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Q. How may we become informed concerning things too high for our own knowledge?

A. We should strive to learn from the great teachers, the prophets and poets and saints of the human race, whose writings are opened up to us by education. Especially should we seek to learn how to interpret and understand that Bible which our Nation holds in such high honor.

Q. What then do you reverently believe can be deduced from a study of the records and traditions of the past in the light of the present?

.

A. I believe in one Infinite and Eternal Being, a guiding and loving Father, in whom all things consist. I believe that the Divine Nature is specially revealed to man through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lived and taught and suffered in Palestine 1900 years ago, and has since been worshipped by the Christian Church as the immortal Son of God, the Saviour of the world. I believe that man is privileged to understand and assist the Divine purpose on this earth, that prayer is a means of communion between man and God, and that the Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us along the Way towards Goodness and Truth, so that by unselfish service we may gradually enter into the Life Eternal, the Communion of Saints, and the Peace of God.

Q. What do you mean by the Life Eternal?

A. I mean that whereas our ter

restrial existence is temporary, our real existence continues without ceasing, in either a higher or a lower form, according

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establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then we ask for the supply of the ordinary needs of existence, and for the forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings just as we pardon those who hurt us. We pray to be

The Hibbert Journal.

kept from evil influences, and to be protected when they attack us. Finally, we repose in the might, majesty, and dominion of the Eternal Goodness.

Oliver Lodge.

THE TIGER THAT WAS NOT.

It is gray dawn on the banks of the Perak River. The little Malay owl has uttered its last kû-hûp; in every tree small birds are twittering and fluffing their feathers to warm themselves, and on all sides the jungle-cocks are shrilling a cheery defiance to one another. Sunken under an accumulation of ghost-like mists the wide expanse of river lies pale, drear, and chill. A faint saffron light in the east enables one dimly to discern upon the river bank a number of scattered dwellings, such as constitute a Malay village, and at the water's edge a long line of tethered house-boats, prahus, and dug-outs. One by one the Malays rouse themselves from sleep, and with eyes and brains still heavy with slumber, pull a scanty cotton cloth over shivering, rounded, backs, and make their way to the river where they perform their morning ablutions and repeat the morning prayer of the Mahommedan.

A few minutes later a glory of gold touches the saffron sky, tinges it, suffuses it, absorbs it,-and there is day. The sun springs above the horizon, shows his clear disc above the distant forest-covered mountains, and throws long horizontal shafts of light and warmth that dance upon the sparkling river and set coursing anew the blood of man and beast.

On one of the house-boats, whose Union Jack at the stern shows that she carries the District-Officer, the servants are laying breakfast, and prepa

rations of a similar nature are going on in the next house-boat, whose flag of royal yellow betokens the presence of a member of the Sultan's family.

It was now nearly two weeks since a tiger had taken up its abode in a patch of bluker, or secondary forest, behind the village at which the house-boats are moored. Day and night it had terrified the villagers by roaring to a mate, and the local chief had applied for assistance to the Sultan's son, by whom, conjointly with the District-Officer, the present arrangements for a drive had been made.

A Malay seated himself at a great brass gong hung in the rajah's boat, and began to beat the assembly-call. Before long a distant boat shot out into midstream, and moved in the direction of the sound. Then on all sides the bright surface of the water became dotted with black specks of various size all converging on the one point. The Malays whose houses were near at hand collected in small groups upon the bank. Round the landing-place prahus and dug-outs clustered thickly. Some held only a poler and a steersman, while others were laden to the water's edge with a crowd of Malays perched in ungainly bird-like attitudes, but in apparent comfort, upon the bare inch or two of the free-board. By the time that the party, of whom the writer was one, was ready to step on shore, some two hundred Malays had mustered on the bank. In this throng of men there

