Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/375

 clever and engaging fellow than Leh, the strolling player might confidently reckon upon a brilliant. series of successes at the court of a Malayan king. He came upon the scene, moreover, at a time when the soul of the Kelantan people was stretching itself luxuriously after its release from the moral bonds with which the Maha Mentri had fettered it, and it was not long before the best favoured, half of the female population of Kota Bharu, a town famous for the beauty of its women, were, to use the Malay phrase, "mad" for Leh. The natives of the Penin- sula, who are philosophers in their own way, recog- nize that love, when it wins a fair grip upon man or woman, is as much a disease of the mind as any other form of insanity; and as it is more common than most other forms of mania, they speak of it as "the mad- ness" par ercellence.

Such a state of things, however, caused much dis- satisfaction to the rest of the male community, and the number of the malcontents received constant recruits as the madness spread among the women. The latter, as time went on, became more and more shameless and reckless, and threw off all disguise, for they were too numerous for any unorganized system of wife and daughter beating effectively to cope with the trouble. When they were not occupied in way- laying Leh in sending him notes or presents, in making assignations with him, or in ogling him as he swag- gered past their dwellings, cocking a conquering eye through the doorways, the ladies of Kota Bharu were now frequently engaged in shrill and hard-fought.