350 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



of his face tlie muscles near the cheek-bone and on 

 the temple were dreadfully lacerated. That a man 

 should ever escape alive after his head had once been 

 between a crocodile's jaws is certainly the next thing 

 to a miracle. I asked him what he thought when 

 he found his head in such a vice. " Well," said he, 

 coolly, " I thought my time had come, but that I had 

 better sing out while I could, and that's what saved 

 me, you see." 



December 2^t]i. — At 6 a. m. bade the Resident 

 good-by, and started for the highlands in the interior 

 with an opas or official servant as a guide and attend- 

 ant. It was a lovely morning. The cuckoos were 

 pouring out their early songs, and the gurgling of 

 the brook by the wayside was almost the only other 

 sound that disturbed the stillness of the morning. 

 A few ciiTi were floating high in the sky, and also a 

 number of cumuli, whose perpendicular sides reflected 

 the bright sunlight like pearly, opaque crystals. 

 Along the way we met natives of both sexes carry- 

 ing tobacco and vegetables to market, the men hav- 

 ing their loads in a sled-shaped frame on their backs, 

 and the women carrying theii's in shallow baskets on 

 their heads. Our road, which led to the south, was — 

 like all in the Minahassa — broad and well graded, 

 and where it ascended an acclivity coarse fibres fi'om 

 the leaves of the gomuti palm were laid across it 

 from place to place to cause the water to drain off 

 into the ditches by its sides. When the road came 

 to a village it always divided, that all the carts may 

 go round the village, and not through it. This 

 arrangement enables the natives to keep the street 



