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 "Goodsmith," I demanded, "have you been troubled with bad dreams again and have you been weak enough to let it affect you in this manner?"

"Er, yes Jackson, I saw the same figure again and he reminded me, after inquiring if I had settled my mundane affairs, that he would come again Thursday morning."

"Of all the rubbish," I shouted, "and you a grown man almost forty years old, let such a thing upset you as if you were a child. Use your reason, Goodsmith. Consider the thing logically for what it is, a mere phantom of the mind and nothing more."

"Oh, but er-hem, it was really very vivid, Jackson and the words rang in my ears just as distinctly as your own now. I er-ah, know I was fully awake this time and hem, remember this was the second visitation."

His last words were said in a rather deprecating manner as though in apology for taking the matter so seriously and I felt rather bad toward myself for having spoken in such a rough tone.

"Well, well," I said rising, "take something for your liver and get out in the open; go out in the air and think no more of the matter. So cheer up, old man."

"Ah-er, yes Jackson, I dare say your advice is sensible, yes yes, quite the thing."

"I must be going," I exclaimed with a glance at my watch, "take good care of him, Miss Arabella and call Dr. Hobson. He is a cold, practical man and can possibly make Plato look at the thing in a rational light."

I felt unusually upset that day and showed it in the quality of my work which was not up to standard at all. I hurried home early and was met at the front door by Plato, who, without allowing me a word said, "Ah Jackson, may I have your presence in the study for a moment? I want you to perform a small service for me."

I followed him as requested and on entering the room found seated there lawyer Adams and Samuel Rugg, a neighbor, both of whom rose on our appearance.

"I merely wish you and Mr. Rugg to witness my will, Jackson. Mr. Adams has it ready for your signatures."

After the usual preliminaries this request was complied with and the two strangers departed.

"Er, Jackson, not a word of this to Arabella, mind. I ah, do not wish her to feel unnecessarily disturbed, you know."

"It goes without saying, old man, that I shall say nothing. But really now, have you let a miserable dream work on you to such an extent as this? I can not believe it."

"Oh ah, I merely wish to be prepared, Jackson, that is all. In case anything should happen tonight I have placed all my papers in order; my affairs will need no lawyer to untangle them."

"Tut, Goodsmith," I responded, "you talk like a man going to execution. Pull up and shake off such thoughts."

"Ah, Jackson," he replied mournfully, "possibly I feel like— But no more of this, let us join Arabella and remember, not a syllable of what has passed."

We found his sister seated in the library where we spent the rest of the evening talking of commonplace matters. Plato's dream was mentioned once by her, but the subject seemed to affect him disagreeably so it was dropped. I attempted to get a few words with him alone before retiring, but he bid us both good night and retreated hastily to his room. I felt considerably worried over my friend's state of mind and it was several hours before I could sleep. However, I at last dropped off and awakened next morning at the usual time. I dressed hastily and hurried to the breakfast room, my first thought being of Plato. I felt somewhat relieved to find Miss Arabella seated calmly at the table preparing to pour the coffee, so I said nothing aside from my ordinary morning salutation. We had finished our repast when she suddenly exclaimed, "I wonder what can be detaining Plato. It is long past his hour for rising. Can he be ill?"

"I will see," I responded, hastily rising and going in the direction of his room. Upon reaching the door I knocked, at the same time calling, "Plato you are late. Is anything the matter?"

There was no answer and I was just preparing to repeat my summons when Miss Arabella, who had followed closely, brushed past me and opening the door hurried inside, exclaiming, "Brother! Brother! What is the matter? Are you—Oh!"

She stopped at the bedside and stood looking distractedly at her brother. He lay on his back, his hands crossed over his breast. The face was pale, while the half parted lips retained some color of life and the eyes, wide open, seemed to gaze abstractedly at the ceiling.

E both remained silent for some time, too stunned for action, then speaking with difficulty I exclaimed, "Oh, he surely can not be dead! Plato! Plato! Wake up, my dear friend! Come, rouse yourself!"

An answer came, low and solemn. It was the voice of Plato, but so changed. There was no movement of the lips and the sounds seemed as though issuing from a barrel or trumpet.

"I died this morning at three o'clock. The specter kept his word."

Miss Arabella, who had become very pale and trembled violently, completely lost consciousness at these ominous words and fell to the floor in a faint. I carried her to the library where I laid her on the lounge, then hastened to call Mrs. McGill from next door to care for her while I phoned Dr. Hobson. He soon arrived and I led him at once to Plato's room, rapidly explaining whgt had occurred from the first dream to theastounding assertion I had just listened to.

Dr. Hobson stopped at the bedside, gazing at the patient for a few seconds, then raised the right arm, fingering the wrist for pulse beats. He soon dropped it with a muttered exclamation and proceeded to make a thorough examination. He was busied in this way for possibly half an hour, then straightening up, looked to me with a wondering, puzzled expression, saying, "I can find absolutely no evidence of life, Mr. Jackson. There is no perceptible heart action and no sign of respiration. Yet the body can hardly be termed cold and the face and eyes certainly do not indicate death."

" [sic]At this moment the same hollow voice issued from the half open mouth of Goodsmith. "I died at three o'clock this morning. The specter kept his word."

"What can be the matter with him, Doctor?" I asked in an awed tone. "He certainly still lives though the spark of life seems very low."

Dr. Hobson remained silent for some time in deep thought, finally answering: "I am free to say it is the strangest case I ever saw. He seems to be in a hypnotic trance and in a state of almost suspended animation. I would like to call in Dr. James, if there is no objection; it may be necessary to resort to heroic measures you know. I want you to watch the patient closely until my return and at the first sign of recovery administer the restorative which I shall leave. I will return with Dr. James as quickly as possible." Leaving a small phial of colorless liquid, with directions for its


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 use, he hurried away while I remained at the post he had assigned me.

There was no change in the condition of Goodsmith during his absence. At intervals of about half an hour the same hollow voice exclaimed, "I died at three o'clock this morning. The specter kept his word." Dr. Hobson returned in the course of an hour with Dr. James, a trained nurse accompanying them. I left the room while they made their examination and talked the case over, which occupied them somewhat longer than two hours. I called my office, telling them I would not be down, then went to Miss Arabella, whom I attempted to console. This was an impossible task as she deeply loved her brother and sat in a state of dejection from which it was beyond my power to rouse her.

On emerging from the sick room the doctors came immediately to the library where we were sitting, Dr. James announcing the result of their efforts. "We have tried every means to rouse him," he said, "but without avail. He does not respond to the usual methods of awakening a hypnotic subject and apparently feels no pain as we have resorted to measures we would not think ofusing, did we not think the case desperate. Heart stimulants and restoratives have been equally powerless. We can only wait and hope for the best, trusting he will emerge naturally from his trance-like state. The nurse will stay with the patient and we will return at intervals during the day. She has full instructions how to act in case there in any sign of improvement."

They were as good as their word, making several calls during the day and night but there was no change in the condition of my poor friend. By the third day we had given up hope. The voice still came hollowly with the same dreadful announcement. The lips had lost much of their color and the face had assumed an ashen hue. The flesh was drawn and the body had become stiff as in death. I remarked to Dr. James that the patient resembled one who had been dead for several days. "Yes," he returned, "I had hesitated to mention it, but it is a fact that decomposition is actually doing its work, yet we know there is still life, the soul remains and continues to announce the death of the body. It is the most astounding case of the control of mind over matter that human eyes have ever witnessed. The subliminal mind has become possessed of an idea which it has assumed to be a fact—and behold the result! I fear that a few more hours will usher in the end."

The next two days passed as the preceding ones. The hollow voice still sounded and the body showed additional evidences of decay. The fifth night was exceeding hot and close. The nurse had removed her cot into the hall by a window where it was possible to get a little air. I rose early the following morning, meeting her at the door of her patient's room and we entered together. We stopped gasping on the threshold, overwhelmed by the putrid odor which filled the room. It was the odor of the grave. The doctors arrived at this moment and we all hastened in, forgetting in the awfulness of the situation the disagreeable air. The body had undergone further change. The lips were now ashen and drawn. The mouth had fallen open, while the face had a greenish tinge. The body lay in an advanced state of decomposition, the hollow voice came no more and Plato Goodsmith was indeed, dead."

OHN DOWLING, a poor laboring man, living at Wattisham, had a wife and six children, the eldest a girl, fifteen years of age, the youngest about four months. They were all that time very healthy, and one of them had been ill for some time before. On Sunday the 10th of January, 1762, the eldest girl complained, in the morning, of a pain in her leg; particularly in the calf of her leg; toward evening the pain grew exceedingly violent. The same evening, another girl complained of the same violent pain in the same leg. On the Monday, the mother and another child; and on Tuesday, all the rest of the family were afflicted in the same manner, some in one leg and some in both legs. The little infant was taken from the mother's breast; it seemed to be in pain, but the limbs did not mortify: it lived a few weeks. The mother and the other five children continued in violent pain a considerable time. In about four or five days, the diseased leg began to turn black gradually, appearing at first covered with blue spots, as if it had been bruised. The other leg of those who were afflicted at first only in one leg about that time was also affected with the same excruciating pain, and in a few days the leg also began to mortify. The mortified parts separated gradually from the sound parts, and the surgeon had, in most of the cases, no' other trouble than to cut through the bone, which was black and almost dry. The state of their limbs was thus: Mary, the mother, aged 40 years, has lost the right foot at the ancle; the left foot is also cut off, and the two bones of the leg remain almost dry, with only some little putrid flesh adhering in the same places. The flesh is sound to about two inches below the knee. The bones would have been sawn through that place, if she would have consented to it.

