Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

TXHABITAXTS OF JAA'A.Ifi7miugled with traces oi: Buddhism. These highlanders are distinguished from theirMohammedan neighbours by their honesty and more correct morals. Amongstthem murder, theft, and adultery are unknown, and visitors guilty of any misdemeanoHrare banished from the commune, The heads of the villages takethe names of " father " and " source of joy."The Javanese proper, representing over two-thirds of the population, occupyall the central provinces east of Cheribon Bay, as well as the northern seaboardbetween Cheribon and the Sunda Strait, and the whole of the south-east coast.Their ancient liturgical language, the Kavi, that is, " cultivated," contains a largenumber of Sanskrit words.It has been preserved from oblivion by old documentsand inscriptions, and numerous traces survive, especially in Javanese poetr}'.great scenes of Hindu mythology are still commemorated in the national legends,poems, theatrical representations, and those wajaiigs, or marionettes, in which thenatives take such delig-ht.TheFig. 66.Inhabitants op Java.Scale J : 11,000,000.Sundanese. Malays. Javanese. Madurese. Tenggerese.Amid the Javanese populations, there still exists a communifj' of about threethousand fugitive Sivaites, who have preserved both their Ilindu practices andtheir ancient dialect largely affected by'elements derived from the sacredlanguage. These are the Tengger people, who have taken refuge on the plateauof that name.Here they occupy large houses where several families reside imderone roof, and where they keep alive the sacred flame, which has never beenextinguished since it was brought ages ago from the shores' of India.Modern Javanese is divided into several provincial dialects, each of which, likethe Sundanese, comprises two forms, the "high" and the "low" {Kiomo andNgoko), the first used in addressing superiors or equals when treated ceremoniously,the second employed amongst friends or in addressing inferiors.The differencesbetween the two forms are profound, affecting the Aocabulary, the phraseology,