A TRAVELER'S NOTES ON JAVA 



107 



of square design, while the three tipper 

 terraces are circular. 



We marveled at the beauty and chaste- 

 ness of the bas-reliefs, copies of which 

 attracted so much attention at the Paris 

 Exposition of 1900. The latticed dago- 

 bas on the upper terraces are said to be 

 quite unusual in design. "The whole is 

 a splendid epitome of Buddhism just be- 

 fore its decline." 



After our protracted sojourn in the 

 rich lowlands of mid-Java we were in 

 the humor to enjoy a week's stay in the 

 cooler air of a delightful little resort 

 known as Garoet. situated in a wide 

 valley in the southwestern part of the 

 Preanger district, at an altitude of nearly 

 2,400 feet above sea-level, and completely 

 surrounded by volcanic peaks. 



One of the pleasant features of travel 

 throughout Java was the friendly attitude 

 of the people toward us. Everywhere 

 we were received with smiling faces and 

 treated with courtesy. Every day during 

 our stay at Garoet we were serenaded 

 by a band of youthful musicians, whose 

 instruments were made of bamboo. By 

 an ingenious sliding device, when the 

 position of the instrument was reversed, 

 impact was made upon the cylinder of 

 bamboo : thus each instrument made its 

 individual note, and, among them, they 

 produced the complete octave. 



Many charming excursions can be 

 made from Garoet. I shall refer to one 

 which we made to the crater of the vol- 

 cano of Papandajan. about seventeen 

 miles distant. We had grown accus- 

 tomed by this time to early starts, and 

 so did not resent being called at half- 

 past three in the morning. An hour later 

 we entered a wagonette - like vehicle 

 drawn by three horses and drove south- 

 ward over the undulating surface of the 

 valley. The dawn came at length, and 

 we met many peasants on their way to 

 begin their daily toil in the rice-fields. 



IN the; rice-Fields 



In Java rice is the staff of life, and the 

 energies of the people seem to be devoted 

 more to its culture than to any other 

 industry. On this drive we had an op- 



portunity to see how it is harvested by 

 the natives, who are apparently able to 

 work all day under the burning sun with- 

 out inconvenience. 



Water is an absolute necessity to its 

 successful culture. By a series of irri- 

 gating canals it is led to an upper field 

 from which the water is drained from 

 one terrace to another. In fields where 

 the rice had matured we beheld numbers 

 of peasants cutting the stalks with hand 

 scythes in the old, old style which ob- 

 tained in the days of the patriarchs. 



Later the sheaves are bound in neat 

 bundles and piled together in small 

 stacks. The finest grade of rice is said 

 to come from Japan, but Java rice is also 

 highly esteemed in the markets of the 

 world. In this land of dense population 

 and struggle for the mere necessities of 

 life the human animal is the carrier of 

 burdens, and we found many troops of 

 men transporting the rice to the store- 

 houses. While walking about the village 

 one day I met a company of women 

 engaged in the same service^patient 

 creatures performing their allotted tasks 

 without a murmur. 



But the sun is already making its pres- 

 ence felt, and we have covered the first 

 eleven miles of our journey and arrived 

 at Tjiseroepan, a quaint village at the 

 base of the volcano, with houses having 

 peculiar, steep roofs of thatch unlike 

 those seen elsewhere. I^)eyond here it is 

 impossible to go in a vehicle, and one 

 must choose between a mountain pony 

 and a palanquin. 



The six-mile trail to the crater leads 

 at first among coffee plantations and past 

 fields of cinchona trees ; but soon we 

 leave all signs of cultivation behind and 

 enter a true tropical jungle, where nature 

 seems to run riot in its many forms of 

 beauty. All about us we see examples of 

 tree-ferns with orchids clinging to their 

 trunks, banks of giant lantana bushes, 

 and occasional clusters of the ])urple 

 trumpet fiower of the deadly belladonna 

 plant. Lofty, overarching trees, with 

 huge creepers trailing from t h e i r 

 branches, and groves of the graceful 

 bamboo, made a lovely picture. As we 



