a heavy matting of bamboo strips is used. The weaving of
sarongs is practised by the women all over Java, and the cooking and
household utensils, made both in copper and earthenware, indicate by
their forms a considerable taste. The Javanese carpenters are also very
clever, and both they and the Malays are skilful in imitating any
European designs which are handed to them. In spite, however, of this
natural aptitude for higher industries, the great mass of the native
population are compelled by the present commercial system to remain mere
peasants. Even so the cheapness and simplicity of the means of life
prevent them from being a joyless race. A plantation cooly generally has
two days in the week on which he does no work.

The public feasts are numerous, the chief being the _Taon Baru_, or New
Year, which falls at the end of the fasting month, which varies from
year to year. In 1890 it lasted from April 21 to May 21. During this
month the chiefs and the better class abstain from eating or smoking
from sunrise to sunset. Every village has its market once a week or
thereabouts, and after this there is generally a _wayang_, or puppet
show, and some mild amusement. The wayang is the most important of the
native amusements; for the theatre is a rare luxury, and confined
chiefly to the towns or to the courts of the native princes. It is a
very simple business--far beneath a punch-and-judy show in point of art,
but the audience watch the puerile display for five or six hours without
intermission. The theatre consists of pantomimic representations, with
which is mingled a ballet, the basis of which is ancient tradition. The
following story (which I have condensed from D'Almeida's book) is a
specimen. A certain King Praboe Sindolo of Mendang Kamolan, feeling
tired of the vanities of the world, retired to a hut, where he lived in
prayer and fasting. While thus living he was visited by a tempter, who
sought to rekindle his desire for the good things of this life.
Thereupon Praboe sent for a large bird and four vestal virgins to defend
him against the evil spirit. By a miracle he transformed himself into a
flower, around which the vestal virgins danced. By chance, however, a
princess passed that way, and, seeing a vase with beautiful flowers
therein, she chose and gathered one, which she carried to her home. This
she placed in water, when, to her surprise, it suddenly was transformed
into a young and graceful man. Even as she had c