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 proven fact. The white man, on the other hand, may see in the universality of this superstition nothing more than an illustration of the effect of an abiding fear upon the human mind; but that explanation-if explanation it can, indeed, be called—does not carry him much farther along the path of discovery. Meanwhile, he has to shoulder aside as worthless masses of native evidence, which in any other connection he would accept as final.

II

The Slim valley lies across the mountain range which divides Pahang from Pêrak. It used to be peopled by Malays of various races—Râwas and Měnangkabaus from Sumatra, men with high-sounding titles and vain boasts wherewith to carry off their squalid, dirty poverty; Pêrak Malays from the fair Kinta Valley, prospecting for tin or trading skilfully; fugitives from troublous Pahang, long settled in the district; and the sweepings of Java, Sumatra, and the Peninsula.

Into the Slim Valley, some thirty years ago, there came a Korinchi trader named Haji Ali, and his two sons, Abdulrahman and Abas. They came, as is the manner of their people, laden with heavy packs of sárong—the native skirt or waistcloth—trudging in single file through the forest and through the villages, hawking their goods among the natives of the place, driving hard bargains and haggling cunningly. But though they came to trade, they stayed long after they had disposed of the contents of their