The Rest House proved comfortable, X. had brought his own provisions, which his servants cooked, and for once he enjoyed a hot and palatable meal. There was plenty of opportunity for conversation with the Assistant Wodena, who was quite willing to discourse on the customs of the country, and he gave a most interesting account of the elaborate etiquette of Javanese Rajas, and of the extraordinary deference paid by commoners to rank. He in his turn asked many questions concerning Malacca and the Malay Straits, about which his interlocutor was able to give him all the information sought for.
The next morning the sightseer and his followers ascended the mountain on ponies to see the volcano. This was a kind of inferno with wicked mouths which looked like ventilators from the bowels of the earth spitting and hissing blinding steam.
The whole face of the mountain was yellow with sulphur, and the air was sickening from its smell. Usoof and Abu were not a little terrified by this awful experience, and grasped their Tuan by the arm entreating him not to venture near what, they evidently thought, were the gates of hell.
I feel that I have paid sufficient deference to my instructions in recording the impressions the scenery made upon the traveller, and shall therefore omit all mention of what he saw while descending the mountain. He described it as wonderful, and those of my readers who have arrived thus far will be prepared to admit the accuracy of the description.
The party reached Garvet in time to catch the two o'clock train to Tassikmalaja, and thus make a start for Tjilatjap.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE QUEST FOR A MOTHER.
To start for Tjilatjap was such an unusual departure that it merits a chapter all to itself. No one had apparently left Garvet for Tjilatjap for years, since it had been pronounced to be one of the most unhealthy places in the island. The correct thing for every traveller to do is to go to Tassikmalaya for the night and proceed from thence to Djoeja by train, go by carriage to Beroboeddoer, where a halt for the night can be made at a Government Rest House. The drive is twenty-five miles. The next morning the traveller should drive ten miles further to Magelang, while his luggage goes by train or bullock cart. From Magelang Amberawa is reached by another drive of twenty miles, and from here the railway can be taken to Semerang or back to Djoeja, and from there to Solo, a three hours' journey.
X. was informed that everyone took this route, but he persisted in starting for Tjilatjap, notwithstanding that the lady who presided over the hotel assured him that it was the most fever stricken port in the country. Had he known then as much as he subsequently learnt of the evil reputation of the place it is probable that the traveller might have changed his plans. As it was, he only replied that he was inured to fever and did not mind. At that time he had no particular reason for going to one place more than another, and therefore the one which drove him in this direction was good enough to serve his purpose. Usoof desired to commence the search for his mother. He had no recollection of the village where he was born, but believed it to be somewhere near the coast which, considering the country was an island, was somewhat a vague indication. After assisting his Tuan to study a map he exclaimed that the name Tjilatjap sounded familiar to him, and sure enough it was a large town on the coast. Now, he argued, it could not be familiar unless he had heard it before, and that could only have been when he was in Java, and as he was then little more than a baby, only the names of places in the neighbourhood of his birth place could have been familiar to him. It mattered little to X. where he went, the further away from the beaten track, the more opportunity for studying the natives and learning something of their lives. So he readily agreed to go to Tjilatjap. It was only after all plans had been settled that its evil reputation for fever was heard of.