Page 116 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

sea, but with half a mile of mud between you
and anything like dry land, and at the same time
assailed by three crocodiles quite big enough to kill
you, is calculated to shock the strongest nerves.
After a short but the beat
exciting fight, police
off the beasts with and found the
scaly difficulty,
woman had been badly torn in legs, and arms, and
neck.
Whilst the men were arranging to carry her back,
no easy matter over half a mile of soft but sticky
wet mud and ooze, she told her tale :
" I was sleeping," she said, " and had a vision.
Two radiant Beings appeared to me and bid me
rise and follow them, and they would show me a
more than is vouchsafed to mortals.
sight glorious
Transported with joy, I rose and followed them, and
whilst filled with ecstatic rapture by the companion-
ship of these Celestial Beings, I seemed to be borne
along without effort of my own through enchanted
fields of more than earthly beauty. Suddenly I was

awakened by feeling the teeth of a crocodile in my
leg, and, to my horror, I found I was out here on
this mud-flat half a mile from home, but close to the
with three crocodiles attacking me, no means of
sea,
defending myself, and little hope of help. I fell, and
the beasts tore and worried me, biting my arms, and
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