Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/312

 268 CHARACTER OF MAHOMEDANISM when urged upon the subject, he pronounced with great simplicity the name of his village priest ! The lower orders even display a most singular levity upon these points. In the vicinity of the town of Yvgyakartay I met one evening a band of labourers returning from their work, and their ex- traordinary amusement was as follows : One of the party was repeating a veise of the Koran, which he had somehow acquired, and mimicking a preacher of their acquaintance. When he had done, the rest applauded him by a loud shout, and a convulsive roar of laughter. He again repeated the verse, and received the same approbation, and this was their diversion as they passed on to their houses. I do not quote these cases as extraordi- nary examples, but as a true picture of the popu- lar feeling on the subject of religion. I do not mean, in general, to assert, that, in matters of re- ligion, the Javanese are incapable of conducting themselves with decorum, but certainly there is neither bigotry nor austerity in their religious be- lief, and most frequently it has not much solem- nity, and hardly ever any austerity. Some of the higher classes, now and then, pay a more sober and decent regard to the exterior ob- servances of religion, but it is not very general, and it is never severe. The late sultan of Yugyakarta, who was a chief of a most kind and humane dis- position, used frequently to apprize me as a joke,