the Western Highlands, and though Fort de Kock poses as the nucleus of
modern progress, European influences glance off the indurated surface
of native character like water poured over a granite slab.

Across the rice-plain of Agam, dotted with brown _kotas_, crowned by
myriads of interweaving horns, we reach the scattered village of
Paja-Kombo, shadowed by dense woods of cocoanut palms, and famed for
one of the most picturesque native markets in the East. The women of
Paja-Kombo are noted for their beauty, enhanced by the splendour of
many-coloured _sarongs_, gleaming with gold and silver thread. Gay
turbans swathe the stately heads, and the golden filagree of barbaric
breastplates, heavy earrings, and broad armlets, lights up the shadowy
gloom of stone galleries and _al fresco_ stalls, beneath the drooping
boughs of ancient waringen-trees. The Sumatran Malays are energetic
traders, and the dignified personality of the Sumatran woman is
perpetually in evidence. Keen, thrifty, economical, and thoroughly
versed in all the details of commerce, she shows herself the
predominant partner in domestic life, and to her all decisions on
financial matters are referred, in accordance with the laws of the
Matriarchate, which protects her independence. The husbands and fathers
in attendance on their womankind at the great Market, submissively
defer to the gentler sex, which in Sumatra has ever held the reins of
social and domestic management, exercising authority wisely and well
within the wide area deputed to feminine sway. The Fair of Paja-Kombo
is a treasury of native Art in most delicate filigree, silver-threaded
cloth, baskets or fans of scented grass, and the heavy jewellery of
burnished brass which copies the designs of the many golden heirlooms
treasured by Sumatran womanhood. Streets of palm-thatched stalls,
alleys of eating-houses, and the wide enclosure of a Mule-Fair, cover
an open meadow, fringed by great sago-palms, the central grain and
rice Market crowded with picturesque figures in striped _sarong_ and
gold-flecked turban. The feast of colour provided by Paja-Kombo is
scarcely surpassed even by the famous Fair of Darjeeling, the
remoteness of the little settlement in the Sumatran Highlands
preserving the unfaded charm of an immemorial past. The wonderful Gap
of Harau may be reached by cart from Paja-Kombo; the palm-shaded road
narrows at the mighty gorge, where vermilion cliffs, grooved and ribbed
as though by some