420 TRAVELS m rm east ISDr.VN ARCmrELAGO, 



because it Ib the staple article of food among tieir 

 neiglibors, Thej are yet slaves to tlieir rajab, just 

 as the people of all the tiibes in this vicinity were 

 before they were conquered by the Butch, for the 

 Lubu8, so far as we know, remain as they were in the 

 most ancient times. Here I enjoyed a magnificent 

 view of the active volcano Seret M<5rapi, the summit 

 of which is five thousand nine hundred feet above the 

 sea It is not a separate mountaiii like the Merapi 

 of the Menangkabau country, but merely a peak in 

 the Earizan chain. From its top a jet of opaque gas 

 rose into the clear, blue sky, while small cumuli came 

 up behind the coast-chain fi'om the ocean, and seemed 

 to settle on its highest summits, as if weary, and '^vlsh- 

 ing to rest, before they continued their endless flight 

 through the sky. 



"When we again came to the bottom of the valley, 

 we found what seemed to us a wonder — a smooth, 

 well-gi*aded road, bordered on either side with a row 

 of beautiful shade-trees. All the low land in this 

 vicinity is used for sawa-s, and the rice, which was 

 mostly two-thirds gro^na, waved most chai-mingly in 

 the light wind, that reminded me of our summer- 

 breezes. The inspector, who was an old gentleman, 

 felt somewhat worn out with such incessant jolting, 

 and, as I had been travelling without stopping for 

 eight days, I was only too glad to have one day of 

 rest also. 



At sunsetj as is always the custom iu those tropi- 

 cal lands, we took an evening walk. Tlie many iires 

 now raging in the tall grass that covers the lower 

 flanks of the mountains have so iilled the air with 



