THE VILLAGE

IN THE JUNGLE

BY

L. S. WOOLF

SECOND IMPRESSION

LONDON

EDWARD ARNOLD

1913

 CONTENTS CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X

To V. W.

I've given you all the little, that I've to give; You've given me all, that for me is all there is; So now I just give back what you have given— If there is anything to give in this.

I've given you all the little, that I've to give;

You've given me all, that for me is all there is;

So now I just give back what you have given—

If there is anything to give in this.

 CHAPTER I

The village was called Beddagama, which means the village in the jungle. It lay in the low country or plains, midway between the sea and the great mountains which seem, far away to the north, to rise like a long wall straight up from the sea of trees. It was in, and of, the jungle; the air and smell of the jungle lay heavy upon it—the smell of hot air, of dust, and of dry and powdered leaves and sticks. Its beginning and its end was in the jungle, which stretched away from it on all sides unbroken, north and south and east and west, to the blue line of the hills and to the sea. The jungle surrounded it, overhung it, continually 

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