Page 142 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

across this wide of bounded by
light expanse grain
distant ranges of soft blue hills. How greedily one
drinks it all in ! and, as the Eye of Day droops
there shoot from between its lids
lower, closing
rays of fire which tinge the glistening palms with a
followed all too soon the
rosy effulgence, by pale
opalescent shades which proclaim the approach of
chariot of
the fast-driving night.
A grey haze rises from the damp earth, spreads
in thin wreaths across the darkening plain, thickens
to a heavy dead-white vapour, and as the silver
sickle rises over the distant hills it shines upon
clustered plumes of dark fronds mysteriously poised
above a motionless drift of snow-like cloud.
On the edge of such a field was the home of
Musah. Behind stretched the rich in
Haji plain,
front a great river, both wide and deep, its banks
lined by groves of coco-nuts in the neighbourhood
but elsewhere covered forest and the
of villages, by
nipah palm.
stood a few feet back from the
The dwelling
river, and, as its owner was a man of means, the
structure was of some size, the floor and walls of

stout planks and a strong palisade enclosed the
surrounding yard. The house was, as usual, on
wooden piles, and the kitchen, also on piles but
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