Mary, aged fifteen years, both legs off below the knees—Elizabeth, aged thirteen years, both legs off below the knees. Sarah, aged ten years, one foot off at the ancle: the other foot was affected, but not in so great a degree, and was now sound again. Robert, aged eight, both legs off below the knees. Edward, aged four years, both feet off. An infant four months old, dead.

The father was attacked about a fortnight after the rest of the family, and in a slight degree; the pain being confined to his fingers. Two fingers of the right hand continued for a long time discolored, and partly shrunk and contracted; but he subsequently had some use of them. The nails of the other hand were also discolored; he lost two of them.

It is remarkable, that during all the time of this misfortune, the whole family are said to have appeared well, in other respects, ate heartily, and slept well when the violence of the pain began to abate. The mother was quite emaciated and had very little use of her hands. The eldest girl had a superficial ulcer in one thigh. The rest of the family were pretty well. The stumps of some of them perfectly healed.

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 Dr. Menostique. As yet I have not even missed it."

I shrank back in my chair. My reason rebelled against the things my eyes and my hearing were telling me. What mysterious power was this in which the terrible doctor held this beautiful girl? With my own sight I had beheld her piteous fumblings with the wrist as she had moved closer to the table. What prompted her colossal untruth? I forced myself to speak, but the same horrible clutching fingers seemed to forbid my rising.

"This is a hoax," I croaked, my voice strange and unrecognizable in my own ears, "What are you trying to do? What monstrous trick are you playing with me?"

Again the big man seemed not to hear me. His eyes were upon the girl, and the two at the end of the table leaned forward interestedly as he slowly withdrew a platinum-like stopper from the end of his peculiarly shaped retort. From a case which I had failed to notice, but which must have been on the table during all the time I had been in this awful room, he took several shining instruments which I recognized as surgical scalpels and knives. They fascinated me with their bright, sinister immaculateness.

Dr. Menostique turned again to the girl.

"It will be necessary to turn your chair, Freda, so your head will lie on its back, directly under this light. You are not afraid? The removal of an eye will take but half the time involved in the amputation of the hand. I have the artificial eye in readiness."

Her eye! They were going to remove her eye!

Again the rlgirl [sic] smiled without a trace of fear.

"I am glad to submit to these operations in the cause of science," she said. The two men at the end of the table nodded owlishly in agreement. They arose, as if actuated by a single brain, and walked to the other end of the table, passing me noiselessly, intent on assisting in the proper placement of the chair.

The girl, Freda, likewise arose, and the two turned her chair so that its back was against the end of the table, directly under the cluster of lights that illumined the room. The doctor casually arranged his instruments and the tube.

My soul struggled for the release of my body, but I was powerless to move. The huge man placed his instruments more carefully. The fearsome hand, still rosy in the white light, he shoved carelessly to one side, much as one might brush aside an unwanted pencil in absent-minded indifference. My mind revolted at this sickening display of casual indecency. The hand trembled on the edge of the table, and while I eyed it in horrible fascination, dropped upon the floor at my feet. The doctor looked up and evinced neither surprise nor regret at the gruesome incident. He stretched forth his hand, making the request with nonchalant politeness.

"The specimen," he said smilingly, "there by your foot. Please hand it to me."

Some power beyond my own bent me to his request. For a moment I could not, and then, because it seemed I must, I picked the thing up. With a groan I dropped it instantly. Like some horrid revelation it came to me that I must be insane. The elevator clanged in its shaft and the street cars roared far below, while the constant screech of automobile sirens came plainly and clearly to my ears, but I was mad. I must be mad! Somewhere, somehow, my reason must have left me to become a whimpering scrapegoat for ghoulish fancies.

For the hand was warm to my touch! Was I not mad? Was my mind not a shattered remnant of normality to imagine that this hand, this poor dead witness to an infamous quackery, carried within it for these many minutes since it had left the body of its mistreated owner the pulsating warmth of life? I shrank in utter terror.

But the quiet, commanding voice of the doctor reached me.

"Quick, please! We are ready for the second operation."

The awfulness of that command! My God! the compelling awfulness of it. I had no choice. With racing heart and whirling brain I forced myself to hand the sickening object to him. He received it carelessly, and placed it with scarcely a look on the table before him. My soul shuddered with the consciousness of a profanation. I longed to flee from the room and all its horrid occupants, but the power of motion seemed to have left me. My eyes again followed the purposeful movements of the doctor. He was adjusting the table and carefully measuring the distance from it to the chair. The girl, Freda, stood waiting.

Finally everything seemed to be to the big man's liking. With never a glance at me or his colleagues, he motioned smilingly to Freda, who immediately took her place in the chair. Her uncanny willingness to submit to so unheard of an operation smacked in itself of insanity, yet her bearing and calm, untroubled eyes—those beautiful eyes, one of which was to be an offering to this inhuman god of chicanery—told all too clearly of her perfect awareness of what she was about to do. I strove to cry out, to call to the world some warning of what was about to happen—what had already happened in that seemingly innocent hotel room, but though I tried mightily, no sound escaped my lips, nor did my manifest endeavors register upon any of the four who occupied it with me. Even now, on the morning following, I can recall with fearful vividness how frantic was my vain effort to shout.

And then, while horror held me paralyzed, the doctor, with shining scalpel in hand, nodded to one of the men to apply the greenish transparent liquid that moved curiously in the queer S-shaped tube.

The strange leaden motion that seemed to originate in the liquid was a terrifying manifestation of unreality. It did not boil; it did not bubble. Rather it seemed to oscillate within itself in a heavy oily manner, a satanic disturbance which affected me strangely. A vision of the infernal one seemed to come between me and the tube as I watched, and the idea struck me as singularly appropriate, since only the devil himself could conjure in so mind-twisting a fashion.

A strange fancy took hold of me. I was no more a mortal. In some mysterious manner I seemed to have passed on, and was now in the inferno. These things I was witnessing must be a part of the everlasting tortures I was to suffer in these lower regions. I writhed, but could not escape.

The S-shaped tube disappeared. For a moment I thought it had vanished into thin air, and then I saw the man to whom the doctor had nodded lift it from the table. With a tiny cotton-tipped rod he was about to apply it to the eye of the girl, who, with head thrown back over the chair, where the strong lights revealed her pure startling beauty, waited with patient unconcern.

Then for an instant my sight seemed to fail me. When I saw again, the man was setting the S-shaped tube back upon the table. The liquid was dull and strangely still. Only a small portion of it remained. The doctor spoke.

"Quiet, please."

Before my unbelieving eyes (I had not really felt within my soul that such a thing could happen) the big man calmly ran the scalpel under the eye of the girl, who neither winced nor gave any other manifestation of concern. No drop of blood flowed! ''Great God! Not one drop of blood!''

Some untapped power within me gave me strength to spring from my chair. Powerless was I to speak, but I found myself on my feet, and in a frenzy of


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 should be set upon the throne. Have thanks for thy good news."

Then the humpbacked servant was the more angry, and cast away the jewel. "Indeed," she said, "thou art mad to rejoice at thy calamity. What woman of good sense is gladdened by deadly news of a co-wife's son's preferment? Thou shalt be as it were Kaushalyā's slave, and Bharata but Rāma's servant."

But still Kaikeyī was not moved to envy. "Why grieve at Rāma's fortune?" she said. "He is well fitted to be king; and if the kingdom be his, it will be also Bharata's, for Rāma ever regards his brothers as himself." Then Mantharā, sighing very bitterly, answered Kaikeyī: "Little dost thou understand, thinking that to be good which is thy evil fortune. Thou wouldst grant me a reward because of the preferment of thy co-wife! Know surely that Rāma, when he is well established, will banish Bharata to a distant land or to another world. Bharata is his natural enemy, for what other rival has he, since Lakshmana desires only Rāma's weal, and Satrughna is attached to Bharata? Thou shouldst save Bharata from Rāma, who shall overcome him as a lion an elephant: thy co-wife, Rāma's mother, too, will seek to revenge on thee that slight thou didst once put on her. Sorry will be thy lot when Rāma rules the earth. Thou shouldst, while there is time, plan to set thy son upon the throne and banish Rāma."

Thus Kaikeyī's pride and jealousy were roused, and she grew red with anger and breathed deep and hard, and answered Mantharā:

"This very day Rāma must be banished and Bharata installed as heir. Hast thou any plan to accomplish this my will?"


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 fear I fled from the room. Even in the going I thought it strange that no one made to stop me, and I ran down the hallway as one possessed, fear of the unseen hard upon my heels. In a moment, during which I must have taken the single flight of steps at a bound, I found myself in my own room on the floor above. Familiar things were about me. My traveling-bag, overcoat, clothing, each easily recognized object, seemed a kindly rescuing hand, thrust forth to succor me from the awfulness of what had passed. With a sob I sank upon the bed and consciousness left me.

