the earth, and hast taken for thy dwelling-place the land which is beneath the earth!
Fire have we given thee to light thy fires, raiment wherewith thou mayest be clothed,
food to fill thy belly, and a knife to clear thy way. Go then and make unto thyself
friends among those who dwell beneath the earth, and come back no more to trouble
or molest those who live upon the earth's surface."'It was short and sweet, and then they stamped down the soil, while the mother
whimpered about the place like a cat that has lost its kittens. A mangy, half
starved dog came and smelt hungrily about the grave, until it was sent howling
away by a kick from one of the human animals near it; and a poor little brat, who
set up a piping song, a few minutes later, was kicked, and cuffed, and knocked
about, by every one who could reach him, with hand, foot, or missile. The Sâkai
think it unlucky to sing or dance for nine days after a death, so the tribesmen had
to give the poor little urchin, who had done the wrong, a fairly bad time of it to
propitiate the dead baby.
'Then they began to pack up all their household gods, and in about an hour the
last of the laden women, who was carrying so many babies, and cooking pots,
and rattan bags and things, that she looked like the outside of a gipsy's cart at
home, had filed out of the clearing, and Juggins and I, with our three or four
Malays, were left in possession. The Sâkai always shift camp like that when a
death occurs, because they think the ghost haunts the place where the body died,
though what particular harm the ghost of a mite of a baby could do, I cannot
pretend to say. When there is an epidemic among the Sâkai, they are so busy
shifting camp, and building new huts, that they have not time to get proper food,
and half those who do not die of the disease die of semi-starvation. They are a
queer lot.
'Well,' continued young Middleton, whose pipe had gone out, and who was fairly
into his stride now, 'Well, Juggins and I were left alone, and all that day we
hunted through the jungle to try and get a shot at a sĕlâdang,[14] but we saw
nothing, and we came back to the empty Sâkai camp at night, my Malays fairly
staggering under the weight of the rubbish that Juggins used to call his botanical
specimens. We got a meal of sorts, and I was lying off smoking, and thinking
how lucky it was that the Sâkai had cleared out, when suddenly old Juggins sat
up with his eyes fairly snapping at me.
'"I say," he said, "I must have that baby. It would make a ripping specimen."
'"It would make a ripping stink," I answered. "Go to sleep, Juggins, old man, the