lway journey by day a constant source of delight.
You ride in a perennial garden, and it is perfectly natural that the
bird of paradise should have its habitat here. Like Ceylon, Java is sure
to be the resort of innumerable tourists, for here are wonders beyond
any to be found in localities more commonly visited.

And yet it is the people that interest one even more than the land they
live in. We turned aside at different points, from the stations of the
railways, and got glimpses of the Javanese in their country homes. I am
bound to say that these homes were often primitive in the extreme, mere
shacks or huts of bamboo and thatch, often without windows and with only
a door in front and a door behind, sometimes standing in a pool of
shallow water or lifted on stilts to escape the rain. But everybody
seemed to be at work, except on market-days, when the whole population
of a district gathered in a country fair. The throng and press of these
trading-days, the strife and din, the variety of wares, and the
sharpness of competition, were something new to us and long to be
remembered. The amusements of the Javanese, their music, their
shadow-dances, all show a vigor and passion, which explain their
occasional use of the "kriss" or Malay dagger, and the difficulty of
subduing and civilizing so ardent and imaginative a people. But they are
a people _sui generis_, and sure, when roused and educated, to take
their part on the modern stage.

I have intimated that the Dutch Government has seen its past mistakes,
and has entered upon a new and more generous policy. Nothing could
demonstrate this better than the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg. These
are unique in the world, the most complete and the most practical. The
gardens at Kandy in Ceylon are more artistically arranged and are more
beautiful to the ordinary visitor. But these in Java are more scientific
and more helpful to the general development of the country. They include
the chemical investigation of agricultural products, as well as the
testing of their nutritive value and their tensile strength. Rubber
planters are shown proper methods of culture, and also improved methods
of preparing the product for market. Seventy different varieties of rice
have been discovered and classified; and the tillers of the soil have
been shown how they can greatly increase the yield of their acreage. All
the great botanical collections of the world communicate their novelties
and discover