Page 93 - Malay sketches

LATAH

other denizens of the ditches that bordered the path.
When he had gone half way he stopped and peeped
up into the branches of a small tree on the road
side, then he seemed to be striking blows at an
invisible enemy, ran to the ditch and began throw-
ing lump after lump of hard mud into the tree. I
had not seen this phase of his peculiarities before
and could not make it out, but suddenly his arms
went about his head like the sails of a windmill,
and I realised that his enemies were bees or hornets,
and that he was getting a good deal the worst of
an unequal fight. I sent some of the men to fetch
him back and found he had been rather badly stung,
and when I asked him why he attacked the nest he
said his attention was caught by things flying out
of the tree and he was impelled to throw at them.
I understood that the hornets flying out of the
nest appeared to be thrown at him, and he could
not help imitating what he saw in the best way he
and so he took what was nearest his hand
could,
and sent it flying back.
Kasim the elder was quite as susceptible as his
namesake, but his comrades were a little shy of
provoking him as they soon realised that his temper
made the amusement dangerous. One day they
must have been teasing him, and, when he was
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