Rattan Palms. 275 



dogs, and I could only preserve the heads. A grand hunt 

 which we attempted on the third day failed, owing to bad 

 management in driving in the game, and we waited for five 

 hours, perched on platforms in trees, without getting a shot, 

 although we had been assured that pigs, babirdsas, and anoas 

 would rush past us in dozens. I myself, with two men, staid 

 three days longer to get more specimens of the maleos, and suc- 

 ceeded in preserving twenty-six very fine ones, the flesh and 

 eggs of which supplied us with abundance of good food. 



The major sent a boat, as he had promised, to take home 

 my baggage, while I walked through the forest with my two 

 boys and a guide about fourteen miles. For the first half of 

 the distance there was no path, and we had often to cut our 

 way through tangled rattans or thickets of bamboo. In some 

 of our turnings to find the most practicable route I expressed 

 my fear that we were losing our way, as, the sun being vertical, 

 I could see no possible clew to the right direction. My con- 

 ductors, however, laughed at the idea, which they seemed to 

 consider quite ludicrous ; and sure enough, about half-way, we 

 suddenly encountered a little hut where people from Licoupang 

 came to hunt and smoke wild pigs. My guide told me he had 

 never before traversed the forest between these two points ; 

 and this is what is considered by some travellers as one of the 

 savage " instincts," whereas it is merely the result of wide 

 general knowledge. The man knew the topography of the 

 whole district — the slope of the land, the direction of the 

 streams, the belts of bamboo or rattan, and many other indica- 

 tions of locahty and direction ; and he was thus enabled to hit 

 straight upon the hut in the vicinity of which he had often 

 hunted. In a forest of which he knew nothing he would be 

 quite as much at a loss as a European. Thus it is, I am con- 

 vinced, with all the wonderful accounts of Indians finding 

 their way through trackless forests to definite points. They 

 may never have passed straight between the two particular 

 points before, but they are well acquainted with the vicinity 

 of both, and have such a general knowledge of the whole 

 country, its water system, its soil and its vegetation, that as 

 they approached the point they are to reach, many easily-rec- 

 ognized indications enable them to hit upon it with certainty. 



The chief feature of this forest was the abundance of rat- 



