§8 EXPEDITION INTO INTERIOR SUMATRA, 
portion of the forest opposite. Knowing that time with his 
inevitable scythe will put all things in ‘order, the native in 
such a case avoids the obstacle, goes round it, and clears him- 
self a new path which rejoins the old one further on. 
Gloomy obscurity and heavy silence weigh upon these 
forests, never visited by Europeans, and seldom by Malays. 
At midday, surrounded by native followers, there should be 
nothing to alarm one in such a place, nevertheless one lifts 
one’s head with a shudder, when the mysterious stillness is 
broken by a falling leaf, fluttering down and grazing the 
tree-branches, or by a loosened stone rolling down a ravine. 
It is the influence exercised by this tropical nature. 
Thus in a framework of verdure, the torrent rolls down 
from rock to rock with foam whiter than snow, until, become 
at last a cataract, it sways the broad leaf of the pisang, as 
easily as the lace-like fern. The basin into which it is ever 
pouring its limpid water contains myriads of shining fish, 
which find nourishment in the fruit which the torrent brings 
down withit. And when chance rays of sun-light manage to 
pierce the dome of verdure, then one’s eyes are greeted with 
a splendour of tints and colours, which one must have seen 
before one can admit thatit is impossible to describe them. 
But other surprises are in store for us in these wild 
localities. When after marching for several hours, or rather 
jumping from stone to stone in the bed of a river, one enters 
the forest, one is struck by the incredible mass of dead 
leaves which one meets with, and which form a fertile soil 
for the trees from which they have fallen. All these leaves 
are covered with a mildew as glossy as silk, delicate as 
a spider’s web, and white as snow, standing out against 
a dark background. Indeed one is afraid to make a step 
lest one should destroy in an instant these works of art of 
such inimitable delicacy and elegance. Inthe midst of these 
is enthroned the Giant of the Forest, the malaboumet, a tree 
whose trunk is a métre and a half in diameter, and which rears 
its majestic head straight overhead at a height of 100 feet. 
. Itis natural that one should be singularly impressed 
by this contrast, or rather by these extremes which meet, as 
the proverb says, like the first and last pages of a treatise 
on Botany placed side by side. 
