“ The monarch was furiously enraged ; he
gnawed his mustaches. His countenance was
inflamed, and his bosom red as the warawari flower.
Sweat exuded from every pore; the angles of his
mouth trembled ; his eye-lashes stuck together.
His rage was like that of him who stabs the guilt-
less. He bounded from the earth, and took his
flight in the regions O of the air. His speed was - like that of the falcon about to'make a prey of the
pigeon. In his desire to exact revenge for his
sons, he seemed to feel as if he had already encountered
the adverse leader himself. He secretly
rejoiced ; he vaunted, he called aloud, he challenged
all his enemies to meet him at once.”
The most abundant class of compositions are the
romances founded on native story. A prince of
Java called Panji is the hero of the greater number.
Prom inscriptions, this prince is ascertained
to have reigned in the eastern extremity of the island,
not more than 500 years back. A period
which, with more civilized nations, would afford
matter of historic record, is by the Javanese the
era of fabulous legend, and unfathomable obscurity.
Not a single fact of the true history of the
prince in question, or of the country in which he
reigned, is handed down to us. What is most singular,
in all performances of this class, however,
is their unaccountable feebleness and utter want
of ingenuity, beyond, indeed, that of all other
semi-barbarians. Notwithstanding this, they are
suited to the taste of the people, and are not only
popular in Java, but have been translated into the
Balinese and Malay languages, in which* they are
favourite performances.
Previous to the introduction of Mahometanism,
the Javanese made no attempt to write history,
and were as ignorant of chronologfy as the Hindus,
with whom they were so intimately connected.
The Mahometan religion brought with it, as it did
in India, a more manly and sober style of thinking,
and since the era of that conversion, we are
possessed of a tolerably connected and circumstantial
narrative, improving in credit and in approximation
to common sense as we descend.
Even yet, however, history is considered rather
an object of amusement than of utility and instruction.
Like most of other compositions it is written
in verse, and a constant attempt is made to give
every transaction, even the most common, an air
of romance,—to make in short a tale of it. A com-
mon-place conversation, for these are most circumstantially
narrated, is delivered in solemn and laboured
measure; and the petty action of a Javanese
chief with the Dutch East India Company,
becomes an ambitious imitation of one of the battles
of the Mahabarat, or of the combats of the
god or hero Rama with the giant Rawana.