294 A NATUItALIST*6 WANDEItlNGS 



Ills own, and it was curious to observe the surprised air of the 

 people as they roused theDiselvcs to watch our iustallation. 



Though built of stone in the Europejiii style, our new 

 abode with its damp sand-floor, is not to bo compared f()r ' 

 comfort with a bamboo piJe-hnt. It has one splendid acces- 

 sory in a hirge bath-house erected in a secluded spot over 

 a stream widened out and eneJosed where it issues from the 

 base of the Bilahutu mountain, and above where the villagers 

 are permitted to use it, 



Sunday^ May 2iitk Strolled out together in the early morn- 

 ing by the shady paths of the neighbouring forest, and back to 

 the village along the bay whose charming view never ceases 

 to afford us unmixed delight, and on whose beach the east 

 wind, now begun to blow roughly, has been tlirowing a wealth 

 of sponges, hytlroidsj and shells among which there is always 

 something new to us, and where we spend many hours of our 

 walks in watching the painted fields of shore crabs {Gelasi- 

 jntis) with their richly coloured pincer limbs and carapace, 

 the restless chattering Flycatchers (3Itfia</m gahata) and 

 the sedate Kingfishers on the IMangroves watching for little 

 cmstiicea, and those curious fishes {Periophihahnus) that hop 

 along the shore out of the water in sucb an odd way. 



The village is laid out in rectangular plots fenced in by 

 Slrobilattthes hedges, in which are set the gated entrances to 

 garden-fronted houses. The streets, liued with overarching 

 trees, are margined along their water conduits by bonlers 

 of pink croeus-like plants. One of its chief edifices is the 

 Qredja^ w^hose grandeur quite overwhelmed us; for it is far 

 more elaborately decorated than many a rural parish church 

 at home. The area of the building is set with cane-bottomed 

 chairs instead of fixed pews ; hot on one side, raised a few feet 

 above the floor, a large, cimopied, elaborately carved and 

 richly gilded suite of seats, emblazoned in front with a coat of 

 arms (!), is reserved for the rajah and his family. The pulpit 

 is also much carved and gilded, and the church altogether is 

 tastefully fitted and abundantly lighted with petroleum lamps. 

 Tlie services are conducted in High Blalay by a European 

 missionary, and in his absence by the ditru or native school- 

 master, who with moderate regularity instructs the children 

 five (hiys a week. Amboinese rajahs keep no state, and wear 



