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went. He is a man of fifty, heavily bearded, stout, and [[strikethrough]] single [[/strikethrough]] living alone in a pretty house with a lovely garden. Although he had written to us in English, he spoke very little English, and we tried to tell him in German what we wanted. He was a bit vague. He said that when he had first came out here, thirty years ago, there was plenty of game, but now the European women had come and there was no more game. He got our hopes up by saying that he knew where there were four otters, but that also, it developed, had been thirty years ago. He explained that he himself lived  "like a Yogi", and the dogs were his children. After admiring his pet loris - a pair with a baby - we drove on to Brastagi.

Here we found the Grand Hotel fortunately had rooms for us.

Brastagi was one of the places I was prepared to be disappointed in. I had heard so much about it at home, and pictured it as too much of a tourist place, with little beyond the climate, the opportunities for sports and swimming, to recommend it. But it really is glorious. Brastagi itself is 4800 feet high, sotuated on a high plateau, with a view of the mountains (2 2 volcanoes - count them) projecting from the plain [[strikethrough]] in [[/strikethrough]]. Close to the hotel is Sabayak, that curious volcano with the crater belching steam half way [[strikethrough]] oo [[/strikthrough]] up from the foot. Farther away is a more conventional, cone-shaped volcano. The air is crisp and cool, even at mid-day, and the whole country, stretching illimitably to the horizon, is magnificent.

We started out to find the trail up Sabayak - not that we wanted to climb to the crater, but we thought that if there was a three-hour trail through the forest it might be good entomological collecting. We started up the wrong trail, and walked for some miles through cultivated land, finally finding a path that lef through pine forest (introduced Japanese pine). However Beirne found a bamboo flower, something that she had been especially eager to get, and the men found one or two interesting insects, and I lapped up the view, so the afternoon was not entirely wasted.

Back at the hotel, we discovered that this was the only place in the East where one could get a hot bath. Then we had a delicious dinner, accompanied by wine in honor of its being the Brues wedding anniversary. Dancing followed, so it was really quite a gay evening.

Here again we found the hotel notices amusing. One noteworthy one was that "chits with unreadable signatures will not be accepted."

June 17 - 

We spent the morning seeing some of the country around Brastagi. We went first to Lau Deboek, 11 kilometers by car, and then a fifteen-minutes walk  through the strangest forest I have ever seen. Gnarled old trees with rust-red bark, stunted and dwarfed, their misshapen roots sprawling over the ground covered with moss, gave the effect of an enchanted, or bewitched forest. The smell of sulphur was noticeable long before one reached the lake, which was pale blue, the color of skimmed milk, and bubbling wherever the sulphur springs