit Tujoh) on the other side of the Rui did not fail, however, 
to impress me with its beauty. 
Our halting place for the night was the deserted village of Plan. 
It was a group of half-a-dozen houses, some in good preservation, 
others falling into ruin, surrounded by fruit trees. It had been 
abandoned by its inhabitants, because they found that living on the 
main route between Kernei and Baling exposed them to the exac- 
tions of too many travellers. Hospitality is a virtue when exercised 
voluntarily, but the perpetual involuntary harbouring of strangers 
is apt to try the temper. The inhabitants of Plan came back 
periodically, I was told, when their fruit ripened, but at other 
