Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/135

Rh quarters, the first cry which greeted your ear was "Api! api!" (light! light!) quickly responded to by "Ada! Ada!" from several small boys, whose chief occupation seemed to be running about from room to room, with a long cord of twisted cocoa-nut fibre, flaring at one end, and shouting responses in a broken and shrill treble voice.

From eight to nine everyone bathes, a luxury nowhere better understood than in Java; after which they dress for the business of the day, whatever that may be. At twelve, the breakfast is served (nominally so, of course), and all the inhabitants of the hotel, and those absentees who can leave their offices, assemble in the long diningroom, where we unsophisticated foreigners gazed with astonishment at the alarmingly rapid manner in which the Dutchmen ate their meals, gobbling them up as though they were eating for a wager, and calling " Api!" long before we could get through a quarter of that which was on our plate.