Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/308

302 would tie a cord around his ankles, which enabled him to get a grip of the straight, branchless trunks. A single blow of the heavy knife which he carried in his belt would send the nut to the ground with a thud that was ample evidence of the danger of being hit by one. The large monkey also gathers the nuts with a skill that is marvelous. He is sent up the tree, with a rope attached to his collar. Selecting the ripe nut, he gets it between his hands and rolls it back and forth until the stem is twisted off, whereupon he throws it to the ground. Stories are not wanting of vicious beasts taking this opportunity of killing their keepers with well-aimed nuts. The cocoanut monkey is the enemy of the baby. If he finds one unguarded, he immediately sets about twisting its head as he would a cocoanut.

The dress and habits of the Dutch are well adapted to the climate. Early rising, usually about daylight, is the rule. After a bath and light breakfast, the serious work of the day is taken up and generally finished by midday, when the heat becomes oppressive. After riztafel all the tropical world goes to sleep. About 5 o'clock life begins to stir again, the more comfortable hour before sunset and the twilight being utilized for the promenade, for calls and for recreation.

During the early part of the day the costume is almost anything one cares to make it, if one is not engaged in official or other business. The gentlemen are usually seen at home or about the hotels in sarong trousers and loose white jackets, sometimes without slippers and usually without hose. This costume is not uncommon on the streets also during the early morning hours. White duck or drilling is usually worn for business. For the afternoon promenade and for evening functions, dark clothes are customary, and most uncomfortable.

The ladies have much the best of etiquette in this land. Their dress is at all times simple and comfortable. A short sarong skirt, reaching only to the ankles, a loose white jacket of some thin stuff, bare feet encased in slippers or sandals, compose the morning or home costume. Their evening dress much resembles that of their sisters in the temperate zones.

It is not until one has been ashore on the low plains that he fully realizes the character of the heavy tropical heat. The air is saturated practically all the time. With a nearly vertical noon-day sun at all times of the year, and with little wind, there is an oppressiveness during the day in these islands that is unknown in temperate climates. One marvels at the windows and doors, without glass and with large slats, and wonders if it is never cool. He soon finds the wisdom of it and courts all breezes, by night as well as by day. Here it is eternal summer, where clothes are not a necessity, but a nuisance, and where one envies the little brown babies the entire lack of raiment which they enjoy for the first few years of their existence.