288 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
ance of variegated colours over the head. Such a bed is fit for 
a prince. Tables, chairs, &c., are not wanted, as they always sit 
cross-legged on a mat like' the Turks, and generally convey the 
food to their mouths with the thumb and finger. Knives are un- 
necessary, except for carving. The houses of the higher classes 
are furnished more conveniently, and, of course, more expensively. 
Some even indulge in the luxury of tables, chairs, and looking- 
glasses, in imitation of the European settlers on the island. 
But the Javans not only know how to build habitations suitable 
to their wants, and to furnish them comfortably, but they also 
know how to manufacture many conveniences and luxuries, for 
which they are indebted to their own ingenuity and industry ; — 
such, for instance, as cutlery, bricks, thatch, mats, cotton, cloths, 
dies, leather, cordage, paper, salt, saltpetre, gunpowder, &c. 
They likewise fell trees, hew timber, make boats, build ships, and 
work in various kinds of metals. , Their fisheries are very in- 
geniously and profitably conducted; and their markets are well 
supphed with these treasures of the deep, both fresh and salt ; as 
they are also with poultry, meat, vegetables, &c. 
Agriculture is an art in which the Javans are all, more or less, 
interested ; as rice is not only their principal diet, but a conspic- 
uous article in the export commerce of the island. They have 
been called, and are emphatically, " a nation of husbandmen ;" 
and the whole island is a great agricultural garden. All its wealth 
is drawn from its soil, the produce of which answers every pur- 
pose in Java that money does in other countries. Rice, however, 
is the grand staple of the island, and to the cultivation of this, 
every other species of husbandry is subordinate. It is seen in 
vast fields gilding the slopes of mountains, smiling on level plains, 
and lining most valleys with the freshest verdure — gracefully 
waving to the fragrant breeze — 
" Blushing and shrinking, like a bashful n3anph, 
From fickle Zephyr's soft and amorous sighs, 
But blessing, with the sweetest siriile, the god 
Who woos her in the shape of mountain rill." 
Rice cannot flourish without water, and the hill-sides of Java 
generally furnish it with a plentiful supply ; and where this is not 
the case, artificial irrigation is easily substituted at very little 
