to rise, and had established himself
in a fortified camp on the summit of one of the twin hills. He hung over the
town of Patusan like a hawk over a poultry-yard, but he devastated the open
country. Whole villages, deserted, rotted on their blackened posts over the
banks of clear streams, dropping piecemeal into the water the grass of their
walls, the leaves of their roofs, with a curious effect of natural decay as if
they had been a form of vegetation stricken by a blight at its very root. The
two parties in Patusan were not sure which one this partisan most desired to
plunder. The Rajah intrigued with him feebly. Some of the Bugis settlers, weary
with endless insecurity, were half inclined to call him in. The younger spirits
amongst them, chafing, advised to get Sherif Ali with his wild men and drive the
Raiah Allang out of the country. Doramin restrained them with difficulty. He was
growing old, and, though his influence had not diminished, the situation was
getting beyond him. This was the state of affairs when Jim, bolting from the
Rajah's stockade, appeared before the chief of the Bugis, produced the ring, and
was received, in a manner of speaking, into the heart of the community.«
 

                               Chapter Twenty-Six

»Doramin was one of the most remarkable men of his race I had ever seen. His
bulk for a Malay was immense, but he did not look merely fat; he looked
imposing, monumental. This motionless body, clad in rich stuffs, coloured silks,
gold embroideries; this huge head, enfolded in a red-and-gold headkerchief; the
flat, big, round face, wrinkled, furrowed, with two semicircular heavy folds
starting on each side of wide, fierce nostrils, and enclosing a thick-lipped
mouth; the throat like a bull; the vast corrugated brow overhanging the staring
proud eyes - made a whole that, once seen, can never be forgotten. His impassive
repose (he seldom stirred a limb when once he sat down) was like a display of
dignity. He was never known to raise his voice. It was a hoarse and powerful
murmur, slightly veiled as if heard from a distance. When he walked, two short,
sturdy young fellows, naked to the waist, in white sarongs and with black
skull-caps on the backs of their heads, sustained his elbows; they would ease
him down and stand behind his chair till he wanted to rise, when he would turn
his head slowly, as if with difficulty, to the right and