Page 49 - Malay sketches

MENG-GELUNCHOR

side, the river is shut in by a wealth of jungle-
foliage through which the sun strikes at rare
intervals, just sufficiently to give the sense of
warmth and colour.
It is delightfully picturesque with all these people
in their in artistic
many-coloured garments, grouped
confusion, on bank and rock. They only sit for a
brief rest after the climb, to collect wood, make fires
and get the work of cooking started, and you will
not be left long in doubt as to the meaning of
It is to slide, and the
meng-gelunchor. game is to*
"
toboggan" down this waterfall into the lynn at its*
base.
A crowd of little is the
boys already walking up
steep, slippery rock. They go to the very top, sit
down in the shallow water with feet straight out in
front of them and a hand on either side for guidance,
and immediately begin to slide down the sixty feet
of height, gaining, before they have gone half way,
so great a speed that the final descent into the pool
is like the fall of a stone. They succeed each other
those behind on the
in a constant stream, coming
top of those who have already reached the lynn.
But now the men, and lastly the women, are drawn
to join the sliders and the fun becomes indeed both
fast and furious. The women begin timidly, only
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