VKRA.K TO SLIM. 65 



every few hundred yards there is a spit of sand and elephant grass 

 covered with tracks, many quite fresh, last night's I should think. 



Just before we stopped for breakfast, we heard an elephant 

 quite close to the side of the river, within a yard or two, but we 

 could not sec Mm, the jungle was too thick. 



We stopped for breakfast at 9.30 a..m., and went on again at 

 11.15. 



We had not gone a mile before we were attacked by a swarm 

 of black wasps, against whose hanging nest we were carried by the 

 rapid current. We were all bitten, except the man steering ; and 

 the constable would have jumped overboard if I had not stopped 

 him. The wasps followed us for a long way, and whilst their 

 attentions lasted we dared not stir. 



We now got into a most curious place, and I shan't be distres- 

 sed if I never see it again. 



The river went for nearly ten miles through reeds and fens, 

 the home of alligators and snakes and strange birds. I never saw 

 such a horrid ghostly place, the river often so narrow that the 

 reeds almost met overhead, while the water was so deep we could 

 find no bottom with the pole. Wherever we did meet jungle it 

 was jejawi only, those low trees with long feelers growing out of 

 every branch into the ground and water. 



The natives call it the fampat liantu dan ular sawah — "home of 

 ghosts and boa-constrictors." Not a sound to be heard except 

 the occasional shriek of some strange bird, which would rise slowly, 

 and apparently unwillingly, out of the fens and fly into the nearest 

 brake, not seemingly afraid of us, only a little surprised and rather 

 disgusted. The river looks as if it were visited by men perhaps 

 not once in a century. 



Altogether, this kind of travelling is not quite pleasant, a boat 

 like ours — a dug-out three feet wide, down to the water's edge — is 

 very easily upset in a river full of snags, indeed the difficulty is not 



