Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 450, 1 December 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

! THE GREAT SAfID SEA OF JAY^ A TRAVELLER who has visited Jav and not seen Tengger is like the man who claimed to have ' done' America without making the usual pilgrimage to Niagara. Tengger is the wonder of the island. It is also one of the wonders of the world, being the largest \ crater in existence. If further attractions are required, it maybe added that Tengger is an active volcano; and visitors have always the off-chance of seeing another eruption on the largest possible scale as that which Mount Galonggung favoured them with in October 1822. It must be added that scientific people consider it only an offchance, and if the possibility had been less remote, our curiosity might have; been less exacting. Java has no fewer than forty-six active volcanoes scattered up and down it, and tho soil of the entiro island consists largely of volcanic matter. Tongger is in tho east end of Java. Not far from it is Someroe, which is the loftiest of all the volcanoes of Java. By going up Tengger you not only become personally acquainted with one of the wonders of the world, but you get afino view of Semeroe in the distance free. Therefore, when we had partaken of Dutch hospitality at Batavia, attended the wedding of the daughter of a wealthy Chinese opium contractor, visited one of the horrible dens from which tho Dutch Government derive their opium-tainted revenue, inspected a new kind of orchid which was the pride, and joy of its discoverer's heart, and peeped into tho working of the Dutch courts of injustice, we decided that we must go to Tengger. Wo went by land. First, -*he way lay through picturesque villages (dessas), whose dark roofs of atap-leaves and gold~n.-yollow fences contrasted admirably with the background of dark-green fruit-trees. Then came plantations of cocoa-nut palms. After that, great flat fields of rice marked out like squares on a chessboard by long embankments, on which a promising growth of toeri or klampies bushes flourished serenely. .In the distance beyond the palms and the rice-fields rose the forestcovered slopes of the stately volcanic ranges. The scenery of Java is intensely picturesque, but the people are a poor lot. Tho Javanese have been crushed almost to slavery by centuries of oppression. The word most frequently on their lips when addressing a European is ' .Engeh.' The Dutchmau calls the Javanese' brute' or ' stupid ass ' at pleasure, and the subject race replies submissively: 'Engeh, Kaudjeng toean '{Yes, your Excellency). ,' The spurs of Tengger, like the roots'.of an enormous oak, extend for an immense distance away from the parent crater," and. we were actually on the lower slopes, of- the mountain long before the ascent became at all mountainous. The road lay through forests of cocoa-nut palms, bananas, and other tropical fruit-trees. The natural product, however, which interested me most during this portion of the journey was the • kamadoog,' or. devil-thistle, a strange-looking plant, with great broad heart-shaped leaves, The edges, of these leaves were jagged like i; a- saw- and the under-surfaces were covered;.--with white hairy down. This kamadoog is the most terrible Weed that the earth produces. The slightest contact with its a violent itching, which is as painful as a severe burn —at least, so I was told ; and it may be imagined that I had no wish to test the truth of the story by personal experience. I, was further told that, the. leaves were sometimes used as'-nnstruments of torture, and that a flogging itdmmistered with them caused such excruciating.agony, that the strongest man wqul(J. literally howl like a wild beast in, the anguish of it. Pleasant people.musk'.ho" the individuals who apply their'knowledge of botany iu this fashion. * .-,-"'

