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Updated: May 2, 2025
There is little to distinguish the two chief races, except that the Javanese are more warlike and spirited than the Sundanese, who are somewhat more dull and almost entirely agricultural.
It is a more durable timber than oak, since it resists decay for a long time, even when wholly or partly submerged in sea water. There are vessels afloat to-day which were built of teak one hundred years ago. The inhabitants, about thirty million in number, are of the Malay race and belong to three nations, speaking closely related but different languages the Sundanese, Javanese, and Mandurese.
In the centre of the town the native streets look, to the European eye, like a perpetual festival. Outside the doors are gathered in groups the various inhabitants Chinese, Malay, or Sundanese, some clanging cymbals and other strange instruments of music, others seated round fires, eating baked cakes or fruits and other frugal dainties.
On the outskirts of the town, along the country roads, where the cocoa palm and banana plantations begin, are the bamboo cottages of the Sundanese natives. But it is after nightfall that this place becomes a veritable fairyland. The open porticoes of the Dutch houses are seen to be thronged with gaily dressed people, the ladies often still wearing the sarong, and looking like Æneas' mother
In both cases charcoal is burnt, being made to burn brightly by a fan. The dang-dang is then placed over the fire either in the kompor or on the bricks. Rice culture is the natural pursuit of the Javanese or Sundanese native. Coffee, sugar, and tea he cultivates on compulsion for wages with which to pay his taxes.
This term includes various branches of the Malay race, of which the chiefs are the Javanese and Sundanese, occupying respectively the east and west of the island. Separate dialects are also spoken by the people of Bantam and Madura.
Yet so simple and cheap are the necessaries of life in Java, that in this district a good master has no difficulty in getting Javanese or Sundanese natives to work for him at this rate of payment, and the plantation cooly, in spite of his low wages, manages to enjoy his two days' holiday every week in the year.
Gigantic tidal waves swept the Sundanese shores, destroying the adjacent villages, 36,000 people being either washed away or buried under the boiling rain of mud, fire, and ashes. The Royal Society estimated the altitude of the vast black and crimson column of flame and smoke, mounting from the volcano, at seventeen miles.
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