I awoke with the noon-day light streaming through the window. For a moment, such was the startling clarity with which the events of the preceding night came back to me, I thought it must have all been some hideous dream. I was still fully dressed, but possessed of a physical weariness that vouched in itself for a drain upon my mental energy. Clearly I recalled every step of the evening before: my supper, the business meeting at which I had spoken, its breaking up, the casual conversations that had their part in the adjournment, the handshakes of those who were leaving the city, my own final leavetaking before starting to retire. Each detail stood forth clearly in my mind, and moved with logical sequence to the horrifying things I had by accident witnessed. I even recalled the fear and terror with which I had escaped from the room below. Even now, with the wholesome sunlight streaming into the room, I shuddered with remembrance. I looked at my watch. Stopped! I had not wound it. No, the whole thing had happened. A sudden impulse, overmastering in its forcefulness, impelled me to write of the things I saw.

And so I have written. I have set down all that happened, exactly as it did happen. No fault of memory has permitted the escape of any trifle. All of it is still dear in my brain and I am hungry.

I am back in my room after a hearty luncheon, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The desk clerk eyed me strangely when I asked, off-handedly as I thought, who had occupied the room directly under mine during the night.

"Dr. Menostique and his wife," he said, and added, with a curious look at me, "and his assistant. I think they were in the room until about midnight. They all checked out this morning."

The name, though familiar enough to me as that of the man who had been the leader in the sickening drama of the night, meant nothing else.

"Dr. Menostique?" I asked. "Who, is Dr. Menostique?"

The clerk was obviously bored and seemingly distrustful of my lack of knowledge of one who was apparently a celebrity. He eyed me pityingly.

"Dr. Menostique is the shark's shanks at this hypnotism thing," he said. "Nutty bimbo. Likes to put the spell on strangers and make 'em see snakes, or something. Rotten trick to pull on a man, but the guys that he work on never seem to mind it I understand."

Hypnotized? I do not know. I think I shall never know. It does not seem possible. Everything was too clear, too plainly convincing. The worldly wise clerk passed a final opinion.

"They say what that fellow can make a man see is plain hell. Hope he never picks on me. I'd rather take my chances on waiting."

And I.

S this extraordinary personage has long been the theme not only of children's early study and terror, and as no afterpiece ever had a greater run than that splendid and popular musician entertainment which bears the name of Bluebeard, the following is the character of that being who really existed and who was distinguished in horror and derision by that appellation.

He was the famous Gilles, Marquis de Savais, a Marshal of France, and a general of uncommon intrepidity, and greatly distinguished himself in the reigns of Charles VI. and VII. by his courage, particularly against the English when they invaded France. He rendered those services to his country which were sufficient to immortalize his name, had he not for ever tarnished his glory by the most horrible and cruel murders, blasphemies and licentiousness of every kind. His revenues were princely, but his prodigality was sufficient to render an emperor a bankrupt. Wherever he went he had in his suite a seraglio, a company of players, a band of musicians, a society of sorcerers, an almost incredible number of cooks, packs of dogs of various kinds, and above 200 led horses.

Mezerai, an author of the highest repute, says that he encouraged and maintained men who called themselves sorcerers, to discover hidden treasures, and corrupted young persons of both sexes co attach themselves to him for the sake of their blood, which was requisite to form his charms and incantations. These horrid excesses may be believed when we reflect on the age of ignorance and barbarity in which they were certainly but too often practiced. He was at length, for a state crime against the Duke of Brittany, sentenced to be burnt alive in a field at Nantes, A. D. 1440, but the Duke of Brittany, who was present at his execution, so far mitigated the sentence, that he was first strangled, then burnt, and his ashes buried. Though he was descended from one of the most illustrious families in France, he declared previous to his death, that all his horrid excesses were owing to his wretched education.


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254 hour a week, when they're eight; company-drill when they're ten, for an hour and a half a week. Between ten and twelve they get battalion drill of a sort. They take the rifle at twelve and record their first target-score at thirteen. That's what the Code lays down. But it's worked very loosely so long as a boy comes up to the standard of his age.'

'In Canada we don't need your physical drill. We're born fit,' said Pigeon, 'and our ten-year-olds could knock spots out of your twelve-year-olds.'

'I may as well explain,' said the Boy, 'that the Dove is our "swop" officer. He's an untamed Huskie from Nootka Sound when he's at home. An I.G. Corps exchanges one officer every two years with a Canadian or Australian or African Guard Corps. We've had a year of our Dove, an' we shall be sorry to lose him. He humbles our insular pride. Meantime, Morten, our "swop" in Canada, keeps the ferocious Canuck humble. When Pij goes we shall swop Kyd, who's next on the roster, for a Cornstalk or a Maori. But about the education-drill. A boy can't attend First Camp, as we call it, till he is a trained boy and holds his First Musketry certificate. The Education Code says he must be fourteen, and the boys usually go to First Camp at about that age. Of course, they've been to their little private camps and Boys' Fresh Air Camps and public school picnics while they were at school, but First Camp is where the young drafts all meet—generally at Aldershot in this part of the world. First Camp

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till after long hours—days, perhaps—of torture, Alice spoke, her voice thick and blurred, no more than a whisper.

"Peter?"

"Yes?" and my own voice sounded strange and far-off in my ears.

"Dear, I don't believe I'll be conscious much longer—will you kiss me once more before I go—my love?"

Silently I bent and kissed her, and she clung to me, her arms about my neck, and I kissed her again and again, and stroked her hair.

"Sweetheart," she whispered, "do something for me? Don't turn the light on again. People who die—of thirst—aren't pleasant—to look at—they say. And I'd—like—you—to remember me—as—I used—to be. Promise—Honey?"

For answer I lifted the lamp and broke the glass against the floor. She heard the crackle and understood. I felt her arms tighten about my neck—such a weak little clasp!—and she whispered:

"Thank—you—Dear!"

And once more the dark and the silence settled over us, and once more the Horror closed down.

RESENTLY she grew delirious, and I was sick to the very depths of my soul—her raving, struggles, shrieks, blasphemies—worse than all, her mad croaking laughter—at last she was too weak to struggle, and lay quiet.

Side by side we lay, and the endless round of the dragging hours rolled over us as we waited the inevitable end. Alice was helpless, and I in little better case. Weak with hunger, tortured by the agonies of thirst, I felt my dry tongue, rough and harsh, swelling in my mouth, pressing against my teeth, forcing my mouth open. Alice began to moan softly. I clasped her hand, and the answering pressure told me that she was still conscious—could still suffer. Once more I cursed the fiend who so tortured her—I was growing light-headed—I saw visions of brooks, of lakes, of green andgrassy meadows—water, water! And ever that low moaning at my side!

I thought of rain—I heard it pattering on the roof—no; delirium!—of the storm through which we had driven—my mind reeled to the pump I had seen in the kitchen above us—water, water! And ever that horrible moan brought me back to our prison—our tomb!

I laid my hand on Alice's head, and felt it rocking from side to side—I passed my hand gently, caressingly, over her face—and shuddered—the cracked lips were drawn back from the teeth and I touched the harsh, swollen tongue protruding from her mouth! I clasped her hand, but no answering pressure came. Her moaning had died to a faint whimper, heartrending in its utter helplessness. Whimper—whimper—whimper! It beat on my brain like the roar of the surf on rocky shores—it grew and swelled and reverberated in my ears—I tried to scream,


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Rh lasts a week or ten days, and the boys are looked over for vaccination and worked lightly in brigades with lots of blank cartridge. Second Camp—that's for the fifteen to eighteen-year-olds—lasts ten days or a fortnight, and that includes a final medical examination. Men don't like to be chucked out on medical certificate much—nowadays. I assure you Second Camp, at Salisbury, say, is an experience for a young I.G. Officer. We're told off to 'em in rotation. A wilderness of monkeys isn't in it. The kids are apt to think 'emselves soldiers, and we have to take the edge off 'em with lots of picquet-work and night attacks.'

'And what happens after Second Camp?'

'It's hard to explain. Our system is so illogical. Theoretically, the boys needn't show up for the next three or four years after Second Camp. They are supposed to be making their way in life. Actually, the young doctor or lawyer or engineer joins a Volunteer battalion that sticks to the minimum of camp—ten days per annum. That gives him a holiday in the open air, and now that men have taken to endowing their Volunteer drill-halls with baths and libraries he finds, if he can't run to a club, that his own drill-hall is an efficient substitute. He meets men there who'll be useful to him later, and he keeps himself in touch with what's going on while he's studying for his profession. The town-birds—such as the chemist's assistant, clerk, plumber, mechanic, electrician, and so forth—generally put in for their town Volunteer corps

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256 as soon as they begin to walk out with the girls. They like takin' their true-loves to our restaurants. Look yonder!' I followed his gaze, and saw across the room a man and a maid at a far table, forgetting in each other's eyes the good food on their plates.

'So it is,' said I. 'Go ahead.'

'Then, too, we have some town Volunteer corps that lay themselves out to attract promising youths of nineteen or twenty, and make much of 'em on condition that they join their Line battalion and play for their county. Under the new county qualifications—birth or three years' residence—that means a great deal in League matches, and the same in County cricket.'

'By Jove, that's a good notion,' I cried. 'Who invented it?'

'C. B. Fry—long ago. He said, in his paper, that County cricket and County volunteering ought to be on the same footing—unpaid and genuine. "No cricketer no corps. No corps no cricketer" was his watchword. There was a row among the pro's at first, but C. B. won, and later the League had to come in. They said at first it would ruin the gate; but when County matches began to be pukka county, plus inter-regimental, affairs the gate trebled, and as two-thirds of the gate goes to the regiments supplying the teams some Volunteer corps fairly wallow in cash. It's all unofficial, of course, but League Corps, as they call 'em, can take their pick of the Second Camper. Some corps ask ten guineas entrance-fee, and get it too, from the young

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 mass of creepers and thick foliage which often mats the tops of the highest trees together, and causing them to fall and roll to some distance.

