firmed end showered sparks in the heavy jungle night. 
fcgfcxrxfchBxdFnEtKgxwKS Williams and Mrs. Coenraad tried to 
photograph the scene by flashlight, but were so uncertain of what 
success thev would have, that they asked to have the dancing repeated 
to-morrow by daylight, when they could take both moving- and colored 
pictures of it. 
We had a sketchy supper of fried-egg sandwiches and tea, and 
went early to bed. Whether it was the dust and smokiness of' the old 
house(seid to be about three hundred years old), or the fuzzmess of 
our new blankets, I do not know, but Mrs. Coenraad ana I started to 
sneeze as soon as we were in bed, end kept it up most of the night. 
The men, on their side, began to snore. Apparently no one else m 
the kampong tried to sleep, as voices could be heard all night long, 
and occasionally someone tiptoed into our quarters from the other part 
of the house, and tiptoed out again, and no matter how carefully he 
stepped the whole floor shook when even a dog went through the room. 
Dogs^ howled and barked throughout the night, and far in the distance 
we could hear strange sounds of unidentifiable animals. 
March 17 - Dolok Silau 
It was a relief to hear the heavy doors of the house swung 
open, and to see that it was beginning to be daylight at last. Although 
we were dressed and outdoors before xixx®*EX!SKk sunrise, the women of 
the kampong were earlier risers than we, ^nd were already at their 
interminable task of pounding rice. A stone's throw from the Rajah's 
house stood an open building where the women, and even tne small girls, 
spent the dav husking rice. The rice was poured into long troughs 
made of hollowed-out logs, and pounded with long wooden poles. Mter- 
wards it was sifted in a large flat woven basket, and the chaff flowed 
to blow away. The muscular endurance of the women was amazing. Ine 
steady, monotonous pounding, always in a certain rhythym, and with_ 
tremendous long poles that must have been very heavy, would have tired 
anyone not accustomed to the work in five minutes. But there was never 
a moment from before sunrise to long after d? rk when a group of women 
were not working there. 
The dance of lest night was repeated for the benefit of the 
pictures this morning. The Rajah put on his uniform, a military coat 
and dark trousers, and white shirt, and added all his gold ornaments. 
Over one eye scxxxx, fastened to his batik turban, was a large gold 
flower. Projecting from the other side was a curiously _ shaped decora- 
tion - a ringed s t i ckf a Uo'uT *t en inches long, ^ki^j^£^^^^%cd^ . He 
had a massive ga&d bracelet, gold rings, and gold buttons in his coat. 
Two of his wives joined him, and they had ear-rings and rings of gold. 
A procession was formed, headed by the medicine man, an old man who 
carried a pole with a tuft of feathers on the end; then came the Rajah, 
his wives, and the soldiers. Ssmut They carried knives and guns, snd 
the guns were ssis* blunderbuses with eld coins set in the wood. - ome 
of the coins were British, some Portuguese, some Austrian, some Dutch. 
One gun had a modern touch - an American silver dollar of 1870. ihe 
other decorations were all at least a hundred years older than that. 
Wanting to do our share in making the occasion a. festive 
one, we decorated the outside of the house with our flags, and tried to 
explain to the Rajah what the American and N. C. S. flags stood for. 
