and we came here this day that his destiny might be
accomplished.” The Sal6n, with expressive action,
stated that great pythons lived in the cave, and on
the island. The Malay, who come here every year
for the swallows’ nests, and hold a feast on the rocks
at the cave’s mouth, never kill the python, considering
him in some way associated with the spirit of this
inferno. The Salon come here to spear the devil fish,
and slay a giant lizard that frequents the island.
The tide was now running in, and the waters of
the lake were beginning o o to rise. Havinog no taste
for an enforced detention within its walls, we made
for the passage, and shortly after emerged on the open
sea, where the launch lay waiting for us ; and the-
crew stood wondering where we had been. The lascar
and the sea-cunny each had his tale to tell. For no
one on board the launch had ever, in his twenty years’
experience of these seas, heard of the hidden lake.
* # * * *
Leaving the shadowy battlements of the island
behind us, we steam up Celerity Passage, wooded Domel,
the isle of honey, on our left, and a low country of
brown sandy flats and pale swamps on our right.
Towards evening we attain once more the island
country, and the sun sets in a blaze of salmon-pink
between Money and Trotter, touching with its light
the crest of Rosy, far away in the' purple distance.
The anchor drops, and there follows the peace of the
long evening. The launch ceases from its hard
throbbing, the fires are put out, and the embers pale.
The tired crew, one by one, drop asleep. Almost the
last sound that breaks the stillness of the night comes
from the sea-cunny’s voice, as he retails his adventures,
and goes over in bold picturesque terms the incidents
of the morning.
A single lantern burns at the stern. A world of
dark sea, and starry sky, and the shadowy, immense
forms of islands brooding on the horizon lies about me.
I am glad that there is no one to break in upon my
solitude. For in the dusk and the silence stranOge
thoughts move through my mind ; thoughts that are
luminous one instant, faint and dark the next ; revelations
of the firmament, and sudden lights into the dark
places of the human spirit ; hints of a world plan, faint
tremors of a Creator’s will, fading convictions of the
destiny of life.
VOL. II. 577 M