The Willughbeias are lofty climbers in the jungles. They have large dull green or yellowish inconspicuous fruits, pear- shaped or globose. The seeds are soft and enclosed in a sweet and eatable flesh, of which the monkeys are very fond. There are a number of seeds in a single fruit, and if, as sometimes happens, the fruit falls whole on the ground the seeds all germinate in the fruit, so that one finds a small cluster of plants where a fruit has fallen and decayed. After these have grown a few inches, all or nearly all perish from overcrowding, and in localities where monkeys are scarce I have seen the ground covered in places with seedlings, of which in a few weeks none are left. If, however, a flock of monkeys visits the locality when the plant is in fruit, all the best fruits are speedily devoured. Monkeys like other mammals are very greedy eaters, and when there is plenty of fruit on a Willughbeia, they do not entirely finish each fruit, but tear it to bits and scatter the seeds in different directions, only eating bits of it. The seeds of the Willughbeia are soft and comparatively tasteless, or if they have a flavour it is bitter and unpleasant, but a great many do get bitten up and destroyed by the monkeys, even if a a considerable number are detached and scattered about, unharmed.

It has been pointed out to me that Willughbeia seed to be satisfactorily planted must be thrown at the base of or near a big tree so that the creeper may have a support to climb on, and this is brought about in the following way. A monkey seizes a fine fruit to eat, the others of the flock immediately rush at him to take it away, he scrambles into the nearest big tree and getting into the fork or behind a big branch devours it with hurried bites for fear of being robbed, throwing the seeds at the foot of the tree up which the young plant can eventually climb.

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 tinted a little with yellow or orange. Those, however, that grow in more open country or on the exposed edges of jungles have bright yellow or orange coloured fruits.

In the heathy country bordering the Pahang River, I found a species of Willughbeia which bore exceedingly pleasant, sinall, oval fruits of a bright apricot-yellow colour and very conspicuous. It grew in low thickets in open sandy country, where monkeys do not go, as they have an objection to travelling far on the ground on account of the risks from tigers, wild cats, dogs and other enemies, The conspicuous fruited Willughbeia had probably developed its showy colour to attract birds, of which there were many large fruit-eating kinds, and the reduction in size of this fruit is also an assistance in dispersal as even the hornbill can hardly manage to carry a globose fruit as large as that of Willughbeia edulis.

The various species of Dialium, known to the natives as Kranji, are big trees with ovoid black pods, each containing one hard seed which is enclosed in a somewhat acid but pleasantly flavoured pithy substance. The monkeys are very fond of these and one often sees the remains of the fruit on the ground. The fruit is unfortunately relished by the monkeys before it is ripe so that very often the whole crop is gathered green by them and so destroyed, and here I may call attention. to the value of acidity of unripe fruits in preventing animals from eating them too soon, which would soon exterminate the trees by destroying the seeds.

Though many of the fruits eaten by animals are sweet or pleasant to our taste, a large proportion of those very popular with monkeys are either tasteless or nauseous-often astringent in flavour to us. Some may even be poisonous as Strychnos.

Cheiroptera.—There are several kinds of fruit-eating bats in the Malay Peninsula, but of their habits little is known. The largest kind, Pteropus edulis, is very irregular in its appearance. In some years there are hardly any to be seen in Singapore, but some years ago there were enormous numbers roosting every day in the Garden jungle. They fly great distances and may be seen far out at sea. They eat great quantities of fruit of different kinds. Cynopterus marginatus


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 is a small and very common species which during the day hides in the leaves of plantains, or palms, or, when it can, in caves. It eats fruits voraciously, especially figs (Ficus Miquelii and Benjamina), and I have seen it, or allied species, in great numbers at the Tembusu tree (Fagrea fragrans), Livistona australis, the Nepheliums, the Chiko (Achras sapota) and other trees.

It is difficult to see how these animals detect the fruit on the trees in the night, but perhaps they use the powers of sinell. In any case it must be easier for them to find the fruits than for the insectivorous bats to see and catch insects. at night. It appears to me that fruit-eating bats are much less. intelligent than the insectivorous kinds. They are slower in flight and more constantly caught in house at night being utterly confused by the light, whereas insectivorous bats fly readily in and out.

The Malays keep these animals off from the fruit trees by attaching to the boughs the thorny flagella of the rattans which are collected and sold for this purpose, so that the bats in flying to the fruit get their wings entangled and torn by the thorns.

Viverrida.—Of the greater number of the species of this group little or nothing is known as to their habits. All appear to be omnivorous, and certainly eat a very large quantity of fruit. They are nocturnal and find the fruit probably by the scent. The common civet cat or Musang (Viverra malaccensis) is a must destructive eater of cultivated fruit.

I have seen in its excreta the seeds of coffee, Gnetum scandens, Caryota Cumingii Mimusops elengi, and it is also very partial to the fruits of Artocarpus rigida and integrifolia (the Jack), Diospyros discolor, Achras sapota, and many other fruits.

Its habits of selecting the best coffee berries to eat is well known to planters, who often collect the seeds passed by the Musangs for cultivation, as giving stronger plants. It has a habit of dropping its excreta on open spaces, especially paths, so that the seeds passed by it can very readily grow.

The Binturong (Arctictis binturong) lives much on fruit.


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 One kept in captivity ate papayas (Carica papaya) and Rambais (Baccaurea motleyana, Hook.) swallowing the seeds and passing them apparently uninjured.

Urside.—The common bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a nocturnal fruit-eater, and is particularly found of Durians. The fruit of the common Durian (Durio zibethinus) when ripe falls entire upon the ground, and when found by the bear, is torn to pieces and the seeds scattered about. The bear, however, also ascends the tree as well and helps itself to the Durians, which grow, as is well known, on the thick branches, where it can get at them.

In the wild Durian (D. Oxleyanus) the fruit splits on the tree and lets the seeds fall. In one wild Durian which I saw at Pekan, the flesh of the seed was pink and the capsule split so as to show the bright colour. It grew in a part of the country where there were no bears and was probably dispersed by some such bird as the hornbill.

I gave a bear a wild Durian (Durio oblongus) to eat. It tore it to bits with its paws and ate the aril of the seed and a good deal of the placentas, but would not eat the seed and spit it out so that it fell some way off. Another bear seeing the seed fall bit it, but did not like the taste and would not eat it. There was no particular taste to the part that the bear ate, though it was very eager to eat it, nor had the rejected seeds any taste that seemed objectionable to me.

I will here digress a little to compare the several forms of fruit of the Durioneæ showing their various modifications and their meaning with respect to dispersal.

In the genus Durio, the fruit is a thorny capsule, dull brown or green, and the seeds have a white or pink edible aril.

Durio zibethinus, L. The fruits are borne on the strong branches, on short stalks, and are strongly scented so as to be easily found at night, and are dispersed by the bear, a heavy nocturnal animal.

D. oblongus, Mast. The fruits resemble those of zibethinus, but are not scented. They open on the tree, and evenutally drop the seed. They are probably dispersed by birds, as the


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 plant is a native of Singapore where there are no bears.

D. sp. has a scentless fruit with a conspicuous red aril on the seeds. There were no bears in the locality, so that it was probably dispersed by hornbills, which were abundant.

D. testudinarum, Becc., has the fruit at the base of tree. This is called Durian Karkura (Tortoise Durian) in Borneo by the natives, according to BECCARI, and is perhaps eaten by these animals.

Neesia synandra, Mast. This has a very hard woody capsule, bluish grey, not or hardly armed. Seed black, with a small yellow waxy aril. The fruit drops whole, and the seeds are protected till ripe by a quantity of pungent irritating yellow bristles lining the inner walls of the woody capsule. The aril and sometimes the whole seed is catcn by mice. (The seed falls out of the capsule when the capsule falls.)

Cœlostegia Griffithii, Mast., has a very large rather round capsule covered with thorns, and of a showy orange colour. The seeds are chesnut colour and conspicuous, with an orange waxy aril. They do not fall out of the fruit, but fall with it. I imagine that they are dispersed by the agency of birds but I found rats very partial to them.

Boschia Griffithii, Mast., a very small Durian with a conspicuous scarlet capsule, splitting on the tree, and exposing the black conspicuous seeds. The form and colouring of this remind one of the fruits of Sterculia lævis which is dispersed by birds. The fruits are borne on small twigs, and I have little doubt but that the seeds are scattered by birds. BECCARI gives Durian Tupai as one of the native names of the plant in Borneo, this would mean Squirrel Durian, but does not imply that squir- rels eat it, tupai being really equivalent to tikus (mouse) meaning of small size, as opposed to gajah (elephant) which means in speaking of fruit, &c. large. Thus Commersonia platyphylla anders [sic] is called in Singapore Durian Tupai because the fruit looks more or less like a very small Durian.

Insectivora.—Tupaia ferruginea and other allied species although belonging to the order Insectivora are chiefly frugivorous. They appear to eat the smaller fruits such as those of


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 Marlea nobilis and Eugenias which have a firm texture and are not very hard.

