The Tomb of "A Great Prophet" - "Durance Vile" - Fragile Travelers - Our
Craft - A Night in the Jungle - Nocturnal Revelations - January in the
Perak Jungle - Glories of the Jungle - Activity and Stillness - An Uneasy
Night - A Slim Repast - Betel-Chewing - A Severe Disappointment - Police
Station at Rassa
BRITISH RESIDENCY, SERAMBANG, SUNGEI UJONG, January 26.
By the date of my letter you will see that our difficulties have been
surmounted. I continue my narrative in a temperature which, in my
room - shaded though it is - has reached 87 degrees. After hearing many
pros and cons, and longing much for the freedom of a solitary traveler,
I went out and visited the tomb of a famous Hadji, "a great prophet,"
the policeman said, who was slain in ascending the Linggi. It is a
raised mound, like our churchyard graves, with a post at each end, and
a jar of oil upon it, and is surrounded by a lattice of reeds on which
curtains are hanging, the whole being covered with a thatched roof
supported on posts.
The village looks prosperous, and the Chinaman as much at home as in
China, - striving, thriving, and oblivious of everything but his own
interests, the sole agent in the development of the resources of the
country, well satisfied with our, or any rule, under which his gains
are quick and safe.
There are village officers, or headmen, Pangulus, in all villages, and
every hamlet of more than forty houses has its mosque and religious
officials, though Mohammedanism does not recognize the need of a
priesthood.
