Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/47

 OF JAVA. 38 act like the tiger and the forest. A tiger and a fo- rest had united in close friendship, and they af- forded each other mutual protection. When men wanted to take wood or leaves from the forest, they were dissuaded by their fear of the tiger, and when they would take the tiger, he was coiicealed by the forest. After a long time, the forest was rendered foul by the residence of the tiger, and it began to be estranged from him. The tiger, thereupon, quit- ted the forest, and men having found out that it was no longer guarded, came in numbers and cut down the wood, and robbed the leaves, so that, iu a short time, the forest was destroyed, and became a bare place. The tiger, leaving the forest, was seen, and although he attempted to hide himself in clefts and valleys, men attacked him, and killed liim, and thus, by their disagreement, the foregt was exterminated, and the tiger lost his life. " The same work affords the following : " The poison of a centipede is in its head ; the poison of a scorpion in its tail ; the poison of the snake is in its tooth, and one knows where to find them. But the venom of a bad man is fixed to no one spot, but, dispersed over his whole body, can- not be reached at." If we reflect that the Javanese have professed the Mahomedan religion for between three and VOL. II. c