IN SUMATRA. 225 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SOJOTJKN IN THE PALEMBANG EESIDEXCY — Continued. 



Leave 'J'andjonc-Nini — ■ Pailani Ulak-TanrljonE; — Kepala Tjurup — Hot 

 springs of the Kaba — Kartliqnake — Botanical features — Curious plants — - 

 Fertilisation of Melastonia — A pilgrimage — The crater of the Kaba — ^The 

 Nomadic Kubus — Riipit river scenery — Gold gatherers — Muara-riipit 

 — The Diirian — Surulansun — Thieves and thieves' calendars — Malay 

 dignity — Leave for Muara Mengkulem. 



Leaving the village of Tandjong-Ning, I proceeded across a 

 gradually-rising country, at that period very poverty-stricken, 

 in which there was little new or interesting to detain me. 

 Two days brought me to Padang Ulak-Tandjong, on the river 

 Klingi, the seat ot the magistrate of the district, where I was 

 detained for several days owing to the difficulty of obtaining 

 transport. All the able-bodied men had left the district in 

 search of food in far-oif parts, as there had been no rice in their 

 own, from the failure of the crops for several years. Kepala- 

 Tjurup, the nearest village to the Kaba, was ten miles farther 

 on, and eight from the base of the mountain. There I left the 

 heavy baggage, and by a rough and difficult ravine-intersected 

 path through the forest, along which I noticed not a few plants 

 new to me, I proceeded to the hot springs at the base of the 

 Kaba, where I built a hut amid the steam which continually 

 rolled up from the water that bubbles out in the face of a steep 

 ravine at a temperature of 170° F. 



I had not taken up my quarters many hours before I was 

 made sensibly aware that I was in a volcanic region by a 

 severe and long-continued shock of earthquake. Later on, on 

 the evening of the 16th of September, I again experienced two 

 very strong vertical bumps, which tossed me clean upwards 

 from my chair, dislodged a large pet Hornbill from its perch, 

 and shook a heavy shower of drops from the trees. The Argus 



