Page 29 - Malay sketches

THE TIGER

tion to intense brilliant and the sounds
light light
is and
of awakened life, rapid complete, a short half
hour or less turning night into tropical day. The
first indication of dawn is a grey haze, then the
clouds clothing the Western hills are shot with pale
yellow and in a few minutes turn to gold, while
Eastern ranges are still in darkness. The light
spreads to the Western slopes, moves rapidly across
the valleys, and suddenly the sun, a great ball of
fire, appears above the Eastern hills. The fogs,
which have risen from the rivers and marshes and
covered the land, as with a pall, rise like smoke and
disappear, and the whole face of nature is flooded
with light, the valleys and slopes of the Eastern
ranges being the last to feel the influence of the
risen sun.
That grey half-light which precedes dawn is the
signal for Malays to be stirring. The doors are
half awake and
opened, and, only shivering in the
breeze made leave
slight by the rising fog, they
their houses and make for the nearest stream, there
to bathe and fetch fresh water for the day's use.
A woman dressed in the sdrong, a plaid skirt
and a walks to the
of silk or cotton, jacket, rapidly
a bamboo and some
river, carrying long gourds,
she and begins to walk
which, after her bath, fills,
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