a barren world, and saw how desolate is life when love has fled.
IV
As soon as Kria had pulled himself together sufficiently to enable him to think out a course of action, he set off for the Sâkai camp, whence he had taken his wife; but her people had, or professed to have, no news of her. She had always been lîar, they averred—more lîar even than the rest of her people. (Lîar means "wild," as animals which defy capture are wild.)
"The portals of the jungle are open to her," said her father indifferently. He was squatting on the ground, holding between his crooked knees a big, conical, basketwork fish-trap which he was fashion. ing. He spoke thickly through half a dozen lengths of rattan which he held in his mouth, the ends hanging down on either side like a monstrous and dis reputable moustache, and he did not so much as raise his eyes to look at his son-in-law. "She will come to no harm," he grunted. "Perhaps presently she will return."
But Kria did not want his wife "presently" or "perhaps"; he wanted her now, at once, without a moment's delay. He explained this to the assembled Sâkai with considerable vehemence.
"That which is in the jungle is in the jungle," they said oracularly. Folk who are lîar, they explained, are very difficult to catch, resent capture, and if brought back before their wanderlust is an
