firma was, we knew, not far distant. It was a strange and beautiful scene. The water was as smooth as burnished steel, and reflected, wherever the trees left an opening, the thousand stars which strewed the sky. The tall stems of the forest trees rose from this glittering surface, and waved their sable plumes over our heads; whilst the firefly, or some equally luminous insect, occasionally lit up first one tree and then another, as if sparks of liquid gold were being emitted from the rustling leaves. Silently we lay on our oars, or rather paddles: not a sound of the flying canoe could be heard. It was evident that the scout had escaped; and it only remained for us to make the best of our way back again—a task which, in the absence of all excitement, we found an extremely tough one; indeed we grounded so often on the roots of the mangrove trees, that I proposed to wade through the mud and water, dragging the canoe after us. To this, however, the Malays would in nowise listen; and spoke so earnestly of the danger arising from a particular kind of snake, that we thought it better to listen to them—a piece of wisdom upon our part which gave rise to some congratulations on the morrow, when, in company with our advisers, we visited the mangrove swamp, and found in the fork of many of the trees a perfect nest of snakes. These, the Malays assured us, were very venomous; yet the reptiles were not above a foot or eighteen inches long, and about the girth of a man's little finger, the greatest peculiarity being strong black markings about the body, which gave them an ap pearance somewhat in keeping with their bad reputation. VENOMOUS SNAKES. 85 Having, like most youths, read every book which I could get hold of descriptive of wild beast, bird, and reptile, from my reading I had been led to believe that the whipsnake was everywhere most dangerous; and I must say, when I observed a number of these long green-coloured creatures hanging like tendrils from the trees we had in the darkness of the previous night been pushing our way through, I felt thankful for our escape. Touching one of the Malays who were with me, I pointed at them and said, "They are very bad." He smiled, and assured me they were not by any means so dangerous as those in the forks of the trees in the mangrove swamps. CHAPTER IX. MAHOMET ALEE DOES NOT ATTACK-START CRANE-SHOOTING— DAYBREAK IN MALAYIA-THE ADJUTANT-THE "OLD SOL DECIDE UPON SEEING THE NESTS COLLECTED-DIFFICULTIES THE chase by night was followed by no general attack from the piratical fleet, and we surmised that the scouts, having found us on the qui vive, had reported unfavourably of the probability of surprising the blockading squadron-a surmise which the inhabitants of the neighbouring village afterwards confirmed. One middle watch in January, the lookout-man awoke me, and told me my sampan and gun were ready as I had desired. I could hardly conceive it possible to feel so cold and cheerless at the short distance of 200 miles from the equator as I then did. The mist of the early night had DAYBREAK IN MALAYIA. 87 fallen in the shape of dew, wetting the decks and awnings as if it had been raining heavily; and a light breeze blowing down from the Patani Hills struck a chill into my bones, already stiffened by sleeping upon a hard and damp deck. Day had as yet hardly dawned, but I was anxious to try and get a shot at some flocks of elegant white cranes of a small size, which nightly roosted on a clump of trees about a mile distant from my anchorage; and my only chance of being able to get sufficiently near, was to be there before they flew off to their feeding-grounds. Half lamenting I had troubled myself with any such sporting mania, yet unwilling to let the Malay see what a lazy individual his captain was, I threw myself into the canoe, grasped the paddle, and by a stroke or two awoke to the interest of the sport before me, and the beauties of a morning in Malayia. The daydawn had already chased the stars away from one half the bright heaven overhead; the insect world, so noisy from set of sun on the previous day, had ceased their shrill note, whilst the gloomy forest shook off its sombre hue, and, dripping with dew, glistened in many a varied tint, as the morning beams played upon it, or streamed down through the mountain gorges beyond. The Indian Sea laughed with a thousand rippling smiles, and the distant isles seemed floating on clouds of purple and gold as the night mists rose from their level seaboards, and encircled the base of their picturesque peaks. One could have cheered with joy and heartfelt healthful appreciation of the glorious East; but no! not far beyond me, on a projecting shoal, stands the tall adjutant, who had as yet baffled all our attempts to shoot him—a very king of fishing-birds. He formerly used to fish in the Parlis river; but our seamen in the cutter, who would brook no competitors in their poaching pursuits, fired and fired at the poor adjutant without hitting it, until, by way of revenge, they nicknamed it the "old soldier”. -a term which, in their estimation, comprised all that was wary, and difficult to catch at a disadvantage. The "old soldier" loomed like a giant in the grey mist flowing from the forest, and he evidently saw me as soon as I did him ; but knowing from experience the distance to which his enemies might be allowed to approach with safety, he strutted out a pace or two into deeper mud or water and pursued his fishing. I, however, did not intend to fire until I reached the cranes, which I could see clustering in some trees ahead; and the adjutant, as if fathoming my intentions, or, what is more likely, taking me for a Malay (who never disturbed him), let me pass within moderate shot distance. I was interested in seeing how he captured his prey, and watched him narrowly. The bird stood like a statue, in a foot of water and mud, the long legs admirably supporting the comparatively small body, a long neck, and such a bill! It looked as if it could cut a man in two, and swallow him. Presently, from a perfect state of quietude, the adjutant was all animation, the head moving rapidly about as if watching its unconscious prey; a rapid stride or two into a deep gully of water, a dive with the prodigious beak, and then the adjutant held in the air what looked like a moderate-sized conger-eel. |