was not one who

was

not armed. Nearly every man held a spear, many carried a dagger (kris) as well, and not a few showed a waist-belt loaded with an assortment of weapons that would not have disgraced the most piratical of marauders. The spears showed that a tiger-drive was contemplated, for across each, some eighteen inches below the point, a little piece of wood was lashed on at right angles to the shaft. This cross-bar is intended to prevent a wounded tiger from clawing its way up the spear-head that transfixes it to the man that holds the spear. Such men as owned, or had been able to borrow, a small dagger of a peculiar shape known as a golok rembau, exhibited their weapons with complacency and pride, for these daggers are supposed by the Malays to possess such extraordinary, even magical, properties that a tiger is powerless against them. When the local chief announced that everything was ready, an old pawang, or sorcerer, stepped forward with a bunch of twigs of a tree for which a tiger is thought to have a peculiar dread. Holding this small bundle in both hands, he repeated over it the charm known as "that which closes the tiger's mouth," and then, after another incantation which was intended to prevent the tiger from winding us, proceeded to break the twigs into short fragments, which he distributed first among the shooters and then among the beaters. The ceremony did not take long, but by the time it was over, and the final words of advice, exhortation, and command had been said on every side, the sun was strong enough to make the shade welcome, and without further delay the old chief led his picturesque throng of beaters down one path, while we set off along a track that took us into another part of the forest.

The direction that the drive was to take had been decided upon some days

before, and a line along which the guns were to be stationed had already been cut through the forest. The line was broad enough to afford a fair shot, and had been more or less cleared of undergrowth and obstacles. For the benefit of those who do not know, I may say that such a line is not, or should not be, a straight one; for if the guns are all in the same straight line each man stands an excellent chance of being shot by his neighbors in the excitement of the moment.

The party consisted of nine guns, six Europeans and three Malay rajahs, and for each there had been erected in a tree a small platform made of lopped branches bound together with green rattans and screened with leafy boughs. The object of the platform is partly to keep the shooter safe above any danger from the tiger, but partly also to enable him to obtain the best possible view of the ground and to prevent the tiger from scenting him.

As soon as we had scrambled into our individual platforms, the Malays who had been our guides swarmed up adjacent trees, and, having first made sure that they had not intruded upon a nest of the great vicious red ants, selected comfortable perches from which to await the result of the drive. The beaters formed into line at a place some two or three miles away from the posts taken up by the guns. The forest that they had to beat out was a strip comparatively narrow in proportion to its length, lying between a Government bridle-path on the one side and a deep swamp on the other. It was most unlikely that the tiger would attempt to break out at the sides of the ground, and therefore no stops were posted.

We had not been long in our places when the preconcerted signal of a shot announced that the drive had begun. It would, however, be another two hours at least before the men would

arrive at the line of guns, for beating in dense forest, if thoroughly carried out, is very slow work. Deep silence reigned through the part of the forest in which we were, a silence enhanced by the faint distant sounds of the occasional war-cry of the advancing Malays.

A re

A peacock-pheasant, whose persistent scolding clatter, not unlike the note of a cackling barndoor hen, had warned every animal within hearing of our arrival, ceased its clamor at last, and recommenced its scratching among the fallen leaves. Two little birds,the male, a brilliant black with a golden crown, and his mate, a sober russet brown-resumed the labor of feeding their speckled nestlings. splendent ground-thrush, gorgeous as a salmon-fly, which on our approach had . hidden under some fallen leaves, regained its confidence, and came hopping out to continue its search for food. The life of every animal seemed to be a silent one. In the distance, it is true, a great rhinoceros-hornbill called from a tree-top to a mate afar off, and high over head, hidden in the blinding blue sky, a kite uttered at intervals its shrill querulous whistle. But these were the exceptions; at all hours and at all seasons the silence of the animals is one with the silence of the forest.

During the whole of the drive no animal larger than a mouse-deer appeared within sight of my platform; and, when finally the line of beaters reached the guns, we found that the drive was a blank. Some sambhur and barking deers had been seen by the other guns, but, since a tiger was our object, no one had fired at them.

The Malays were not only disappointed but much surprised at the failure of the drive. Day after day, and night after night, the tiger had been heard roaring in the area through which they had just beaten, and they could not understand why not a sign of it had been seen. They were posi

tive that, since it was not in the ground which they had just covered, it must be lying up in a smaller strip of forest between the bridle-path and the Perak. River.

