FROM MR. WALLACE. | 201 
“Ayer Panas” (hot spring), about fifteen miles from Malacca. Here 
there is a Government bungalow, which the late Resident, Captain Fer- 
rier, had kindly offered me the use of. 1 was accompanied by a young 
gentleman of Malacca who wished for change of air and exercise, and 
whose acquaintance with the Malays and their language was of much 
use tome, We took provisions with us for a month, as nothing was 
to be had on the spot, and the only communication with Malacca was 
by special messenger. 
The bungalow was pleasantly situated on a gentle elevation by one 
of the narrow, flat, winding paddy-field valleys, which are such a cha- 
racteristie feature of the Malacca district. Along the borders of this 
valley were numbers of scattered Malay houses, all elevated five or six 
feet on posts, a mode of building which seems general in this part of 
the world, from the Peninsula to New Guinea. Two or three Malay 
police resided in the house, of which they had charge, and a Hindoo 
convict living in a little hut adjoining did the sweeping and cleaning. 
Numbers of fruit-trees grew near the house, the Durian and the Jack 
being the most abundant, with the ever-present Areca palm, and a noble 
gigantic species, the Borassus Gomuti, from the juice of which a coarse 
sugar called “ jaggery” is made and sold in small cakes by the Malays. 
Sometimes grated cocoa-nut is boiled with it, and it then forms an 
agreeable sweetmeat, which, in the absence of any other delicacies, we 
used for our dessert. 
We remained here nearly a month, exploring the jungle in every 
direction, and making extensive collections of birds, insects, etc. Here 
I first saw the huge bats commonly called “ flying foxes,” whose wings 
often expand five feet. They came in the evening to the fruit-trees 
near the house, looking more like aerial machines than any living crea- 
tures. It was truly an extraordinary sight to behold these great-winged 
animals for the first time, so totally different are they from anything we 
can behold in Europe. They are much esteemed for food by all the 
inhabitants of Malacca, and we soon had an opportunity of tasting one, 
but it was too tough for me to pronounce an unprejudiced opinion on 
its merits as an article of food. Several fine species of squirrels were 
abundant, and these were much better eating. 
The Malays seemed to live a quiet, lazy life. A little patch of paddy 
field, cultivated almost entirely by the women and children, supplies 
them with food for the year by a few weeks of labour ; -— this, with 
D 
VOL. VII. 
