250 A XATVBALIST'S WAXPERTXaS 



CHAriER yiii. 



SOJOUEX IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY — COuUnued. 



Maara Mengkulem — Refused, entrance into the Djambi Sultanate — Xapal 

 Litjin— Peak of Karang-nata — Geolcgicnl formation — Botanical features 

 Birds— Iltmipterun milked by ants — Hakit life — Bi^-in-telok — Water 

 roads — An escape from drowning — Pau — River squall — Approacli to 

 Palembnng — Tf'.ver life and its massive joy — The town of Palembaug- 



Ketum to Batavia. 



On arriving at Muara Mengkulem I wns bitterly disappointed 

 to hear from the Panguran that he considered it extremely 

 improbable that the Panghulus of Djambi (all the chiefs of 

 the villages in Djambi are priests^ the people being bigoted 

 Mahomedans) would consent to my traversing their country, 

 as there Mas a great deal of fighting going on in the interior. 

 He, however, consented to send a messenger to those among 

 them who were his friends at Bukit-buhm five miles distant, 

 explaining who I was and for what object I wished to visit their 

 country, to which after an interval of some days a reply was 

 brought, that though personally fiivourable to me they could 

 not be surety for my safety, and advised me not to attempt to 

 enter without the mandate of the Sultan, meaning not the 

 Sultan recognised by the Dutch Government, but the previous 

 deposed ruler, who had taken up his court in the interior of 

 the country and whom all the Djambi people recognised. 

 This was very disappointing, but I had fared no worse than 

 the Dutch Mid-Sumatra expedition, which, two years before, 

 had been advised to turn back at that same place. I proceeded 

 a stage still farther up the river to Napal Litjin, my farthest 

 northern station, a very picturesque village at the foot^ ot 

 another of those nearly perpendicular limestone peaks of whicn 

 I have made mention more than once, as lying on the eastern 

 outskirts of the Barisan rani?e. 



