My Friends the Savages

rst news?-?Blood-letting in the swamp?-?Robbed and forsaken?-?Revenge in due time?-?The Malay

s encompassed by all the terrors of the unknown, will perhaps think that I was jesting when I gave the inventory of my luggage in the last chapter and that from sheer vaunt I did not ment

these etceteras to an explorer's equipment, and for this reason, even in my most arduous travel

to some of whom is attributed the most sanguinary instincts, I reassured mys

n, however wild may be his state, has been endowed with intelligence although in some cases this intellectual faculty is possessed in the smallest possible degree. Let us then

t of a prepotent or menacing appearance. I go ahead like a simple wayfarer, with a smiling face and friendly gestures

t, but once a meeting has been obtained without any serious consequences accruing, it is not so difficult as it might be supposed to follow it up with a parley, for the feared (and fearing) in

order to ensure his friendship there only needs a quick intuition of the poor creature's superstitions, beliefs and suscep

brings him no evil he will give you his full confidence and sp

e terrified and overpowered by the massacres with which civilization asserts its tyrannical superiority but the venom of hatre

peculiarities of the people with whom we are in contact, for they will back out of every enquiry or investigation, will either refuse to

eir method of proceeding, it is also of the English, w

rs who would be useful to me, if not as guides to the country of t

h trouble I succeeded in engaging the services of five porters: a Malay, an Indian, a Chinese, a Siamese and a Sam-Sam, quite a l

danger, and I was well aware that the dread of tigers, snakes, traps and poisoned arrows, the thousand mysteries of Death which the wonderful forest encloses amidst its countless trees, amongst the confusion of its thick interlaced creepers and under its soft moss and long grass would have converted these ugly-faced, crooked-souled individual

ing up the River Perak for about 60 miles we reac

ightest way interfere with my free passage nor subject me to any sort of inquisitorial interrogations (which in other colonies and under other P

on a pontoon and with a "slamat gialat" (pleasant journey) from the man on

vaded me. What surprises were reserved for me up on the wooded mountains towards which we wer

not perturbed at the thought of the hardship, the sufferings, the dangers that lay before me. Va

myself and my carrier

and we had already done about 20 miles when we came in sight of a hut erected amongst some cocoanut and banana trees. W

he hope of coveted gifts in the end, got the better of Islamatic superstition in the sou

questions as it would have been a serious affair if my companions came to suspect that our way throu

) and rubber, for tobacco and rice. They had then departed, but the Malay did not know from whence they had come or whither t

the man related, not the least of which being his ill-disgu

o stop and free ourselves from their tenacious hold. They seemed to prefer European blood to Asiatic and made me suffer more than my escort, perhaps because my skin being more tender they could better succeed in their sanguinary intent, but although my flesh smarted and my strength fa

ss likely to beat a retreat. As we went along, however, I leading the way which. I did not know myself, I could not help noticing that they paid particular attention to every characteristic point we passed, cutting notches in the

se one for ourselves and in about an hour we were resting from our fatigues whilst the little Sam-Sam served us with boiled rice, dried fish and certain c

without my knowing exactly how to define them; therefore, with the excuse of writing, I determined to keep watch. Until about four o'clock in the morning I was able to resist the somnolence which weighed down my eyel

o him the smaller and tamer cep riò replied with a sweetly modulated solfeggio of extraordinary precision, and I

suda lari" (Wake up quickly,

nobody to be seen and nothing to be heard. I turned anxiously towards our heap of provisions and discovered instantly that the fo

coundrels and of making them pay dear for their knavish trick. This hope, I may say in parenthesis, was not a vain one, for a year later I met my Chinese culprit at Telok Anson and not long after, his Malay confederate at Penang, on both o

n most terrible things about the Sakais, describing so many perils, and such ferocious treatment, which awaited those who risked getting into their midst, that even a man of dauntless cour

ver thinking that the wicked project of robbing and aband

me, no matter where we went, or whom we met with, and he expressed his readiness to accompan

both in two parts. We each took our own share and wrapped it up in some leaves ready to

ur strength so we were compelled to sacrifice a large quantity of our victuals which we put into a sack and left in t

however slight, be followed up by a tepid or shower bath, massage, or the rest prescribed by the hygienist or trainer. I thought of those so-called explorers who enlighten the civilized part of the world upon the habits and customs of the uncivilized part; those literary swindlers who travel in a Pullman's car or some other vehicle, equally convenient and comfortable, to a safe place, near the land to be explored, there to make notes of the vague reports and yet more vague "they says" that circulate about

e Sakais fled terr

2

Death or from whence a huge wild beast may, unexpectedly, rush furiously forth: here where one's steps may be suddenly arrested by the up-rising of a venomous snake. Who knows what an assistance to your fervid fantasy it would be to hear in the freedom of Nature's own menagerie the sinister hissing of the serpent, the bellowing of the elephant, the lowing of the sladan, the roar of the tiger, the grunt of

ungle and its concerts often make one commit the sin of philo

tno

for his psychological st