My Acquaintance With These Fellow-Creatures Was Made Just After I
Arrived.
I saw the two tied by long ropes to the veranda rail above the
porch, and not liking their looks, went as far from them as I could to
write to you.
The big one is perhaps four feet high and very strong,
and the little one is about twenty inches high.* After a time I heard a
cry of distress, and saw that the big one, whose name is Mahmoud, was
frightening Eblis, the small one. Eblis ran away, but Mahmoud having
got the rope in his hands, pulled it with a jerk each time Eblis got to
the length of his tether, and beat him with the slack of it. I went as
near to them as I dared, hoping to rescue the little creature, and he
tried to come to me, but was always jerked back, the face of Mahmoud
showing evil triumph each time. At last Mahmoud snatched up a stout
Malacca cane, and dragging Eblis near him, beat him unmercifully, the
cries of the little semi-human creature being most pathetic. I vainly
tried to get the Sikh sentry to interfere; perhaps it would have been a
breach of discipline if he had left his post, but at the moment I
should have been glad if he had run Mahmoud through with a bayonet.
Failing this, and the case being clearly one of murderous assault, I
rushed at the rope which tied Eblis to the veranda and cut it through,
which so startled the big fellow that he let him go, and Eblis, beaten
I fear to a jelly, jumped upon my shoulder and flung his arms round my
throat with a grip of terror; mine, I admit, being scarcely less.
[*The sheet of my letter in which I afterward described the physique of
these apes has unfortunately been lost, and I dare not trust to my
memory in a matter in which accuracy is essential.
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