Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/180

Sĕman. "But it is certain that He of the Hairy Face was in the beginning a Sĕmang—a negrit of the woods; and when he goeth abroad in human guise, he is like all other Sĕmang to look upon. I and many others have come upon him, now and again, when we have been in the forests seeking for jungle-produce. He is old and wrinkled and very dirty, covered with skin disease, as with a white garment; and he roameth alone naked and muttering to himself. When he spies men he makes haste to hide himself; and all folk know that it is He who harries us by night in our villages. If we venture forth from our houses during the hours of darkness, to the bathing-raft at the river's edge, to tend our sick, or to visit a friend, Si-Pûdong is ever to be found watching, and thus the tale of his kill waxeth longer and longer."

"But at least men are safe from him while they sit within their houses," said Mat.

"God alone knoweth," answered Che' Sĕman piously. "Who can say where safety abides when He of the Hairy Face is seeking to glut his appetites? He cometh like a shadow, slays like a prince, and then like a shadow he is gone. And ever the tale of his kills waxeth longer and yet more long. May God send Him very far away from us! Ya Allah! It is He, even now! Listen!"

At the word a dead silence, broken only by the hard breathing of the men and women, fell upon all within the house. Then very faintly, and far away upstream, but not so faintly but that all could hear it, as they listened with straining ears and suspended