OUR HIGHWAY THROUGH THE FOREST. 263 



diy. It is the only cleared way there is through the 

 dense forest around us, and I avail myself of it to 

 travel up toward the mountains and do^vn toward 

 the sea. Indeed, I feel proud of our gi-and highway. 

 True, it is not paved with blocks all carefully cut 

 down to one precise model, and so exactly uniform 

 as to be absolutely painful to the eye, but Natui-e 

 herself has paved it in her own inimitable way — no- 

 tice hoAV all the stones have been rounded by the 

 boiling torrent which poui'S down here from the 

 mountains during the rainy season. Some are al- 

 most perfect ellipsoides or spheres, but most are disk- 

 shaped, for they are made fi'om thin fragments of 

 slate that had sharp corners when they broke away 

 from their parent mountain. To prevent a dull uni- 

 formity of color, she has scattered here and there 

 rounded boulders of opaque milk-white quartz, frag- 

 ments, undoubtedly, from beds of that rock which, at 

 this jilace at least, are interstratified with the slate. 

 Here and there are deeper places, where the troubled 

 stream was accustomed to rest before it went on 

 again in a foaming torrent to empty its sparkling 

 waters into the wide sea, the original source of all 

 streams. By this way I visit my nearest neighbors 

 and procure chickens, which our cook roasts on sticks 

 over the fire, after having carefully rubbed them with 

 salt and a liberal allowance of red pepper, the two 

 universal condiments among the Malays. For ages 

 all the salt these people have had has been brought 

 from Java. The red pepper thrives well every- 

 where without the slightest care, and it is almost al- 

 ways found growing near every hut. A large bush 



