On Wednesday one of the clouds of hot gas and ash known here as "shaggy goats" tumbled four kilometres (two miles) down Merapi's slopes, the furthest since Monday when the volcano recorded its highest level of recent activity.

Authorities declared Merapi in danger of imminent eruption last Saturday, triggering the evacuation of thousands of people to makeshift shelters around its conical base.

Data from the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the volcano, recorded eight of the potentially deadly clouds between midnight and 6:00 am (1700 to 2300 GMT Wednesday).

Thye extended for a maximum 1.5 kilometres and caused no harm. Seventeen clouds were recorded on Wednesday.

During the first six hours of Thursday, 44 lava falls were registered, compared to 180 for all day Wednesday when smoke also soared 400 metres into the sky from the 2,914-meter (9,560-feet) volcano.

As of 3:00 pm the office had not released updated data.

Scientists have said this kind of activity could continue for weeks and they consider Merapi to be in a continual process of erupting.

In one settlement in the declared danger zone, life appeared back to normal on Thursday, with men, women and children trudging higher up the volcano's slopes to harvest chillies and tend to their corn and rice crops.

"For us, it is normal. We are used to this. Every year there must be some ash blowing this way," said one of the villagers, Sarianti.

The hamlet was Wednesday covered in a thin layer of ash blown across from the heat clouds.

Official data showed that nearly 1,400 people had left temporary shelters to return home and fend for themselves, leaving more than 20,700 others either in shelters or receiving aid and being tracked by authorities.

The numbers had risen slightly on Tuesday after Monday's activity encouraged residents to seek shelter in safer areas.

The elderly customary guardian of Mount Merapi, Marijan, was due Thursday evening to hold a traditional ceremony at his home near the volcano's peak to ask ancient Javanese spirits for protection and safety.

Marijan, appointed by the ninth and late Sultan of Yogyakarta, has so far refused to leave his home and has trudged higher up the volcano to meditate, saying he has not seen any traditional omens suggesting an imminent eruption.

The US embassy said it had provided 50,000 dollars in aid to support emergency efforts, bringing its total volcano assistance to 100,000 dollars.

The money will be used by the Indonesian Red Cross to provide items such as blankets, tents, plastic sheeting and water to the evacuees, it said.

Scientists say a new lava dome forming at the peak of Merapi -- which means "Mountain of Fire" -- contains some 2.3 million cubic metres (81 million cubic feet) of lava with an additional 150,000 cubic metres being added daily.

The main fear is that the dome, which is leaning southward, may collapse and shoot out blazing lava as well as more deadly heat clouds, as has historically occurred at the volcano rising from the fertile Kedu plain in Central Java.

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