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The house consists of two attap roofed bungalows, united by their upper verandas. Below there are a garden of acclimatization and a lawn, on which the Resident instructs the bright little daughter of the Datu Klana in lawn tennis. It was very hot, but the afternoon airs were strong enough to lift the British ensign out of its heavy folds and to rustle the graceful fronds of the areca palms.
He drew himself a little closer beneath the projecting attap roof, which extended three or four feet over the sides of the hut, and then felt startled, for suddenly there fell upon his ears, evidently coming from somewhere inland, a rustling sound of footsteps, accompanied by the hard breathing of some one suffering from over-exertion. "Boat coming ashore!
The drive had brought us out of the Chinese country into a region very thinly peopled by Malays only, here and there along the roadside, living in houses of all Malay styles, from the little attap cabin with its gridiron floor supported on stilts, to the large picturesque house with steep brown roofs, deep eaves and porches, and walls of matting or bamboo basket work in squares, light and dark alternately, reached by ladders with rungs eighteen inches apart, so difficult for shod feet.
"It's all over," thought the prisoner; and then he almost fell from the hole, and turned to stare wildly up at the mats which sloped down to the eaves of the building, and saw a leg thrust through hastily, then another, and the next moment Peter Pegg's toes were kicking at the wall as he struggled, hanging by one hand, to rearrange the attap mat of the roof, and then, panting and breathless, he lowered himself down and dropped at Archie's feet.
On one side of the river there is a fishing village of mat and attap hovels on stilts raised a few feet above the slime of a mangrove swamp; and on the other an expanse of slime, with larger houses on stilts, and an attempt at a street of Chinese shops, and a gambling-den, which I entered, and found full of gamblers at noonday. The same place serves for a spirit and champagne shop.
There is a deep veranda under an attap roof of steep slope, and at either end a low bed for a constable, with the usual very hard, circular Malay bolsters, with red silk ends, ornamented with gold and silk embroidery. Besides this veranda there is only a sort of inner room, with just space enough for a table and four chairs.
I communicated with the Rajah, and he answered for him at once, complained of his arrest, and demanded that he should be allowed to return to the Palace at once." "Palace!" growled the Major. "Why, my lads could knock up a better palace in no time with some bamboo poles and attap mats." "The natives are accustomed to simplicity in the building of their homes," said the Resident coldly.
"There's the last on her just going down;" and he pointed to a spot a few yards away, where, dividing the pendent branches of their shelter, was the attap roof of their sampan. "And do you know what that means, sir?" "Utter wreck, Pete," said Archie, breathing hard from excitement. "Yes, sir; and my four boxes of cartridges with all them blue pills gone to the bottom to feed the crocs."
Justice Wood's yesterday, and his servant dispatched me from the jetty in a large boat with an attap awning and six Kling rowers, whose oars worked in nooses of rope. The narrow Strait was very calm, and the hot, fiery light of the tropic evening resting upon it, made it look like oil rather than water.
A smaller house could hardly be, or a more picturesque one, from the steepness and irregularity of its roof. The cook-house is a small attap shed, in a place cut into the hill, and an inclosure of attap screens with a barrel in it under the house is the bath-room.
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