. Facts and fancies about Java . IFE spread out behind their head. And the quietspot in the shadow of the cemetery gate isalive with their high-pitched twittering voices,as they go about from one flower-seller toanother, bargaining for jessamines , orange-blossoms, and tiny pink roses, which, withdeft fingers, they twist into the glossy coilof their kondeh. Javanese women are most pardonablyproud of their hair. It is somewhat coarse,but very long and thick and of a brilliantblack, with bluish gleams in it: and it pret-tily frames their broad forehead with regular,well-defined curves and points
. Facts and fancies about Java . IFE spread out behind their head. And the quietspot in the shadow of the cemetery gate isalive with their high-pitched twittering voices,as they go about from one flower-seller toanother, bargaining for jessamines , orange-blossoms, and tiny pink roses, which, withdeft fingers, they twist into the glossy coilof their kondeh. Javanese women are most pardonablyproud of their hair. It is somewhat coarse,but very long and thick and of a brilliantblack, with bluish gleams in it: and it pret-tily frames their broad forehead with regular,well-defined curves and points. They takegreat care of it, too, favourably contrasting,in this respect, with European women ofthe lower classes, though some of theirmethods, it must be owned, are repugnant toEuropean notions of decency. As they bathe,and sleep, and eat in public, so, in public,they cleanse each others hair. A womanwill squat down in some shady spot by theroadside, and, shaking loose her coiled-uphair, submit to the manipulations of a friend,. Clasp for fastening a kabaya in front. GLIMPSES OF NATIVE LIFE 113 who parts the strands with her spread-out fingers, and removes superfluities, with quick monkey-like gestures. What would youhave? The countrys manner, the countryshonour, as the Dutch proverb hath it. Thisparticular way of cleansing the hair is anational institution among the , as such, it is celebrated in the legendsof the race, and in the tales of the oldentime, which are stiU repeated, of an evening,among friends. The scholar of the party, by the light ofan oil-wick, reads from a greasy manuscriptwhich he has hired for the evening at theprice of one pitji *). It is the story of thebeautiful beggarmaid, who wanders fromvillage to village. She does not know her ownname or who were her parents, having, ininfancy, been stolen by robbers. One day,she comes begging to the gates of the Rajah orders the guards to admit thesuppliant, and his Raden-Ajoe queen causes *)
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