down the ladder, and sent a boy up a cocoanut tree for some fresh
nuts. In a moment half a dozen of the great, oval, green nuts came
pounding down into the sand. Another little fellow snatched them up,
and with a sharp parang, or hatchet-like knife, cut away the soft shuck
until the cocoanut took the form of a pyramid, at the apex of which
he bored a hole, and a stream of delicious, cool milk gurgled out. We
needed no second invitation to apply our lips to the hole. The meat
inside was so soft that we could eat it with a spoon. The cocoanut
of commerce contains hardly a suggestion of the tender, fleshy pulp
of a freshly picked nut.

We left the punghulo's house with the old chief in the bow of our
boat--he insisted upon seeing that we were properly announced to his
subjects--and proceeded along the coast for half a mile, and then up
a swampy lagoon to its head.

The tall tops of the palms wrapped everything in a cool, green
twilight. The waters of the lagoon were filled with little bronze
forms, swimming and sporting about in its tepid depths regardless of
the cruel eyes that gleamed at them from great log-like forms among
the mangrove roots.

Dozens of naked children fled up the rickety ladders of their homes
as we approached. Ring-doves flew through the trees, and tame monkeys
chattered at us from every corner. The men came out to meet us, and
did the hospitalities of their village; and when we left, our boat
was loaded down with presents of fish and fruit.

Almost every day after that did we visit the kampong, and were always
welcomed in the same cordial manner.

Wahpering was tireless in his attentions. He kept his Sampan Besar,
or big boat, with its crew at our disposal day after day.

One day I showed him the American flag. He gazed at it thoughtfully and
said, "Biak!" (Good.) "How big your country?" I tried to explain. He
listened for a moment. "Big as Negri Blanda?" (Holland.) I laughed. "A
thousand times larger!" The old fellow shook his head sadly, and
looked at me reproachfully.

"Tidah! Tidah!" (No, no.) "Rajah, Orang Blanda (Dutchman) show me
chart of the world. Holland all red. Take almost all the world. Rest
of country small, small. All in one little corner. How can Rajah say
his country big?"

There was no denying the old man's knowledge; I, too, had seen one
of these Dutch maps of the world, which are circulated in Java to
make the natives think that Holland is the greatest nation on earth.