420 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



because it is tlie staple article of food among tlieir 

 neighbors. They are yet slaves to their rajah, just 

 as the people of all the tribes in this vicinity were 

 before they were conquered by the Dutch, for the 

 Lubus, so far as we know, remain as they were in the 

 most ancient times. Here I enjoyed a magnificent 

 view of the active volcano Seret Meraj)i, the summit 

 of which is five thousand nine hundred feet above the 

 sea. It is not a separate mountain like the Merapi 

 of the Menangkabau countiy, but merely a peak in 

 the Barizan chain. From its top a jet of opaque gas 

 rose into the clear, blue sky, while small cumuli came 

 up behind the coast-chain from the ocean, and seemed 

 to settle on its highest summits, as if weary, and wish- 

 ing to rest, before they continued their endless flight 

 through the sky. 



When we again came to the bottom of the valley, 

 we found what seemed to us a wonder — a smooth, 

 well-graded road, bordered on eith-er side with a row 

 of beautiful shade-trees. All the low land in this 

 vicinity is used for sawas, and the rice, which was 

 mostly two-thirds grown, waved most charmingly in 

 the light wind, that reminded me of our summer- 

 breezes. The inspector, who was an old gentleman, 

 felt somewhat worn out with such incessant jolting, 

 and, as I had been travelling without stopping for 

 eight days, I was only too glad to have one day of 

 rest also. 



At sunset, as is always the custom in these tropi- 

 cal lands, we took an evening walk. The many fires 

 now raging in the tall grass that covers the lower 

 flanks of the mountains have so filled the air with 



