KELANTAN AND GUNONG TAHAN. 25 



as the Malays thought that it would still hold together, we decided 

 to go on with it. A great many of the bamboos had been split 

 open by the collision, so the raft was not nearly as buoyant as 

 it had been before, and could scarcely carry us all. Going 

 down over the rapids now became very dangerous, as the water 

 would come rolling in over the raft, pressing now this now that 

 side under water, so that we had difficulty in balancing ourselves 

 on it, and I was afraid the raft would go to pieces at any minute. 

 So after we had had about one hour of this dangerous sport, I 

 thought it better to stop and keep to the jungle. So we landed 

 and made a shelter, but it was a very poor one, the Malays 

 being now again very disheartened, did not work very will- 

 ingly, and the rain coming on again we passed a really miser- 

 able night in our wet clothes, with wet blankets, and the rain 

 dripping on us from above, and running in streams under the few 

 leaves on which we had made ourbed,and without a morsel of food. 

 Next day we looked for bamboos with which to repair our raft, 

 but not finding any, we had to abandon it and start on our 

 weary tramp again. I went ahead myself cutting a path for the 

 others, as they all had something to carry, and a pretty bad 

 time I had of it with my bare feet; for as I had to keep looking 

 ahead, I could not always see where I put my feet, and as a 

 consequence I often trod on thorns and sharp sticks ; besides 

 which there were thousands of leeches about, which took a great 

 fancy to my bare legs, where they stuck till they had had their 

 fill, as I often felt too weary to stoop down and pick them off. 

 We knew that there was a native path on one side of the river, 

 running from the village into Pahang ; and so we went inland 

 away from the river, trying to find it, but coming to a range of 

 hills the Malays declared themselves unable to get over them ; so 

 we had to go back to the river and follow its many bends and 

 curves. Often we had to make great detours inland when we 

 came to tributaries of the Aring, which were deep and swollen, 

 so that we had to find fords before we could cross over them. 

 We walked the whole day, camping just before it got dark, and 

 started off again early next morning, having then good hopes 

 of reaching the village that day, as I had found some landmarks 

 that I knew. The Malays were however very slow, so I got 



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