186 



A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



along its winding course till it disappeared through a narrow 

 rocky gateway into the blue sea-like plain of i^ilembang. 

 Below, fields of young corn, dotted with small watch-huts 

 which were so utterly embowered in Convolvniacew that they 

 seemed to be simply immense bunches of yellow and purple 

 flowers, covered the rich flats all along both banks, and 

 might themselves have marked out the course of the river by 



TATA BCBUR-TALAM. 



their luxuriant verdure. The Pangeran owned rice-fields, 

 partly inherited, partly purchased, wdiich he informed me 

 were worth £20,000. He reckoned, however, that his income, 

 from cotton and coffee and other fruits, but princij)ally from 

 buffaloes, was greater than from his rice-fields. 



The houses of the Ogan people w^ere all richly carved, and 

 the ornamentation is said to be peculiar to their own valley. 



TATA SBIBAB A^'D TATA AWAN. 



The Semindo men (a district lying about a day's journey 

 to the west) are credited with the invention of the designs; 

 but the Palembangers, who are famous workers in wood, are 

 generally the builders, and accommodate each district wdtli 

 the style of " tata" or ornamentation peculiar to itself, which 

 it has retained for generations. The accompanying sketches 

 will illustrate the designs most in vogue. On the lowermost 



