122 A COLLECTING TRIP 
it but Tom assures me I shall if I keep on. So I 
am still trying. The rice table is just ready, so I must 
stop. 
Affectionately, 
Ros. 
S. 8. Both, January 28, 1907. 
Dear Dod : . 
You have not written me for an age and I will 
confess that I have not written to you either for some 
time, but I have a good excuse, no time. The customs 
here are so queer and it takes a good while to get used 
to them. For instance : for breakfast the (European) 
women appear in sarongs, a cloth loosely wound about 
their waists and a white muslin dressing jacket, their 
feet sometimes bare, but more often with native sand- 
als on them which they kick off and put to one side as 
soon as they sit down. Fat and thin women alike wear 
these trying costumes. The men appear in native made 
trousers and pajama jackets; also, bare feet. Person- 
ally I think it is the limit. The morning meal consists 
of pickled meat, bread and a kind of spice cake. For 
lunch we have a soup plate set in front of us and in 
that you first put rice, then curry, chicken, gravy, 
stuffing, dressed cucumbers, fish, all kinds of curries, 
eggs and a little of everything you ean think of. Then 
you mix up the whole with a spoon and a fork and eat 
it just like a pig, if you want to comply with the 
custom and be stylish. This meal always goes down 
pretty hard with me. Dinner is similar to our ordin- 
ary dinner; soup, two different kinds of meat, vegeta- 
bles and dessert. Everything is clean and nice and 
well served. It is rather hot though, being ten degrees 
