eling thinking
human being to the level of an ape.

[Footnote 11: _Seladang_ = wild buffalo of the Peninsula.]

Talib himself had as yet reached only the first stage of his suffering,
and the craving for one breath of fresh air grew and grew and gathered
strength, until it became an overmastering longing that day and night
cried out to be satisfied. At last he could restrain the desire no
longer, and, reckless of the consequences, he told the _Per-tanda_ that,
if he could be taken to a place a day's journey up the river, he could
set his hand upon the missing _kris_ which he had hidden there. He was
perfectly aware that the _kris_ was not, and never had been, buried in
that place, for he knew as little of it as the _Per-tanda_ himself. He
could forsee that his failure to find it would be followed by worse
tortures, but he heeded not. He would breathe the free fresh air once
more, would look again up on the clear blue vault of heaven overhead,
would hear the murmur of running water, the sighing of the wind through
the fruit trees, and would see, smell, hear, and feel, all the sights,
the scents, the sounds, and the surroundings that he loved and longed
for so keenly.

On a certain day he was taken up river, to the place he had named, but
the stinking reek of the cell seemed to cling about him, and the fresh
air was to him made foul by it. The search was fruitless of course, he
was beaten by the boatmen, who had had their toil for nothing, and sore
and bleeding he was placed once more in his hated cage, with the added
pain of heavy irons to complete his sufferings. An iron collar was
riveted about his neck, and attached by heavy links to chains passed
about his waist, and to rings around his ankles. The fetters galled
him, prevented him from lying at ease in any attitude, and doubled the
number of his bed-sores. The filthy bloated flies buzzed around him now
in larger numbers, feasting horribly on his rottenness, and he himself
was sunk in stupid, wide-eyed despair.

A Chinese lunatic had been placed in the vacant cage on his left, a poor
mindless wretch, who cried out to all who visited the prison, that he
had become a Muhammadan, vainly hoping thereby to meet with some small
pity from the worshippers of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The
bestial habits of this wretched creature, whose madness was intensified
by his misery, and by his surroundings, made Talib's life more keenly
horrible than ever; but he