Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/235

 CnONDERO DI MOEKO. 219

if they live to see the light of the following day, they feel assured of gaining the ohject of their wish. If, on the contrary, the poor, credulous in- dividual hreathes his last before the morning breaks, his death is attributed, not to the gas, but to the vengeance of a Pungooroo, or evil spirit.

Prosecuting our excursion still further, we went to see another lake, or rather pond, called Chondero dl Moeko. It covers a space of about twenty feet, and its waters flow away in a narrow streamlet which runs steamin<j; alono;. Near the centre we saw three or four jets, like fountains, the boiling water rising to fully four or fi\e feet above the level of the jx^nd, and the hot spray falling around. The margin and sides consisted of soft, hot mud, suljihurcous deposits, and small blocks of limestone, which, from time t(j time, had lieeu ejected with the water. At a short <Ustance are two small ori- fices vomiting fortii boiUng nuiddv Ihilds, and from the sides of a rock, not many yards off, \ohunes of

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