Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/123

Rh kriss; but feeling too fatigued to return in search of it, he approached a woodman busily at work, and begged him to seek it for him. The latter obeyed, and while he was absent, the priest and his servant, sitting on the clump of a forest tree, refreshed themselves with some food which they had brought with them. Some hours having elapsed without the return of the messenger, the priest began to feel uneasy at the prospect of not completing his long journey before nightfall, and despatched his servant in quest of the woodman. The former had not proceeded far, when he met the messenger returning with the kriss. As his master had given him strict orders not to come back without it, he requested the woodman to deliver it to him; a request which the man, who anticipated a reward for his services, refused to grant. The consequence was that a violent altercation took place, ending in the death of both.