I thought to myself, is the poor fellow wise or mad in thus seeking to live alone as Nature produced him, in the unlimited liberty of his native jungle where he is secure from delusions and sorrows?
Men, little less savage than he, feel compassion for him as he passes by. Nobody would dare to laugh at or injure such a harmless soul and so he is allowed to ramble from hut to hut undisturbed, his eccentricities and his odd behaviour being his safeguard.
It is not always so amongst people more advanced in civilization!
CHAPTER VIII.
An official appointment—A tour of inspection—Lost in the forest—I find a philosopher—Lycurgus and his laws—A contented mind is a continual feast—A night among the tigers—On the Berumbum—I sleep with a serpent—The last of many—Safe from trap and arrow—The coronation of King Edward VII.
Having established a regular trade in forest products and attempted something in the way of plantations, I felt a strong desire to explore the whole country inhabited by the Sakai tribes to better estimate its riches and at the same time to know more thoroughly the character of this people of whom I knew only a limited number.
From the Bidor I passed into Sunkei Selin and Pahang, and when, in 1901, I happened to be at Tapah I was offered the Government post of Superintendent of the Perak Sakais.
The proposal was such as to gratify a little ambition of which I had not really been conscious before. I therefore accepted it with great pleasure, the more so as I felt flattered that the British Government should repose so much confidence in an Italian.