Bandong. — Method of collecting Edible Swallows' -nests. 235 



much indebted. The following- few pages are devoted to an 

 account of this interesting excursion. 



Towards 5 p. m. we arrived at Tjiangoer, in company 

 with Dr. de Vrij and M. Vollenhoven, and immediately set 

 out on our journey to Bandong, so as to reach the same even- 

 ing that neat little town, whose singularly favourable position, 

 almost exactly in the centre of the Regency, makes it a dan- 

 gerous rival to Tjiangoer as the seat of government. En route 

 we passed Tjisokan, a small village, most of whose inhabit- 

 ants are engaged in procuring edible swallows' -nests, which 

 are found in great quantities at a chalk mountain about 

 twelve miles distant, known as Radjamandula.* The spots at 

 which the edible nests of the Hirundo esculenta are found are 

 anything but grottoes peculiar to this product, as is usually 

 alleged, but steep, almost inaccessible, cliffs, crannies, and 

 fissures in the rock, in which the swallows build their nests, and 

 which can only be reached by the utmost exertion, frequently 

 accompanied by danger to life. They are met with partly upon 

 the south coast, close above the raging surf, partly deep in the 

 interior, about 2000 feet above the level of the sea, distant 

 several hundred English miles from the nearest part of the 

 sea-shore ; and while the inhabitants of Karangbolong have 

 to scale the almost perpendicular coast-wall by means of 



* Called in the Sunda dialect Gunung Masigit, or Hill of the Mosque, in conse- 

 quence of the chalk, of which it is composed, being broken into pinnacles of remark- 

 able uniformity, and strongly resembhng the appearance presented by the minarets 

 of a mosque. 



