Had only one been ill, they might have ascribed the illness to some other cause; but now, when all five were affected at the same time, and with symptoms exactly similar, they could have no other belief than that it was owing to what they had eaten, and that the flesh of the hornbill had caused their sickness-- perhaps poisoned them.
Could this be?
Was it possible for the flesh of a bird to be poisonous?
Was that of a hornbill so?
These questions were quickly asked of one another, but more especially addressed to Saloo.

The Malay did not believe it was.

He had eaten hornbills before, and more than once; had seen others eat them; but had never known or heard of the dish being followed by symptoms similar to those now affecting and afflicting them.
The bird itself might have eaten something of a poisonous nature, which, although it had not troubled its own stomach, acted as an emetic upon theirs.

There was some probability in this conjecture; at all events the sufferers thought so for a time, since there seemed no other way of accounting for the illness which had so suddenly seized upon them.
At first they were not so very greatly alarmed, for they could not realise the idea that they had been absolutely poisoned.

A little suffering and it would be all over, when they would take good care not to eat roast hornbill again.