Merapi. “ The tree,” he says, “ had. nothing deadly
about it, but the earth in that depressed part emitted
fumes of carbonic acid gas, that hovered over the
ground for about three feet upwards, suffocating those
who might lie down on the earth there.”
The kampongs, or villages, throughout the whole
route gave evidence of a thriving population; the
bamboo cottages were neat and clean, each invariably
surrounded by a little garden full of plantains and
other fruit trees, and protected from the road by a
screen of split bamboo upon a low stone wall. The native
women of the better class, when going any distance,
move about in a small bamboo palki or a hammock,
suspended from a long pole, and carried by two coolies
(Plate XXIII.). Men and women dress much in the same
fashion, hence the anecdote of a Dutch colonel, during
one of his raids against the natives : having attacked a
detachment of Javanese Amazons, who defended themselves
bravely with sticks and whatever they could lay
hold of for the purpose, until the mistake was cleared
up, when a general stampede ensued.
The country swarms with a species of swallow, whose
nest, built into the rock of the mountain, is much prized
by the epicure of the Celestial Empire.
Long avenues of banyan and other fine trees now
brought us to a broad river, having more the appearance