Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/332

314 She is expected to adorn the bride in the most attractive manner, so as to please her husband and the assembled guests; and she superintends all the ceremonies during the celebration of the wedding. The Waksie now before us, we must say to her credit, was most indefatigable in her attention to her charge, fanning her with a scarf—fans not being in general use amongst the Javanese—and assisting her to betel-nut, &c, very frequently.

The bridegroom, like his bride, was yellow-washed down to the waist; his eyebrows were blackened, and painted to a point; he wore a variegated batek sarong, fastened round the waist by a bright silk scarf, through the folds of which glittered the gilt hilt of a kriss. His hair fell on his back in long thick masses, whilst a conical-shaped kind of hat, made of some material resembling patent leather, was placed on the top of his head. On one side of him was seated his