394 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



retained in the little plats by dikes. When any excess 

 is poured into the uppermost in the series, it runs 

 over into those beneath it, and thus a constant sup- 

 ply of water is kept over all. On looking upward 

 we saw only the vertical sides of the little terraces 

 covered with turf, and, in looking down, only the 

 rice-fields. Near the crest of the co] we could look 

 down the flanks of the Merapi to Lake Sinkara away 

 to the south. The earth here is a tenacious red clay 

 formed by the decomposition of the underlying vol- 

 canic rocks and volcanic ashes and sand. These are 

 arranged in layers which have an inclination nearly 

 parallel to the surface. The layers of ashes and sand 

 may have been partly formed in their present posi- 

 tion by successive eruptions in the summits of the 

 neighboring peaks, but those of clay show that the 

 col has been elevated somewhat since they were 

 formed. The height of this col is three thousand 

 seven hundred feet, and this is the highest place 

 crossed by the road from Padang to Siboga. We now 

 began slowly to descend, passing wide, beautifully- 

 cultivated sawas on either hand to Fort de Kock. 

 Here on a pretty terrace is located the house of the 

 Resident, who has command of the adjoining elevated 

 lands, so famous in the history of this island as the 

 kingdom of Menaugkabau, whence the Malays origi- 

 nally migrated, whom we have found on the shores of 

 all the islands we have visited, and who are very dis- 

 tinct from the aborigines of these islands, as we have 

 particularly noticed at Burn. 



The dress of the men here is not very different 

 from that of the Malays of Java, but the costume 



