30 
FIVE DAYS IN NANING. 
At the first paddy flat beyond Alor Gkja we found the road 
barricadoed with bambus on each side of the flat, a sort of 
turnstile allowing pedestrians to pass on. This mode of 
protecting the fields from the intrusion of buffaloes was 
frequently repeated, and sufficiently confirmed Abdulrah- 
man*s statement that there is not a horse or carriage of any 
kind in Naning. The steepness of the hills and the corduroy 
bridges in the flats soon disabled our sorry hack from ad¬ 
vancing further, and we therefore abandoned the palankeen 
and proceeded on foot. Ascending the brow of the first 
high hill, a grand vista suddenly opened. A country, 
billowy like the sea, lay stretched before us, and above its 
farthest undulations rose the mountains, not now invested 
in the dim blue veil which they had hitherto worn, and 
which reduced them to mere geometrical figures, but raising 
their swelling forms in all the massiveness of close prox¬ 
imity. Ridges, descending from the highest summits and 
advancing slightly from the base, like vast butresses, ex¬ 
panded in the warm shimmering sun -light, and broad and deep 
ravines reposed beneath their cool shadows, while one dense 
and continuous forest clothed the whole. The road con¬ 
tinued over elevations and across narrow level flats, winding 
amongst them, and thus alternately hid the mountains from 
our sight and revealed them with increasing grandeur. The 
first considerable elevation,—after passing a place called Prigf 
To Dato (the Chiefs well),—is the hill of Sabusah which 
is covered with bruslrwood. Beyond it we passed the village 
of Malikke where a Panghulu resides. That the reader 
may not be misled by a name, I ought to explain that it 
is only on the sea coasts and on the banks of the rivers, 
that a Malayan village approaches to a European one in 
the number and contiguity of its houses. In the country 
there is in general nothing to which the name can be pro¬ 
perly applied, save those places where a considerable number 
of small orchards, each with its cottage, adjoin each other. 
In the case of Malikke, two Chinese shops added to the 
importance of the village, and indeed were nearly all that 
could be seen from the road. The whole tract called Mk- 
likke contains about 50 houses. A stream called Ayer 
Punge was shortly afterwards passed. 
The next hill, Pirling, was of greater height and bolder 
form than any that we had passed since leaving Alor Gajk. 
The surface and upper layer contain a large quantity of la- 
teritic gravel. A large portion of it was covered with hill 
paddy (pkddi umah). This species of cultivation according 
