8 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



soup plate in front of you, a smaller flat plate beside it 

 and a spoon, a knife and a fork. The first servant brings 

 a large bowl of rice from which you help yourself liberally. 

 The second brings a kind of vegetable stew which you 

 pour over the heap of rice. Then follows a remarkable 

 procession ; I have myself seen at an hotel in Batavia 

 fourteen different boys bringing as many different dishes, 

 and I have seen stalwart Teutons taking samples from 

 every dish. These boys bring fish of various sorts and 

 of various cookeries, bones of chickens cooked in different 

 ways and eggs of various ages, and last of all comes a 

 boy bearing a large tray covered with many different 

 kinds of chutneys and sauces from which the connoisseur 

 chooses three or four. The more solid and bony portions 

 find a space on the small flat plate, the others are piled 

 in the soup plate upon the rice. As an experience once 

 or twice the Rijst-tafel is interesting ; but as a daily 

 custom it is an abomination. Even when, as in private 

 houses, the number of dishes is perhaps not more than 

 three or four, the main foundation of the meal is a solid 

 pile of rice, which is not at all a satisfactory diet for 

 Europeans. The Rijst-tafel is not a traditional native 

 custom but a modern innovation, and there is a tendency 

 among the more active members of the community to 

 replace it by a more rational meal. 



The houses of the Europeans are of the bungalow type 

 with high-pitched roofs of red tiles and surrounded by 

 wide verandahs, which are actually the living rooms of 

 the house. The Dutch are good gardeners and are 

 particularly fond of trees, which they plant close about 

 their houses and so ensure a pleasant shade, though 



