65 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



CHAPTER 11. 



SOJOURN AT KOSALA IN BANTAM. 



Leave Genteng — Native blacksmiths at Sadjira — Hot springs of Tjipnnas 

 Birds and plants at Tjipanas — Invitationto Kosala — Tlie Kosala estate 

 •The cLirioiis disease Lata — The Wau-wau— Birds— Bees — -Wliite ants 

 ■Great trees — Long drought and its consequences — 'J lie Ilemileia vas- 

 tutrix^ a fungoid blight and tlie buffalo disease — Flora and Fauna of 

 Kosala Mountains — Singular Ywmz ants' nes»s and their develop- 

 n^ent — Orchids at Kosala and some curious devices for securing self- 

 fertilisation — Ancient remains in the forest — The Karangs and their 

 curious rites — The Badni — Religion and superstitions of tbe peoi)le of 

 Bantam — Leave Kosala, 



i 



Aftee a very interesting period spent at Genteng, I removed 

 further to the south in search of a station on the mountains, 

 whose distant slopes I could see covered with the great forest 

 which I had never yet beheld close, and under whose shade I 

 had ever Had such an intense lomxinji to roam, the charm of 

 whose grandeur, after spending unbroken years in it^ remains 

 still as one of the most delightful reminiscences of my 

 residence in the tropics. Halting for a night at Sadjira I was 

 taken by the chief of the village to see numerous blacksmiths 

 at work in the manufacture of knives and krisses. The 

 bellows used by them in order to give a continuous blast was 

 made of two large cylinders of bamboo vertically set in the 

 ground, in each of which a piston made of a dense bunch of 

 feathers wound round a rod, was worked alternately, the wind 

 being conducted through a small tube at the bottom of each 

 bamboo, to meet in one pipe before passing below the fire- 



Pande is the Sundanese term for a worker in iron ; the 

 word is of Sanscrit origin, and originally meant "learned." 

 Though this signification is not attached to it by the natives 

 now, the smiths are held in the greatest esteem by them. 

 Before the Hindu invasion the people of Java used only stone 

 implements and hatchets, often of great elegance of design 



