LÂTAH
One morning we were bathing as usual at the pond, and Kâsim the younger was in attendance carrying the towels, &c.
The bath was over, and we were all three standing on the bank, when my friend said to Kâsim: "Mâri, kita tèrjun" (come, let us jump in), at the same time feigning to jump. Kâsim instantly jumped into the pond, disappeared, came up spluttering, and having scrambled out, said: "Itu tîdak baik, Tûan" (that is not good of you, sir).
My friend said, "Why, I did nothing, I only said let us jump in and went like this," repeating his previous action, when Kâsim immediately repeated his plunge, and we dragged him from the water looking like a retriever.
When I was first ordered to Selangor, I thought it possible that some sort of furniture might be useful, and I took up a few chairs and other things, including a large roll of what is known as Calcutta matting. The things were useless in a place where the mud floor was often under water twice during twenty-four hours, and they lay piled in a corner of the stockade, and whenever a Malay of distinction came to see me for whom it was necessary to find a chair, it was advisable to see that the seat was not already occupied by a snake. The roll of matting,
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