Evening star., 1921-05-15

not bring him some new remedy for
his disease. Since he had large
household of servants who took care
of him and his own carriages and
rikshas when he travelled. he was
allowed to live untroubled by the
authorities, but he was very unhappy
because he had tried all the remedies
Of the native doctors and was steadily
growing worse. At last / told MN
that l had something that might help
He asked me what it was but would
not tell him. When he insisted
answered, Snakes"
"Uh-la" he exclaimed, waving his
arms in the air. Then / explained my
theory. The ability of snake to
shed his skin might be transferred tC
a human being if he ate snakes: and
if SO, the person would be able to
shed his leprosy. Ong ST Chou did
not care for the idea at all. but told
him it was worth trying and | argued
that a snake is much cleaner than ar
eel At last he consented, and l fur.
nished him with a number of small
pythons, with the instructions that
they were to be killed and cleaned
Immediately before they We're eaten
He was to eat them raw with his rice
I left Singapore soon after that. anG
when l returned l found that Ong )
Chou had died. People thought II
y
patient had not survived the treat
ment, but I am far from being con-
vinced that the cure will not work
or, at least, help to throw of leprosE
Ong ST Chou was in the last stages o1
the disease, and his case was not q
fair test.
After living eighteen months witt
the Malays in Sumatra ! decided thai
1 was well enough equipped to leafs
and begin the work of coilectine
wherever 1 could find the animals
wanted. went to Singapore and
found that Ariff had been malignine
me to his hearts content. l called
upon him to see what he had to say
for himself and he prophesied disma
failure for all my plans.
However, 1 engaged passage on
coast steamer going northward. ant
stopped off at Kalantan. Patani ant
Singora, in lower Siam. At those
places / gathered all the information
l could about animals and made my
self known to dealers. l wanted Il
make trips to the interior, but to DE-
so I needed a special permit from
Bangkok Instead, 1 made agree
ments with all the dealers that they
were to send their animals to me, ant
arranged with the captains ano
chinchus Of the coast boats for the
transportation of the crates BY Of
fering to pay the freight and give
off large part of Ariff's business.
4 X X
ON my return to Singapore I founc
" a letter from the director OF the
Melbourne Geological Society sug
gesting that I come to Australia with
a consignment of animals. A few
weeks later 1 arrived at Melbourne
with a black leopard, twenty-five
small monkeys, two small orang'
outangs, a pair Of civet cats and mum
erous other animals. Mr.. La Seuf, the
director, and his son, who had JUS
been appointed director of the zoo
logical gardens at Perth, met me a
the dock. His son bought the entire
consignment. The result of this visi
was my appointment as agent of the
Australian geological gardens. In re
turn for giving them first call on any
animals that came into my hands
was given a retaining fee. The mos
important part of the agreement wa'
that the animals were to be shipped
f. o. b. Singapore and that l was thu:
released from all the risks o.
transportation.
1t happened too often that animals
died aboard ship, after weeks hat
been spent in capturing them and
bringing them to port, and this los.
Since the agreement with the Aus
tralian geological gardens was ex.
actly what I wanted I returned to
Singapore elated. Ariff was crest.
fallen when he heard the news. and
he became more crestfallen when
IL + i'm, to11 ,, i'm, oh he
commission l had received from vari-
our societies in Australia. / did not
want to have him as an enemy. and
foresaw that there would be war be
tween US unless We came to some sort
of terms. Consequently, I told him
that l wanted to work with him, and
that we could do a great deal of busi-
ness together if he would treat me
fairly. He considered the matter for
time. and then. when he saw that