Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/137

 THE GHOUL

E HAD been sitting late upon the veranda of my bungalow at Kuâla Lipis, which, from the top of a low hill covered with coarse grass, overlooked the long, narrow reach formed by The combined waters of the Lîpis and the Jělai. The moon had risen some hours earlier, and the river ran white between the black masses of forest, which seemed to shut it in on all sides, giving to it the appearance of an isolated tarn. The roughly cleared compound, with the tennis ground which had never got beyond the stage of being dug over and weeded. and the rank growths beyond the bamboo fence. were flooded by the soft light, every tattered detail of their ugliness standing revealed as relentlessly as though it were noon. The night was very still, but the heavy, scented air was cool after the fierce heat of the day.

I had been holding forth to the handful of men who had been dining with me on the subject of Malay superstitions, while they manfully stifled their yawns. When a man has a working knowledge of anything which is not commonly known to his neighbours, he is apt to presuppose their interest in it when a chance to descant upon it occurs, and in those days it was only at long intervals that I had an opportunity of