or representative, and thence also a play or dramatic representation. The more
advanced of the nations of the Archipelago have the rudiments of a drama, the origin
of which, it is certain, from the terms connected with it, and from its subjects, was
in Java. There exists, however, in Javanese, no written dramatic performance in
the form of dialogue; and, indeed, the actors do not, except occasionally a few
sentences, speak at all, so that the plays are really pantomimes. A practised artist,
called the D’alang, reads the story before the audience, which the performers act in
pantomime. Men perform both male and female parts, and usually in masks (topeng),
and in the ancient costume of Java. The subjects of the drama are taken either from
the Javanese versions of the Hindu poems, the Mahabaret, or Ramayana, or from
the ancient legends of Java itself, and this always, whether the performance take
place in the island itself, or in countries beyond it. A Javanese play consists of one
continuous exhibition without scenes or acts. Jesters or drolls (badud and bafiol) are
introduced on the stage without any observance as to time or subject; and a band
of music, consisting of the usual staccato instruments, which make a wild and plaintive
music, is played throughout the performance.
Another kind of acting substitutes a sort of puppets for living actors: these
puppets consist of pieces of leather richly painted and gilt, and always representing
the same personages, celebrities of ancient story. They are put in motion behind a
screen of white cloth, having a lamp behind, so as to resemble the figures from a
magic lantern. The same master of the revels, the d’alang, moves the figures, and
furnishes the dialogue or story, something after the manner of Punch. Of all these
performances, the buffoonery is by far the best part.
DEESS. A there outline of this subject w ill suffice to give the reader a general
notion of it. In the hot climate of the Asiatic islands, the trees of the forest most
probably furnished the raw materials of the first scanty clothing of its inhabitants, and
that would consist of a mere covering for the loins. The fibrous inner bark of some
trees furnishes, even at present, among the more civilised races, a main portion of
the dress of the poorer classes. Cotton, however, has immemorially formed the staple
of the clothing of all the more advanced races. Silk was found to form a portion of
the dress of the upper classes on the first arrival of Europeans, imported wrought or
raw from China; and since a direct intercourse with Europe, woollen cloths have
been used to a very considerable extent by the same classes. To these are added,
in the Philippine islands, fabrics of the Abaca, or textile banana, and of the Pina,
or pine apple leaf fibre; the first no doubt of native origin, but the last, from the
nature of the material, certainly of American, through Europe.
Among all the more civilised nations, the most important portion of dress is that
which covers the lower portion of the body, and this is the same for both sexes. It
consists of a short web of cotton cloth, sown at the sides, and forming a sack open at
both ends. Its usual Malay name, sarung, which literally signifies a case or sheath,
has reference to its use. This is loosely secured by tucking the upper end into its
own folds, or by a girdle. This kind of petticoat forms generally the only dress of
the male sex of the working classes, and within doors of all classes; and on this
account we find the early Portuguese writers, always representing the Indian islanders
as “ going naked from the waist upwards.” The dress for the upper portion of the
body consists of a jacket coming below the hips, called in Malay, baju, and in Javanese,
rasukan; and the classes in easier circumstances wear under it a tight vest with
a single row of buttons. The head is always bare with the women, but the men
cover it with a small handkerchief, saputungan, literally, “ hand-wiper.” This is
evidently an imitation of the turban, the Persian name for which, ddstdr, is only
known to the learned. The Javanese, indeed, down even to the arrival of the Portuguese,
seem to have used no head-dress, for Barbosa informs us that the people of
this nation, whom he met at Malacca, “ wore nothing on the head, but had their hair
either arranged with art, or cropped.” The Javanese, contrary to the usage of the
Mahommedan nations of Western Asia, still continue to wear their long hair under
the handkerchief. Trowsers are occasionally used under the sarung by the richer
classes, and this portion of dress, like the imitation of the turban, seems to have
been borrowed from the Arabs, as is implied by its Arabian name, sarual, corrupted
saluwar.
