He Upset All The Chairs In The Veranda This Morning, And
When I Attempted To Scold Him He Took A Banana Which He Was Peeling And
Threw It At Me.
I am sure that he would have a great deal of rough wit
if he could speak our tongue.
The night I came, Mr. Low's clerk, a Singhalese, came to arrange an
expedition, and early the next morning, after I had breakfasted with
the apes, he arrived, bringing the Royal Elephant, as well-broken and
stately an animal as I should wish to ride. He is such a height (they
say ten feet!) that, though he lay down to be mounted, a good-sized
ladder was needed for the climb upon his back. Assam put pillows and a
good lunch into the baskets, and as the day was glorious from sunrise
to sunset I had an altogether delightful expedition.
We turned at once into the jungle, and rode through it for seven hours
on the left bank of the Perak river. The loveliness was intoxicating.
The trees were lofty and magnificent; there were very many such as I
have not seen before. Many run up a hundred feet or more before they
branch. The twilight was green and dim, and ofttimes amidst the wealth
of vegetation not a flower was to be seen. But as often, through rifts
in the leafage far aloft, there were glimpses of the sunny, heavenly
blue sky, and now and then there were openings where trees had fallen,
and the glorious tropical sunshine streamed in on gaudy blossoms of
huge trees, and on pure white orchids, and canary-colored clusters
borne by lianas; on sun-birds, iridescent and gorgeous in the sunlight;
and on butterflies, some all golden, others amber and black, and amber
and blue, some with velvety bands of violet and green, others
altogether velvety black with spots of vermilion or emerald-green, the
under side of the wings corresponding to the spot, while sometimes a
shoal of turquoise-blue or wholly canary-colored sprites fluttered in
the sunbeams; the flash of sun-birds and the flutter of butterflies
giving one an idea of the joy which possibly was intended to be the
heritage of all animated existence. In these openings I was glad for
the moment to be neither an ornithologist nor an entomologist, so that
I might leave everyone of these daintily colored creatures to the
enjoyment of its life and beauty.
It was not the trees and lianas only that were beautiful in these sunny
openings, but the ferns, mosses, orchids, and selaginellas, with the
crimson-tipped dracaena, and the crimson-veined caladium, and the great
red nepenthe with purple blotches on its nearly diaphanous pitchers,
and another pitcher-plant of an epiphytal habit, with pea-green
pitchers scrambling to a great height over the branches of the smaller
trees. The beautiful tree-ferns themselves were loaded with other
ferns, orchids, and mosses; every fallen tree was draped with fresh
green forms, every swampy bit was the home of mottled aroids, film
ferns, and foliage plants, mostly green and gold, while in some places
there were ginger-worts with noble shining leaves fully six feet long.
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