Female Labok. 265 



tliem in some shady spot on the ground, going at intervals to 

 give them nourishment, or they leave tliem at home in the 

 care of other children too young to work. Under neither of 

 these circumstances can infants be properly attended to, and 

 great mortality is the result, keeping down the increase of 

 I^oiDulation far below the rate which the general prosperity of 

 the country and the universality of marriage would lead us to 

 expect. This is a matter in which the Government is direct- 

 ly interested, since it is by the increase of the pojDulation alone 

 that there can be any large and pei'manent increase in the pi"od- 

 uce of coffee. The missionaries should take up the question, 

 because, by inducing married women to confine themselves to 

 domestic duties, they will decidedly promote a higher civihza- 

 tion, and directly increase the health and happiness of the 

 whole community. The people are so docile, and so willing 

 to adopt the manners and customs of Europeans, that the 

 change might be easily effected, by merely showing them that 

 it was a question of morality and civilization, and an essential 

 step in their progress toward an equality with their white 

 rulers. 



After a fortnight's stay at Ruriikan, I left that pretty and 

 interesting village in search of a locality and climate more 

 productive of birds and insects. I passed the evening with 

 the controUeur of Tondano, and the next morning at nine left 

 in a small boat for the head of the lake, a distance of about ten 

 miles. The lower end of the lake is bordered by swamps and 

 marshes of considerable extent, but a little further on the hills 

 come down to the water's edge, and give it very much the ap- 

 pearance of a great river, the width being about two miles. 

 At the upper end is the village of Kakas, where I dined with 

 the head-man in a good house like those I have already de- 

 scribed, and then went on to Langowan, four miles distant, 

 over a level plain. This was the place where I had been rec- 

 ommended to stay, and I accordingly uniDacked my baggage 

 and made myself comfortable in the large house devoted to 

 visitors. I obtained a man to shoot for me, and another to 

 accompany me the next day to the forest, where I was in 

 hopes of finding a good collecting-ground. 



In the morning after breakfast I started off, but found I had 

 four miles to walk over a wearisome straight road through 



