268 . Voyage of the Novara. 



Among these, tlie gentlemen wlio took part In it will long have 

 a special recollection of a limiting party, which, owing to 

 the great interest taken by all classes of the community near 

 the seat of action, abounding in antelopes and wild hogs, 

 became ultimately a regular ovation and popular festival. 

 At various points arches covered with leaves were erected, 

 flags fluttered to the breeze on every side, and all along our 

 path the inhabitants, gaily attired, formed a dense array 

 lining the road ; while the evening was whiled away in the 

 elegantly furnished mansion of a Chinese, the Mayor of his 

 district, by Javanese dancing-girls, who performed a variety 

 of national dances to the monotonous, lugubrious sound of 

 the gamelong and other musical instruments, after which 

 there was a comedy, the whole winding up with Chinese 

 fire-works on the grandest scale. 



Another splendid entertainment was got up in honour of 

 the Novara Expedition by the military " Concordia" society, 

 in their large, handsome assembly-room in Weltevreden. 

 The dancing-hall was tastefully fitted up, adorned with blue 

 and green hangings and particoloured flags, while over the 

 entrance was suspended a portrait of our Emperor. In the 

 back-ground of the saloon there was set up in front of a trans- 

 parency an elegant boat, with an Austrian flag at the gaff, and 



of our excellent friends in Java, a living contradiction to the proverb, " Out of sight, 

 out of mind," as he has since the return of the Expedition already sent over as pre- 

 sents to the museums of our native country, valuable selections of curious objects of 

 natural history from the Indian Archipelago. 



