The Javanese support a large class of women as public dancers. The inhabitants are passionately fond of this amusement, but no respectable woman will join in it, and all its female partisans are prostitutes; in fact, the words dancer and prostitute are synonymous in their language. A chief of high rank is not ashamed to be seen with one of these women, who figure at most large entertainments, and frequently amass enough money to induce some petty chief to marry them. So strong, however, is their ruling passion, they soon ascertain that domesticity is not their sphere, and become tired of their husbands, whom they divorce without ceremony, and coolly return to their public life. The dress in which they perform is very immodest, but they seldom descend to such obscene and degrading postures as may be witnessed in other Eastern countries.
European example has not done much for Java. The Dutch merchant has usually a native female called his housekeeper. In every city public prostitutes abound, while about the roads in the vicinity may be found others ready for hire. Their disguise as dancers is thought to conceal their profligacy.
SUMATRA.
The population of this island is divided into several tribes, slightly differing in their manners. The Rejangs, who may be supposed to represent its original inhabitants, are rude barbarians, scrupulously attentive to the show, but wanting the spirit of delicacy. They drape their women from head to foot, dread lest a virgin should expose any part of her person, and yet modesty is not a characteristic of the people in towns and villages. Those in rural districts who are not so rigid as to costume are more distinguished by decency.
The customs of Sumatra are of a peculiar character, great importance being attached to required formulas; and the ritual is more essential than the principle. It is curious to examine the intricate details of a Sumatran marriage contract, which appears to be so little understood even by the people themselves that, we are informed, one of these documents is sufficient to originate an almost endless litigation.
There are several modes of forming a marriage contract. The first is when one man agrees to pay another a certain sum in exchange for his daughter. A portion of the amount, say about five dollars, is generally held back, to keep the transaction open, and allow the girl’s parents a chance to complain if she is ill used. If the husband wound her, he is liable to a fine, and in many ways his authority is controlled. But if he insists on paying the balance of the purchase-money, her parents must accept it, and then their right of interference ceases. If a father desires to get rid of a girl suffering from any infirmity, he sells her without this reservation, and she has fewer privileges in consequence.
In other cases marriage is an affair of barter, one virgin being given for another. A man having a son and a daughter will give the latter in exchange for a wife for the former; or a brother will dispose of his sister in the same way. Sometimes a girl evades these customs by eloping with a lover of her own choice. If the fugitives are overtaken on the road, they can be separated; but if they have taken refuge in any house, and the man declares his willingness to obey existing rules, his wife is secured to him. The Jewish custom of a man marrying his brother’s widow is in force among the Sumatrans, and if there be no brother, she must be taken by the nearest male relative, the father excepted, who is made responsible for any balance of her purchase-money which may be due.
Adultery is not frequently committed under this system, but when it is, the husband chastises his wife himself, or else forgives the offense. If he desire to divorce her, he may claim back the purchase-money, less twenty-five dollars, which is allowed her parents for depreciation in the woman’s value. If a man who has taken a wife is unable to pay the whole price, her friends may sue for a divorce, but then they must return all they have received from him. The ceremony of divorce consists in cutting a ratan in two in presence of the parties and their witnesses.
Another kind of marriage is when a girl’s father selects some man whom he adopts into his family, receiving a premium of about twenty dollars. The father-in-law’s family thus acquire a property in the young husband; they are answerable for his debts, claim all he earns, and have the privilege of turning him out of doors when they are tired of him.