fully veined with white metal worked into
the iron, and they are kept very carefully. Every man without exception
carries a kris, stuck behind into the large waist-cloth which all wear,
and it is generally the most valuable piece of property he possesses.

A few days afterwards our long-talked-of excursion to Gunong Sari
took place. Our party was increased by the captain and supercargo of
a Hamburg ship loading with rice for China. We were mounted on a very
miscellaneous lot of Lombock ponies, which we had some difficulty in
supplying with the necessary saddles, etc.; and most of us had to patch
up our girths, bridles, or stirrup-leathers as best we could. We passed
through Mataram, where we were joined by our friend Gusti Gadioca,
mounted on a handsome black horse, and riding as all the natives do,
without saddle or stirrups, using only a handsome saddlecloth and very
ornamental bridle.

About three miles further, along pleasant byways, brought us to the
place. We entered through a rather handsome brick gateway supported by
hideous Hindu deities in stone. Within was an enclosure with two square
fish-ponds and some fine trees; then another gateway through which we
entered into a park. On the right was a brick house, built somewhat in
the Hindu style, and placed on a high terrace or platform; on the left
a large fish-pond, supplied by a little rivulet which entered it out of
the mouth of a gigantic crocodile well executed in brick and stone. The
edges of the pond were bricked, and in the centre rose a fantastic and
picturesque pavilion ornamented with grotesque statues. The pond was
well stocked with fine fish, which come every morning to be fed at the
sound of a wooden gong which is hung near for the purpose. On striking
it a number of fish immediately came out of the masses of weed with
which the pond abounds, and followed us along the margin expecting food.
At the same time some deer came out of as adjacent wood, which, from
being seldom shot at and regularly fed, are almost tame. The jungle and
woods which surrounded the park appearing to abound in birds, I went to
shoot a few, and was rewarded by getting several specimens of the fine
new kingfisher, Halcyon fulgidus, and the curious and handsome
ground thrush, Zoothera andromeda. The former belies its name by not
frequenting water or feeding on fish. It lives constantly in low damp
thickets picking up ground insects, centipedes, and small mollusca.
Altogether I was