-84- 
June 8 - 
We decided today to see son e of the c untry south of Fort de 
Kock, and started out" a long the Padang road, although we had no 
intention of going all the way. 
We went three kms. off the road to visit the little village 
of Lassl on its market day and to photograph some of the old houses 
there. We fo^nd one or two without tin roofs, and with beautifully 
decorated granaries standing in front of the house. In the market 
we bought small cucumbers, and some Malay apples, a pretty pink 
fruit that is crisp and juicy but almost coBpletelyxx flavorless. 
Bet¥'een purchases we were ducking flying pieces of corrugated Iron 
that the high wind - T r s blowing off the market roof. 
We stopped next in Fort van der Capellen, and wandered in and 
out of the shops looking for pickles that Bill had decided we must 
have with the picnic lunch which the hotel had provided. In one 
Chinese store we saw a small boy rolling what looked like green 
marbles in a large flat basket/ I thought at first It Was a new game, 
but he kept at It in such a mechanical way that I realized it was 
work and not play. Behind him stood another Chinese with a long 
roll of green candy fresh from the stove. This he was cutting into 
cubes by means of a string, one end of which he held between his 
teeth, As each little cube "fell to the counter a third man picked 
it up, rounded off the sharp corners with his hands ^ and passed it 
to the youngster who rolled It in the basket until it was a perfect 
sphere. The whole proceeding had somewhat of the precision of 
a cigarette-cutting achme in a b g factory. 
Shortly after noon we" reached Lake Singgarak, beautiful and 
blue, but with many whitecaps due to the h: gh wind. In places the 
waves were splashing over the road, and slowly washing it away. Men 
were working on It, banking the road up with stones, but I was afraid 
places in it would be quite washed out before we came back over it. 
We ate our basket lunch in a little pavilion back of the 
rest house in Singarak, a delightfulljr cool spot right beside the 
lake. The Mandoer sold Tommie a python skin, and sold us all on 
the idea of getting p ctures of a pig-tailed macaque climbing a 
coconut tree. His friend, the owner of the monkey, appeared promptly 
with an enormous brute on a. long rope. The monkey went up the 
tree, which was an unusually h gh one and hence poor for pictures, 
and "caught* three coconuts for us. .He broke them off by twisting 
the nuts between his hands, and then dropping them to the ground. 
His owner opened them for us, we drank the water, and gave the 
coconut meat to the monkey as his reward* Altogether a most 
amusing day. 
In Padang Pandjang on the way home we stopped to photograph 
an elaborately carved house, which was .spoiled however, by a tin 
roof, and also to ad ire some of the gold fish and gourani ponds 
which are so common here. The fish are raised and sold in the 
market. The giant gourarni is very rare in acuaria at home, and 
we shuddered to th nk. of this exotic specimen (to us) being eaten 
as ordinary food. v-IV; ^'J ill! 
Merapi 
Between Padang Padjang and Fort de Kock we £gi t o^g £8uid v l§I of 
for the first time entirely cloualess, so xric^ . ^ 
