disbelieve. For my own part, I can only consider it one of those strange legends which the credulity of the natives is ever so ready to receive.
"A short time, sir," said the narrator, "before I went to Indragiri (in Sumatra), as servant to the Sultan of that place, a man was missed from the town and as such an incident occasionally happened, it was supposed that he had been caught and eaten by an alligator whilst bathing in the river. A report to this effect having reached the ears of the Sultan, his majesty summoned the three keepers of his alligators, named Saguntang, Sachupa, and Sumati,[1] and before a large con- course of people complained to them that one of their children—as the natives term them—had killed a subject of his. The keepers expressed great regret at this breach of good conduct on the part of one of their charge. 'But, 'Tuan-cod' (my lord),
- ↑ The two first of these names signify certain native measures, the last means death.
