Viewing page 27 of 185
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
^[[22]] knock at the door, and there stood the poor dobi, who had been ordered to bring back all the clothes we had given him the day before, and had done so. They were piled in a huge basket, and simply wringing wet - not even washed yet, just soaked. I didn't know what to do, and then Bill came in, still in an angry mood, and unable to make up his mind whether to catch the afternoon boat or not. Finally he decided that it was silly to go dashing off to Batavia, and that the matter could be settled by letter and cable, and we had lunch and cooled off. We are anxious to meet Dr. Coenraad, who has been collecting Sumatran animals for years, and we eventually decide to pack a bag and go to Siantar, his home, in the morning. [[underline]] March 4 [[/underline]] - The hotel arranged for a motor car to take us this morning to Siantar, with a stop in Dolok Merangir to see some of the Goodyear Rubber Company officials. We started merrily off about ten-thirty, with one suitcase in the car, and three cameras. Layang Gaddi, our Dyak boy, who joined us yesterday, was to go by train, and take the typewriter, and our other suitcase. We had driven all of 16 kilometers, when the ancient Chevrolet in which we were riding, puttered, coughed and came to a full stop. The seis got out and looked at the engine, got in and stepped on the defunct starter, at least a dozen times. Bill and Williams decided to go for a walk down the road, which was exceedingly hot, one to look for insects, the other for pictures. Not to waste any time myself I got out my account book and started to work on that. I kept hearing occasional crashes in the nearby tree tops, and after thinking two or three times, "That must be an awfully big squirrel," I stuck my head out the automobile and saw a whole troop of Entellus monkeys come swarming down out of a big tree, scamper by twos and threes across the road, and swing madly into trees on the other side. They were so close that I could get a good view of the[[strikethrough]] ir [[/strikethrough]]me, and they were handsome, with black crests on their heads, long black tails, dark grey backs, and some of them with chestnut color underneath. There were mothers in the troop, with tiny pink babies hanging onto their breasts. Eventually the hedge right beside the car was crackling with monkeys. I was wild to think that both the photographers were out of sight, and tried desperately to get Bill's Graflex open, even though I didn't know how to use it, thinking that perhaps by some fluke I could get a picture. Bill came back just in time to see the last of the monkeys, but not in time to get a picture. It was a sight that made sitting by the road in the noon-day sun a delightful experience. We waited two hours for the seis to tinker with the car. Then he gave it up as hopeless, and hired another car in the nearby village for us. By the time we got to Tebing Tinggi it was two o'clock, and we stopped there for lunch, finding a neat little Dutch hotel that served us good food, including bami, a Chinese dish that consists largely of bean sprouts, with a little meat and some noodles. A few miles further on we came to Dolok Merangir, the Goodyear plantation, and although we could not see either Mr. Ingle or Mr. Schoaff, the two men we had letters to, we had a visit with Mr. Marsh, and then drove on. A terrific rainstorm caught us, and it poured all the way to Siantar. I was the only who had brought a raincoat, but
Transcription Notes:
Typographical errors in original document left uncorrected per transcription instructions. sfl
