FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF MR. STALE. 
oatmeal softened in water, made up into balls and- 
placed into the open bills of the hungry and expectant 
birds ! They would swallow any amount of this food 
and even when their crops were completely full, 
and the crowdie could plainly be seen stutfed to the 
upper part of their throats, would gasp and gape for 
more! As w^e approached close to tbe huts, they all ^ 
ceased their interesting occupation, got up, stood in, 
groups, and whispered to each other. They were evi- 
dently somewhat alarmed. Who could these two men 
be? Could it be possible that they were men? W^ith 
clothes all rent and soiled, no masters ever came out 
of that jungle before. It might be we were evil 
spirits, devils, in the form of men — they had heard 
that dark and dense jungle was the abode of some 
such, and that the screams of the devil birds, as 
muster in his ignorance called them, proceeded from 
no bird at all but from evil and wicked demons whose 
homes were in that dark forest. Just as the alarm 
became extreme^ a tall fellow who seemed to know 
ns, whispered something to his neighbours which 
seemed completely to assure them ; we also recognized 
the tall fellow as having run away from the estate 
sometime ago, and none could tell where be had gone,, 
no trace of him at all could be found as having been 
seen passing along the usual thoroughfares, so it was 
very plain we bad not been the original pioneers 
through this forest., It very frequently happened 
coolies knew byepaths through the forests to other- 
estates, and frequently used them, never saying any» 
thing at all about it to master, and their object in 
this was probably to get away from the estate, if 
they did not feel inclined to work without being ob- 
served and have a talk and gossip about pay and rice, 
and master and his kangani be under the impression 
that he was ‘ sick ’ in the lines. Had he been seen 
leaving the estate by any of the usual paths, he might 
be pounced upon, ordered back and compelled to go 
to w^ork, or it might be they never thought of telling 
just because they were never asked. It sometimes 
happened,, when consulting a kangani about the pos- 
sibility of making a short cut through a piece of 
jungle, he. would frankly say,, “There is one : I will 
get a cooly who knows it, and shew master. We 
hailed the tall fellow, wdio recognized us, asking him 
what estate this was, and what was master’s name. Upon 
receiving the required information we found this was 
not the estate we intended to visit,, and that we were 
not acquainted, with its mister.” But what matter, we, 
could, go no further that night and must make his 
aquaintance, request shelter for the night and tbe usual 
kcspitalityi So the tall fellow was asked where the 
boungalow was,. ‘‘ Close by,” says he, “just round 
