ocks streaming over brown and bony necks, pass
by, their wide mouths distorted and discoloured with sucking the
scarlet lumps of _Sarya_, from which the native derives unfailing
consolation, even the Javanese girl showing absolute disregard of the
disfigurement produced by this favourite stimulant. Deep moats,
lichen-stained walls, and hoary forts, invest Solo with a feudal
aspect, and the grim tower of Vostenberg menaces the Kraton with
bristling cannon, reminding the hereditary Ruler of his subserviency to
modern Holland, for only a melancholy illusion of past glory remains to
him. The dragon-carved eaves of the Chinese quarter, the open _tokos_
beneath waringen boughs, the shadowy _passer_ brightened by mounds of
richly-coloured fruits, and the stuccoed palaces of Court dignitaries,
framed in dark foliage, give character and interest to the city, where
the life of the past lingers in a series of street pictures remaining
from bygone days of pomp and show. Ministers of State walk beneath
many-coloured official umbrellas, held by obsequious attendants;
graceful _bedayas_, in glittering robes, execute intricate dances, and
_gamelon_ players discourse weird music on pipe and drum. Court
ballet-girls, known as _Serimpi_, are borne swiftly through the crowd
in gilded litters, and masked actors give _al fresco_ performances of
the historic _Wayang-wayang_, represented by living persons, for the
actual "shadow-play" is impossible in broad daylight. The colour of the
mask indicates the character assumed by the actor. The golden mask
signifies Divinity, heroes wear white, and evil spirits black or red.
Here, as elsewhere, the profile of the grotesque disguise invariably
shows either the Greek, or the hawk-nose strangely suggestive of
Egyptian origin, and which, as a variation on human physiognomy,
specially commended itself to Mohammedan thought as a skilful evasion
of an inconvenient dogma. Elsewhere the spirit of concession to alien
ideas is almost unknown, even flower and leaf being conventionalised on
those architectural monuments of Islam which form the supreme
expression of Mussulman genius. The suppression of national amusements
has ever proved a perilous step, and in the heart of this ancient
kingdom the original setting of Javanese life remained in stereotyped
form. The moving panorama of the tree-shadowed streets possesses a
strange fascination, and the light of the past lingers like a sunset
glow over the human eleme