Ungulata.—The Ungulates of the Malay Peninsula include the clephant; rhinoceros, one or two species; tapir, wild ox (Bos gaurus); deer, one or two species; mouse decr, two or more species; and the wild pig. To which must be added as a seed disperser the buffalo (Babalus arnee). These animals act more as scatterers of secd attached to their hair or hides, but probably also, to a certain extent, by swallowing grass-seeds in the herbage. The first four are inhabitants of the densest jungles, especially of the hill regions, and feed chiefly on the bushes and leaves of trees. They make long tracks through the dense forests, and wander often to great distances. I have seen many seedlings, apparently of some small herb, springing up in dung of elephants dropped in their tracks. The wild ox lives, to a small extent, on fruit. One brought down to Singapore ate greedily the fruits of the Sentol (Sandoricum indicum).

Scoparia dulcis L., is a small herb introduced accidentally from South America which has been widely scattered by the water buffalo. In Pahang, I traced it up the Pahang and Tembeling Riversas far as the buffalo went. On sandbanks in the river where for some reason buffaloes had not gone this plant was absent, and I saw it and also Cleome viscosa springing from masses of buffalo-dung, in several places. Many of the smaller herbs and especially grasses and sedges must be distributed by this animal in this way, and Fimbristylis miliacea, a sedge very abundant in marshes where these animals go is called by the Malays Rumput Tahi Kerbau (buffalo's dung grass) for this reason.

Rodentia.—The important seed distributors in the family are the rats and the squirrels.

The rats and mice of the Malay Peninsula are as yet very little known. I have seen at the foot of Mount Ophir, in dense jungle by a stream, a large reddish rat eating the fallen fruit of a wild species of mango, of which it might easily have borne off fruits to its holes under the boulders to some distance from the tree.

There are a great number of herbaceous plants, the fruits


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 of which are more or less concealed among the leaves or in the ground. Such is Curculigo sumatrana which has small inconspicuous sweet fruits with very small seeds. These disappear as soon as ripe, and are certainly caten by some rodent. The Scitamineæ again have fruits which are much sought by these little animals. Most of the jungle loving species have the fruits at the base of the stems as Amomum, Zingiber.

The fruits are inconspicuous, but in many cases the bracts. which enclose them are red. This colouring, however, bears rather a relation to the floral stage of development and is intended to make the flowers more conspicuous to the insect fertilizer. When the plant is in fruit, the bracts have usually become shabby and inconspicuous.

Nicolaia hemisphærica and Amomum laterale are two species which have plain green fruits, in the former in a head on a short, stout stem, in the latter in a stout, cylindric, lateral spike about a foot above the ground. These fruits are devoured by some rodent (probably a squirrel) as soon as they are ripe.

There is a great contrast between the fruits of these jungle gingers where the inflorescence is a compact head and radical or low down, and those which live in more open country and possess terminal inflorescence. In the former the fruits are inconspicuous and often green, while in the latter they are either showy and orange as in the Alpinias of the river banks, or they are white in the plants of the open jungle as in the case of Clinogyne and Alpinia galanga.

The squirrels (Sciurus) probably disperse more seeds than the Muridæ, and being diurnal can more easily be scen at work. They do not, as a rule, cat sweet or juicy fruits, but those of firmer texture, as those of the Daroo (Sideroxylon sundaicum), Marlea nobilis, and Pyrenaria acuminata. All these are inconspicuous, small, green fruits containing hard seeds, and it is very common to find gnawn fruits lying some way off from the trees, usually with the seeds uninjured. In many cases a tree is completely denuded of fruit as fast as it is ripe, and the squirrels carry it so far that it is impossible to find any. To some of the introduced fruits they are very


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 destructive especially to cocoa (Theobroma cacoa) and to coco-nuts, destroying the latter by biting round holes into the fruit and eating the interior, so that trees near jungle, if unprotected, lose all their fruits.

But it is on the fruits of oaks and chestnuts that these animals chiefly live. These trees fruit very heavily, more so than any class of tree here, and the ground beneath an oak in fruit is often covered with acorns. The chestnuts (Castanopsis) nearly all have their fruit arranged in close spikes and usually covered with a prickly involucre. The whole spike readily breaks off the tree, but it is difficult to separate the individual chestnuts. A squirrel seizes a spike and breaks it off, and holding it in its paws attempts to nibble through the prickly husk to eat the fruit and it often happens that owing to the prickles being too sharp for it, it drops the whole spike before it has succeeded in eating more than one nut.

The squirrels invariably, if possible, when they have gathered one of these fruits run to a short distance to eat it conveniently, so that the nut or acorn may be carried to some distance before it is dropped. The big Sciurus bicolor is an entirely arboreal squirrel living in very dense jungle and very rarely if ever coming down to the ground, and when it takes a fruit it runs to a suitable spot to devour it. It sits transversely on the bough, holding on with its hind feet, its head and forearms hanging down over the bough on one side and its tail on the other. In this position it is very likely to drop a nut either too prickly or too smooth for it to hold fast. The smaller squirrels (Sc. notatus and Sc. tenuis) when they descend the trees to pick up the fallen acorns or chestnuts, which ''Sc. bicolor'' never does, always run up an adjacent tree to eat them, and I have frequently scen one carry an acorn in its mouth for some distance before eating it. I recently saw a small red-bellied squirrel (Sc. notatus) eating the fruits of an Eleocarpus. When it took a fruit, it hung head downward from a bough by its hind feet only. ''Sc. tenuis'' too usually hangs from the trunk of a tree by its hind feet head downwards when eating acorns. As there is no season here when a squirrel cannot get food, it never stores up


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490 him out to the churchyard he never left that bed. All tried him—parson tried him, priest tried him, doctor tried him, and all he'd say was, "Life is a vale of tears." It's too snug he was in his bed, and believe me, that ever since she has had no father to rout her out of a morning she has been in her bed and small blame to her maybe.

 * Nobody shall speak against the unicorn. No, my friends and poets, nobody. I will hunt it if you will, though it is a dangerous and

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 THE LAW RELATING TO SLAVERY AMONG THE MALAYS.

[Among the papers which were printed and laid before Parliament in 1882 on the subject of Slavery in the Protected Native States was a minute by Mr. W. E. MAXWELL, then Assistant Resident, Perak, in which the existing system was described, an emancipation scheme was proposed, and a translation of the Malay law relating to Slavery was promised. Mr. MAXWELL having now presented to the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society his extracts from the Perak, Pahang and Johor Code, transliterated and translated, these are here printed for the first time, and are fitly prefaced by the official minute above referred to. (See Parliamentary Papers, C.—3429, p. 16.) That portion of it which deals with the emancipation scheme is omitted, the liberation of slaves and debtors in Perak having long since been effected. The native law, though no longer in force in the southern portion of the Peninsula, is probably not dis similar to that which is still carried out in some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, more or less remote from European influence and authority.]

HE institution of slavery as it exists among the Malays, in places where it has not been abolished by European influence, is a national custom which they have in common with other Indo-Chinese races, and it is a mistake to suppose that it is the offspring of Muhammadan law and religion, the introduction of which among the Malays is of comparatively modern date.

Muhammadan law has, however, largely influenced Malay custom respecting slavery, and Arabic terminology is noticeable in many of the details incidental to the system. So far from being identical with the slavery lawful among Muslims in Egypt, Arabia, etc., the Malay institution is, in some respect, completely at variance with it, and in this particular, as in many others, there is a never-ending struggle between the hukum 'adat, the "customary law" of the Malays, and the hukum shar‘a or "religious law" of the Koran. Muhammadan priests,


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 who would sometimes seek, if they could, to enforce the latter, are met by the plea that the practice denounced is lawful by Malay custom, and it is thus that debt-bondage, like opium smoking, gambling, etc. is always defended.

Slaves (hamba and kawan) in Perak are of two classes : —
 * (1) Slaves (‘abdi).
 * (2) Debtors (orang ber-hutang).

A slave (‘abdi) is either:—(1) A captive taken in war; (2) an infidel captured by force (e.g., a Batak of Sumatra or Sakei of the Peninsula ); (3) A man-slayer (yang baca darah mati), or other criminal who is unable to pay the price of blood, or other fine (diyat), and who surrenders (hulur) himself and family to the Raja as slaves; (4) the offspring of a female slave (except when the owner acknowledges himself to be the father).

Hulur.—The Raja's privilege of retaining as slaves all persons who have taken human life, and who throw themselves upon his protection, seems to be purely Malay. In other points the definition of the status of slave given above is in accordance with Muhammadan law.

Debt-bondage.—A debt-bondsman, although often called hamba (slave), is more correctly termed kawan (companion). He is a free man (mardahika) as opposed to a slave (‘abdi) though from his being obliged to serve his creditor in all kinds of menial employment, the two conditions are not always readily distinguishable.

The Kuran, Sale's translation, C. II.—This institution of debt- bondage is a native Malay custom, and is wholly opposed to Muhammadan law, which is most lenient to debtors. "If," says the Kuran, "there be any (debtor) under a difficulty (of paying his debt) let (his creditor) wait till it be easy (for him to do it); but if ye remit it as alms it will be better for you, if ye knew it. And fear the day wherein ye shall return unto God; then shall every soul be paid what it hath gained, and they shall not be treated unjustly."

Pecuniary limit of fine.—Malay custom in Perak used to fix


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 REMARKS ON THE SLETAR AND SABIMBA TRIBES.

