s Korinchi men who
have vomited feathers, after feasting upon fowls, when for the nonce
they had assumed the forms of tigers; and of those other men of the same
race who have left their garments and their trading packs in thickets,
whence presently a tiger has emerged. All these things the Malays know
have happened, and are happening to-day, in the land in which they live,
and with these plain evidences before their eyes, the empty assurances
of the enlightened European that Were-Tigers do not, and never did
exist, excite derision not unmingled with contempt.

The Slim Valley lies across the hills which divide Pahang from Perak. It
is peopled by Malays of various races. Rawas and Menangkabaus from
Sumatra, men with high-sounding titles and vain boasts, wherewith to
carry off their squalid, dirty poverty; Perak men from the fair Kinta
valley, prospecting for tin, or trading skilfully; fugitives from
Pahang, long settled in the district; and the sweepings of Sumatra,
Java, and the Peninsula. It was in this place that I heard the following
story of a Were-Tiger, from Penghulu Mat Saleh, who was, and perhaps is
still, the Headman of this miscellaneous crew.

Into the Slim Valley, some 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 _sarongs_,--the native
skirts or waist-cloths,--trudging in single file through the forests and
through the villages, hawking their goods to the natives of the place,
with much cunning haggling or hard bargaining. But though they came to
trade, they stayed long after the contents of their packs had been
disposed of, for Haji Ali took a fancy to the place. Therefore he
presently purchased a compound, and with his two sons set to work upon
planting cocoa nuts, and cultivating a rice-swamp. They were quiet,
well-behaved people; they were regular in their attendance at the mosque
for the Friday congregational prayers, and as they were wealthy and
prosperous they found favour in the eyes of their poorer neighbours.
Thus it happened that when Haji Ali let it be known that he desired to
find a wife, there was a bustle in the villages among the parents with
marriageable daughters, and, though he was a man well past middle life,
Haji Ali found a wide range of choice offered to him.

The girl he selected was Patimah, the daughter of poor parents, peasants
living on their land in one of t