Mr. Low Would Have Sent Me Up The
Perak In The Dragon Boat, And Over The Mountains Into Kinta On
Elephants, If I Could Have Stayed; But I Cannot Live Longer Without
Your Letters, And They, Alas!
Are at Colombo.
Mr. Low kindly expresses
regret at my going, and says he has got quite used to my being here,
and added: "You never speak at the wrong time. When men are visiting me
they never know when to be quiet, but bother one in the middle of
business." This is most amusing, for it would be usually said: "Women
never know when to be quiet." Mr. Maxwell one day said, that when men
were with him he could "get nothing done for their clatter." I wished
to start at 4 A.M. to-morrow, to get the coolness before sunrise, but
there are so many tigers about just now in the jungle through which the
road passes, that it is not considered prudent for me to leave before
six, when they will have retired to their lairs.
I. L. B.
LETTER XXII
A Pleasant Canter - A Morning Hymn - The Pass of Bukit Berapit - The
"Wearing World" Again! - A Bad Spirit - Malay Demonology - "Running
Amuck" - An Amok-Runner's Career - The Supposed Origin of Amok - Jungle
Openings in Perak - Debt-Slavery - The Fate of Three Runaway
Slaves - Moslem Prayers - "Living Like Leeches" - Malay Proverbs - A
"Ten-Thousand-Man Umbrella"
BRITISH RESIDENCY, TAIPENG, February 21.
I am once again on this breezy hill, watching the purple cloud-shadows
sail over the level expanse of tree-tops and mangroves, having
accomplished in about four hours the journey, which took nearly twelve
in going up. The sun was not up when I left the bungalow at Kwala
Kangsa this morning. I rode a capital pony, on Mr. Low's English
saddle, a Malay orderly on horseback escorting me, and the royal
elephant carried my luggage. It was absurd to see this huge beast lie
down merely to receive my little valise and canvas roll, with a small
accumulation of Malacca canes, mats, krises, tigers' teeth and claws,
and an elephant's tusk, the whole not weighing 100 lbs.
Mr. Low was already at his work, writing and nursing Eblis at the same
time, the wild ape sitting on a beam looking on. I left, wishing I were
coming instead of going, and had a delightful ride of eighteen miles.
The little horse walked very fast and cantered easily. How peaceful
Perak is now, to allow of a lady riding so far through the jungle with
only an unarmed Malay attendant! Major M'Nair writes: "The ordinary
native is a simple, courteous being, who joins with an intense love of
liberty a great affection for his simple home and its belongings," and
I quite believe him. Stories of amok running, "piracies," treachery,
revenge, poisoned krises, and assassinations, have been made very much
of, and any crime or slight disturbance in the native States throws the
Settlements into a panic.
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