“I must hurry on,” said Siu to himself, “in the hope of finding some house where I can get food and shelter. Once it is dark I shall be forced to spend the night in the jungle.”
Coming to a part of the jungle which had lately been a garden, he thought there must be a path from it leading to some house, so he began to walk round it. Soon he found an old disused path, which he followed. By this time it was quite dark, and Siu made haste to reach the Dyak house which he felt sure was not very far off. He came to a well, and near at hand he saw the lights and heard the usual sounds of a Dyak house. He was glad to think that he would not have to spend the night in the jungle, but would be able to get food and shelter at the house. He stopped to have a bath, and hid the birds he was carrying and his blow-pipe and quiver in the brushwood near the well, hoping to take them with him when he started to return the next morning.
As he approached the house, he could hear the voices of the people there. When he came to the bottom of the ladder leading up to the house, he shouted: “Oh, you people in the house, will you allow a stranger to walk up?” At once there was dead silence in the house. No one answered. Again Siu asked the same question, and after a pause a voice answered, “Yes; come up!”
He walked up into the house. To his surprise he saw no one in the open veranda in front of the different rooms. That part of a Dyak house, usually so crowded, was quite empty. Nor did he hear the voices of people talking in any of the rooms. All was silent. Even the person who answered him was not there to receive him.
He saw a dim light in the veranda further on, in the middle of the house, and walked towards it, wondering the while what could have happened to all the people in the house, for not long before he had heard many voices.
“This seems to be a strange house,” he said to himself. “When I was bathing, and when I walked up to the house, it seemed to be well inhabited, but now that I come in, I see no one and hear no voice.”
When Siu reached the light he sat down on a mat. Presently he heard a woman’s voice in the room say: “Sit down, Siu; I will bring out the pinang[3] and sireh[4] to you.”
Siu was very pleased to hear a human voice. Soon a young and remarkably beautiful girl came out of the room with the chewing ingredients, which she placed before him.
“Here you are at last, Siu,” she said; “I expected you would come earlier. How is it you are so late?”
Siu explained that he had stopped at the well to have a bath, as he was hot and tired.