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^[[21]] We had a fifteen-mile drive from Belawan to Medan, mostly through cultivated land. Native houses lined most of the road, built on piles above the low flat land, and with walls of woven nepi palm, and roofs of thatch. The zebu is the favorite beast of burden, and most of the vehicles that we passed were like little houses built on two high wheels, with a pitched roof of thatch, and drawn by zebus. We also saw our first water buffalo, grazing in a farmyard, and admired the tremendous horns, much longer than the horns one sees on water buffalo in Zoos. Our first greeting when we reached the De Boer Hotel was an air mail letter from the Gothwaites. Our other mail had gone to the Consulate, but Pep and Deb knew we would be at the De Boer and had written to us there. We have fine quarters at the hotel - a big, high-ceilinged tile-floored room, with a mosquito-room in one corner of it - fine screen around the beds, a much cooler, airier arrangement than the mosquito nets common in other parts of the Tropics. We have a large bath, and a sitting room - a most luxurious amount of space after so many weeks in ship's cabins. So I started to unpack, having, as I thought, arrived at last; and sent all our clothes to the laundry. We called immediately on the Consul, confidently expecting that he would have the permits that we need from the Dutch government to start collecting animals. Mr. Sidney Browne, the Consul, said there were no permits here, but probably they were in Batavia, and he cabled to the Consul General there. We spent the afternoon at the little Zoo on the Deli road, talking to Mr. Berthold, the head keeper, who is also an animal dealer. He had eight orangs, including one enormous one that he calls King Kong, two fresh-caught Sumatran tigers that were collected recently from a drain pipe just outside of town, a Sumatra gibbon, a loris, some rare lorikeets, two young hornbills of different species, and a most talkative mynah who said "Tabe, Tuan," all afternoon. In the evening we went out to the Brownes' for drinks before dinner, and had a pleasant time. Mrs. Browne is little and red-haired and very nice. People keep curious hours out here. We were invited for cocktails at seven o'clock, and stayed until nine-thirty. We came back to the hotel wondering if we were too late for dinner, but dinner is served from eight to ten. [[underline) March 3 [[/underline]] - Bill went over to the Consulate in the morning and came back in a raging temper. Foote, the Consul General in Batavia, had telephoned that the Government didn't know anything about our expedition, except that we were not to catch any Komodo dragons (which we had not intended to do), and insisted that we come to Java in person to explain our mission. As any amount of correspondence had passed back and forth between our government and that of Netherlands India before we left home, this was annoying. However, the Consul thought we ought to go, so I started to pack up all the things that I had unpacked yesterday, and put in a most hot and uncomfortable morning. About one'clock there was a
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