250 



A NATUKALISTS WANDBItJNGS 



CPIAPTEE VIIL 



SOJOUBN m THE PALEMBAKQ BESIDEKCY — COnttnmd, 



Muara Mengkultun— lief used entrance into the Djanibi Sultanate— Napftl 

 Litjin — PiiAk of Karmig-nala^ — (Jool<igLc«l furmalioii— Botaiiieal featufes 

 — Binla— UemiptertJti luOkcd hy ants — Hakit life— Bi^iii'tclok— Vl'ater 

 fQfi^s — An escape from drownitig — Pau— River pquall — -Approach to 

 Palembiing — -Eiver life and its massive Joy- — ^Tlie town of Pakmliaiig — 

 Itetura to Bala^a. 



Ok orriviDg at Muftra Mengkulem I was bitterly disappointed 

 to hear from the Pangcmn tliat he considered it extremely 

 improbable that the Paughulus of Djnmbi (all the chiefs of 

 the villages in Djambi are priests, the people being bigoted 

 Mahamedans) would consent to my traversing tbeir country, 

 as there was a great deal of fighting going on ui the interior. 

 He, however, consented to send a messenger to those among 

 them who were his fj-iends at Bnkit-bulan five miles distant, 

 explaining who 1 was and for what object I wished to visit their 

 country, to which after, an interval of some days a reply was 

 brought, that though pei*sonaUy favourable to me they conld 

 not be surety for my safety, and advised me not to attempt to 

 enter without the mandate of the Sultan, meaning not the 

 Stiltan recognised by the Dutch Government, bnt the previous 

 deposed ruler, who had ttiken up his court in the interior of 

 the country and whom all the Djambi people recognised. 

 TMs was very disappointing, but 1 had fared no worse than 

 the Dutch Mid-Sumatra expedition, wliieh, two years before, 

 had been advised to turn back at that same place. I proceeded 

 a stage still farther up the river to Kai>al Litjin, my farthest 

 northern station, a very picturesque %^illage at the foot of 

 another of those nearly perpendicular limestone peaks of which 

 I have made mention more than once, as lying on the eastern 

 outiikirts of the Barisan range. 



