But the chief description of male performers are the Béksa kémbang or Béksa rong'geng, who have flowers, shields, or serpents in their hands, and in dancing seem to resemble the South Sea Islanders, though more elegant in their attire, and perhaps more graceful in their motions. Neither have any covering above the waist; but the yellow, and sometimes green powder which is upon the body, gives it an appearance very like dress. The term Béksa láwung is applied to the petty chiefs, who on public days dismount from their horses, and go through the exercise of the spear for the amusement of the prince. Another description of performers are termed Unchelang; their art consists in throwing the spear into the air, and catching it again as it falls with great dexterity. Similar exhibitions of these persons combating with sticks, called újung, were formerly common.
In the domestic circle, the women and elderly people are partial to a peculiar amusement termed sintren, which paints very forcibly the notions they possess of the power of music. A boy or girl, properly attired and skilled in the dance, is placed under a reversed basket which is carefully covered with cloth. Round it music and song are struck up by all present; those who do not play on any instrument, or who do not sing, joining in beating time by clapping their hands. When the excitement has continued sufficiently long to be supposed to have effected the charm, the basket is seen to move, and the boy or girl rising from under it, apparently unconscious of what is doing, moves and dances gracefully but wildly, in unison with the music. At length tired out, the dancer falls and seems to sink into sleep, and when awakened pretends not to recollect any thing that has passed. The perfection of this amusement consists in the performer's giving himself up so completely to the power of music as to be charmed by it, and perfectly unconscious of every other sense.
For the amusement, principally however of children, a cocoa-nut shell is carved with the features of a man, and affixed to the top of a reversed basket, covered with cloth. This basket, after being for some time exposed by the side of a river, or under a large tree, in order, as is supposed, that some supernatural spirit may enter into it, is brought again into the house, and rocked according to the swaying motion of the Javan dance by two children, to the music of the gámelan. An amusement of this kind is termed bríndung.
Tilts and tournaments (wátang) form a favourite and constant diversion with the Javans: they are exhibited principally in the álun álun, or great square in front of the kráton, or palace, and compose an essential part of the ceremony of the pásar senén, or the day in which the sovereign and regents appear in public. This, with the sovereign, is Saturday; with the chiefs, Monday. On the afternoon of this day, all the princes, nobles, and public officers assemble, and arranging themselves in the places assigned to their respective ranks, await the coming out of the sovereign, who, as soon as he descends from the setíngel, mounts a horse richly caparisoned, and rides round the waríngen trees, the several chiefs joining in his suite as he passes the circle. Several of the chiefs, and particularly their sons and youthful relations, then join in pairs, tilting and striking their long and blunted spears as they pass the sovereign. The same thing is observed on the afternoon of every Monday, at the capitals of the different provinces throughout the island, where the native government and institutions are at all preserved. The assemblage of people on these occasions is frequently very great. The trappings and housings of the horses are extremely rich, and the riders perform their feats with some dexterity, being seldom unhorsed[116]. At the conclusion of the exhibition on horseback, it is not unusual for the youths and petty chiefs who have contended in the saddle to dismount and practice the attack and defence of the spear on foot: they are then termed Béksa láwung. Tilts are likewise exhibited in the álun álun on the days of public festival, when the chiefs appear.
The Javans have long advanced beyond that state in which the chace was considered as connected with their subsistence.
The stag is hunted chiefly in the eastern and western extremities of the island, by the descendants of the Báli and Súnda races: the Javans inhabiting the central districts are not practised in the diversion, nor much acquainted with it. They uniformly pursue the animal on horseback. In the eastern districts he is killed with a spear: in the western he is cut down with a kléwang or cutlass; here the chace is conducted with more regularity and method, and many of the inhabitants, particularly the chiefs, are passionately addicted to it, employing the best and swiftest horses and dogs they can procure for the purpose.
A favourite and national spectacle is the combat between the buffalo and the tiger. A large cage of bámbu or wood is erected, the ends of which are fixed into the ground, in which the buffalo is first and the tiger afterwards admitted, through openings reserved for the purpose. It seldom fails that the buffalo is triumphant, and one buffalo has been known to destroy several full grown tigers in succession. In these combats the buffalo is stimulated by the constant application of boiling water, which is poured over him from the upper part of the cage, and of nettles, which are fastened to the end of a stick, and applied by persons seated in the same quarter. The tiger sometimes springs upon the buffalo at once; he very generally, however, avoids the combat, until goaded by sticks and roused by the application of burning straw, when he moves round the cage, and being gored by the buffalo, seizes him by the neck, head, or leg. The buffalo is often dreadfully torn, and seldom survives the combat many days. In these entertainments the Javans are accustomed to compare the buffalo to the Javan and the tiger to the European, and it may be readily imagined with what eagerness they look to the success of the former. The combat generally lasts from twenty minutes to half an hour, when, if neither of them is destroyed, the animals are changed, and the tiger, if he survives, is removed to be destroyed in the manner called rámpog, which is as follows.
On receiving information of the retreat of a tiger the male inhabitants are sometimes called out in a body, by the order of a chief, each man being obliged to be provided with a spear, the common weapon of the country. The place where the animal is concealed is surrounded: a double or triple range being formed, according to the number of hunters, and he is roused by shouts, by the beating of gongs, or by fire. The place where he is expected to attempt his escape is carefully guarded, and he is generally speared on the spot.
In many districts, where the population is not deficient, the appearance of a single tiger rouses the neighbourhood, and he is infallibly destroyed by the method described[117].
When the rámpog is resorted to by way of amusement at the capital of the sovereign, a hollow square of spearmen, four deep, is formed on the álun álun, in the centre of which are placed the tigers in small separate cages, or rather traps, with a sliding door, in the manner of a rat-trap. Two or three men, accustomed to the practice, at the command of the sovereign, proceed into the centre of the square, and placing plaited leaves in front of the cage, to supply the place of the wooden door, set it on fire, and drawing the wooden door up, throwing it on one side, themselves retreating from the spot at a slow pace, to the sound of music. As soon as the tiger feels the fire he starts, and in endeavouring to make his way through the spearmen is generally received upon their weapons. Instances, however, have occurred, in which the animal has made good his retreat, but he was soon afterwards killed; sometimes the tiger, particularly if he has been opposed to the buffalo, will not move from the centre of the square; in which case the sovereign generally directs six or eight of his choice men (gándek) to advance towards him with spears. This they do with surprizing coolness and intrepidity, never failing to pierce the animal, by fixing their spears into him at once. The smaller species of the tiger is generally selected for this amusement.