Page 91 - Malay sketches

LATAH

having attracted the attention of either, if you said,
"
Kasim, go and hit that man," he would invariably
repeat what was said, word for word, including his
own name, while he carried out the order. When
the person hit turned on him, Kasim would say,
"It was not I who hit you, but that man who
ordered me."
I have seen Kasim the younger, when the man
him his own in his mouth and
influencing put finger
pretended to bite it, imitate the action but realty
bite his finger and bite it hard. Similarly I have
seen him, in imitation and without a word being

said, take a lighted brand from the fire, and he would
have put it in his mouth if the experiment had been
carried so far. Some one told Him one day to
jump into the river, and he did not get out again
till he had swum nearly two hundred yards, for the
stream was both broad and with a terrible
deep,
and infested crocodiles. If
current, by at any
"
moment you called out Tolong Kasim" (" help !
Kasim the instant he heard it he would
"), jump up
and crying " Tolong Kasim," dash straight to you
over all obstacles. If then you had put a weapon
in his hand and told him to slay any one within
reach I have not the slightest doubt he would have
done it without hesitation.
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