6 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



Eve of St. Nicholas, which takes the place of our Christmas, 

 occurred. In the evening the entire " white " popula- 

 tion indulged in a sort of carnival ; the main streets 

 and restaurants w^ere crowded, bands played and car- 

 riages laden with parents and their children drove slowly 

 through the throng. The spectacle, a sort of " trooping 

 of the colours," was a most interesting one to the on- 

 looker, for one saw often in the same family children 

 showing every degree of colour from the fairest Dutch 

 hair and complexion to the darkest Javanese. It is 

 easy to understand how this strong mixture of races has 

 come about, when one learns that Dutchmen who come 

 out to the East Indies, whether as civilian or military 

 officials or as business men, almost invariably stay for 

 ten years without returning to Europe. They become 

 in that time more firmly attached to the country than is 

 the case in colonies where people go home at shorter 

 intervals, and it is not uncommon to meet Dutchmen 

 who have not returned to Holland for thirty or forty 

 years. It is not the custom to send children back to 

 Europe when they reach the school age ; there are 

 excellent government schools in all the larger towns, 

 and it often happens that men and women grow up and 

 marry who have never been to Europe in their lives. 

 Thus it can be seen how a large half-caste population is 

 likely to be formed. The half-castes do not, as in British 

 India, form a separate caste, but are regarded as Euro- 

 peans, and there are many instances of men having more 

 or less of native blood in their veins reaching the highest 

 civilian and military rank. 



One or two curious relics of former times, which the 



