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.

More is known of the Redjangs than of any other tribe in Sumatra. They are a small, well-formed race, with deep olive complexion, and hair of shining blackness, owing partly to the cocoa-nut oil with which they constantly anoint it. The women are very proud of long hair, which they roll up tastefully on the crown of the head. They are fond of wearing garlands, which are generally composed of white, or light yellow, flowers. In some districts the girls wear fillets half an inch broad around their foreheads; the poor have them made of the leaves of the nipah-palm, but the rich wear silver and gold.

The Redjangs have the absurd custom of stretching the ears, flattening the noses, and compressing the heads of new-born infants. They let the nails of the middle and little finger grow to an extraordinary length. The tips of the fingers are stained with the red juice of henna; and it is singular that their hands are always cold to the touch.

Their common garments are generally made of the bark of the paper-mulberry tree, prepared in a manner similar to Otaheite cloth.

The women in general are very ugly, but some of them are remarkably handsome; especially among the higher classes, who are not necessarily exposed to the influence of the sun. A Sumatran woman is considered old at thirty, and decrepit at forty. The same custom with regard to names prevails here as in Java. If a child is named Ladin, the parents are called the Father and Mother of Ladin. It is a custom with them never to speak their own name; if a stranger inquires what it is, they ask another person to tell it.

The Redjangs manifest a degree of delicacy toward women, which one would not expect from a people half civilized. Virtue and modesty are held in high estimation, and as a natural consequence the opposite vices are rare. If an unmarried woman disgraces herself, her father and lover are both fined; if unable to pay, she is sold for a slave. A dishonored husband seldom seeks redress by a legal process; he is either silent, or revenges his own wrongs. Girls are seldom trusted from the presence of their mothers; but at public festivals, in the town hall, young people meet to dance and sing. If a young man takes a fancy to any of the assembly, he generally sends some elderly woman with presents to the damsel. Her parents then interfere, and if they consider the match a suitable one, the preliminaries are soon settled. There are three different kinds of marriage among the Redjangs. By the first mode, the husband purchases his wife for a given sum, and she becomes his slave, to all intents

and purposes. In this case, a man is allowed to have as many wives as he can buy and maintain. This marriage, which is called marriage by jourjour, is in most cases modified by a custom, which enables the parents of the bride to reconcile their avarice with affection. A part of the price of their daughter remains unpaid, and is called tali koulo, or the bond of friendship. While this sum, however small, remains due, the woman is not the slave of her husband; he cannot sell her, or abuse her with impunity, and she is at liberty to seek a divorce from him when she pleases. When families are upon good terms, a portion of the jourjour often remains unpaid for several generations; and some men are quite rich from the sums due to them for daughters, sisters, aunts, and grand-aunts. These are regarded as debts of honor, and are very seldom lost. Where the whole jourjour is paid and received during the lifetime of a woman, she is completely in the power of her husband; her only privilege is, that he is obliged to sell her to her relations, if they offer as high a price as he can obtain elsewhere. But these connections are very rarely formed without the tali koulo, or bond of friendship.

The second kind of marriage is called marriage by ambelanack. In this case the husband is adopted by the bride's father, remains with him, works under his authority, and both parents and children are considered as the property of the head of the family. A man who is married in this way cannot take another wife, without the consent of his adopted