of a volcanic soil, but the rich treasures of the virgin rocks
are for the most part unknown and unexplored. Columns of smoke rise
continually from numerous active volcanos, and the beautiful mountain
lakes fill extinct craters. The great island, lying north-west and
south-east, possesses a glorious climate, and the superb vegetation
shows a distinctive character from that of Java. The Dutch, though
supreme on the coast, have never yet subdued the interior, and
unconquerable Acheen remains a perpetual centre of unrest. The flower
of the Malay race belongs to Sumatra, and the wild Battek tribes of
alien origin are fast merging themselves into the dominant stock,
though the Redjanger clan, retaining curious customs of a remote past,
and possessing a written character, cut with a _kris_ on strips of
bamboo, is slow to assimilate itself to the Malayan element. The
Sumatran language shows traces of Indian and Arabic influence, and that
the early civilisation of the huge island was of Hindu origin is
evidenced by innumerable Sanskrit words, and by the fact that the
consecrated pipal tree, the "Ficus Religiosa" of India, remains to this
day the sacred tree of the Batteks. Native chronicles record the
descent of Sumatran princes from Alexander the Great, but though the
pages of Javanese history are comparatively legible, those of Sumatra,
designated in early days as "the older Java," resemble a dim
palimpsest, marred by erasure or hiatus, and barely decipherable
beneath the lettering on the surface of the age-worn parchment.

Little _campongs_ of palm-thatched huts stand on piles at the water's
edge, and skirt the over-shadowing forest; fairy islands, encircled
with red-stemmed _aren_-palms, lie like green garlands on the indigo
sea, dotted with the yellow sails of native _proas_, and the little
train which conveys us to Padang, the western capital, seems an
incongruous feature in a scene suggestive of primeval peace and
solitude. A sylvan charm belongs even to this Sumatran township, for
the wooden houses, with pointed roofs of dried palm-leaves, and broad
eaves forming shady verandahs, stand far apart in flowery gardens,
aflame with orange or scarlet cannas, and fragrant with golden-hearted
frangipanni. The sweeping boughs of giant cocoanut trees make a green
twilight beneath their interwoven fronds, Bougainvillea drapes
crumbling wall and forest tree with curtains of roseate purple, and
thatched stalls of tropical fruits an