OUR niGHWAY TEROUGH THE FOREffT, 263 



dry* It is tlie only cleared way there is tlirongli tBo 

 dense forest around us, and I avail myself of it to 

 travel up toward the mountaius and down toward 

 the sea Indeed, I feel proud of our grand highway. 

 True, it is not paved with blocks all carefully cut 

 down to one precise model, and so exactly unitbiTu 

 as to be absolutely painful to the eye, but IS'ature 

 herself has paved it in her own inimitable way — no- 

 tice how all the stones have been rounded by the 

 boiling torrent which pom-s down here from the 

 mountains dui-ing the rainy season. Some are al- 

 most perfect ellipsoides or spheres, but most are disk- 

 shaped, for they are made from thin fi'agments of 

 slate that had sharp comers when they broke away 

 from their parent mountain. To prevent a dull uni- 

 formity of color, she has scattered here and there 

 rounded boulders of opaque m Ok- white quai*tZj frag- 

 ments, undoubtedly, from beds of that rock which, at 

 this place at least, are interstratified with the slate. 

 Here and there are deeper places, where the troubled 

 stream was accustomed to rest before it went on 

 again in a foaming torrent to empty its sparkling 

 waters into the wide sea, the original source of all 

 streams. By this way X visit my nearest neighbors 

 and procure chickens, which our cook roasts on sticks 

 over the fire, after having cai'efully rubbed them ynth 

 salt and a liberal allowance of red pepper, the two 

 universal condiments among the Malays. For ages 

 all the salt these people have had has been brouglit 

 from Java. The red pepper thrives well eveiy- 

 where without the slightest care, and it is almost al- 

 ways found gi'owing near every hut, A large bush 



