tube of his hookar, takes his dose of opium, or chews his
preparation of betel-pepper, areca nut and ehunam.
In the danGes of the women, however pleasing to a Javanese
eye, an European will not find any thing interesting or
elegant. They consist, as in India, of certain lascivious motions
of the body, head, and arms, whilst the feet remain as
it were rivetted to the floor. The contortions of the body
that- are practised by the men may with more propriety be
called posture-making than dancing.
The private hours of a Javanese Prince are mostly passed
in the society, or at least in the presence, of women. He
feels himself, probably, more secure in their attendance than
he would do in that of his own sex. He inlists as many into the
number of his wives as he chuses. Polygamy is allowable to
any extent, and the ladies take rank according to the priority o f
their introduction into the haram. The comparative estimation,
in which the sex is held is sufficiently declared in one of their
laws, by which it is ordained that if a man, either by accident
or design, shall kill his wife, he must pay to her relations the
full value; hut if the wife kill her husband, she must suffer
death. Pecuniary compensations are fixed for theft and murder
and almost every other crime, except treason against
the Prince; and when the criminal is unable to pay the fine,
he is usually sold as a slave. The power of a Javanese Prince
over his subjects is very limited in some respects, in others it
is absolute. By a sort of feudal right they are liable to become
his slaves, in which situation he exercises over them an
uncontrolled sway. When a man, for instance, dies and
leaves behind him children that are either, under age or unmarried,
his wives, his children and property fall to the
Prince, and are considered to be taken by him in lieu of the
military service of the deceased, to which he had a claim.
This right is not, however, generally exercised. The chief
being considered as the sole proprietary of the soil, all lands
are held of him under the tenure, of military service, and a proportion
of their produce; but since the settlement of the Dutch
on Java, the several Princes not only oblige th e , peasantry to
cultivate particular articles suitable for exportation, but- take
from them such proportion of the produce as will meet the
terms on which they may have .concluded their agreement
with the Dutch. Formerly they exacted one half of the produce
by way of rent, but they are now said to demand at
least two thirds of the crop. Pepper and coffee are the two
principal articles that are required to be cultivated, as best
suiting the purpose of the Dutch, to whom they are delivered
by the Javanese Princes at the low rate of about one penny
a pound.
The Javanese are, in general, about the middle size of
Europeans, straight and well made; all their joints, their
hands and their feet, remarkably small; the colour of their
skin a deep brown, approaching to black; their eyes are
black and prominent; the nose rather broad and somewhat
flattened; the upper lip a little projecting, not much thickened,
but highly arched. They have a firm steady gait, and
seem *to feel, or at least to affect, a superiority over the other
inhabitants of the island. They rub the head, the face and
G G