324 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



and cross each other at right angles. The houses are 

 well built, and placed on piles twelve or eighteen 

 inches in diameter and six feet high — a remnant of 

 the old custom of placing their huts on high posts 

 to avoid attacks of enemies, which was practised by 

 these people previous to the arrival of Europeans. 

 It is certainly a good custom, not only because all 

 such unwelcome intruders as the large snakes, which 

 are very numerous here, are thus avoided, but also 

 to keep the house dry and cool, by allowing a free 

 circulation of air beneath. Each house has a small 

 plot of ground, and this is separated from that 

 of its neighbor by hedges, which also border the 

 streets, and give the whole village a charming air 

 compared to the irregular, unsightly appearance of 

 those I had been visiting. Most of the streets are 

 also lined with shade-trees, and in the gardens, be- 

 hind the hedges, are rows of orange-trees, some of 

 their branches bearing flowers, some green fruit, and 

 some drooping under the abundance of their golden- 

 yellow loads. 



The controleur here kindly received me into his 

 house. He was just going to Limbi, an island five 

 or six miles north of Kema, to try to take some liv- 

 ing hahirusa for the governor-general's garden at 

 Buitenzorg, back of Batavia. That was exactly such 

 an excursion as suited my fancy, and I was very 

 willing to accept his invitation to join him before I 

 began a journey I had been planning over to Menado, 

 and thence up into the interior. "While we were pre- 

 paring for our excursion, another gentleman, Mr. K., 

 decided to join us. 



