which we pass, presents a curious spectacle, with the village
street lined on either side by rows of kneeling children, clad in Dame
Nature's brown suit alone; each little figure holding up a long-stemmed
flower--red hybiscus, creamy tuberose, or snowy gardenia--the imploring
faces raised in silent entreaty to the white strangers for the
infinitesimal coins which suffice to purchase a sheaf of blossom.
Changing lights and shadows sweep across the glancing emerald of the
rice-filled vale, darken the purple rifts of mountain gorges, or
intensify the luminous azure of soaring crests. Wayside fruit-stalls
make gay patches of colour among green piles of banana leaves, and thin
yellow strips of bamboo, the approved paper and string of the tropics,
in which every parcel is packed. Tall sugar-cane and plumy maize
surround each brown _desa_ beneath the knot of palms, and fields of
tapioca vary the prevailing rice-grounds with sharp-pointed leaves and
paler verdure. The entire tapioca crop of Java belongs to Huntley and
Palmer, for use in the manufacture of the biscuits which make a
valuable supplement to the Javanese commissariat, for unlimited rice
seldom commends itself to English tastes. Hot springs abound in this
volcanic soil, and in the "five waters" of Tjipanas, each of different
temperature, the native finds a panacea wherein he can indulge to his
heart's content, the healing springs rushing into stone tanks set in
sheds of bamboo. The principal excursion from Garoet is to the active
crater of the Papandayang, a long drive of twelve miles leading to the
foot of the volcano. From this point a chair carried by six coolies is
required for the steep road, formed by hundreds of moss-grown steps.
Plantations of coffee, cinchona, and tapioca girdle the lower slopes of
the mountain, hedges and thickets of red and purple coleas bordering
the primeval jungle of orchid-decked trees on the higher levels, the
moss-grown boughs wreathed with epiphytal plants, the trunks covered
with branching ferns, and the thick ropes of matted lianas strangling
the dense forest in their green embrace. Wild oleander mingles rosy
blossoms with bushes of living gold like tall growths of double
buttercups, and at length the cooler regions show the familiar ferns,
violets, and primroses of the temperate zone. The weird silence of the
jungle is emphasised by an occasional cry of a wild bird, flitting
among the tall tree tops, or the crash of a bough, dragge