CHAPTER II. 
JAVA, BUITENZORG BOTANIC GARDEN MORNING WALKS 
VISITS OF CEREMONY SONG OF THE CICADS — MOSQUITOES 
LIFE IN THE TROPICS A NATIVE FEAST THE THEATRE 
DANCES — OUR ROUTE. 
BtTITENZGRG. 
We are here established in the Hotel du Chemin 
de Fer, where the French host and hostess are 
very kind. Buiteuzorg (the word means “ free- 
dom from care M ) is one of the chief holiday and 
health resorts of siek Batavians, and possesses 
not only a magnificent climate, but scenery of 
great beauty and picturesqueness. It is over- 
looked by two large and, at present, harmless vol- 
canic mountains — the Salak, with its disrupted 
cone, into whose very heart one looks through 
the terrible cleft in its side ; and the double- 
peaked Pangerango and Gede, out of whose crater 
is ever lazily curling up white vapoury smoke 
from the simmering water which at present fills 
the summit of its pipe. Besides the fine views 
