IN JAVA. 103 



On Jlount Daagka and on the summits of many of the 

 neighbouring hills I stumbled on groves containing either 

 rocks naturally in situ, or stones that had been placed there, 

 which my porters refused to enter for fear of being affected by 

 some sickness or misfortune. " They are Patapahaan " (places 

 of penance and worship), they would say, and are the sacred 

 spots where they believe their ancestors who, refusing to 

 embrace Mahomedanism, fled to the forests, vanished in invi- 

 sible forms. Whenever calamity overtakes them — when their 

 crops have failed or they are childless — they repair (in 

 greatest numbers during the month of the chief Mahomedan 

 fast — Ramadan) to these Tapa, where they will spend days 

 of fasting and awesome terror, in the hope that the spirits of 

 their transfigured forefathers will grant them the desire of 

 their hearts. In dire sickness, when the slender list of their 

 pharmacopoeia has been exhausted, they will as a last resource 

 send to gather lichens from the sacred stones of the despised 

 Kalangs or the Badui, in the belief that a decoction therefrom 

 will avail to ward off or heal their sickness. 



It is quite a common thing to encounter by the wayside 

 near a village, or in a rice-field, or below the shade of a great 

 dark tree, a little platform with an offering of rice and prepared 

 fruits to keep disease and blight at a distance, and propitiate 

 the spirits ever lying in wait in gloomy, sunless (and naturally 

 depressing) spots to harm the passer by. This fear of lurking 

 evil ever oppresses their lives. No one can be found brave 

 enough to touch a man struck to the ground, for instance, 

 by lightning; they will cover him up where he fell, with 

 leaves or generally with stable dung, and commit his re- 

 covery to nature. If he recover, well and good ; but to carry 

 him from the spot, to lift him or meddle with him while un- 

 conscious, would be to cry down the Avenger's displeasure on 

 their own head. 



In the month of January 1880, Dr. Scheffer, the then Di- 

 rector of the Buitenzorg Gardens, wrote to me that, as much 

 viro-in forest was being felled among the mountains not far 

 from the Government Cinchona Plantations in the adjoining 

 province of the Preanger, a good opportunity offered itself of 

 increasing my herbarium. This was not a chance to let slip, 

 so, bidding a reluctant farewell to Kosala, I set off for Buitenzorg 



