Page 105 - Malay sketches

THE ETERNAL FEMININE
she wore, but they plundered the house, and having
decapitated the dead man and otherwise mutilated
his body, they threw the remains into the river and
departed.
The woman was cared for by a countryman of
her own until she could be removed to a hospital,
where, after weeks of suffering, she recovered from
her
injuries.
The motive of this outrage was simply the desire
of an individual and his small following to wipe out
the white man, and as Grant's isolated position made
him a he fell a victim. His
specially easy prey,
only European neighbour was also murdered by the
same band. I know of no similar attack made
being
by Malays on a white man within modern times,
and I question whether there is such another instance
of a Malay woman's devotion not that they are
not capable of such self-sacrifice, I think they are,
but the circumstances necessary to call it forth very
seldom arise.
This woman realised what was to
going happen
before she left the shelter of the house, she had
time after that to think, her life was not sought, she
was told to go away and warned that if she did not
separate herself from the white man she would share
his fate. Moreover, she knew that no sacrifice of
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