In compliance with your request I send you a few notes on these tribes made during a late visit to the Old Straits of Singapore, when I came in contact with them. My duties have frequently led me to these parts, and my constant attention had been drawn to the fact of wild tribes existing in the creeks, and along the shores of the Strait above mentioned; but, notwithstanding all my anxiety to obtain an interview with any of them, my wishes had never been gratified. It is true that parties of the Slétar tribe had been often descried from the Gunboat, but we found them too shy and timid to allow of a near approach. This time we were more fortunate. A Panglima (i. e. Malay warrior) a notorious pirate, had been caught by one of the Tomungong's followers, who in former years had formed one of the crew of the Gunboat—elated with his success, he came to relate the circumstances of his bold feat; amongst these and other interesting matters regarding piracy, in which trade our friend had in former years even obtained honorable notoriety amongst his country men,—the wild men or Oráng Után were casually mentioned as being in the vicinity. The opportunity was not to be lost, and our friend, on certain conditions, agreed to bring several of their class to the Gunboat on the following day.

The next day, when anchored close to the shore, several small boats and canoes were seen skirting the mangrove, and slowly approaching to our anchorage; these proved to be two families of the Slétar tribe mentioned at the end of your article on the Oráng Binua of Johore. I found after careful examination that they were known to the Malays as the "Oráng Után Slétàr." On their first approach one could not help being struck with the extreme squalidness of their appearance, united as it was to a dull insensibility to what was going forward, a marked contrast to their pert Malay conductors, who assumed over them an air of superiority and command, which is never witnessed in the latter when in the presence of Europeans alone, and affording at once,


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 I might say, a standard for judging of the place which the Oráng Slétar should hold in the ranks of civilization. The families consisted of two men, three women, and several children of hoth sexes; they were exceedingly shy at first, and could with great difficulty be prevailed on to speak, but by kindness of manner, and some trifling presents, the men were induced to throw off a considerable deal of their reserve,— so much so, that they daily visited the Gunboat, as long as we were in their vicinity, bringing fish and a few birds for barter, and a system of fair dealing being strictly kept up by the commander and his crew, on our leaving they promised always to visit the Gunboat, to supply such necessaries should she ever come in their neighbourhood again, and tell the people of their tribe to do the same. Our visit was productive of considerable benefit to them, as they were well supplied with many necessaries (luxuries to them) such as rice, tobacco and cloth. They took great trouble in procuring us what we were most in want of, fresh fish, and our parting we were led to believe, was attended with considerable regret on their side. On our better acquaintance, when asked why they used always to run away before the Gunboat, their simple reply was, that they were afraid we would carry them off to Gallang, a place noted for the fierceness of its pirátes [sic], and for whom they bear a great dread.

On taking likenesses of two of them, a man and a woman, the man sat with great steadiness and composure, and seemed perfectly aware of its meaning; on finishing the sketch, and being shown the production, a slight smile was elicited:—with the other subject considerable difficulty was encountered, she at first hid her face beneath her shaggy matted locks, that strayed in wild abundance over her sealy shoulders, and would only now and then venture a glance at the operations of the pencil, no persuasions would induce her to show her face, till at last her young child was given her, when in a position natural to the mother, the sketch book was soon made to bear what was considered a tolerable likeness of the original.

This poor tribe are River nomades, their locality extends from the Santee, at the east end of Old Strait or Sálát Támbráu to Pándás on the west. The Slétar, a creck of the Island of Singapore, and dis-


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Rh

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 tant from the town only 8 miles, gives its name to the tribe, and is situated nearly in the middle of their range. They number in all 40 boats, or 200 people, and are subject to a Batin or petty chief whose names is Keding. Their de facto sovereign is the Tomungong of Johore, who can command their services in the manner of a feudal lord. Their language is the Malayan, and considerable pains was taken to elicit any words foreign to that language, but without effect. Their dialect is the same as that of the Oráng Laut of Tulloh Blangah, but spoken with a slightly more guttural accent, and they clip their words as much as the natives of Keddáh. As a proof of their possessing the same language as the Malays, I may mention that the children were heard when playing to converse in this language, and were perfectly understood by the Malays amongst our crew. They are possessed of no weapons either offensive or defensive; their minds do not find a higher range than necessity compels, the satisfying of hunger is their only pursuit, of water they have abundance without search; with the serkap or fish spear, and the parang or chopper, as their only implements, they eke out a miser- able existence from the stores of the rivers and forest; they neither dig nor plant, and still live nearly independent of their fellow men, for to them the staple of lite in the east, rice, is a luxury; tobacco they procure by the barter of fish, and a few marketable products collected from the forests and coral reefs. Of esculent roots they have the prioh and kalana, both bulbous, and not unlike coarse yams, —of fruits they eat the támpuí, klédáng and búroh, when they come in season, and of animals they hunt the wild hog, but refrain from snakes, dogs, guanas and monkeys. Such are their principal means, of subsistence, for many minor products of the forests and creeks must, be left unmentioned.

On their manners and customs, I must needs be short, as only long acquaintance with their prejudices, and domestic feelings could afford. a clue to the impulse of their actions. Of a Creator they have not the slightest comprehension, a fact so difficult to believe, when we find the most degraded of the human race in other quarters of the globe, have an intuitive idea of this unerring and primary truth imprinted on


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 their minds, that I took the greatest care to find a slight image of the deity within the chaos of their thoughts, even however degraded such might be, but was disappointed. They neither know the God nor Devil of the Christian or Mahomedan, though they confessed they had been told of such, nor any of the demigods of Hindoo mythology, many of whom were recounted to them. In the three great epochs of their individual lives, we consequently find no rites or ceremonies enacted; at birth the child is only welcomed to the world by the mother's joy; at marriage, a mouth full of tobacco and one chupah of rice handed to the mother, confirm the hymeneal tye. At death the deceased are wrapped in their garments, and committed to the parent earth. "The women weep a little, then leave the spot" were the words of our simple narrator. Of párís, dewás, mambángs and other light spirits that haunt each mountain, rock, and tree in the Malayan conception, they did not know the name,—nor had they any thing to be afraid of, as they themselves said, than the "Gállang Pirates," who are men like themselves. With this I was forced to be contented, and teazed them no more about the subject. They do not practice circumcision, nor other Mahomedan customs. Their women intermarry with the Malays which appears to be not unfrequent, they also give their women to Chinese, and an old woman told us of her having been united to individuals of both nations, in an early period of her life. It was further related to me, that many years ago, when they had a Malay as their Batin, nearly all the men now of their tribe were induced to undergo the rite of circumcision, though such a practice is not comformed with. Their tribe though confining their range within the limits of 30 miles square, may still be considered of a very wandering kind; in their sampans barely sufficicient [sic] to float their load they skirt the mangroves, collecting their food from the shores and forests as they proceed exhausting one spot and then searching for another. To one accustomed to the comforts and artificial wants of a civilized life, theirs as a contrast appears to be extreme; huddled up in a small boat hardly measuring 20 feet in length, they find all the domestic comfort that they are in want of; at one end is seen the fire-place, in the middle are the few uten-


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 sils they may be in possession of, and at the other end beneath a kadjang or mat not exceeding six feet in length, is found the sleep- ing apartment of a family often counting 5 and 6, together with a cat and dog, under this they find shelter from the dews and rains of the night, and heat of the day. The Malays even in pointing out these stinted quarters cried out "how miserable," but of this the objects of their commiseration were not aware; in them they have provided all their wants; their children sport on the shore in search of shell fish at low water; and during high water they may be seen climbing the mangrove branches, and dashing from thence into the water, with all the life and energy of children of a colder clime, at once affording a proof that even they have their joys.

Their personal appearance is unprepossessing, their deportment lazy and slovenly, united to a great filthiness of body; the middle of both men and women is generally covered by a coarse wrapper, made from the bark of the Trap tree; this extends from the naval to the knee. The women affected a slight degree of modesty at first approach, which soon gave way. Instead of the wrapper of Trap, they frequently put on instead, an old patched up Malay sarong. The locks of the men are bound up with a tie of cloth, and sometimes by the Malay saputangan, those of the women fall in wild luxuriance over their face and shoulders. Their children go entirely naked until the age of puberty. Several of the men and women we afterwards saw, were subject to deformity in hands and limbs, a rather unusual circumstance for these parts, and their prevailing disease, was a cutaneous eruption, that covered the whole body with a scaly covering called Korup by the Malays. To this whole families were subject from the mother to the infant at the breast. With this disease nearly every other person appeared to be afflicted. The fingers of such poor creatures were seldom at rest. A species of leprosy also appeared to attack the feet of the old, and the features in the face in one or two cases were found to be contracted from some such disease, rendering those subjects hideous in appearance.

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 find no trace, but before much can be said on this subject great caution must be used, as is well known to those who have to sift evidence, from wild, ignorant and indolent tribes, and who alone can estimate the difficulty of gaining a correct notion of the peculiarities of their ideas on such points. It is therefore to ethnographical enquiry that we may expect to be indebted for any slight glimpses of this interesting topic. As I before stated they speak the language of the Malays with much less a degree of difference in pronunciation, than may be found in stepping from one county in England to another. They may therefore be said with little fear of contradiction to be merely unconverted Malays in the general acceptation of the term, though a distinct class from the Malays properly so called, who poured their hordes over the Archipelago prior to 1200 of the Christian era from the great river Malayoo in Sumatra. While all the tribes of Malays on the coast of the Malayan Peninsula, and adjoining islands have embraced the tenets of Mahomed, they have remained unaffected by the movement. The nomenclature of individuals, remains the same as when Hindooism held sway over the Archipelago, and we find in their proper names an astonishing degree of similarity to the names of Malayan heroes prior to the conversion of the race as men tioned in the Sijarah Malayu and other works. As a list of proper names will be interesting, the following is a small collection.

