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sands of the elephants, and the tens of thousands of the followers, with which they credited the adventurous, but slender bands of ragamuffins, who followed Ahmad's fortunes, Che' Seman broke into their talk with words on a subject which, at that time, was ever uppermost in the minds of the Tembeling people, and the conversation straightway drifted into the channel in which it had run, with only casual interruptions, for many weeks past. 'He of the Hairy Face[12] is with us once more,' ejaculated Che' Seman; and when this announcement had caused a dead silence to fall upon his hearers, and had even stilled the chatter of the women-folk near the fireplace, he continued: 'At the hour when the cicada is heard (sunset), I met Imam Sidik of Gemuroh, and bade him stay to eat rice, but he would not, saying that He of the Hairy Face had made his kill at Labu yesternight, and it behoved all men to be within their houses before the darkness fell. And so saying he paddled his dug-out down stream with the short quick stroke used when we race boats. Imam Sidik is a wise man, and his words are true. He of the Hairy Face spares neither priest nor prince. The girl he killed at Labu was a daughter of the _Wans_--her name Wan Esah.' [Footnote 12: _Si Podong_ = one of the names used by jungle-bred Malays to describe a tiger. They avoid using the beast's real name lest the sound of it should reach his ears, and cause him to come to the speaker.] 'That makes three-and-twenty whom He of the Hairy Face hath slain in one year of maize' (three months), said Awang in a low fear-stricken voice. 'He touches neither goats nor kine, and men say He sucketh more blood than He eateth flesh.' 'That it is which proves Him to be the thing he is,' said Ngah. 'Thy words are true,' said Che' Seman solemnly. 'He of the Hairy Face has his origin in a man. The _Semang_--the negrits of the woods--drove him forth from among them, and now he lives solitarily in the jungles, and by night he takes upon himself the form of Him of the Hairy Face, and feasts upon the flesh of his own kind.' 'I have heard tell that it is only the men of Korinchi who have this strange power,' interposed Abdollah, in the tone of one who longs to be reassured. 'Men say that they also possess the power,' rejoined Che' Seman, 'but certain it is that He of the Hairy Face was born a _Semang_,--a negrit of the woods,--and when He goeth forth in human guise he i
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