es
represent the only literature which comes within their experience. Such
minstrels are greatly loved by the villagers, who hold them in high
honour, giving them hearty welcome, and the name by which they are known
in the vernacular bears witness to the joy which they bring with them
whithersoever they go. Bayan's real name was Mat Saman, but we always
called him Bayan--which means the Paroquet--because the tale which he
sang told of the wonderful doings of a prince, who was transformed into
a fabulous bird called the Burong Agot, and whose attendants were the
Paroquet and the Pied-robin (_Murai_). As he sat kneading me, as a baker
kneads dough, he began to sing, and, that evening, and for many nights
after, he sang his song to the _Raja_ and myself, to the huge delight of
our people.

There was also in camp at this time a boy named To' Muda Long, who was
the eldest son of one of the great up-country Chiefs. He was returning
from Singapore with the _Raja_, to whom he had fled after some escapade
of his had excited the paternal wrath. He was a nice-looking youngster,
with a slight lisp, and a manner as soft as floss-silk, and he was
always smartly dressed in pretty Malay garments. We travelled together
for more than three months, and I got to know him pretty well, and took
something of a liking to him. I knew, of course, that his manner to his
own people was not always as gentle as that which he assumed when in the
presence of the _Raja_ or of myself, and during our progress through his
father's district I heard many tales of his ill doings. To these,
however, I attached but little importance, for Malays are very apt to
malign a young Chief who, as they say, is born like a tiger cub, with
teeth and claws, and may always be expected to do evil. Nevertheless, it
would certainly never have occurred to me at that time that this
mild-eyed, soft-spoken, silken-mannered, rather melancholy young man was
capable of committing a peculiarly cruel, deliberate, and cold-blooded
murder. Until one begins to understand them, one's Malay friends always
seem to be breaking out in some new and unexpected place, to the intense
mortification and surprise of people who attempt to judge Oriental
character from a purely European standpoint.

The _Raja_ and I journeyed through Pahang with great state and
pageantry, our party increasing in bulk as we went along, after the
manner of a snowball. The _Raja_ and I were accommodated on a huge raft