36 
FIVE DAYS IN NANIN6. 
by simply cutting a few holes in it. As I had an opportu¬ 
nity afterwards of getting possession of one of these bulu 
ribut, or bulu perindu (storm or plaintive bambu) I will 
explain their construction in a future page.* As we pro - 
eeeded, and when the notes had died away in the distance, 
our ears were suddenly penetrated by a crash of grand and 
thrilling tones which seemed to grow out of the air around 
instead of pursuing us. A brisk breeze which soon followed 
and imparted animation to the dark and heavy leaves of 
the gomuti palms explained the mystery, while it prolonged 
the powerful swell. As we went on our way the sounds 
decreased in strength and gradually became faint, but it 
was not till we had left the bambu of the wind far behind 
us, and long hidden by intervening trees and cottages, that 
we ceased to hear it. 
The scenery was now very agreeable and exhilarating in 
comparison with Ndning. There, interminable hillocks con¬ 
fine the view, and we never rise for a minute to a slight 
elevation without the certainty that we shall presently be 
again imprisoned in the next depression. Though there is 
much on all sides to please and interest, there is an absence 
of the higher elements of rural beauty. Here, for the first 
time since we left the sandy shores of Malacca, w r e were on a 
broad, dry, well peopled level. The cottages were nearly all 
good, a neat bambu fence marked off a space around each into 
which the buffaloes outside, which grazed lazily or lay in the 
shady spots or sunk in miry holes, were debarred entrance. 
The narrow swamps were exchanged for an open valley, and 
the sluggish muddy canals, in which the water was occasion¬ 
ally collected where not distributed over the fields, were here 
replaced by a lively mountain stream which sped on its way 
with a most pleasant and refreshing sound. Here and there 
deep hollows, from the sides of which the soil had been vio¬ 
lently tom off and swept away, indicated the different aspect 
which this stream must have when the adjacent mountain 
* Marsden in his Dictionary, voce xj , buluh, explains buluh perindu to 
J- 
be 11 a species of bambu supposed to yield a melodious and plaintive sound ; 
a sort of eolian pipe, formed by cutting a slit in a bambu fixed perpendicularly 
and exposed to the action of tbe wind,” and, as an example, gives the quotation- 
TerlAlu dm&t mardu bunyi-nia seperti buluh per-rindu rdsdnid, which he 
translates ” most melodious was the sound, affecting tbe senses like supernatu¬ 
ral music.” It would appear from this that the plaintive bambu is used in 
Sumatra. All those which I saw in RambAu and N£ning had a slit in each 
joint above a certain height, so that one bambu possessed 14 to 20 notes, eaeh 
of which varied in itself according to the strength of the breeze. Tbe joints 
decrease in their bore frtfm the bottom to the top, and the slits also differ in 
their size and shape. 
