Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/312

294 the natives extract a myñha, or oil. This oil is used medicinally, and is also rubbed over the wood-work of houses, for the purpose of protecting it from the destructive white ants, to which its strong scent acts as a powerful resistant. A few coffee trees here and there showed their sweet white flowers, and the wild pine-apple and cane grew almost in our narrow pathway.

We walked in front, followed by the juru coonchee, mandoer, Drahman, and one or two villagers. The former was provided with a fowling-piece, without which he never visits the temple, as all this neighbourhood is infested with tigers and leopards. When a number of wood-cutters are walking through a jungle or forest, the post of danger is always in the rear, and they draw lots for the purpose of deciding who is to walk last in the file. It is the habit of the tiger, when he has marked his prey, to creep stealthily by and wait