TALL TALES FROM MALAYA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24135, 29 November 1941, Page 16

TALL TALES FROM MALAYA

Golf Balls are Never Lost; Fish Climb Trees and Wink

GOLFERS who find it difficult to keep to the fairway wall approve of the Fraser's Hill course, in the heart of the Malay jungle. This course, says Mr. Carveth Wells, in "North of Singapore" (Jarrolds), is beautifully kept, and is surrounded by sensitive mimosa:—

interesting plant grows I into a dense bush that bears - pink flowers. I shall never forget my surprise the first time I attempted to pick some of them. The moment I touch :1 the bush, the leaves closed up. Then the branches that carried the leaves folded down on the main stem and finally the whole bush lay down. "Around the golf course this _ plant came in useful, because it was difficult to lose the ball." Difficult because immediately the ball entered the rough, the rough promptly and most obligingly lay down. Millionaire's Garden Even stranger, however, were the. plants Mr. Wells saw in the garden of a Chinese millionaire's house in Singapore:— & "It appeared that the owner disliked caterpillars and insects that lived on foliage. He wanted his garden always to look fresh and blooming. Therefore every tree and slirub in it was cleverly made of metal and painted; metal leaves moved in the breeze. Crawling over the rock garden were huge porcelain dragons of vivid colours, while another section of the garden was given over entirely to a menagerie of metal animals and* birds. The most prominent place in the garden was devoted to a large replica of Ferdinand the Bull."

More surprising than this millionaire's whim was, Mr. Wells felt, the Chinese attitude to death and suffering. Passing bv train through the flood area around Tientsin, Mr. Wells noticed that near one of the most crowded see- j tions of the embankment two people were clinging to an overturned boat that was floating by. "Suddenly another boat put out toward them and we felt that thev were about to be rescued. Not at all." As soon as the 'rescue' boat reached the one to which the two people were clinging, instead of hauling them out of the water, the 'rescuers' beat them on the knuckles until they let go and sank. They then rescued the boat." This was because of the Chinese belief that to save anyone from death is to interfere with their fate. "God evidently intended the people to drown; therefore, anyone preventing their death would become responsible for them for the rest of their lives." Embarrassed Missionary The Japanese custom of communal bathing has frequently been the cause of embarrassment to European visitors. .Mr. Wells met one American missionary who told him that when he first arrived in Japan, rather than lace the public bathing room, he had made a habit of having a private sponge-down in the wash-room. One day, however, "his host took him to one side and said: 'Young man, everyone is talking

ROYAL MINT ROBBED YOUNG PACKER'S CRIME MOW COINS WERE CONCEALED A 15-year-old boy, employed a? a packer in the Royal Mint Refinery, admitted, at East London Juvenile Court.', of stealing £IOO worth of mixed silver coins from the Mint. A police officer said that a crato was found broken open in the strongroom ■where the boy had worked alone. A canvas bag containing £IOO worth of silver coins was missed. Some time later two or, tl)ree 2s pieces were .found to have been passed over the canteen counter. : ( The boy was arrested. The police found £4O worth of the coins in a bag up th'e chimney at his home. He said the remaining £6O worth was hidden in some waste ground, but 'there was no trace of it. The boy stated that, as everybody ■was searched before leaving the build-

ing, he had to take the coins home, from time to time, by putting them in his gas-mask container. The case was adjourned for a week, the chairman (Mr. Basil Henriques) commenting: "It is very bad to leave a boy of this age completely alone 111 the room. 1 '

about von. You haven't had a bath for over a week.' , , , " 'But in America men do not take batlis with women,' explained the mis* sionarv in confusion. . " 'Oh! Is that the reason?' exclaimed the .Japanese. 'Of course, we Japanese don't think much of women, either, but we don't mind bathing with them. The missionary had, by the time Mr. Wells met him, "become quite blase with regard to human nakedness. The journey which Mr. Wells describes in " North of Singapore, through Japan, JvOrea. Manchuria. China and Malaya, was largely inspired by a determination to see and photograph tree-climbing fish. About 20 years ago Mr. Wells worked in Malaja as a railway surveyor. Later he settled in the United Stat.es and became a professional lecturer. "1 learned," he savs, "that while my audiences enjoyed niv stories of the Malay jungle, they regarded them as entertaining fiction rather than facts of natural history. This was particularly the case when I stated that in -Malaya I had seen a fish climb a tree and deliberately wink its eve." These fish apparently do exist. Mr. Wells was finally lucky enough to photograph one actually climbing a tree, and just before it jumped down it winked.