CHINAMEN IN JAVA. 227 



stones 01" figures, and this often makes it difficult to 

 arrive at a true decision as to the religious bias of 

 monuments of an early age. In Mysore, however, the 

 existence of caste and many other purely Hindu 

 customs settle the point beyond a doubt ; it is different 

 in Java where the religion of Brahma has entirely 

 disappeared, excepting, perhaps, in a few isolated cases 

 amongst emigrants from India, in which the old rules 

 have long relapsed into comparative apathy, and 

 nothing remains but a few rites of minor importance. 



Mr, M. informed me that the Chinamen to this day 

 perform then- devotions at the altar we had been 

 examining ; now they are doubtless Buddhists, for 

 although there are two other religions practised 

 in China, the Confucian and the Taouist, Fetishism 

 is unknown there, and the class of people from 

 which these pedlars in foreign lands spring do 

 not profess either of the other philosophical creeds, 

 hence the only conclusion one can come to is that, in 

 their gross ignorance, the Chinamen confound those 

 rather obese figures with others seen in their own 

 temples in China, representative or emblematic of 

 Buddha. 



Previous to my return to Batavia, I had the oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing the proceedings in the Court of 



Q 2 



