Eating snake over eighteen feet long, whose bite they say is
certain death. They have a horrible collection of snakes alive, half
dead, dead, and preserved. There was a fright of a different kind late
at night, and the two made me so nervous that when the moonlight
glinted two or three times on the bayonet of the sentry, which I could
see from my bed, I thought it was a Malay going to murder the Resident,
against whom I fear there may be many a vendetta.
LETTER XIV (Continued)
Yachting in the Malacca Straits - A Tropic Dream - The Rajah
Moussa - Tiger Stories - A Grand Excitement - A "Man-Eating Kris" - A Royal
Residence - A Council of State - The Sultan's Attendants - The "Light of
the Harem" - The Sultan's Offering
S.S. "ABDULSAMAT," LANGAT RIVER, SELANGOR
I was glad to get up at sunrise, when the whole heaven was flooded with
color and glory, and the lingering mists which lay here and there over
the jungle gleamed like silver. Before we left, Mrs. Douglas gave me
tea, scones, and fresh butter, the first fresh butter that I have
tasted for ten months. We left Klang in this beautiful steam-launch,
the (so-called) yacht of the Sultan, at eight, with forty souls on
board.
