Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/129

 THE JAVANESE GIRL. 113

possessed by an evil spirit so assured, that no native who could avoid it would pass by that way after dark.

There was one, however, in whose breast the stranger's forlorn condition awakened feelings of sorrow and pity. This was a young girl, who, by signs, managed to make the captive aware of her commiseration, which she further showed by stealthily bringing him such delicacies, in the shape of fruit or food, as her slender purse enabled her to procure, and, for the protection of his limbs from the night dews, sup[)lying him with a sarong, which he kept carefully concealed beneath some leaves Ijy day.

A year or more elapsed, and, the feeling of sympathy which first actuafed the girl beginning to ripen into the deeper and more absorbing one of love, slic conceivcfl the daring ])roject of setting her lover free. Choosing hci- oppoi'tiinity, she coiiuiuinicited her ideas to liim. Longing foi'

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