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He screamed and shouted in unknown tongue, while the brisk, stubby hair of his head stood on end. And the festival lasted many days, though plenty made gluttons of them all. The forgotten dead were Javanese deserters from a sugar-plantation; for the tragedy happened long ago, when labour was being drawn from Java and other oversupplied countries.
For this purpose they require to be examined by the methods of scientific history, and the results thus obtained must be checked by the faithful records of the antiquarian remains. Among the prose works in modern Javanese, two, the "Niti Praja" and the "Surya Ngalam," are especially interesting as throwing light upon Javanese customs and thought.
The latter have no covering for the head, but the men wear conical hats, made of split bamboo. A Javanese gentleman usually wears a handkerchief round his head, a smart green or purple velvet or cloth jacket with gold buttons, a shirt with gold studs, loose trousers and sometimes boots, and a sarong or sash, in the latter of which is always carried a kriss ornamented with gold and diamonds.
In recent years petroleum, long known to the natives, has added much to the wealth of Java. The thrifty Hollander studied well-drilling in Pennsylvania and California; then he put his training to work on the Javanese oil-fields. As a result Java is beginning to supply not only the East Indies, but also Japan with coal-oil.
But in the approaching dawn, the one outstanding thrill of the night was that of a half-naked Javanese girl, who stood for an hour, poised in her brown beauty on the top of one of the Bells of Buddha, with some weird Javanese musical instrument, singing to the dawn. Then it came. "What? Her lover?" No! The dawn! The dawn was her lover! Or, perhaps her lover was old Merapi.
It is difficult to believe that the Javanese, Malays, Chinese, or Arabs had any knowledge of Brazil in South America, although the Malays and Arabs had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, coming from the east side, of course.
Having expressed our wishes in the affirmative, the music struck up; it consisted of gongs and tom-toms. The Malay gong, which the Dyaks also make use of, is like the Javanese, thick with a broad rim, and very different from the gong of the Chinese. Instead of the clanging noise of the latter, it gives out a muffled sound of a deep tone.
A considerable number of Hindus must have settled in the island to produce such an effect on its language and architecture but the rulers of the states known to us were hinduized Javanese rather than true Hindus and the language of literature and of most inscriptions was Old Javanese, not Sanskrit, though most of the works written in it were translations or adaptations of Sanskrit originals.
The Dutch aspect of the architecture and the canals were evidence of the influence of the fatherland, but the natives seemed to be a mixture of Javanese and Malays, while the Chinese, as elsewhere, were to be seen in large numbers.
MRS. WILTON. "The Javanese are remarkable for their veracity and love of music: their ear is so delicate, that they readily learn to play the most difficult and complex airs on any instrument. They are remarkable also for their superstition, and people their forests, caves, and mountains with numerous invisible beings of their own creation.
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