The sides of Tengger rise fit an easy slope, and. as a rule, nowhere attain ar inconvenient steepness.. Above tho palm-forests come bamboo jungles, very difficult to traverse.? Additional complications occasionally turn up iuthe shapa of tigers and wild boa|'s7-';There airO one tiger'and one boar r > however, which; will never'obstruct travellers again,, The tiger's skin now ,iig,ake3 ah excellent rug with stuffed head ;sJM& /'/real.' claws, over which, my friends stumble with monotonous persistence. Tengger is only about eight thousand feet above the level of the sea—quite a'little hill,' in fact, as its name implies. Semeroo goes up some four thousand feet higher, and from that altitude looks down on Tengger.; On the other hand, Tengger has a crater which measures sixteen miles round—that is to say, is as big as a moderate-sized lake. Looking down at this crater from 'tho traehytic wall which surrounded it, the general effect was that of a huge arena of sand walled in by a range of low hills, which varied from five hundred to a thousand feet above tho sandy floor. In the centre of this arena rose a group of low hills, all ridiculously exact cones, and none overa thousand feet high. Imagine the Colosseum on a vast scale with painted panoramas of mountainous sconcry ranged all round in front of the benches. Or imagine a huge pie-dish of very extraordinary shape, in the centre of which some one has placed the bowl of a wineglass, having first snapped off the stem. The true! disrespect of this latter comparison will be apparent when it"is explained that the wine-glass represents the modern active crater of Tengger which is called the Bromo. This is a regular cone about six hundred feet, high, which is always crowned with a wreath of smoke, and sometimes flings out columns of "sand and cinders in a manner calculated to be very embarrassing t6 tourists who happen to be on tho spot at the time. Near the Bromo are two other cones, respectively known as Watangan (the Hill of Audience) and Butak- (the Bold),. }bout which, owing to their height and steepness, very little is known, except that they have not been active within recent times. The sand-arena which, surrounds the Bromo and its two companions is known as the 'Dasar,' and also as the ' Grand Sand Sea of Java,' because.all round the lower slopes of the cones the sand is blown into ridges just as is 'the ribbed sea-sand.' For the most part, the Dasar is as sterile as the Sahara ; but in one spot where, owing to the slope of the surface, tho rain accumulates and remains for a while, there is.quite a little prairie of vegetation. All tho rest of the crater is shifting sand and fine dust, which fly in clouds and columns before the winds. The unsuspecting traveller, however, who crosses the Dasar first time may be inclined to doubt this statement, when he sees before him a dazzling vision of bright towers and minarets, rippling waters, and waving palm-trees. Fairyland reached at last, is the first thought, and then one remembers the mirage. And, alas, as one advances towards it, the bright vision is already melting away-into the broad bare expanse o£ grayish plain. ■••.-. • The Bromo derives its name from Brama or Brahma, tor it is an object of special reverence to a Brahminical community which dwells obscurely.on the slopes o£ Tengger. At certain. seasons of the year, the high-griest of/ Brahmj,.gOfls i*P/tb> Bromo dm mWes offe'rtflgs of; im . ttf.

Brahma.- As the,cone is entirely covered sand'and the sides are pretty : steep, the high^pnestwould have no easy climb,- were itjfo|§pl the devotion of his flock, who, hajS^rlnged-a regular staircase of broad steps leading to the very top of tho.prafe-' „ ; Up went with the purely mundane vio* buffing what was going on in tho crate*; sight which met our eyes when wo the actual summit would well havl*£ejiaid a saramble up without assistance, Imagine an immonse funnel about a round,-and some six hundred feet dle§, the sides of. which 'converge in a stoep&jge as they'descend, and at the bottom ajiiwible lake of greenish fluid, on thesurfSrofof which hubbies are oyer breaking, whil,e'jets of smoke come up at intervals, bringing a whiff bf sulphur from below. The thought crossed my mind at once—what would happen to a man who was seized with vertigo while standing on tho;- ; ¥dge of this gulf?—and then, that this wks a story which Edgar Allan Poe ought to have written as a companion to the ' Descent into the Maelstrom.' Even while wo stood. £n the brink, looking down into the abj'ssj- the surface of the greenish lake was convulsed by the forces below ; the mountain- trembled, as if shaken by an earthquake, andja- column of smoke „md ashes spouted up before our eyes, falling short of the summit, however, while our ears were saluted by subterranean rumblings like distant thunder. The idea of staying to bo shot at with hot ashes, even by an exhausted volcano, struck us about this time as having its disagreeable side. The next shot might bo a better one. So, as a military despatch put it, we retired in good'ordor.