MALACCA. 
11 
then it is that the mosquito will introduce herself to any uncovered inch of flesh that she 
can find, and will continue her visits as long as you remain in the land, or bloated fall an 
easy victim of your vengeance. Some evenings hundreds of winged ants would swarm 
over everything, seeking to destroy themselves in my soup, or getting squashed in between 
the pages of my books, where many remain to-day pressed examples of their folly. 
Then it is that the gecko lizard, who performs a feat worthy of our greatest acrobats 
by walking all over the ceilings on his sucker-formed toes, reaps a rich harvest as he stalks 
and races after many idiotic moths and flies that bump about the walls and roof, “ chuck 
chucking ” with delight at their innate foolishness. Such, reader, is the effect on the animal 
kingdom when that all-powerful luminary of ours disappears for a short space of time below 
the horizon: when the morning draws nigh, and as soon as the sun has tipped the highest 
hills with his golden light, those that are left in this struggle for life will take a last sip at 
the cool flowing stream—our Nightjar will give one more Teta how , the satisfied gecko 
will seek his lair in the thatch, and all that is left of this multitude which attended the 
ball of the night will be hushed and hidden, until the evening arouses them once more to 
continue their frolics: this, my friends, is the ever recurring tropical drama, the actors of 
which are legion. I always looked forward to this period of our day, and seldom went 
indoors until pitchy darkness hid everything from my view. 
The early morning is the best time for collecting—birds are then feeding and more 
lively ; sometimes in an early morning ramble I would collect sufficient birds to keep me 
busy for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, in Malacca I had no bird-skinner with me, so 
had to do all the preparing myself; but as none of the Malacca birds are rare it did not 
matter much. 
Towards the end of December I changed my locality, going some few miles further on 
to the police-station of Pulo Sebang. This station consists of a few Chinese and Malay 
huts, the only building worthy of the name being the police-station. In Malacca these 
stations are fitted up with a room for travelling officials. Mr. Hervey had kindly given me 
a letter to the various superintendents authorizing me to occupy this room, so I w T as fairly 
comfortable. The police are Malays, generally five or six in each station ; they are armed 
and patrol the roads, and are, I should imagine, a useful body of men. The sergeant of 
Pulo Sebang was an amusing fellow; he once shot a tiger from the verandah of his house, 
and when he could meet with an audience willing to listen to this exploit, he would act the 
whole thing splendidly, rolling over on the ground, growling and pawing the air, in 
imitation of the wounded tiger. Tigers seemed fairly common in Malacca—attracted, no 
doubt, by the herds of wild pigs which root up the tapioca-plantations. I went one day 
with the police-sergeant to see a freshly killed Sambur stag that had been destroyed by one 
of these beasts; only a pound or two of meat had been eaten from the rump, the rest being 
left to rot. I felt a pang of sorrow to see so much good meat wasted, as in those days I 
could not buy any. Several times I saw tracks in the vicinity of the station, and a few 
native cattle were killed, so I am sure that with a little perseverance a shot might be 
obtained. 
At the time of my visit to Malacca tapioca had been so over-produced that the price 
had dwindled away, leaving little or no profit to the producer; so that large plantations 
