100 



A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS. 



adjoining valley, where below a great overhanging rock they 

 wait till brea,k of next day, when they return home in a 

 similar secret and silent manner to their coming. They all 

 wear garments of cloth striped with black and white. 



Raffles* has given an interesting and full account of these 

 people in his ' History of Java' from which I make the follow- . 

 ing extract : " They were at one time numerous in various parts 

 of Java, leading a wandering life, practising religious rites 

 different from those of the great body of the people, and avoid- 

 ing intercourse with them, but most of them are now reduced 

 to subjection, and are become stationary in their residence, 

 having embraced the Mahomedan religion. In a few villages 

 their peculiar customs are still preserved. Although by tra- 



EAETUENWARE POT FEOM THE KABANG S GROVE. 



dition their descent is from a princess of Mendang, Kamulan, 

 and a chief transformed into a dog, they have claims to be 

 considered the actual descendants of the aborigines of the 

 island. They are represented as having a great veneration 

 for a red dog, one of which is generally kept by each family, 

 which they will not permit to be struck or ill-used.t When a 

 young man asks a girl in marriage he must prove descent 



* For additional information the reader is referred to Tijdsclirift v. Ned. 

 Ind. i. jaarg. ii. deel, p. 295 et seq. : iv. j. ii. 217 ; vii. j. iv. 335 et seq. ; 

 Bijdragen v. Ind. T. L. eo V.-Kunde, iii. Volgreeks, iv. deel. ; Indisches Maga- 

 zine, 1845. 



f "According to the Zend Avesta, certain dogs have the power of protecting 

 the departed spirits from the demons lying in wait for it on the perilous 

 passage of the narrow bridge over the abyss of hell ; and a dog is always led 

 in funeral processions, and made to look at the corpse." — Macmil. Mag., 

 " Village Life in the Apennines," June 1879. 



