Henry Milner Rideout

Name: "Hantu"
Author: Henry Milner Rideout

"Hantu" (1906)

Summary

“"Hantu"”, published in 1906, is a work by Henry Milner Rideout. It explores elements such as Fulmar, Dutch and bamboos.

Quotes from "Hantu" (Henry Milner Rideout)

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ The schooner Fulmar lay in a cove on the coast of Banda. Her sails, half hoisted, dripped still from an equatorial shower, but aloft were already steaming in the afternoon glare. Dr. Forsythe, captain and owner, lay curled round his teacup on the cabin roof, watching the horizon thoughtfully, with eyes like points of glass set in the puckered bronze of his face. The "Seventh Officer," his only white companion, watched him respectfully. All the Malays were asleep, stretched prone or supine under the forward awning. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ He had brought the Fulmar round the south of Celebes, making for Ceram; but as the Dutch had forbidden him to travel to the interior, saying that the natives were too dangerous just then; and as Sidin, the mate, had sighted the Dutch tricolor flying above drab hulls that came nosing southward from Amboina way, we had dodged behind the Bandas till nightfall. The crew laughed at the babi blanda—Dutch pigs; but every man of them would have fled ashore had they known that among the hampers and bundled spears in our hold lay the dried head of a little girl, a human sacrifice from Engano. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ The crew stopped like a shot. Then they saw, too, and began to back water and turn, all pulling different ways and yelling: "Prau hantu! . . . sampar! . . . Sakit lepra! Kolera! . . . hantu!"
As we swung, I saw what it was,—a little carved prau like a child's toy boat, perhaps four feet long, with red fibre sails and red and gilt flags from stem to stern. It was rocking there in our swell, innocently, but the crew were pulling for the schooner like crazy men. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ The men were to come overland, and would have no boats. So I went ashore with three or four Malays, and the Old Boy's time we had poking in and out over the silt to find fairway, even for the gig. At last we could make round toward a little clearing in the bamboos, with a big canary tree in the middle. All was going well, when suddenly the mate grunted, pointing dead ahead. That man Sidin has the most magnificent eyes: we were steering straight into a dazzling glare. I could n't see anything, neither could the crew, for some time. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ I ask you just to believe this much: that I for my part feel sure (except sometimes by daylight) that I was not more than half asleep when a footfall seemed to come in the path, and waked me entirely. It did n't sound,—only seemed to come. I believe, then, that I woke, roused up on my elbow, and stared over at the opening among the bamboos where the path came into the clearing. Some one moved down the bank, and drew slowly forward to the edge of the firelight. A strange, whispering, uncertain kind of voice said something,—something in Dutch. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ I'm not an imaginative man; my mind, at home, usually worked with some precision; but this,—there seems to be, you might say, a blur, a—film over my mental retina. You see, I'm not a psychologist, and therefore can't use the big, foggy terms of man's conceit to explain what he never can explain,—himself, and Life. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ Yet this other thing bothered me so that I held the schooner over, and made pretexts to stay ashore two more nights. Nothing happened. Then I called myself a grandmother, and sailed for Batavia.
Two nights later, a very singular thing happened. The mate—this one with the sharp eyes—is a quiet chap; seldom speaks to me except on business. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ Or else, by a freak of nature, might a man live so long— Nonsense!— Never mind: here are the facts."
Eleven years ago, I had the Fulmar a ten-months' cruise out of Singapore, and was finally coming down along Celebes, intending to go over to Batavia. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ Batavia, April 14, Anno 1772.
You 'll find the story in any book: the chap was a half-caste Guy Fawkes who conspired to deliver Batavia to the King of Bantam, was caught, tried, and torn asunder by horses. I nosed about and went through a hole in a side wall: nothing in the compound but green mould, dried stalks, dead leaves, and blighted banana trees. The inside of the gate was blocked with five to eight feet of cement. The Dutch hate solidly. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Henry Milner Rideout, "Hantu" (1906)

“ I ordered. "Hantu does not come to white men. You go out to the ship; when I have met the soldier-messengers, row back, and take me on board with the gifts."
The mate persuaded them, and they landed me on the point, half a mile away, with a box of cheroots, and a roll of matting to take my nap on. I walked round to the clearing, and spread my mat under the canary tree, close to the shore. ”

Henry Milner Rideout

Summary

Quotes from "Hantu" (Henry Milner Rideout)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature