224 BAT A VI A. 
tube of his hookar, takes his dose of opium, or chews his 
preparation of betel-pepper, areca nut and chunam. 
' In the dances of the women, however pleasing to a Java- 
nese e3^e, an European will not find any thing interesting or 
elegant. They consist, as in India, of certain lascivious mo- 
tions of the body, head, and arms, whilst the feet remain as 
it were rivetted to the floor. The contortions of the body 
that are practised by the men may with more propriety be 
called posture-making than dancing. 
The private hours of a Javanese Prince are mostly passed 
in the society, or at least in the presence, of women. He 
feels himself, probably, more secure in their attendance than 
he Avould do in that of his own sex. He inlists as many into the 
number of his wives as he chuses. Polygamy is allowable to 
any extent, and the ladies take rank according to the priority of 
their introduction into the haram. The comparative estimation 
in which the sex is held is sufficiently declared in one of their 
laws, by which it is ordained that if a man, either by accident 
or design, shall kill his wife, he must pay to her relations the 
full value ; but if the wife kill her husband, she must suffer 
death. Pecuniary compensations are fixed for theft and mur- 
der and almost every other crime, except treason against 
the Prince ; and when the criminal is unable to pay the fine, 
he is usually sold as a slave. The power of a Javanese Prince 
over his subjects is very limited in some respects, in others it 
is absolute. By a sort of feudal right they are liable to be- 
come his slaves, in which situation he exercises over them an 
