Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/123

 "Yonder lies much meat," grunted one of the Sâkai to his fellow. That was their only comment upon the struggle, the end of which they had witnessed.

Now that danger was past and the daylight come again, they climbed down out of the treetops. They bent over the insensible body of Pandak Âris, aud when they found that he was still alive, they bandaged his wounds, not unskilfully, with strips torn from his sârong, and stanched the bleeding with the pith which they ripped out of the heart of a trap tree. Then they built a makeshift raft, and placed the wounded man upon it, together with as much sĕlâdang beef as it would carry. Wading downstream, one at the bow and one at the stern of the raft, they reached the camp at the month of the Mîsong, which they had quitted the preceding morning, and there they lighted a fire and indulged in a surfeit of the good red meat.

Pandak Âris was as tough as are most jungle-bred Malays, and he was blessed with a mighty constitution; wherefore, when he regained consciousness, he also feasted upon the body of his enemy.

"I cut his throat, Tûan," he said to me in after days. "I cut his throat, and I mind me that while doing so, I murmured the word Bishmillah—in the name of Allah. Therefore it was lawful for me to eat of the meat, for the beast had been slaughtered according to the rites of the Muhammadans."

For my part, I was less surprised at the ease with which he had salved his conscience than at his