Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/105

Rh there, brilliantly ornamented with chains and diamonds, but taking no part in the dance; they gazed with a puzzled expression of face at the galops and valses which afforded so much enjoyment to others.

Refreshments were handed round about midnight, soon after which the guests retired; but on grand occasions, daylight often pales the burning lamps before the dancers can make up their minds to depart.

As the Dutch are in general very gay, seldom a night passes but you hear the booming of big drums close to your hotel, or in the distance sounding like random guns. The waste of parchment, we should think, must be great; for even on Sundays the noise of merriment, so far from ceasing, becomes if anything even more deafening than on the six preceding days. We were allowed but a few days to rest in Samarang, during which time we were unable to see Oenarang, a pretty little