Page 167 - Malay sketches

BER-HANTU

dark wings, a head disproportionately large, and
horns, veritable horns ! As it slowly passed and
moaned its childlike plaint, no reasonable being
could doubt that he had heard and seen the mes-
senger of death.
That weird apparition, sobbing its fateful cry,,
broke the spell under which we had stood enthralled,,
and though we felt that the King's fate was sealed,
that did not prevent us from returning to dinner.
Just after midnight a scared Malay came to say
that it was feared the Sultan was dying. I hurried
down the hill, took boat across the river, and,

stumbling along the bank, reached the house where
the sick man lay.
I entered upon a peculiar scene. I said the
building was in three parts, the first a sort of ante-
room, beyond which strangers of inferior rank did
not in ordinary circumstances pass ; then came the
principal structure, which consisted of one large
room, wooden pillars dividing off verandahs on
either side, while the third house was exclusively
devoted to women, and attached to it was an ex-
crescence forming the kitchen.
The unsteady light of several lamps and many
candles showed that both the centre and ante-rooms
were full of people sitting on the mats which covered