Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/251

Rh Ngantang of our intended visit to the districts over which they preside. He was about the middle height, rather inclined to corpulence. His features, for a native, were pretty good, but slightly pitted with the small- pox. The shape of his under lip was spoilt by a constant habit of holding a large piece of tobacco on it, which, after chewing, he was in the habit of keeping in this unbecoming fashion for hours together.

This indeed is quite a common practice with the Javanese. The Malays, on the other hand, generally keep theirs under the upper lip, giving the ignorant stranger an impression that some hard body, which only a surgical operation could extract, is embedded in it. The Regent introduced his wife and daughters to us, and then tea was handed round, accompanied by European cakes and biscuits. His wife, Tuan Ratu, and her two daughters, who were pretty fair specimens of Javanese beauty, were, like the paterfamilias, very