At
Daylight, After Coffee And Bananas, We Left The Hill, And After An
Accident, Promptly Remedied By Mr. Hayward, Reached Serambang When The
Sun Was High In The Heavens.
I should think that there are very few
circumstances which Mr. Hayward is not prepared to meet.
He has a
reserve of quiet strength which I should like to see fully drawn upon.
He has the scar of a spear wound on his brow, which Captain Murray says
was received in holding sixty armed men at bay, while he secured the
retreat of some helpless persons. Yet he continues to be much burdened
by his responsibility for these fair girls, who, however, are enjoying
themselves thoroughly, and will be none the worse.
We had scarcely returned when a large company of Chinamen, carrying
bannerets and joss-sticks, came to the Residency to give a spectacle or
miracle-play, the first part consisting of a representation of a huge
dragon, which kicked, and jumped, and crawled, and bellowed in a manner
totally unworthy of that ancient and splendid myth; and the second, of
a fierce melee, or succession of combats with spears, shields, and
battle-axes. The performances were accompanied by much drumming, and by
the beating of tom-toms, an essentially infernal noise, which I cannot
help associating with the orgies of devil-worship. The "Capitan China,"
in a beautiful costume, sat with us in the veranda to see the
performance.
I have written a great deal about the Chinese and very little about the
Malays, the nominal possessors of the country, but the Chinese may be
said to be everywhere, and the Malays nowhere.
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