esque outlines of their varied contours enhancing the beauty of
the fantastic scene. A _sado_, with a team of three tiny ponies, dashes
up the long avenue leading to the palm-fringed hills, the mighty
Amherstia trees forming aisles of dark green foliage, brightened with
the vivid glow of orange red blossoms. The broad road is a kaleidoscope
of brilliant colour, for native costume vies with the dazzling tints of
tropical Nature as we advance further into the Preangers. The gay
headgear, worn turbanwise, with two ends standing upright above plaited
folds, and magenta _kabajas_, with _slandangs_ of apple green, amber or
purple, make a blaze of colour against the forest background, or glow
amidst the dusky shadows of palm-thatched sheds, where thirsty
travellers imbibe pink and yellow syrups, the favourite beverages of
the Malay race. The ascending road commands superb views of the
mountain chain, and the rambling two-storied hotel, widened by immense
verandahs, stands opposite cloud-crowned Gedeh, half-veiled by the
spreading column of volcanic smoke. The misty blue of further hills
leads the eye to the three weird peaks of the Tangkoeban Prahoe, the
boat-shaped "Ark" regarded as the Ararat of Java, for the universal
tradition of the great Deluge underlies the religious history welded
from Moslem, Buddhist, and Hindu elements. Legendary lore clusters
round the petrified "Ark" in which the progenitors of the Malayan stock
escaped from the Noachian flood. The storm-tossed and water-logged
boat, lodged between jutting rocks, was reversed that it might dry in
the sun, but the weary voyagers who traditionally peopled the Malay
Archipelago remained in the lotus-eating land, and the disused "Ark" or
_Prau_, fossilizing through the ages, became a portion of the peaks
whereon it rested. The sacred mountain developed into a place of
pilgrimage and prayer, and the ruins of richly-carved temples, together
with four broken flights of a thousand steps, denote the former
importance ascribed to the great Altar of Nature, and the power of
religion on the social life of the past. Generations of later
inhabitants, dwelling in flimsy huts of bamboo and thatch, regarded the
mysterious ruins of the Tankahan Prahoe as the work of giants or
demons, and the haunted hill as a mysterious resort of evil spirits.
In lofty Sindanglaya, the swaying palms of the lowlands yield to
glorious tree-ferns, shading road and ravine with feathery canopies of
velve