that in the midst of the
bewilderment which those simple souls must have experienced at being
surrounded by people and things so totally new to them, they never
seemed to forget for a moment the beloved persons they had left behind
in the jungle.

The Town-Band gave a concert and I accompanied my proteges to hear it.
The bass instruments with their deep notes jarred upon the acoustic
sense of the poor fellows and visibly inspired them with terror. They
stopped their ears with their fingers and gave clear signs of the
unpleasant feelings they were suffering from. But it was quite different
when they heard the higher-toned instruments, especially those of wood,
as the flute, the clarionet and the oboe. The pure, vibrating notes gave
them intense enjoyment judging from the pleased expression of their
countenances and their singularly brilliant eyes.

I also took them to a Chinese theatre, but the skill of the yellow
artistes did not find its way to the Sakai heart and after having
witnessed the spectacle for a few minutes they frankly declared that
they were not at all amused.

Their artless natures and simple affections remained unpolluted by the
seductions of civilization. Nothing was wanting to content them: they
were caressed by the English, received heaps of gifts and lived without
the slightest fatigue, yet they were not happy. I saw them change humour
and become more melancholy hour by hour. The distractions with which I
tried to cure their home-sickness tended only to increase it.

The third day of our sojourn at Penang they implored me so earnestly to
let them return to their families that, impressed by their sickly looks
and disconsolate air, I promised at once to grant their desire.

This promise put them into better spirits and their good humour was
quite restored when the steamer left the harbour at Penang and bore us
towards the river Perak. No one would imagine the transformation that
had taken place in my five fellow-travellers.

Four days of town-life had told upon them physically and morally. They
were tired and disgusted with everything. Accustomed, on an average, to
walk twenty miles a day, at Penang, after strolling through a few
streets, they had been weary. Exposed to privations and hardships in the
Jungle (often owing to their own improvidence) they were soon nauseated
with the ease and abundance offered them in the city.

Where the climate, the charms of the place and the security from wild