After some short deliberation and. argument, they went off without: further delay to drive, and we stationed ourselves at intervals through, the forest. There was no time to clear any lines, nor to erect platforms in the trees. We took up positions on foot, arranging ourselves in such order as we could, and each man knew, though he could not see, the situation of his neighbors on either side. At the place where the beaters formed into line, the bridle-path was about a mile from the river, while at the point where the guns were stationed, about a mile further up stream, river and path were within three hundred yards of one another. The ground to be beaten was. thus a triangle; the beaters were at its base, and the guns at the apex. Behind the line of guns, river and path diverged again, and between them lay a vast expanse of dense, heavily timbered forest for which it was thought that the tiger would make. We had not been long in our places before the beaters began to advance towards us. I studied the lie of the forest in my vicinity and the approaches by which an animal would be likely to come in my direction, and then fell to watching an interminable string of little black ants at my feet. They were migrating, but I could not see whence they came or whither they were going. The line that they followed was extraordinarily devious; up one side and down the other of a tree-stump, round three sides of a great boulder, over and along the roots, under a fallen log, the black line twisted and turned. There seemed to be no attempt to shorten or to improve upon the winding path selected by the leaders of the column. The little creatures moved in a line

some six or seven deep, and for some reason, which it was difficult to discern, a constant succession of ants kept hurrying back through the ranks to communicate with the rear.

Suddenly there was a cry afar off: "Look out! The tiger is here!" How every feeling intensified at the sound! Not a soul was within sight, but one knew that the men who were hidden to right and to left had heard the words and had thrilled to them no less than oneself. The beaters were yet more than half a mile away, but it was not difficult to imagine the excitement that possessed them. Somewhere in the area encompassed by them and by the guns there was moving silently through the dense forest undergrowth the lithe powerful form of a tiger. We all knew it; it even seemed strange that the long string of ants should fail to know it and should continue their unheeding ceaseless hurrying. Somewhere near us the tiger was, or should be.

At the shout the men steadied themselves, moving to one side or the other in order to make the line of advance as perfect as possible. There was silence for a moment, and then a great voice shouted, "Selawat (prayer)." "Selawat," shouted every one, and thereupon, somewhere in the long line, one of the men chanted aloud some verses of the Koran, concluding by shouting at the top of his voice the words of the creed of Islam: "La' ila'hu illa 'llahu; wa Muhammedu 'r—rasulu 'lláhi. (There is no god but Allah, and Mahommed is the prophet of Allah);" and from every voice in the long array that was hidden up and down the forest came the roar of the response of the final Allah. If a tiger is suddenly disturbed when lying up beside an animal that it has killed, or has cubs, or is wounded, or is for any other reason savage, it often gives utterance to an answering challenge which it not infrequently follows up by charging forthwith upon the men.

I

have more than once heard a sudden vibrating roar in reply to a cry of selawat, that has made the blood of the listeners run warm; and not a few Malays have been struck down with the expression of their faith upon their lips. Apart from its religious aspect, the use of the selawat is to enable the men to know whereabouts in the denseness and tangle of the forest undergrowth the animal is hidden.

On this occasion there was no reply to the long-drawn Allah, and after a pause, during which each man assured himself of his position with regard to his neighbors, the array of beaters slowly and carefully moved forward. At intervals the piercing war-cry of the Malays rose and rang up and down the line. Occasionally an order was shouted to close in on the right or to move up faster on the left, but otherwise the advance was made in greater silence than might have been expected. The men worked out the thickets with their spear-heads, and rapped their spear-butts upon the tree-trunks with a steadiness and thoroughness that would have been creditable in any pheasant-covert in England. They were, I may say, an exceptionally fine set of men: The Malays of Saiong are famous throughout Perak for their skill and daring in a tiger-drive; and on this occasion they were under the eye both of their Sultan's son and of the DistrictOfficer.

Before long the cry arose again, "Here he is! Here he is!" Upon this the old chief in charge of the drive shouted an order. "Tahan, tahan! (Steady, hold steady!)." Down on a knee dropped every man of the two hundred that composed the line. Close to his side each man gripped his spear, with its point thrust upwards into the dark forest undergrowth in front of him. It was impossible to see the plainest object at a distance of more than twenty yards, and a tiger might

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