124 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



first contaminated our streams and done as much mischief 

 as possible. 



The Javanese are careful and skilful workmen, whether 

 in wood or iron. They build admirable boats and canoes, 

 which cannot be surpassed for speed and elegance. Their 

 krisscs or daggers are also excellent, the steel blades being 

 finely figured, and the handles and sheaths worked in the 

 finest woods or in ivory, and ornamented with gold or 

 jewels. They weave native cloths of fine quality, often 

 intermixed with gold thread, and of beautifully blended 

 colours ; while they dye cottons in elaborate and tasteful 

 patterns with a few simple tints obtained from earths and 

 vegetables, whose permanence and artistic merit put our 

 more gaudy and evanescent colours to shame. 



Like all Malays, and most uncivilised peoples, the 

 Javanese are great gamblers, and are also very fond of 

 cock-fighting. The upper classes, however, are fond of 

 hunting, and are admirable horsemen. They hunt deer 

 on horseback, killing them with a short sword ; and 

 tigers are often surrounded and killed with spears. They 

 have a peculiar kind of theatrical performance, in which 

 the shadows of flat wooden figures are thrown upon a 

 transparent screen, behind which the performer speaks the 

 several parts, altering his voice to suit the different 

 characters. In the ivajang, or puppet plays, the figures 

 are dressed in leather and occupy the front of the stage. 

 The pieces are almost always historical dramas, taken 

 from the ancient and legendary history of the island. 

 The Javanese excel in music, every chief or wealthy man 

 having a gamelang, or Ijand of musicians, generally ten or 

 twelve in number. The instruments consist of gongs 

 of various sizes for the deeper tones, and strips of metal 

 or bamboo for the higher notes, arranged in frames so 

 that a set of each can be conveniently struck by the 



