United States or Niger ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the trees and rubber-vines all about us a colony of long-armed wah-wah monkeys whistled and chattered, and farther away the sharp, rasping note of a cicada kept up a continuous protest at our invasion. At intervals the long, quivering yell of a tiger frightened the garrulous monkeys into silence, and made us peer apprehensively toward the impenetrable blackness of the jungle.
Before many minutes he commenced to look wistfully about. I pointed to the trees back of the house. He went out under them and called two or three times. There was a great chattering among the rubber-vines, and in a moment down came Lepas and sprang to his old master's shoulder as happy as a lover. I never saw Lepas but once again, and that was one evening on the ocean esplanade.
There was a swift rush in the darkness, a crashing among the rubber-vines, a short, quick snarl, and then all was still. If you run amok in Malaya, you may kill your enemy or your dearest friend, but you will be krissed in the end like a pariah dog. Every man, woman, and child will turn his hand against you, from the mother who bore you to the outcast you have befriended.
In the translucent green twilight of the flower-houses a hundred varieties of the costly orchids thrive not costly here. A shipload can be bought of the natives for three cents apiece. Walks carry you out into the dim aisles of the native jungle. Monkeys, surprised at your footsteps, spring from limb to limb, and swing, chattering, out of sight in a mass of rubber-vines.
I took no notice of him, and after a few vain efforts to attract my attention, he hopped dejectedly off the veranda across the lawn, and disappeared among the timboso trees and rubber-vines. Two weeks later Hamat returned from Mecca. He paid me a visit in state white robe and green turban. I shook hands and called him by his new title of nobility, Tuan Hadji, but he did not refer to Lepas.
"O Allah, judge the dogs. They would kris the great Tuan as he slept the pariahs! but they forgot so mean a thing as Baboo!" The smell of warm blood filled the air, and a low snarl among the rubber-vines revealed the presence of a tiger. I felt Aboo Din's hand tremble on my shoulder. The five Sikhs were drawn up in battle array before the cabin door, waiting for the word of command.
The laws are as immutable as fate. The Tale of a Monkey There were many monkeys I came near saying there were hundreds in the little clump of jungle trees back of the bungalow. We could lie in our long chairs, any afternoon, when the sun was on the opposite side of the house, and watch them from behind the bamboo "chicks" swinging and playing in the maze of rubber-vines.
Then we dove into a bosky wood by a narrow winding path, and through a stream of water. The path was like a tunnel, the dense foliage shutting it in on both sides and above. The thorns of the rattans reached down and tore our clothes, and long trailing rubber-vines caught up our helmets and held our feet.
Monkeys swung above in the ropelike tendrils of the rubber-vines, and spotted deer gamboled beneath the shade of mango trees. The brilliant audience listened with bated breath to the dramatic recital of their nation's story.
We were formed in a line, perhaps two miles in length, in a deserted pepper plantation, fronting a jungle of timboso trees and rubber-vines. I squatted patiently under the checkered shade of a neglected coffee tree and kept my eyes fixed on the seemingly impenetrable walls of the jungle.
Word Of The Day