Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/307

 THE INUXDATIOX. 291

reach that small haven before their strength fails them. Two buffaloes, with blood-shot eyes and dis- tended nostrils, are rapidly ap])roaching the desired S])ot, apparently determined to gain a footing there, on perceiving which the more energetic of the gi'oup assail the poor brutes with stones, in order to deter them from venturing on the limited space. All in the background is dreary waste and ruin, and the dark clouds, charged with rain, seein to be the gloomy presages of inevitable death to the melanclioly group so closely pressed together. But all hope is not lost yet far off in the hori/on is a small craft, which I had not j)rcviusly noticed, the prow of which is c'learing its way towards the ?noun<l, to save the Httic baiirj of sufferers who lune taken refuge there. ^\ ith the exception of some sVi<j]\t ex- travngDnce in the Circassian-shaped features of the women, and the tor* classical iigures of the men an exaggi'i-atioii jiardonabK' in a nati\e artist de-

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