Males.

 * Kissah
 * Kosan
 * Nassap
 * Dosan
 * Kassap
 * Nosan
 * Kadang
 * Masei
 * Sadang
 * Penis
 * Awin
 * Soning
 * Singal
 * Desan

Females.
 * Nongei
 * Neekang
 * Sookang
 * Sang Kang
 * Boon teh
 * Impang

In physiognomy they are closely allied to the "Biduanda Kallang" noticed in your paper on that tribe. This coupled with the fact that the Slétar and Kallang are both creeks of the island of Singapore, the original locality of each, and that sampans can approach the na-


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1858.] ernment. To recruit an army among the hardy citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to excite the jealousies of the French in Louisiana, to subdue feeble and demoralized Mexico, and create a new and stable empire, did not appear difficult to the sanguine imagination of a man who was without means or powerful friends, and who at no time had sufficient confidence in those with whom he was engaged to fully inform them of his plans. But he pursued his purposes with a tenacity which leaves no doubt of his sincerity, and an audacity and unscrupulousness seldom equalled. A few whom he thought it safe to trust were admitted to his secrets. Upon those in whom he did not dare to confide he practised every species of deception. He told some, that his intentions were approved by the government,—others, that his expedition was against Mexico only, and that he was sure of foreign aid. He represented to the honest, that he had bought lands, and wished to form a colony and institute a new and better order of society; the ignorant were deluded with a fanciful tale of Southern conquest, and a magnificent empire, of which he was to be king, and Theodosia queen after his death. So thoroughly was this deception carried out, that it is difficult to determine who were actually engaged with him. Without doubt, many acceded to his plans only because they did not knew what his plans really were. He made rapid journeys from New Orleans to Natchez, Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis. In the winter of 1805 he returned to Washington, and in the following summer again went down the Ohio. Wherever he went, he threw out complaints against the government,—charged it with imbecility,—boasted that with two hundred men he could drive the President and Congress into the Potomac,—freely prophesied dissolution of the Union, and published in the local journals articles ponding nut the advantages which would result from a separation of the Western from the Eastern States. Gen. Eaton had been denounced in Congress, and had a claim against the government; Burr tempted him with an opportunity to redress his wrongs and satisfy his claim. Commodore Truxton had been struck from the Navy list; he offered him a high command in the Mexican navy. He took every occasion to flatter the vanity of the people; attended militia parades, and praised the troops for their discipline and martial bearing. Large donations of land were freely promised to recruits; men were enlisted; Blennerhassett's Island was made the rendezvous; and provisions were gathered there.

At length his movements began to cause some anxiety to the public officers. The United States District Attorney attempted to indict him at Frankfort, Kentucky, but the grand-jury refused to find a bill. Henry Clay defended him in these proceedings, and in reference to his connection with the case, Mr. Parton makes a characteristic display of the spirit in which his book is written, and of his unfitness for the ambitious task he has undertaken. He quotes the following passage from Collins's "Historical Sketches of Kentucky":—"Before Mr. Clay took any active part as the counsel of Burr, he required of him an explicit disavowal, [avowal,] upon his honor, that he was engaged in no design contrary to the laws and peace of the country. This pledge was promptly given by Burr, in language the most broad, comprehensive, and particular. He had no design, he said, to intermeddle with, or disturb the tranquillity of the United States, nor its territories, nor any part of them. He had neither issued nor signed nor promised a commission to any person for any purpose. He did not own a single musket, nor bayonet, nor any single article of military stores,—nor did any other person for him, by his authority or knowledge. His views had been explained to several distinguished members of the administration, were well understood and approved by the government. They such as every man of honor and every good citizen must approve." Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton makes the fol-


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To the reading public:

I have not undertaken to present between these covers something that will cause the venom of prejudice to grow more poisonous; to arouse greater antagonisms; but to lay before a fair-minded, love-governed world the only real solution of any problem of the many mankind face. Having lived and battled in a world of prejudice, knowing that under the skin I was and am no whit different than any other human being, and knowing the fallacy of race prejudice, also the swiftness with which race prejudice vanishes when we know one another, I have tried to show how all can dwell side by side, good patriotic American citizens, living and allowing to live.

I have reserved to myself the right of every story teller, viz.—to name outright some places to which the story reaches and to merely describe others. Not all the events described have occurred in the places where they have been placed in the story but they are based on actual happenings nevertheless. The thread of my story is human; as human as life itself, just as Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Desdemona, Ruth and Boaz and Jacob and Rachael are human.

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Colonel Park Lauriston sat in the shadiest corner of the wide veranda ornamenting two sides of the magnificently roomy, many-gabled, "Big House" as it was still known by all the pensioners of this South Carolina plantation, from the Negro field hands to the tenantry and overseers. As he sat, sheltered beneath an enormous spread of white oak branches a soft near-spent gulf breeze bore up to the nostrils of this typically aristocratic Southerner the deliciously combined odors of flowering jasmine, green bay and honeysuckle though it was almost the fag end of the summer season. It was to him like a breath from an oasis in the midst of a hot, sandy desert.

The house stood at the rear of one of those old-fashioned gardens in which grew well-trimmed, dwarf cypress and juniper trees as well as many other specimens of shrubbery and trailing vines; planted and grown in artistic relation to their general appearance, and calculated to satisfy the eye for beauty whether it saw them from the big white sandy road on which it faced, or from the veranda from which Colonel Lauriston now gazed and meditated. Over all this the very house itself towered with a dignified aloofness as if to defy neighborliness with the traffic that passed its distant front gate.

The day was one of those hot sultry mid-August times when Nature seems parched and gasping. Before Colonel Lauriston, on a tete-a-tete table, stood a glass of refreshing julep from which he sipped luxuriously languid swal-

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 lows at the same time slowly fanning himself with a wide palmetto leaf.

The attitude, the slow, leisurely deliberate movements and the calm expression about the glinting yet kindly eyes of grey indicated that he was in a happy, complacent state of mind as if conscious of a duty done. And he was satisfied in spirit for he had just ridden in after a trip over the wide fields of his estate where blossoming cotton rows drooped and a veritable sea of silking corn swayed with languorous precision that almost caused one to drowse and dream hypnotically. This ride had been torrid beneath a still more torrid southern sun and Colonel Lauriston was now resting, glad to be beneath the shade and protected from the stifling heat that simmered up from a parching earth.

The sun was not more than three hours from setting now and Colonel Lauriston studied the shadows, extending from trees and shrubbery over the plush-soft lawn divided in weird twistings by a white gravel walk and driveway. From this contemplation his eyes roved to the little particles of light that filtered through the leaves of the great over-reaching oak.

"Drat it all," he mused, "This heat is hellish. Here it is, 'lay-by' time and not a cooling breath stirring. Wish 'twas time to go North with Lyda—"

Before he could say more a delightfully musical voice called from within the house:

"Daddy, did you call?"

Colonel Lauriston lifted his head deliberately to speak,

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 changed his mind which refused to be distracted from its reveries, then sipped from his glass at the same time setting his fan in renewed motion. His meditative mood gripped him again.

While busy with his thoughts his eyes lifted and his vision fixed itself on the distance across the field and along the ribbony road on which a vehicle of some sort could be seen approaching. The Colonel's eyes narrowed in effort to more clearly discern the object approaching. The pupils of his eyes also contracted, behind the lids, to beads of steel as the vehicle raised its trail of hot parched dust then he turned again to his fan and julep with:

"Old John can't hide himself even in his dust."

The thought caused the Colonel to chuckle with mirth at his joke till his spare frame shook him almost into an outburst of laughter.

"In a devil of a hurry, too, for this time of day," he added as an after comment, still intent on the approaching dust cloud. He turned for a moment to his refreshment and when his eyes next took in the figure, man and vehicle were turning into the open gateway at the front of the lawn a quarter of a mile away and wheeling briskly up toward the veranda. The team showed no slackening of pace till buggy and passenger had rounded the curving approach and swung up to the hitching post under the tree whose patriarchal fifty-foot branches spread themselves about the front of the house and its veranda as if to guard and protect it from all the vicissitudes of weather whether winter storms or summer suns.

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 This giant white oak was indeed a patriarch of the plantation. It was planted in Colonial days by the founder of the house of Lauriston and encouraged to grow through succeeding generations till now it had become the most venerable and venerated bit of the estate except possibly the dining room plate and furnishings. These also had been kept intact and handed down from head to head of each succeeding generation of Lauristons.

Colonel Lauriston was himself now almost as much a patriarch as was this oak and the "Big House" itself. A tall, Indian-straight, spare-limbed man beyond middle age, with aquiline features and the grace of kings in his every motion, thoughtful eyes and high well-formed forehead set off by grey mustache and thinning hair.

As the buggy, horse and man stopped, creaking, panting and puffing at the post:

"Hello, John," was the Colonel's greeting.

"Fu-fu-fu-fu-tuh, Hello Park," stammered the visitor. The two men had been neighbors and cronies since boyhood with that comradeship that grows between friends of long standing.