Such is, generally, the dress of the more advanced nations of the Malayan Archipelago
; but there are some distinctions of national costume, which consist chiefly in
the manner of wearing the head-handkerchief, and in the pattern of the cloth of which
the dress is made, and which last with the Malays and nations of Celebes is always
a tartan, and with the Javanese a fabric of various colours, the dye being given by
an expensive and tedious process, and not to the yarn but the web. The dress of
the Philippine islanders is an exception to that of the rest of the inhabitants of the
Archipelago, for it is modified by the costume of Spain. The men wear trowsers
fastened at the waist by a running cord, and the women a petticoat, saya, and over
these both sexes wear a shirt. The women use no head-dress, but the men hats of
light native material. Of the costume of the Indian islanders generally, it may be
remarked, that although sufficiently convenient and well adapted to the climate, it is
wholly wanting in the flowing grace of the Arabian, Persian, or Hindu costumes.
DUCK. A species of duck has been immemorially domesticated by the more
civilised nations of the Archipelago, but the bird is unknown to the ruder. Of the
time or manner in which it was first introduced, it is impossible to form any reasonable
conjecture. The name for the domestic duck in Malay is itik, and in Javanese
bebek, both of them native words. The duck of Java is of a dirty-brown colour that
sports little in colour, that stands erect like a penguin, and that is not comparable in
size or goodness of flesh to the European mallard. That it is not derived from any
native wild species is certain, since no large wild duck exists in the western islands of
the Archipelago ; and, indeed, no wild duck at all except one teal, called by the Malays
and Javanese mâliwis, the Anas arcuata or dendroygna of naturalists, a bird that is
sometimes kept in tealeries, but has not been, and is probably not capable of being
domesticated. The Malay name for the domestic duck, it may be remarked, extends
to the cultivated languages of Celebes and the Philippine islands, from which it may
be conjectured that like the common fowl, the dog, hog, and buffalo, it was introduced
into Celebes and the Philippines by the Malayan nations, who are so well
known to have frequented them immemorially as traders. In the Philippine Islands
or at least in the most northerly of them, Luzon, where a true wild duck is abundant’
this is called by a native name, papan, while the domestic duck goes under the Malay
one, itik. In Java and the principal Philippine islands, large flocks of ducks are kept
for their flesh and eggs; the first being preserved by drying, and the last when salted
forming a principal part of the stock of animal food in native sea voyages.
DUGONGr. The Helicore dugong of naturalists is an inhabitant of the shallow
seas of the Archipelago, but it is not numerous, or at least is not often caught by the
fishermen. I t is the duyong of the Malays, which naturalists mistaking a j or (/ for
a g, have corrupted into dugong. During my residence in Singapore, a few were
taken in the neighbouring shallow seas, and I can testify that the flesh of this herbivorous
mammifer is greatly superior to that of the green turtle.
DUKU. The Malay and Javanese name of a tree and fruit of the genus Lansium
and natural order Meliaceae of botanists. To the same genus belong the langseh
langsat or langsab, for in all these forms the word is written, the rambeh and thé
ayar-ayar, probably all four but varieties of the same species. The duku is the most
esteemed of them, and to the European palate is the best of the native fruits of the
Archipelago, after the mangostin. The natives class it after the durian and man-
gostin. It is of the size of a pigeon’s egg, of a globular form, and covered with a
coriaceous skin of the colour of parchment. The species seems to be indigenous in
the western portion of the Archipelago, but to have been introduced into the Philippines
where one variety of it, the langseh, is cultivated.
D UMAR AN, the name of a small island forming part of the province of Calamianes
m the Philippines, situated 3J leagues from the eastern coast of Paragua, in Palawan
and^ between north latitudes 10° 23' and 10° 39', and east longitude 119° 41' and
120 4 . It is computed to have an area of 151 square geographical miles and in its
greatest breadth and length to extend to 205 miles. Between it and Paragua lie
innumerable islets, which make the navigation dangerous even for small boats The
coast of Dumaran itself is steep, and has no harbours for large ships, and even for
boats there is shelter only m the favourable season. On the eastern coast of the
island there is a small town of abont 1750 inhabitants, and a Catholic mission The
interior is covered with a forest, which contains the wild buffalo, wild hog, and deer •
its human inhabitants are unconverted. The people of the coast chiefly employ
themselves m the fishery of the balate, or holothurion, the shell-tortoise and p“ arls
and m the search of the esculent swallows-nests. 9
DURIAN, the Durio Zibethinus of botanists, a large tree of the natural family of
Bombaceæ, and itself the only plant of the genus. This famed fruit is about the size
and foim of a large melon, and contains esculent seeds resembling chestnuts, which