/.V SUMATRA, 



221 



dweliiog amid tlie monotonous life of the monntam vilkges of 

 the interior, tlie frequent bugle-calls, the uniformed troops, 

 the overshadowinof stone-built fortress, the shop-fronts, which 

 seemed large in my eyes, the substantial houses, the Ijoats on 

 the river loading and unloading cargoes, the coolies running to 

 and fro with goods — this gentle troubling of the pcx>l of industry, 

 scemeil to me the very bustle of a metropolis ; and as I walked 

 down its one street to the Travellers* Bungalow, in my travel- 

 sc4irred garments, great sun-hat and rough boots, I felt the 

 biiushfulness of a rustic adding to the reilness of my sunburnt 

 countenance, and as uncomfortable as if I had been planted 

 ikiwn in simihir attire in Kegent Street, 



lu resumiug my journey towards the Kaba I had to give up 

 my late delicious mode of travel, and change the river for the 

 road. Reaching the village of Tandjong-Ning, I found that 

 much tree-felling was going on iu the forests pertaining to it ; 

 and, hoping to enrich my herbarium, I set up my camp for a 

 while iu its Balai, a structure that might have held an army. 

 J3ut the vilhige was very unsavoury, as every sort of filth and 

 refuse from the houses was aUowed to drop through the floor to 

 the ground below. 1 found that my fame had reached before 

 me, and that not particularly favourably. For some time tigers 

 liad been prowling about in the district in great numbers, and, 

 as the Dempo is called the " Barracks of the Tigers," they had 

 been scared from their natural homo by a potent spell which 

 I must have set up there when I ascended it. It was no use 

 to deny the imputation—" it mis well known ! 



The village was prettily situated above the river Baling, 

 which wound about below it in a deep rocky gorge, through 

 bauks which are excavated iuto long pools and deep pots and 

 sparkling rapids, full of fish of fifteen different kinds (accord- 

 ing to the enumeration of the village chief), and for which the 

 inliabitauts, who seem ardent lovers of the gentle art, angle 

 with great assiduity and success with bamboo fishing-rods, 

 and a line of single fibre strong as cat-gut, drawn out of the 

 hark of a tree. 



Where the felling was going on in the forest, I obtained 

 many fine specimens, and nowhere do I recollect to have seen 

 such enormous trees. Tiiickly scattered about on the ground 

 as they were, ovor an area of perhaps a mile s*]uare, I failed 



