124 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
first contaminated our streams and done as much mischief 
as possible. 
The Javanese are careful and skilful workmen, whether 
in wood or iron. They build admirable boats and canoes, 
which cannot be surpassed for speed and elegance. Their 
krisses or daggers are also excellent, the steel blades being 
finely figured, and the handles and sheaths worked in the 
finest woods or in ivory, and ornamented with gold or 
jewels. They weave native cloths of fine quality, often 
intermixed with gold thread, and of beautifully blended 
colours; while they dye cottons in elaborate and tasteful 
patterns with a few simple tints obtained from earths and 
vegetables, whose permanence and artistic merit put our 
more gaudy and evanescent colours to shame. 
Like all Malays, and most uncivilised peoples, the 
Javanese are great gamblers, and are also very fond of 
cock-fighting. The upper classes, however, are fond of 
hunting, and are admirable horsemen. They hunt deer 
on horseback, killing them with a short sword; and 
tigers are often surrounded and killed with spears. They 
have a peculiar kind of theatrical performance, in which 
the shadows of flat wooden figures are thrown upon a 
transparent screen, behind which the performer speaks the 
several parts, altering his voice to suit the different 
characters. In the wajang , or puppet plays, the figures 
are dressed in leather and occupy the front of the stage. 
The pieces are almost always historical dramas, taken 
from the ancient and legendary history of the island. 
The Javanese excel in music, every chief or wealthy man 
having a gamelang , or band of musicians, generally ten or 
twelve in number. The instruments consist of gongs 
of various sizes for the deeper tones, and strips of metal 
or bamboo for the higher notes, arranged in frames so 
that a set of each can be conveniently struck by the 
