Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/100

82 and bounded by a hilly range at some distance. Rice fields extended on all sides, in which men, women, and children were busily employed in planting the young paddy shoots.

Half an hour's drive through this vale of apparent peace and plenty, brought us to the junction of two roads, one leading to Sorondal, Oenarang, and Ambarrawa (the fortified key of the inner provinces), the other the high road to Batavia. We took the former, but returned by another way into the town. At a distance, we saw the hills of Chundy, a pretty low range, so called from the number of wells and rills near it. A mountain elevating its bold head above the Chundy, is known as Gunong Sampe, signifying, in Malay, "reached."

The traveller in his journey through Java will be struck by the means employed by the natives for the cultivation of rice. Sawahs, or rice reservoirs, are always to be seen in the valleys, or at the