Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/281

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WATERFALL OF TRÉTES.
263

looking figure. The Wodono called it the Dawo, or disciple. I was told the average yearly produce of Ngantang in rice alone was 25,000 piculs.[1]

On our way back we dismounted between Ngantang and Kadangbiroe, and crossing a small bamboo bridge over the river Konto, walked a short distance to see the waterfall of Trétes, said to be 109 feet high. The water rushes, foaming snowy white, out of a narrow gap formed by two rocky sides of the hill, its spray moistening the bamboo, banana, pakis, and nibong above and around. A few feet from the gorge it falls on a rock, over a mass of creepers which cling to the sides; and so transparent is the water, that each leaf and stem is seen distinctly through the watery veil, bending under the weight of the constant flow. From thence it tumbles, with unmistakeable hollow sounds, into a reservoir which reflects the varied foliage of the trees above it, and is surrounded

  1. A picul is fully 1331bs. English.