144 
CRAWFURD’S DICTIONARY. 
[Feb. 13, 1858. 
adduces arguments against an ill-judged policy of a monopoly of the produce ; 
and as to the general principles which have guided the European nations as 
regards the Eastern Archipelago generally, he says (p. 20), “ All the four 
nations, for three long centuries, acting on a false and rapacious commercial 
theory, in so far as that theory is concerned, may safely he said to have marred, 
instead of promoted, the industry and civilization of the native inhabitants ; 
and it is only within the present century that a wiser and more generous policy, 
not fully carried out by some of the parties even now, has been adopted.” This 
stricture, founded as it is upon a personal acquaintance with the countries in 
question, is anything but creditable to Christian nations. 
Some curious details are given under the head of “ Krama,” which is the 
name of the “ polite dialect,” or “ ceremonial language ” of the Javanese. In 
this idiom it seems that the great object to be attained has been the avoidance 
of all words and forms of expression to be found in the vulgar tongue. If a 
word should have become familiar, it is rejected from the ceremonial language. 
It is as if in our own country we were always to use words derived from the 
Greek, Latin, or French, in preference to those of Anglo-Saxon origin, and 
which are popularly understood — a practice which is not unknown under the 
latitudes and longitudes embracing the British islands. The general prevalence 
of such a dialect would tend , to prove the correctness of the axiom attributed to 
Talleyrand — that language was given to man not so much to express his 
thoughts, as to hide them in obscurity. 
Under the head “ Grobogan,” which is the title of an ancient kingdom, and 
now of one of the districts of Java, Mr. Crawfurd, on the authority of Dr. 
Horsfield, gives us an excellent description of the remarkable phenomenon of 
a mud-volcano. The author is wrong, however, in instancing it as “ singular,” 
since a similar expulsion of mud from beneath the surface of the earth takes 
place at Maccaluba, in Sicily, and is well described by Captain Smyth in his 
valuable work on that island. In treating of Papandayang, also in Java, Dr. 
Horsfield (Diet., p. 327) has stated that this, which was formerly one of the 
largest volcanoes in the island, was for the most part swallowed up in the earth 
in 1772, an extent of high ground, fifteen miles in length and fully six broad, 
being thus engulphed. Such an event is obviously exactly the converse of the 
elevation of the volcano of Jorullo, in Mexico, in 1759, as described by Hum- 
boldt,* and of some subsequent upheavings of volcanoes in Central America. 
Next to the upheaving of Jorullo, which is unquestionably the most stupen- 
dous natural phenomenon, of which we have any record, that has occurred 
during the historical period, may be instanced as amongst the marvels of 
nature the vast eruption of the volcano of Tomboro, in the Indian Archipelago, 
in 1815. 
* A concise account will be found in M'Culloch’s Geog. Diet., ii. 91. 
