ammo along tee edge op a pREcrpicE. 



419 



seemed to liang in the air, and tlien the road widened. 

 I drew a long breath of relief, and tlien bounded out 

 over the wheel on to the solid ground, before I could 

 fully satisfy myself that, thanks to a kind Providence 

 and the force of gravitation, I was really safe. 



The inspector said that he had travelled many 

 thousand miles in Java, in all manners of ways, and 

 through all manners of dangers, but was never so 

 frightened before, and tbat he would not go back 

 that way in a carriage for ten thousand guilders. If 

 we had only known what ^ve were coming to, we 

 could have got out and walked, but it was already too 

 late wben we saw the danger. I determined to ride 

 no farther in the caniage tbat day^ and made our guide 

 exchange places mth me, and give me his horse. This 

 dangerous place the natives call Kabawjatu, wliere- 

 the-bnflaloes-tall." Only a shoii; time before, a Malay 

 was driving a single buffalo to market along this 

 way, when he shied a little, went off headlong, and 

 was dashed in pieces on the rocks beneath, 



A short distance beyond this place we changed 

 horses, at a little settlement of the Lubus. Tlieir 

 houses ai'e scattered over the mountain-side, and not 

 gathered into one place. They are ten or fifteen feet 

 long, and eight or ten wide, and perched on high 

 poles. The walls are made of bamboo, and the roofs 

 are thatched with straw, like all tliat we have seen 

 since leaving Lubu Sikeping, instead of atap, which 

 is used by all the natives farther south. Tlie officials 

 here informed me that these people eat bananas, and 

 probably most fruits, maize, dogs, monkeys, and even 

 BnakeSy but never rice ; and this is the more strange 



