Page 38 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

is done to the food
inquiring, but thorough justice ;
and if should ever be fortunate enough
you, reader,
to take part in one of these picnics, you will declare
that you never before realised how delicious a meal
can be made of such simple ingredients. Some one
has smuggled in a few condiments and they add
largely to the success of the Malay bouille-abaisse,
but people affect not to know they are there, and
you go away assured that rice and salt did it all.
That is part of the game.
And now it is time to return, the sun has long
passed the meridian, and there is a mile or two of
forest before getting into the open country. The
timid amongst the ladies feign alarm (Malays are
sensible people who take only the young to picnics,
and leave the old to mind the and a desire
houses),
to get away at once, but there are others who know
what is in store for them.
The elephants are brought up and each pannier
is found to be loaded with jungle fruit, large and
and hard and but
small, ripe unripe, soft, generally
hard as stones. Every one knows the meaning of
this and, as the elephants kneel down to take their
riders, you may observe that usually two men sit in
front, two women behind, and the latter are anxious
about their umbrellas and show a tendency to open
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