10 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



native sarong extends midway down the leg. Low 

 slippers are worn on bare feet, the hair hangs undressed 

 down the back and the costume is usually completed 

 by an umbrella. It must be admitted that the effect 

 is not ornamental, but the costume is doubtless cool and 

 comfortable, and it prevents any risk there might be 

 of injury to the health from wearing an excessive amount 

 of clothing. They appear more conventionally dressed 

 about five o'clock, when the social business of the day 

 begins. The ladies pay calls while the men meet at the 

 club and play cards until an uncomfortably late dinner 

 at about nine o'clock. 



About an hour's journey by railway from Batavia 

 is the hill station of Buitenzorg. Although it is hardly 

 more than eight hundred feet above the sea the climate 

 is noticeably cooler (the mean annual temperature is 

 75°), and one feels immediately more vigorous than 

 down in the low country. The palace of the Governor 

 General, formerl}^ the house of Sir Stamford Raffles, 

 stands at the edge of the Botanic Garden, which alone, 

 even if you saw nothing else, would justify a visit to 

 Java. Plants from all the Tropics grow there in the 

 best possible conditions, and you see them to advantage 

 as you never can in their natural forest surroundings, 

 where the trunks of the trees are obscured by a tangle 

 of undergrowth. Every part of the garden is worth 

 exploring, but one of the most curious and interesting 

 sections is the collection of Screw-pines {Pandamts) 

 and Cycads, which have a weirdly antediluvian appear- 

 ance. Another very beautiful sight is the ponds of 

 Water-lilies from different parts of the world. The 



