5\6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



and aftcT they arrive at the age of 

 puberty they wear over the former 

 a kind of s'ays, made to lace be- 

 hind, the fronts of which are de- 

 corated with ridiculous devices of 

 birds or animals worked in co- 

 loured worsted. In religion the 

 Brahoo^s are all Soonnitte Moo- 

 sulmans, and their external form? 

 of religion, marriage and inter- 

 ment, are practised according to 

 the tenets of that sect. 



People of the Teng'gar Mountains. 



(From Gov. Raffies's Speech, delivered to 

 tlie Literary and Scientific Society at 

 Java, Sept." 1815.) 



To the eastward of Surabaia 

 and on the range of hills connect- 

 ed with Gunning Das;ar, and ly- 

 ing partly in the district of Pasu- 

 raun and partly in that of Probo- 

 lingo, known by the name of the 

 Teng'gar nsountains, we find the 

 remnant of a people still follow- 

 ing the Hindu worship, who merit 

 attention not only on account of 

 their being the depositaries of the 

 last trace of that worship disco- 

 vered at this day on Java, but as 

 exhibiting a peculiar singularity 

 and simplicity of character. 



These people occupy about 40 

 villages, scattered along this range 

 of hills in tlie neighbourhood of 

 the Sandy Sea, and are partly un- 

 der Pasuraun and partly under 

 Probolingo. The site of the vil- 

 lages, as well as the construction 

 of the houses i« peculiar, and dif- 

 fers entirely from what is else- 

 where observed in Java. The 

 houses are not shaded by trees, 

 but built on spacious open ter- 

 races, rising one above the other, 

 each house occupymg a teriace, 

 and being in length from thirty 

 to seventy, and even eighty feet. 



The door is invariably in one 

 corner, at the opposite end of the 

 building to that in which the fire- 

 place is built. The building ap- 

 pears to be first constructed with 

 the ordinary roof, but along the 

 front, is an enclosed veranda or 

 gallery of about eight feet broad, 

 with a less inclined pitch in the 

 roof, formed of bamboos, which 

 are so placed as to slide out, either 

 for the admission of air, or to 

 afford a channel for the smoke to 

 escape, there being otherw ise no 

 aperture, except a small opening, 

 of about a foot square, at one end 

 of the building, above the fire- 

 place, which is built of brick, 

 and so highly venerated, that it 

 is considered sacrilege for any 

 stranger to pollute it by the touch. 

 Across the upper part of the build- 

 ing, rafters are run across, so as 

 to form a kind of attic story, in 

 which they deposit their valuables 

 and instruments of husbandry. 



The head of the village takes 

 the title of Petingi, as in the low 

 lands, and he is generally assisted 

 by a Kabayan ; both elected by 

 the people from their own vil- 

 lage. There are four priests, who 

 are here termed Dukuns, having 

 charge of the sacred records. 



These Dukuns, who are in ge- 

 neral intelligent men, have no 

 tradition of the time when they 

 were first established on these 

 hills J from what country they 

 caine or who intrusted them with 

 the sacred books to the faith con- 

 tained in which they still adliere. 

 These latter, they state, were 

 handed down to them by their 

 fathers, their office being heredi- 

 tary, and the sole duty required 

 of them being to perform the pitja 

 according thereto, and again to 



hand 



