27 
gave us his two porcupines and two pythons. Van der Laag was 
full of stories about shooting elephants and trapping tigers. 
His house had many eleph nt tusks and umbrella stands made of 
elephant feet. He told one story about trapping a tiger in a 
kampong nearby. He set the trap about six o T clock, came home, 
got ready for dinner, and then decided to go back and be sure 
the trap" was properly set. He bicycled back to the kampong, 
and was just in time to see the tiger walk twice around the 
cage and then directly into it. He sent the tiger to the 
Zoo in The Hague, and was exceedingly sorry later on to hear 
that it had escaped from its cage there and been shot. 
In the evening we had dinner with the Knapps. Bill and 
Mr. Knapp discussed animals all evening while she and I talked 
about mutual friends in the States. 
MarclV :13 - Kisaran -^^^^^R : 0 J^:"%^^^ ; ;^^^> ; ' 
Mr . Knapp took us for a drive around the plantation in the 
morning to give us some idea of what the nearby countryside was 
like. Although there are elephants nearby, and they have to 
keep a lookout at night in two or three places to scare away 
advancing herds, it looked to us like poor collecting country - 
miles and miles of rubber, and beyond that, only second growth, 
which has some small animals in it, but is not interesting to 
a trapper or collector. 
There are lots of good Zoo birds around our rest house - 
lovely little sunbirds and Munias, and we caught a glimpse of 
a hornbill. The trick is to catch them. 
We went to the Frrringtons for tea, stayed on for drinks and 
then went to the movies at the Club. The picture was ff Wif e Vs. 
Secretary 1 ', but the projection and the sound apparatus were both 
so bad that we got little out of it. We met the assistant 
resident, Mr. Booterhaven de Haan, and he gave us a note of 
introduction to the resident at Macassar, to whom we shall write 
for specimens. 
March 14 - " Siantar : "tMt^ Wf^p'^J: ' S^Sm^- , ^ : W^B^0 : ^^ : M^(-^^B§i 
We got a car in the morning and drove back to Siantar. 
It poured rain, as it always does when we are in an open Cer. The 
rain may have bothered us, but the only difference it made to the 
natives" was that they produced what looked to us like totally 
inadequate means of protection. Men bicj^cled past us holding 
paper umbrellas over their heads. Women working in the rice fields 
had little straw roofs over them, that hid them completely from 
view as they bent over their weeding. It was a curious effect to 
see the little straw houses wandering ?long the rows of rice with 
no visible mKE^KXsaf motive power. 
March 15 - Siantar 
In the morning we called on Mr .Meinder sma , the Assistant 
Resident of Siantar, who was obviously relieved to learn that we 
alreadv had our permits for collecting, and that we were m« king 
simply" a social call, and wanted no particular favors^ from him. 
From there we went to the market at | Qt/H&Jt Ql^W" where 
