Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/154

136 Panangoenan, bold in aspect, azured by distance and piercing the sky.

At ten, we reached the village of Pespo, a kind of temporary campong, built in the hollow formed by two hills. The huts here are made of bamboo, plaited at the sides, so as to present, when not observed too near, the appearance of fine matting. They are roofed with lalangs, which serve all the purposes of thatch. The poles, on which the houses are supported, are not planted in the ground, but rest upon other thick bamboo poles lying flat on the earth. These structures are raised by families whose homes are in the mountains, where their chief occupation is the culture of coffee, which at certain seasons they descend to the lowlands to dispose of. At such periods they inhabit Pespo and similar villages, from which, after attending to their rice plantations, they return to their mountain homes.

A little beyond Pespo we rested under a large,