The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-03-26
A RIMAU DAHAN.
The Adventure Of Two Little
Girls in Sumetra.

A.
ira, one of the largest islands of the
East Indian archipelago, there lived, a
few miles inland from Sunda strait,
two American families whom I will
call, respectively, Mowbray and Sher-
wood, the head of the former owning n
coffee plantation and that of the latter
4 large area of rice fields.
The Mowbrays had but one child q
fine, manly boy of sixteen, while the
Shcrwoods were the happy parents of
two charming little girls, the elder
named Lillian and the younger, Lulu.
Many years ago, while making pro-
longed stay in southern Sumatra and
an exploration of some of the smaller
adjacent islands, l became acquainted
with both these families, and was much
surprised to find that neither know of
the others existence, though their cs-
tatcs were sepa rated only by Il wide
bayou, running not very far inland
This state of things 1 determined to
remedy on the earliest opportunity,
feeling sure that these strangers in a
strange land'-iny own countrymcn-
would take much comfort in each otll-
cr's society. But the pleasant task OF
Introduction was taken out OF NV
hands in an unexpected and rather
singular manner. One day Lillian and
Lulu Sherwood, ever in search of nov
cities, had wandered, unattended,
nearly q milo from home and were
gathering flowers along the edge of a
bride path, which ran through n lux
uriant grove of cocoanut palms and
wild orange trees, when they were SO
startled by the sudden appearance of Il
horseman, coming around bend in
the path on q gallop, that they invol-
UNFAIRLY screamed out in alright
The rider, II bright-faccd boy, carry
ing silver-mountcd rifle and bcstrid-
ing beautiful Arab mare, instantly
drew up, raised his hat, and said: 81
beg your pardon, young ladies. Pm
very sorry to have brighton cd you, but
I did not see you at all. My namo is
Ernest Mowbray. My father is cof-
fee planter, nnd we live obout six miles
from here, on the other side of the big
bayou"
''Oh. we'ro not o bit frightened.
now" replied Lillian. eve are Mrs.
Sherwood's little girls Our pnpa Owls
those rice fields over there, and it's
only little way to our house. We
were just picking some of these flow
ers; they're so different from those in
our own country We came from the
United States of America only two
months ago, and everything hero
seems very strange to u.s."
While the child wns speaking, Ernest
removed his hat entirely; and. when
she uttered the words Omitted States"
with such evident pride he smiled de-
lightedly, bent almost to his saddle
bow, apologized once moro, and rode
slowly away.
"My! what q nice, polite boy; he
speaks English. too; not that horrid
Dutch, Malay and Chinese we hear
every day" exclaimed Lillian.
eyes, and he called us young ladies!"
chimcd in Lulu.
well, I'm sure we are young ladies;
I'm past ten and you're nearly nine"
sagely rejoined Lillian. "But 1 do wish
the boy had stayed longer, SO we could
have a good look at his pretty gun and
that lovely horsel I don't suppose
We'll ever sec him ngain, though"
wherein the small maid was greatly
mistaken.
After little, the children left the
path and, always finding something
new to admire, strnycd deeper into tho
wood. BY and by they came to a
cleared space, evidently an old Malay
yam or maize field, wheroon grew only
a few huge wild orange trees and O
clump or two of giant cacti. AS they
carelessly approached one of the latter,
Lulu cried out: ooh, sister! see that
cririous-looking dog lying under the
big cactus. He's got n pretty red bird
between his paws and Is going to eat it.
Let's go and drive him away" And
| the two innocents walked straight
toward a full-grown "clouded" or tor
| toise-shell tigerl"
This creature, really q species Of
leopard, and found only in Sumatra, is
| called by the natives "rimau dahan,"
n name which means, I believe, a
| climber of forlted trees. During my
stay on the island saw but two speci-
mems of this, one of the rarest and most
beautiful of the cat family.
| The animal is nearly as large as the
leopard of India, and of similar ar
boreal habits, though ordinarily not SO
| fierce and dangerous. It's markinge;
are quite unique, somewhat sembling
those of the true tiger and leopard,
and yet not precisely similar to either,
presenting, as they do, strange adj
mixture of tigcr-likc stripes, leopard
like spots, and hollow, dislS-like
patches, resembling those of the Jag
uar The general ground color of the
fur is gray, and along the back of an
adult rimau dahan run two bands of