Report of a Journey Around the World. 171 



hotel by eleven o'clock. At four in the afternoon we drove to the 

 Water Castle (Fig. 131 ), a curious structure built by a Portuguese 

 architect for a former sultan, whose memory remains in many a 

 legend ; the bathing pools were the most if not the only attractive 

 things remaining about the old palace. Outside a brick wall a 

 native had captured a large blue-black scorpion, the largest I had 

 ever seen, and we watched him noose its mate in a safe and skilful 

 manner. At the hotel we found ^.gamelan or native orchestra and 

 some very amusing dancers (Fig. 132); the music was rather pleas- 

 ant, but the show cost us five guilders ($2.50). So, for a cloudy 

 morning, the day ended pleasantly in fair, cool weather. 



Wednesday, Sept. 25. Rain during the night. About nine 

 we started in a smart equipage for the Resident's office to receive 

 our permit to visit the palace. But there happened to be a recep- 

 tion this morning, and we had to wait. But it was not lost time, 

 for the view of the native visitors was entertaining. The personal 

 attendants, one with a stool, another with the betel chewing kit, 

 another with a teakettle, another a spare napkin, etc. Some of 

 these Javan nobles were fine-looking men, and all were interesting. 

 In the meantime the officials sent an officer over to the palace to 

 let us know at the earliest when the coast would be clear. This 

 Dutch officer, who fortunately spoke French, had been in the coun- 

 try forty-one years, and had fourteen children ; formerly an officer 

 in the army, but for some years in the Resident's suite, proved a 

 very sufficient guide, and we saw the place very thoroughly, but 

 the particulars need not be described here, only in one of the many 

 birdhouses I saw a living bird of Paradise {Paradisca apoda) , the 

 only one I had ever seen alive. 



In the afternoon, took a comfortable four-wheeler with four little 

 ponies for Prambinan . The road led over a flat alluvial plain mainly 

 devoted to sugar-cane, a bright red and yellow variety. Plantation 

 tracks were laid in the street or alongside in the open country and 

 the cane transportation is on trucks drawn by buffalo, a slow and 

 clumsy way. We passed several good-looking mills with white 

 chimneys and neat surroundings, much more attractive than those 

 in Hawaii. Every now and then we saw a little grove of Plumiera 

 left in the surrounding cane, a native graveyard ; this is the favor- 

 ite tree for graveyards and it grows well. Another gravestone of 

 a departed religion appeared suddenly ; a quadrilateral, two storied 



[319J 



