A JOURNEY IN JOHORE. ' 57 
depth of the quagmire would increase further, and as they 
answered that we were just now in the deepest part, we 
continued our way, and in about half an hour after we found 
ourselves on dry ground. We entered a good foot path, but 
did not enjoy it long, for scarcely half an hour had elapsed, 
when we were obliged to enter mud again. In the absence 
of a foot path we followed a small muddy stream. We had 
no mud or water higher than the knee, and could have walk¬ 
ed pretty fast if another impediment had not presented 
itself. This was occasioned by the thorny rattan tree which 
grows there abundantly. The leaves and branches which 
every year fall from that tree, and in the course of time enter 
the mud, must be a serious inconvenience to the traveller 
who is obliged to journey barefoot. This, together with the 
branches and the thorns of the trees by which the clothes 
are hooked on every side, render such travelling very diffi¬ 
cult. We spent thus about three hours, and I suppose, we 
did not walk more than a mile and half. About three o’clock 
p.m. we arrived at a kamponginhabited by Jakuns,threehouses 
five families and eighteen persons. These Jakuns have inha¬ 
bited the place for many years; they have a large cultivated 
kampong well furnished with mangosteen, champadah and 
many other kinds of fruit trees. I remarked likewise a num¬ 
ber of betel trees and sugar canes, and a large paddy field. 
The Jakuns here are the most comfortably established I 
have ever met with, I was kindly received by the inmates 
of this solitary place; and my arrival was the occasion of a 
feast. All the population of the kampong being gathered 
together in the largest house, that in which I had already 
taken my lodging, cakes of more than one kind were made, 
and kladees were prepared with several sauces; a fowl was 
killed and presented to me; all the evening was spent in 
lively conversation and in singing, accompanied with drums. 
I was told that the place is entirely solitary, the nearest 
house being that of the Batin which I had left in the morn¬ 
ing, and that on all other sides there were no houses nearer 
than those on the river of Banut, where I intended to go, 
and which could be reached in three clays by a tolerably good 
foot-path through thick jungle. The next day the owners 
of the place gave me a fowl, some kladees, and other vege* 
tables; and as one of them remarked that my Chinaman 
complained much of the weight of his loads, he offered him¬ 
self to take a part of it as far as the Banut river; I willingly 
accepted this offer, and having given several articles in 
return for the hospitality I had received, I started. 
H 
