them to read and write, and cultivate the land. One
time the older children burned all the books given
them by the government, supposing that, of course
if they had no books, they would not be required to
go to school. Earthquakes are frequent here, and,
but a short time since, seven shocks occurred in one
day. All came from the south, exactly from the direction
where the Seret Merapi is seen burning. Most
of them were accompanied by a noise, which preceded
the shock long enough for the Resident to remark
to a friend, “ there comes another,” before the
shock itself was perceived. Here we saw many
hanging birds’-nests, most ingeniously constructed.
They were made of fine grass, woven into a mass
having the form of a pear or gourd, from eight inches
to a foot long. The smaller part is attached to the
end of a drooping twig, and on the bottom at one
side is the opening of a tube about an inch and a
half in diameter. This rises vertically for four or
five inches and then curves over and descends like a
syphon. At the end of the short part of this syphon
the tube is enlarged to a spherical cavity, and here
the ingenious bird lays her eggs. In order to appreciate
the remarkable skill required to make the
nest, it would be necessary for one to see a series of
them, from those which have been just begun to those
that are nearly finished, for the tube which is to lead
to the nest is not formed by blades of grass wound
into rings or a helix, but is built up from a single direction
until the two curving sides meet. Among the
sa/was are small artificial pools, where fish are raised
as in China; a' custom probably introduced by the
Chinese themselves. After these shallow pools have
been used for this purpose a year or two, the fish
are taken out, the larger ones sent to market, and
the smaller ones transferred to another pond. The
water in the first pool is then drained off, and its
bottom becomes a fruitful rice-field. In this manner
the natives allow their land to lie fallow, and at the
same time make it yield a good crop.
March 4th.—At 6 a . m., started from Rau for Pa-
dang Sidempuan, at the northern end of this valley,
Avhich begins on the south at Marisipongi, where we
first saw the Battas. All day our route has been in the
bottom of the valley, at a general elevation of one thousand
feet. Sometimes we passed over gentle undulations,
but usually over one monotonous level area
covered with tall grass, in which were interspersed
large clumps of shrubbery. In one village there
were two most enormous waringin-trees, under which
the villagers had prepared a rude table. On this
they had spread young cocoa-nuts, and bananas, apparently
the only kinds of fruit they had to offer.
As we advanced, the mountains on our right
dwindled until they formed hills, whose tops were
only five or six hundred feet above the plateau in
which we were travelling. Before us rose another
great transverse ridge, in which towered up the peak
of Lubu Rajah to a height of over six thousand two
hundred feet above the sea. It is the highest mountain
in the Batta Lands, as the Hutch call the high
plateaus of Silindong and Toba which lie north of
this transverse ridge, and are beyond the limits of the
territory subject to the government of the ether