HOW WE PLAYED ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the natives with their great luxury — an acorn, known as the betel-nut, which
when crushed and mixed with lime leaves, takes the place of our chewing tobacco.
In fact, the bright-red juice seen oozing from the corners of a Malay’s mouth is
as much a part of himself as is his sarong or kris. Betel-nut chewing holds
its own against the opium of the Chinese and the tobacco of the European.

As soon as we shook hands ceremoniously with the Penghulo’s oldest wife,
and tabeked to the rest of his big family, the old man scrambled down the ladder,
and sent a boy up a cocoanut-tree for some fresh nuts. In a moment half a

dozen of the great oval green nuts came
pounding down into the sand. Another
little fellow snatched them up, and with
a sharp parang, or hatchet-like knife,
cut away the soft shuck until the cocoa-
nut took the form of a pyramid, at the
apex of which he bored a hole and a
stream of delicious cool milk gurgled out.
We needed no second invitation to apply
our lips to the hole. The meat inside
was so soft that we could eat it with a
spoon. The cocoanut of commerce con-
tains hardly a suggestion of the tender
fleshy pulp of a freshly-picked nut.

We left the Penghulo’s house with the
old chief in the bow of our boat —he in-
sisted upon seeing that we were properly
announced to his subjects—and_pro-
ceeded along the coast for half a mile, and
then up a swampy lagoon to its head.

The tall tops of the palms wrapped everything in a cool green twilight.
The waters of the lagoon were filled with little bronze forms, swimming and
sporting about in its tepid depths regardless of the cruel eyes that gleamed at
them from great log-like forms among the mangrove roots.

Dozens of naked children fled up the rickety ladders of their homes as we
approached. Ring-doves flew through the trees, and tame monkeys chattered
at us from every corner. The men came out to meet us, and did the hospitali-
ties of their village ; and when we left our boat was loaded down with presents
of fish and fruit.

Almost every day after that did. we visit the campong, and were always wel-
comed in the same cordial manner.

Wahpering was tireless in his attentions. He kept his Sampan Besar, or big
boat, with its crew at our disposal day after day.

One day I showed him the American flag. He gazed at it thoughtfully and

 

A LITTLE MALAY GIRL.