Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/193

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MASKING THE ROUTE.
175

arm of the Dasar, though from no point can you see the whole extent of it at one time. On our way back we had to walk across a dry channel fully twenty feet in breadth, similar to those I have already described on the other side, but longer and wider, completely separating the Dasar into two parts for some distance!

We returned by a route but seldom traversed, and that only by pilgrims from Nadasari. I perceived small heaps of stones every now and then, along the road to the huts, reminding me of the means adopted by the Egyptians in the desert to mark their camel tract. This is one proof of the vast extent of the Sand Sea, as, without some marks of this kind, travellers would either be lost, or lose much valuable time in endeavouring to find their way.

We passed a large pyramidal mound called by the natives Batu Balang, or stone-throwing. On one side of it a number of young men and women