MY TRIP TO BKLUM. 133 



'•' Oli ! Ancient one, I a*k for your pardon, we wish to pass. Pray, 

 send the Tuau liesar and the Datoh as far as Bersiah and let no mis- 

 hap befall them." 



Passers-by are supposed to offer something of whatever 

 they have : no form of offering is laid down. As one of the 

 men on the raft said : " Tin ore or anything will do." 



Three men sat in the extreme bow of the raft with paddles 

 which they dipped over its nose to guide it : two men stood 

 behind them with poles to shove us off the rocks, as we were 

 washed too close to them. 



The Jeram Panjang. Ulu (the long up-river rapid) is a suc- 

 cession of rapids within rocky walls : you emerge from one into 

 still water and in a few moments enter another and so on. The 

 first stretch takes 20 minutes to get through travelling very 

 rapidly, and in three cases — Punai, Trang and Goa — rushing 

 through waves, eddies and whirlpools. Punai wet us, at Trang 

 we apparently sank and were swept across the rapid on to the 

 rocks on our left. Saiyid Ali, the fiddler, leapt into the water. 

 The three men with paddles were swept off their seat and swam 

 towards us. The raft swung round to the rocks on the left, 

 notwithstanding the herculean efforts of the two men with 

 poles. The three paddlers helped by the Datoh sprang to the 

 I30W of the raft and pushed off from the rock. Saiyid Wahab 

 held out his hand to me and said : " You had better get off on 

 to the rock." But I sat still, for it never occurred to me that 

 the raft would not right itself and I was intensely interested. 

 It all was over in a minute and we went on in the rushing 

 water only to reach Goa. The word means a cave and there 

 is said to be one deep-down. All we saw was a whirlpool and 

 the rush of water sucked the raft to the left, but it was deftly 

 turned off the rocks by the polers and we went on into smooth 

 water after, as I have said, 20 minutes seething with excite- 

 ment. In a few minutes we entered another rapid. 



Many years ago Messrs. Bozzolo and Lauder, while passing 

 through this rapid, came on Goa when it was sucking (mengisap), 

 as it does at a certain stage of the water. As the bow of the raft 

 went under, they jumped on to the rocks but lost everything. 



B. A. Soc, No. 54' 1909. 



