Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/23

 CURIOUS BATS. 7

Mounting the ponies which were brought for us,

and followed by several of ^Ir. II 's men,

carrying tombas or spears, and by a pack of village curs famous for scenting out wild boar, we sallied forth in picturesque guerilla style. Some distance from the house we had to cross a stream, the opposite bank of which wc had no sooner gal- loped up than we beheld a most cui'ious sight.

Hanging from the Ijranches of two or three large trees growing close together, were myriads of what apjieared to ujc long black bottles,

"Th('S(are some curious kind of fruit,"' said I to Mr. U.

" Fi-uit I"' replied he, "why, they are bats, or dying foxes, as some ])eople call them you will se<', wlien wc get nearer, how they will Ijy about the tree."

.And true enough our near aj)[)roach was the slgmd for ;i gi'inral flight. Tliest> cui-i(jus-I(iokini{ creatures are called by the Javanese the kaluno-;

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