perennial even on these airy heights,
and dense hedges of datura, with long white bells drooping in myriads
over the pointed foliage, transform each narrow lane into a vista of
enchantment. Eastern Java spreads map-like beneath the overhanging
precipice, the blue strait of Madoera curving between fretted peak and
palm-clad isle. The velvety plum-colour of nearer ranges fades through
tints of violet and mauve into the ethereal lilac of distant summits.
The lowlands gleam with brimming fish-ponds and flooded _sawas_, as
though the sea penetrated through creek and inlet to the heart of the
green country, the vague glitter of this watery world investing the
scene with dream-like unreality. Brown _campongs_ cling to mountain
crest and precipitous ledge. These almost inaccessible fastnesses were
colonised after the Moslem conquest by a Hindu tribe which refused to
relinquish Brahminism. Driven from place to place by the fanatical
hordes of Islam on the downfall of the Hindu empire, the persecuted
race, a notable exception to native inconstancy and indifference,
retreated by degrees to this mountain stronghold, where they
successfully retained their religious independence, and defended
themselves from Mohammedan hostility. Brahminism through centuries of
isolation, has assimilated many extraneous heathen rites, and wild
superstitions have overlaid the original creed. The worship of the
Tenggerese is now mainly directed to the ever-active crater of the
awe-inspiring Bromo, always faced by the longer side of the windowless
communal houses, built to contain the several generations of the
families which in patriarchal fashion inhabit these spacious dwellings.
Huge clouds of smoke from the majestic volcano curl perpetually above
the surrounding peaks, and float slowly westward, the thunderous roar
of the colossal crater echoing in eternal menace through the rarefied
air, and regarded as the voice of the god who inhabits the fiery
Inferno. These lonely hills, ravaged by tempest and haunted by beasts
of prey, are the hiding-places of fear and the cradles of
ever-deepening superstition. Wild fancies sway the untaught
mountaineers, responsive to Nature's wonders, though powerless to
interpret their signification. The constant struggle for existence
produces a character utterly opposed to that of the suave and facile
Malay. The graces of life are unknown, but the strenuous temperament of
the Tenggerese is shown by indefatigable industry