IN JAVA. 101 







from their peculiar stock. Wlien the Kalaiig-s uioved from 

 one place to another, they were conveyed in carts, with tw 

 solid wheels with a revolving axle, drawn by two pairs of 

 buffaloes, according to the circumstances of the party. In 

 these were placed the materials of huts, implements of 

 husbandry, &c. In tliis manner, until forty or fifty years ago, 

 they were continually moving from one part of the island to 

 another. They have still their separate chiefs, and preserve 

 many of their customs. They are treated with contempt by 

 their Sundanese neighbours, so that 'Kalang' is considered an 

 epithet of contempt and disgrace." 



Living despised and secluded in villages apart by them- 

 selves, they follow the rites and customs that have descended 

 to them from their forefathers with the superstitious awe 

 that comes of ignorance. The pillars in the centre of rudely 

 circular heaps, as perhaps also the ovoid blocks restmg on 

 tablets and other shaped slabs, point no doubt to the celebra- 

 tion here of phallic rites and to the worship of the Lmga and 

 Yoni, the emblems of Siva and Vishnu. It is intercstiug to 

 find the goblets or vases at the base of the upright pillars ; 

 they point probablv to the "mystic vessels or goblets in 

 the hands of Siva in the image of this god in Indian temples 

 in central Java." Not less significant is the upngljt s one 

 decked with palm-leaf fringe, a symbol round which these 

 rude and ignorant villagers, following their blind traditions, 

 weave to this day hangings, "just as the women did for 

 the Ashera in the Jewish temple, and the Athenian maidens 

 [following their old traditions] embroidered the sacred peplos 

 for the ships presented to Athene at the Dionysiac festival 



^^'in standing under the forest amid these ancient remains T felt 

 as if I were having an unbroken view down the ages o distant 

 antiquity ; these relics still warm, as they were, with the int i- 

 mittent fires which have been kept alive from t^i dim 

 past till now,^and echoing with the footsteps oi ^^^^^l 

 worshippers who, unaf^^cted by the incessant waves of change 

 ZtW broke; about them, are themselves ^ much ancient 

 monuments as the very bl.cks of weather-beaten, 1 hen- 

 matted trachyte, whose purpose is lost to their t-^^t m-, l^to 

 which they torpidly mutter a litany they do not comprehend 



