IN SUMATRA. 127 



people being more lethargic, not a single individual would be 

 got to volunteer to work, however tempting the hire, but for 

 a Government enactment, then in force, that the chief of 

 each village be responsible for the conveyance of the baggage 

 of all officials and persons travelling under the authority of 

 the Government from his own village to the next. Where 

 villages lay close together, much time was lost by changing, 

 and as within a considerable radius of the coast they dotted 

 the wayside at every half mile or less, jDrogress was distressingly 

 slow and wearying to the temper as well as to the flesh ; for, 

 notwithstanding the order sent forward in advance, the coolies 

 were never on tlie spot ; one had gone to eat, another had gone 

 in search of his knife, without which no one will stir, another 

 had been taken sick quite suddenly, and such as were waiting 

 were ready to swear that the baggage was twice the regulation 

 weight — 80 to 90 lbs. — and they would not touch it. 



Before many of the houses which I passed were spread out 

 drying in the sun large quantities of pepper, what I saw repre- 

 senting alone a sum of money sufficient to feed their whole 

 families for nearly eighteen months. Were cockfighting and 

 gaming not ingrained in them as a second nature, these people 

 might amass great fortunes for their condition of life. Some 

 do, indeed, hoard up considerable sums ; but one liad only to 

 look on the children and young girls to see where a great deal 

 of it went. Every girl is arrayed in sinkels or necklets, of 

 various shapes of heavy silver, few or many, according to the 

 wealth or position of her parents ; on their arms rows and 

 rows of bracelets, and in their ears large button-like earrings. 

 These ornaments are the sign of a girl's maidenhood, and 

 are worn till she marries. The wealth of a Lampong lady is 

 thus estimated by the number and weight of her ornaments, 

 which are, however, fully displayed only on feast days and 

 high occasions. Most of these ornaments are made by native 

 silver- or gold-smiths, and are purchased weight for weight in 

 silver or gold as the case may be. 



After the first few villages were passed, my road lay mostly 

 between dense forest, extending for miles on both sides of the 

 way. The trees were magnificent in shape and foliage — giant 

 pillars, seventy and eighty feet without a branch, supporting 

 superb leafy crowns under whose shade a thousand men might 



