Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/409

 weed This was all that at that time represented the Raub Mine, which later became a rather notori- ous centre of speculation, and was at one time ex- pected to prove one of the great gold producers of the East.

From Ranb I tramped on to the foot of the main range, where people of many nationalities were busy shuicing for tin; and thence I decided to cut across the forest so as to strike the head waters of a river called the Sempam which at that time had never been visited by an European and was terr incognita to all save a very few of even the Malays of the district.

Not without difficulty I succeeded in enlisting the services of an aboriginal tribesman-a Sâkai-who undertook to guide me to the banks of the Sempam, but stoutly declined to have anything to do with my proposed attempt to descend that rock-beset river. He moved along in front of my party, with the noiseless, catlike gait which distinguishes the jungle- folk, and once he complained bitterly that the "klap- klip-klap of my canvas shoes on the ground behind him was so bewildering that he feared that "the doors of the jungle would thereby be closed to him." which was his way of suggesting that he thought it likely that he would lose his way. In common with the rest of his race, he possessed no power of instituting a comparison between one thing and another, and when we were within a couple of hum- dred yards of our destination he still obstinately maintained that it was as far ahead of us as our orig.