various sorts, four or five kinds
of meat, and a wonderful mixture of condiments, the variety sometimes
including twenty, all placed in one receptacle similar to a deep
soup-plate and evidently enjoyed by the partakers; this was only one
course of the luncheon!

[Illustration: _A Javanese dignitary and his attendants_]

The Dutch ways of dressing in Java are truly remarkable; for instance,
sarongs, thin jackets, and almost bare feet were often seen in a
dining-room. To me the culmination of this unconventionality came later;
the heat was so oppressive that after luncheon I was glad to enjoy a
rocker on my gallery, and might have envied the couple on the adjoining
gallery had I been differently educated. For, strangely, the lady wore
only a sarong of thin material, a diaphanous jacket, and very low
sandals; she might almost have posed as a life model. As a foil, her
husband appeared in pajamas.

At 3 P.M. on February 22nd, we took a train for Priok port, which was
nine miles distant. The steamer _Orange_ (of the Dutch line) was waiting
for us, and we were soon sailing for Singapore. Once more we passed the
equator without one thrill of excitement, and, after thirty-six hours,
were at Singapore, where we were at once transferred to the steamer
_Nuen-tung_ (the Chinese for "good luck"), North German Lloyd line,
bound for Bangkok, Siam, the trip requiring four and a half days. The
steamer was small and only fairly comfortable; the service was Chinese.
A pleasant feature of the arrangement was an improvised dining-room on
the upper deck; here all our meals were served, and most of our time
passed, the temperature being high enough to prevent the chilling of the
food, which is an indication that the heat must have been rather
oppressive when in our staterooms. Hence two-thirds of the passengers
slept on deck, resulting at about nine in the evening in a veritable
transformation scene. In India we had escaped insects and reptiles; we
were very fortunate also in Burma, with only a few singing lizards in
Ceylon; but on this steamer the cockroaches which appeared at night were
marvellous in size and blackness. Once I imagined there was one on my
pillow, and turning on the electric light, found I was mistaken, but
there were a dozen or more on the washstand and walls--very animated
specimens, to judge by the way they fled.

From the Strait of Malacca we passed into the China Sea, thence to the
Gulf of Siam, and lastly to the b