26 
fiveTdays in naning. 
*•» 
ranges, it is affected by all their inequalities, so that it never 
pursues a horizontal line for many paces, save when it des¬ 
cends into the flats and unites the slopes on either side by its 
low mound. The hills for a time continued to be covered 
with fruit trees, but soon the only trace of cultivation was the 
brushwood on their lower slopes, while above a dense forest 
stretched along the ridges. At Sungei Pitai we crossed the 
boundary of Naning and entered the tract on which the Indian 
sepoy and the Malay had for the first and perhaps the last 
time met in conflict. The greater part of the road was 
strewed with laterite gravel. I remarked that the sides 
of the hills towards the north were in general steeper than 
those towards the south. 
At Telimah several shops, a tattered atap mosque, an 
ancient tomb or kramat, that of Bilana Sultan, and some 
fruit plantations indicated that we were now in the heart of 
Naning. At 7 o’clock we reached the hill of Alor Gaja. The 
road lies along the face of the hill, having on the one side, 
an open grassy tract covered with the remains of the British 
lines and bounded by low jungle which extends to the 
summit, and, on the other, a belt of fruit trees divided into 
several orchards, each surrounded by its fence and over¬ 
shadowing a house. This cultivated slope rests on an un¬ 
usually broad paddy flat, from the other side of which rises 
a lower hill surmounted by Fort Lismore, a small earthen 
fortification, along the ramparts of which an armed sepoy 
kept guard. The detachment of men stationed here appears 
to have for some years been quite unnecessary, as the Na- 
ningites are, to all appearance, perfectly reconciled to the 
issue of the war, so far as the mere change of rule is 
concerned. Although the heavier impost to which they 
have been subjected is considered a hardship, there is no 
risk of its provoking them to any future outbreak. 
To the west of the Fort, and upon the gentle slope at the 
base of the hill, extend, on each side of the road, a connected 
line of houses, nearly the whole of which are occupied by 
Chinese shop-keepers. At the entrance of this little village, 
another road strikes off to the south eastward, passing be¬ 
tween the i' ort and the paddy valley, crossing one of the 
branches of the latter, and then pursuing its course over hill 
and hollow to Ayer Panas. At Alor G&ja we were received 
by my companion’s friend, Abdulrahman, who proved to be 
thte mdtd mata of the district. The Naning mdta mkta must 
not be confounded with the hired police peon of Malacca and 
Singapore. He is an unpaid and honorary police functionary. 
