plenty. Indeed, it is because I don't like sleeping in their
company that I am so anxious to reach a village."

"Are zey dangerows?" asked the professor, who followed close on Nigel.

"Well, they are not safe!" replied the hermit. "I had an adventure with
one on this very road only two years ago."

"Indeed! vat vas it?" asked the professor, whose appetite for anecdote
was insatiable. "Do tell us about it."

"With pleasure. It was on a pitch-dark night that it occurred. I had
occasion to go to a neighbouring village at a considerable distance, and
borrowed a horse from a friend--"

"Anozer frond!" exclaimed the professor; "vy, Van der Kemp, zee country
seems to be svarming vid your fronds."

"I have travelled much in it and made many friends," returned the
hermit. "The horse that I borrowed turned out to be a very poor one,
and went lame soon after I set out. Business kept me longer than I
expected, and it was getting dark before I started to return. Ere long
the darkness became so intense that I could scarcely see beyond the
horse's head, and could not distinguish the path. I therefore let the
animal find his own way--knowing that he would be sure to do so, for he
was going home. As we jogged along, I felt the horse tremble. Then he
snorted and came to a dead stop, with his feet planted firmly on the
ground. I was quite unarmed, but arms would have been useless in the
circumstances. Suddenly, and fortunately, the horse reared, and next
moment a huge dark object shot close past my face--so close that its fur
brushed my cheek--as it went with a heavy thud into the jungle on the
other side. I knew that it was a tiger and felt that my life, humanly
speaking, was due to the rearing of the poor horse."

"Are ve near to zee spote?" asked the professor, glancing from side to
side in some anxiety.

"Not far from it!" replied the hermit, "but there is not much fear of
such an attack in broad daylight and with so large a party."

"Ve are not a very large party," returned the professor. "I do not zink
I would fear much to face a tiger vid my goot rifle, but I do not relish
his choomping on me unavares. Push on, please."

They pushed on and reached the village a little before nightfall.

Hospitality is a characteristic of the natives of Sumatra. The
travellers were received with open arms, so to speak, and escorted to
the public building which corresponds in some measure to our western
town-halls. It w