"Aren't you 'fraid you'll leave some grease on the road traipsin' 'long at this rate, John? It's no time for fat men like you to be fussing 'round country roads." The Colonel smiled broadly as he spoke.

"Fu-fu-fu-fu-tuh grease your grandad. Ef youall fu-fu-fu-tuh had s-s-s-some o' my grease you'd fu-fu-fu-tuh have asthma," retorted the visitor.

"They'll sure have to provide a new spring board in

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 Hades when you jump off, John. Your three hundred pounds'll sure break the one they're usin' now," twitted Colonel Lauriston.

Having no ready reply to that sally, Old John Marley good-naturedly joined in the laughter into which the Colonel burst as he scored on the peculiarity of his boyhood chum and visitor. Old John's Falstavian sides heaved like billows with each chuckle. The heft of John Marley had been the source of joking between the two men for years, though good-naturedly. Old John took both his bulk and the twitting of his friend philosophically.

Light, John 'n come up," offered the Colonel hospitably, when the joking ended.

Old John started to ease his proportions which had seemed to spread themselves out over all the seat of the buggy, tilting the body on its springs in such a degree as to threaten overturning the vehicle.

"Look out! Look out!" shouted Colonel Lauriston, "It'll tilt over 'tother way on the flyback, if you don't look out."

The prediction was false, however, for climbing out of this buggy was no new experience to Old John. He finally accomplished the process, dragged his flacidity up the steps to the high veranda and swung over to the corner in which the Colonel had been sitting, seated himself in a handy stout rustic oak rocker of home-made design, built for support rather than ornament and began fanning and puffing. Colonel Lauriston seated himself again before his drink and called:

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 "Lida! Lida!"

The voice that had called to him when he first began to rest again echoed from within some recess of the house.

"Yes, Daddy," she responded.

"Bring another glass of mint, Girl. Company's come," Colonel Lauriston requested.

The two men sat in silence for a few moments, Old John Marley puffing as he rocked back and forth and fanned to cool himself, Colonel Lauriston toying with his glass. As they waited the screened door was pushed quietly open and a tall girl, not yet fully entered into the first flush of womanhood, lithe and full of vibrant vitality appeared carrying a tray on which were two glasses of cool, tantalizingly refreshing julep.

She seemed a silver blond-haired goddess as she stepped across the threshold onto the veranda with a free swing indicative that she had not yet been spoiled by any affectations or vanities. She bore the tray like a Hebe, her summer frock, neither tight fitting nor loose, clung to her form just enough to give emphasis to graceful proportions. The eyes of both men followed her fondly as she approached and placed their glasses, removing that from which her father had been sipping.

Old John noted every motion with approving eyes, inwardly commenting on the fact that she possessed her father's eyes except that they were larger and more of the dreamy kind, with long lashes to match her hair. Her hair hung down her back in one long full heavy braid as is the style of simple, unaffected girls brought up in an at-

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 mosphere of simplicity. Her face had the general contour of a Greek statue and conscious of the fact that the elder man was studying her, her cheeks flushed to the delicate pink of a shell from the sea, from her forehead along her aquilinely aristocratic, sensitive nose to her well chiseled chin.

Old John noted the coloring and added to her confusion by remarking:

"D-d-d-don't you fu-fu-fu-tuh mind me, Lida. You're a right pert girl and your daddy's pride. I fu-fu-fu-tuh hope you'll be mine too, in a way, some day."

She could stand no more but hurried confusedly into the house where her blushing might not be seen. The two men watched the figure of the retreating girl in fond silence seemingly having forgotten their refreshments. Old John was the first to speak. He slowly turned his head from the door through which the girl had vanished as if loath to lose the vision and half expecting that she would return, sipped then drank heartily. Placing the half emptied glass on the table he turned to Colonel Lauriston.

"Fu-fu-fu-tuh I was fu-fu-fu-tuh thinking, Park, that your girl would make a good match for my John. Fu-fu-fu-tuh seeing's we've been fu-fu-fu-tuh friends and neighbors fu-fu-fu-tuh so long and our fu-fu-fu-tuh families been neighbors before us. It would fu-fu-fu-tuh be nice to have our fu-fu-fu-tuh acres joined that way. We'd fu-fu-tuh leave the pair mighty nigh, fu-fu-fu-tuh the whole of Hebron County between us when we go. And it would

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 fu-fu-fu-tuh sort o' ease my way over the fu-fu-fu-tuh line if I knew John had a wife like Lida fu-fu-fu-tuh to watch out for him and raise his family.

Colonel Lauriston remained silent several moments then asked:

"How's John feel about it?—You know Lida's my only girl and I won't force her to anything. Her ma's not here to look after her and I've got to. I believe in letting her choose for herself when the time comes but I'm not any too durned anxious to see her go from me even to your son John. Besides, it's no use doing her courting for her; and I don't believe John'll take well to us old codgers meddlin' either. We're a pair of old doddering fools to think of it. You know colts have got to have their heads a little or they don't break well to harness."

"I fu-fu-fu-tuh, I've fu-fu-tuh talked with John and got his slant. He likes the girl purty well. Fu-fu-tuh give them a chance to fu-fu-fu-tuh be fu-fu-fu-tuh together some and you'll fu-fu-fu-tuh have another son and I'll fu-fu-fu-tuh have a daughter. It won't fu-fu-fu-tuh take two healthy young people like John and Lida long fu-fu-fu-tuh to be holdin' hands and lookin' calf eyes at each other if they fu-fu-fu-tuh run together a little. You've fu-fu-fu-tuh held the girl too fu-tuh much to herself. Fu-fu-fu-fu-tuh give her some company. Fu-fu-tuh give her company."

"Yes," Colonel Lauriston's eyes narrowed as he spoke. "You mean give her John's company. Well, I don't mind telling you. I don't hanker after your land. It's made

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 you too durned much like a—a—a—a—," here Colonel Lauriston became lost for a fitting adjective with which to describe the mass of fatty flesh before him. "I've got enough for Lida and her bub, Elvin and as for company, she's going to have that for I'm leaving next week for the North where Lida's to have a year at school and see some of the world and have company. Your John's a likely enough boy but he'll have to take his chances with the rest.

"My Elvin's finished off his schooling up there and it's done him a mighty sight o' good. He comes home this fall and Lida goes for her chance. When she gets back if John's willin' he can pop like any other man—same's you and I did, and take his answer. But as for me joining hands and plotting with you for that event, I tell you there's too many chances o' his bein' an old porpoise like you when he ages for me to go yelling for him to be my son-in-law. We've been good friends John—and good neighbors but man, durned if I want any of your fat on my hands."

Old John began to stammer a reply but before he could frame the words from around the corner of the house there came screams and shouts of a woman in raving madness and anger.

"Let me go, you rascals! Let me go! Don't you dare touch me. I will see him. Where's the old varmint? Where's he—where's he?—" Her screams became unintelligibly hysterical as she swept into view, two of the

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 Negro servants who had been working on the lawn following and clutching at her hands.

Colonel Lauriston leaped from his chair and rushed toward the end of the veranda from which the sounds came. Old John Marley waddled puffingly behind, his flabby face agitated to a pale beet red flush. Colonel Lauriston reached the corner of the house almost in collision with the irate woman, who proved to be Mrs. Sally Gorton, a tenant on the estate the ousting of whose family had been one of the errands of Colonel Lauriston during his afternoon ride.

"Ah, you snake!" she screamed." Takescreamed. "Take [sic] that—and that—and that." With each word she applied a rawhide whip to Colonel Lauriston's head, face and shoulders. He sought wildly to seize the lash but she grabbed it from his hands and plied it again and again. Finding himself unable to prevent the blows the Colonel jumped back, at each step of retreat trying to catch the lash so as to wrench the whip from the woman. Her aim in each blow was perfect, however. With blazing eyes and hair streaming she seemed a veritable fury and to have uncanny knowledge of where to ply the lash so as to elude his grasp.

Lida, however, attracted from the house by the screams rushed to the veranda in time to see her father being lashed and jumped between him and the woman in time to receive one stroke across her shoulder. This blow across her tender flesh raised a welt of blue that could be seen quickly, showing its discoloring trace under the thin waist she wore. With no hesitating thought she braved the blow

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 screaming to the servants to grab the whip. At her shout and the sight of the blow the two employees caught the whip and held it. Mrs. Gorton's fury seemed to change then and she railed like an infuriated witch.

"You'll drive me off my place, will you?—" she raged. "After all these years. Park Lauriston you're vile—you're rotten—you-you-you dog! After all I've done for you—after all I've been to you since your wife, the mother of that girl, died. Now when I'm getting old and no longer useful you'll put me off your place, will you? The day'll come when you'll be sorry—the sorriest man possible. You, with your pride of family. You'll be sorry Park Lauriston. There's justice for every wrong. This may be my punishment but neither the blood of the Carterets, nor the Beauforts of which you boast will save you. My day will come and from this time on I—I—curse you and your family."

Her hysteria seemed to subside with the imprecation pronounced in this most dramatic way, her hands uplifted and her face toward the skies. Her whitening hair, straggly and fallen in disarray, added to the weirdness and solemnity of the curse. As she lowered her head and turned away her hysteria changed to tears. Lida was clinging to her father protectingly, wide-eyed in wonder and trying to understand it all, her face toward the woman on whom she had always looked as a godmother but who was suddenly turned her enemy, fearing the imprecations and yet preserving a haughty pose.

"Yes," continued the woman addressing her words to

title: Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/27