We Had Bananas And
Chocolate, And Just At Daybreak Walked Down The Hill, Where I Got Into
A Little Trap
Drawn by a fiery little Sumatra pony, and driven by Mr.
Gibbons, a worthy Australian miner who is here road-
Making, and was
taken five miles to a place where the road becomes a quagmire not to be
crossed. Elephants had been telegraphed for to meet me there, but the
telegraph was found to be broken. Mr. Maxwell, who accompanied us on
horseback, had sent a messenger on here for elephants, and was dismayed
on getting to the quagmire to meet the news that they had gone to the
jungle; so there was no means of conveyance but the small pachyderm
which was bringing my bag, and which was more than two hours behind.
There was nothing for it but to walk, and we tramped for four miles. I
could not have done the half of it had I not had my "mountain dress"
on, the identical mud-colored tweed, in which I waded through the mud
of Northern Japan. The sun had risen splendidly among crimson clouds,
which, having turned gray, were a slight screen, and the air is so
comparatively dry that, though within 5 degrees of the equator, it was
not oppressively hot.
The drive had brought us out of the Chinese country into a region very
thinly peopled by Malays only, here and there along the roadside,
living in houses of all Malay styles, from the little attap cabin with
its gridiron floor supported on stilts, to the large picturesque house
with steep brown roofs, deep eaves and porches, and walls of matting or
bamboo basket work in squares, light and dark alternately, reached by
ladders with rungs eighteen inches apart, so difficult for shod feet.
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