JN THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO. 175 



sea, led me across as pretty and picturesque a piece of country 



as one could wish to travel through, winding round the head of 



deep glens, with occasional gorges to right and left which have 



left only three feet of ridge-path betv/een them, and along the 



face of forest-clad precipices, hundreds of feet deep below 



which flowed liidden streams whose murmur bubbled up from 



among the trees as a pleasant music. In descending from the 



plateau I found at about 2500 feet, growing in sandy soil where 



it seems best to flourish, several stems of the giant arum 



{Amorphophallus titanum) one of the largest known herbs. The 



biggest of these specimens measured seventeen feet in height. 



Descending from the northern face of the plateau, I was met 



by the chief and under-chiefs of the marga, at some distance 



from the village of Sukau, where I was to spend the night ; 



and at the boundary of the village I was greeted by a crowd 



of the inhabitants and a band consisting of three youths — one 



in the middle fingered a flute which he had newly cut from a 



bamboo, the two others each beat a small bronze gong both 



of them cracked, which they carried in one hand suspended 



before them by a cord, tinkling it with a short twig in the 



other who played me to the Balai to the notes perhaps of 



their margal anthem. Providentially the stateliness of the 

 occasion made conversation out of place, otherwise, had it been 

 necessary to open my compressed lips, I would have shocked the 

 fathers of the people by the heartiness of my mirth, for never have 

 I taken part in so ludicrous a procession witli so solemn a 

 countenance. Consider its composition : the musical advance- 

 guard as I have described ; the central figure under a hat as big 

 as an umbrella, in' garments the worse of repeated conflicts w ith 

 the thorns and thickets of the forest, seated on a small steed 

 caparisoned in a bridle with more knotted cords than leather 

 in its composition and in a saddle that required every artful 

 device to keep it from falling to pieces, his long, great-booted 

 legs almost trailing on the ground ; alongside on either hand 

 the mute chiefs in duly solemn countenances, followed by a 

 rear-guard of coolies with my baggage, and the general crowd 

 of men, women and children— and who would not have desired 

 to relieve his twitching pent-up risorius muscles ? 



Next morning I continued ray way towards the Lake Eanau, 

 and at the marches of the Kroe and Palembang Eesidencies, 



