When the Javanese wish to appear particularly fascinating, they stain the face, neck, and arms with a yellow cosmetic obtained from perfumed flowers.
The sovereign keeps a select band of beautiful dancers for the amusement of the royal household. These females are the only persons that are allowed to perform the s’rimpi,—a slow, modest, and exceedingly graceful dance, resembling a minuet by four persons. At the beginning and end of the dance, the performers raise their clasped hands to their foreheads, and bend reverentially toward the prince. None but very young girls belong to this band, and they leave it as soon as they become mothers.
Javanese women of high rank dress in a manner exceedingly tasteful and magnificent. They wear full flowing robes of delicate silk, of green or other colors, stamped with golden flowers; their girdles are composed of plates of gold, clasped with diamonds; while armlets, bracelets, and tiaras are richly chased and studded with gems.
The public class of dancers, called rong-gengs, are similar to their frail sisters of Hindostan in dress and deportment. But notwithstanding their profligacy, those who acquire considerable fortune frequently marry men much superior to themselves in rank. Their songs are very comic, and they are sometimes accompanied by a buffoon, who excites laughter by a ludicrous imitation of all their movements. The Javanese dances have the same characteristics, which distinguish that amusement in various parts of Asia. They consist principally in graceful attitudes, and slow movements of the limbs, even to distinct motions of the hands and fingers. Men often join in these dances, but no females, except professional dancers, ever perform before strangers.
The women of Java are very fond of a peculiar kind of amusement called sintren. A little boy or girl, richly dressed, is put under a basket, and music and song burst forth, while all the spectators clap their hands to keep time. The basket soon begins to move; in a short time the child rises—dances in a wild but graceful manner—seems to sink exhausted into slumber—and awakes apparently unconscious of all that has happened. The charm consists in the idea that the whole soul is fascinated, and led unawares by the power of music.
The women of this island do not go with the upper part of the person uncovered, as they do in the southern parts of the peninsula.
The Javanese are exceedingly superstitious. Their fears are easily excited by dreams and bad omens, and they are great believers in old women endowed with supernatural powers.
Sumatra is less advanced in civilization than Java, and is inhabited by various tribes of different origin. The Battas are an irritable and warlike tribe. They take as many wives as they please, and seldom have less than five or six. The women live in the same apartment with their husband; the room has no partitions, but each wife has a separate fireplace. As the bridegroom always makes a present of buffaloes, or horses, to the parents of the bride, daughters are considered a source of wealth. The women do all the work, while their husbands lounge in idleness, playing on the flute, with wreaths of globe-amaranth around their heads; or racing with each other, without saddle or stirrups, or hunting deer, or gambling away their wives, their children, and themselves. The Battas consider their wives and children as slaves, and sell them whenever they choose. An unfaithful wife has her hair cut off, and is sold for a slave; the paramour is killed and eaten by her husband’s tribe.
On festival occasions, the girls wear gold pendants in their ears, and fasten their hair with golden pins, having heads in the shape of birds or dragons. They likewise give a beautiful polish to large shells, of which they make bracelets. Their dress covers the person modestly.