Page 26 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

I am not going to give away the secrets of the
life behind the curtain if I wished to do so I
;
might trip over difficulties of expression ; but in
of the
spite Malay's reputation for bloodthirstiness,
in spite of (or because of, whichever you please) the
fact that he is impregnated with the doctrines of
Islam, in spite of his sensitive honour and his
proneness to revenge, and in spite of his desire to
keep his own women (when young and attractive)
away from the prying eyes of other men, he yet
holds this uncommon that if he has set his
faith,
affections on a woman, and for any reason he is
unable at once to make her his own, he cares not
to how many others she allies herself provided she
becomes his before time has robbed her of her
physical attractions.
He
His reason is this. says (certainly not to a
even to his but to
stranger, rarely Malay friends,
"
himself) if, after all this experience, she likes me
best, I have no fear that she will wish to go further
afield. All Malay girls marry before they are
and the woman who has known one
twenty, only
husband, however attractive he may be, will come
sooner -or later to the conviction that life with
another promises new and delightful experiences
not found in the society of the first man to whom
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