62 A NATURALISTS WANDERINGS 



Eangkas-betong, by the famous highway which Dandels, one 

 of the most energetic and far-seeing of all the early Governors- 

 General of the Dutch Indies, constructed along the whole 

 length of the island, and which has proved one of its greatest 

 benefits and colonizers. To expedite the journeys of their 

 various officials round their districts, at every five or six miles 

 stable stations have been erected by the Government, where 

 horses are changed, and which private travellers can obtain 

 permission to make use of on payment of small mileage dues. 



All along the road we passed little sign-posts with Arabic 

 inscriptions indicating how many yards of the road on each side 

 of them must be kept in repair by the various neighbouring 

 villages. As the keeping of the roads is most strenuously 

 enforced, they are never out of condition, and are a pleasure to 

 drive over. Here and there it has been impossible to bridge 

 the larger rivers in steep defiles where the stream is deep and 

 swift, and these are crossed in large picturesque rafts which 

 can accommodate horse and carriage and quite a little crowd 

 of people at once. These rafts, by sliding on rattan rings 

 along two strong cables of thick rattan canes securely fixed to 

 both banks, are floated over by the ferrymen by hand-over- 

 hand traction on these cables. 



When on the road the dress of the Sundanese, especially of 

 the women and children, is invariably bright coloured calicoes, 

 clean and newly ironed, and their head-covering is the gaily 

 lacquered bamboo hats for whose manufacture they are famous. 

 The burdens of the men, whatever they may consist of, are 

 made up in neat and tastefully arranged bundles, carried 

 always on the shoulders, suspended at the ends of a bamboo — 

 and it is amazing what a weight these thick-set stout fellows 

 can carry in this way. Such a ferry, in the sunlight, with a 

 background of green, wooded slopes, presents therefore always 

 a gay scene and forms quite an interesting break in the drive. 



The country throughout was rather tame, being quite stripped 

 of forest, but full of interest, as the land, being entirely under 

 rice cultivation, was laid out in the most beautiful system of 

 terraces. The province of Bantam is densely populated, and 

 scarcely a portion of uncultivated land was to be observed. 

 As Mr. Wallace in his ' Malay Archipelago,' has fully 

 described, this method, introduced by the Hindus on their 



