Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/215

 of respect. My gift, therefore, had the effect of stemming forthwith the undercurrent of jeers and laughter at Minah and her husband which had been audible among the Peng-hulu's followers ever since the strange pair had come into view. The incident, moreover, would tend to improve her position in the village and to cause more consideration to be shown to her by her neighbours.

"Tell her also," I said, as I stepped on board my boat to begin the journey downstream. "Tell her also that if there be aught in which she needs my aid, now or hereafter, she hath but to come to me or to send me word, and I will help her in her affliction according to the measure of my ability."

Tan!" cried the villagers in a chorus of assent, as my boat pushed out from the bank, and my men seized their paddles for the homeward row; and thus ended my first encounter with Minah, the daughter of the Muhammadans, whom the threats of the village elders, the advice of her friends, the tears and en- treaties of her relatives, the contempt of most of her neighbours, and the invitations of those who would have wed with her, were alike powerless to lure from the side of the shapeless wreck who was her husband.

Later I made it my business to inquire from those who knew concerning this woman and her circum- stances, and all that I learned served only to quicken my sympathy and admiration.

Like all Malay women, Minah had been married, when she was still quite a child, to a man whom she