82 CERA2L [chap. xxv.. 



Ceram, called Euatan, wliich it was necessary to cross. 

 It was both deep and rapid. The baggage was first taken 

 over, parcel by parcel, on the men's heads, the water 

 reaching nearly up to their armpits, and then two men 

 returned to assist me. The water was above my waist, 

 and so strong that I should certainly have been carried off 

 my feet had I attempted to cross alone; and it was a 

 matter of astonishment to me how the men could give 

 me any assistance, since I found the greatest difficulty in 

 (T-etting my foot down again when I had once moved it 

 off the bottom. The greater strength and grasping power 

 of their feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave 

 them a surer footing in the rapid water. 



After well wringing out our wet clothes and putting 

 them on, we again proceeded along a similar narrow 

 forest track as before, choked with rotten leaves 

 and dead trees, and in the more open parts overgrown 

 with tanccled vegetation. Another hour brought us to a 

 smaller stream flowing in a wide gravelly bed, up which 

 oiir road lay. Here we stayed half an hour to breakfast, 

 and then went on, contiijually crossing the stream, or 

 walking on its stony and gravelly banks, till about noon, 

 when it became rocky and enclosed by low hills. A little 

 further we entered a regular mountain-gorge, and had to 

 clamber over rocks, and every moment cross and recross 

 the water, or take short cuts through the forest. This was 



I 



