Page 95 - Malay sketches

LATAH

One morning we were bathing as usual at the pond,
and Kasim the younger was in attendance carrying
the towels, &c.
The bath was over, and we were all three stand-
ing on the bank, when my friend said to Kasim :
" "
Mart, kita terjun (come, let us jump in), at
the same time feigning to jump. Kasim instantly
jumped into the pond, disappeared, came up splut-
"
and scrambled Itu tidak
tering, having out, said :
Tuan " is not of
baik, (that good you, sir).
"
My friend said, Why, I did nothing, I only said
let us jump in and went like this," repeating his
previous action, when Kasim immediately repeated
his plunge, and we dragged him from the water
looking like a retriever.
When I was first ordered to Selangor, I thought
it possible that some sort of furniture might be
useful, and I took up a few chairs and other things,
a roll of what is known as Calcutta
including large
The were useless in a
matting. things place where
the mud floor was often under water twice during
twenty-four hours, and they lay piled in a corner of
the stockade, and whenever a Malay of distinction
came to see me for whom it was necessary to find a
chair, it was advisable to see that the seat was not
already occupied by a snake. The roll of matting,
79