mpression of abject insignificance deeply on
the plastic mind of girlhood. Fertile plain and wooded slopes are alike
destitute of domestic animals. The sheep was unknown to native races in
this pastureless land, and, though introduced by the earliest
colonists, is still spoken of as "the Dutch goat," no other term
existing for it in Malay parlance. Monkeys chatter and rustle in
forest trees, gorgeous birds flit past on jewelled wings, and frogs in
this rainy season make a deep booming like the tuning of numerous
violoncellos. At length the little town of Garoet appears in a green
valley, encircled by a diadem of peaks which suggest a tropical
Engadine. Volcanic mountains replace Alpine crests, but the white
battlements of Papandayang's smoking crater give the effect of distant
snow, and the dark pines of the Swiss valley are merely translated into
the lustrous green of crowding palms. Brawling river, rustic bridge,
and brown hamlets foster the strange illusion, and if it be true that
somewhere in the wide world every face finds a counterpart, natural
scenery may be subject to an identical law, and various ice-bound
landscapes be mirrored under Southern skies in pictures wreathed with
palm-fronds and tropic flowers. The Hotel Rupert, garlanded with
creepers, the open lattices trellised with ivy and roses, shows a more
poetic aspect than any hostelry of the distant Engadine. Our hostess is
the widow of a German physician, and her fair young daughter, alert and
capable as the typical _Hausfrau_ of her native land, has established a
reputation for supplying the guests with the home comforts and restful
atmosphere which make the Hotel Rupert an ideal abiding-place in
stagnant Java, where as a rule the sole luxuries are out-of-doors, and
of Nature's providing. That the Dutchman flourishes on his diet of
tinned meat, his appalling rice-table, and the extraordinary sequence
of dishes which probably belonged to the early days of colonisation,
either proves herculean strength or the triumph of mind over matter,
but to those of less heroic mould the unwonted amenities of a more
familiar civilisation are welcome as a green oasis in a sandy desert. A
cool and healthy mountain climate gives unwonted zest for the lovely
excursions of which Garoet is the centre. From the little lake Setoe
Bajendit, a covered raft plies to a cupola-crowned hill, facing a noble
panorama of volcanic peaks the Soendanese _desa_ of basket-work huts,
through