United States or Timor-Leste ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Jonkheer Brederode had refused to take us in the afternoon, when we had shown an interest in the painting which advertised the Javanese creature; but, after all, the fits were more exciting on canvas than they were inside the hot, crowded tent, and some young soldiers stared at us so much that we were glad to get out. Next door was the most gorgeous carousel I ever saw.
We were in the handsome, well-fitted-up cabin, enjoying our evening meal, when the mate, a Javanese, put his head down the skylight and said some words in his native tongue, which made the Dutchmen start from their seats, and, seizing their pistols and swords, rush on deck. I had no difficulty, when I followed them, in interpreting what had been said. The pirate prahus were close upon us.
"What d'ye want to find?" he bluntly asked, after we had ridden the better part of five minutes in silence. "A disabled Burmese," was the reply. "I trust to find some part of his upper-works in a more or less damaged condition." "Burmese!" he echoed in an exclamation. "Good. I win. Larrimer bet me a five he was a Javanese."
When driven out from India, the Buddhist missionaries came to Java and here found a welcome. Javanese kings erected temples so enormous and so rich in sculpture that, defaced and decayed as they now are, they have no superiors on earth. It was, indeed, the fame of Boro Budor, that most attracted us to Java, and we made a journey of thirteen hours to inspect this renowned ruin.
Their cult of the PETARA seems to show traces of Javanese and Hindu influence or origin. Ideas of the Soul Illustrated by Burial Customs, Soul-Catching, and Exorcism As among ourselves, several very different systems for the cure of sickness are practised among the Kayans, and these seem to imply very different theories of the cause of disease.
It is altogether a recent phenomenon, originating in the roaming habits of the chief Malay tribes; and this is proved by the fact that we find actual modern words of the Malay and Javanese languages in use in Polynesia, so little disguised by peculiarities of pronunciation as to be easily recognisable not mere Malay roots only to be detected by the elaborate researches of the philologist, as would certainly have been the case had their introduction been as remote as the origin of a very distinct race a race as different from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is in physical characters.
Within this royal city no native of the lower orders is allowed to ride, and our attendant, a Javanese, was obliged to dismount and lead his horse while we rode slowly through. The abodes of the Rajah and of the High Priest are distinguished by pillars of red brick constructed with much taste; but the palace itself seemed to differ but little from the ordinary houses of the country.
The floor was of marble scrupulously clean and the Javanese waiters were dressed in a uniform of white trimmed with red, presenting a pleasing contrast to the slipshod dirty "boy" of an ordinary hotel, whose habit it is to clatter round flapping your face and brushing your food with his long, unclean, hanging sleeves.
The Javanese were described as an excellent and faithful race of people, patient, good-tempered, faithful, and very handy and ingenious.
It was two o'clock in the morning when we started on little rugged Javanese ponies up Bromo's steep slopes. At daybreak we reached the mile high cliff which looks down into the world-famous Sand Sea. It was a sea of white fog. I have seen the same thing at the Grand Canyon and in Yosemite looking down from the rims.
Word Of The Day