240 JAVAN WOMEN. [1697, 



In general I may say the Women^ are extreamly lazy here, 

 for as they enjoy great Plenty, and by a sort of Custom are 

 become more Mistresses than any where else, they rnind 

 nothing but their Pleasures, and are moreover so haughty 

 and revengeful that it is dangerous to offend them. 



When the Company first establish'd themselves here, the 

 Women were so scarce that even the Principal Officers were 

 obliged to marry Indians, which no doubt has been the 

 occasion of the Pride of that Sex in this Country. At present 

 there is great plenty of them ; they have multiply'd exceed- 

 ingly, and considering that many arrive frequently from 

 foreign Parts there are more than sufficient for such as 

 require but a moderate use of them. As they not only suffer 

 no Beggars here, but considerably relieve such as fall under 

 any Necessity, the poorest of all the Women has when she 

 goes abroad at least one Slave that carries an Umbrello over 

 her Head? 'Tis the same with the Men, except those that 

 belong to the Troops, and are above the quality of an 



1 " Most of the white women who are seen at Batavia are born in 

 the Indies. . . . These are either the offspring of European mothers or 

 Oriental female slaves, who having first been mistresses to Europeans, 

 have afterwards been married to them, and been converted to Christi- 

 anity. . . . Children born in the Indies are nicknamed liplaps by the 

 Europeans, although both parents may have come from Europe." 

 {Ibid., p. 315.) 



" They are commonly of a listless and lazy temper ; but this ought 

 chiefly to be ascribed to their education, and the number of slaves of 

 both sexes that they always have to wait upon them." (P. 317.) 



" In common with most of the women in India, they cherish a most 

 excessive jealousy of their husbands and of their female slaves. If they 

 discover the smallest familiarity between them, they set no bounds to 

 their thirst of revenge against these poor bondswomen, who in most 

 cases have not dared to resist the will of their masters for fear of ill 

 treatment." (P. 319.) 



2 " When they go out on foot they are attended by a slave who carries 

 a sunshade (called here samhreel or pmjang) over their heads ; but who- 

 ever is lower in rank than a junior merchant may not have a slave 

 behind him, but must carry a small sunshade himself." (Stavorinus, I. c, 

 p. 314.) 



