Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/50

32 instrument, which the player, sitting cross-legged on the ground, placed on his lap, using the palms of his hands for drum-sticks. Lastly, there was a kind of hybrid fiddle, awkwardly made and roughly finished, called by the natives Rabup, the sounds of which were so faint, that though I stood near and watched attentively the fiddler, as he bent his head ever and anon to the motions of the fiddlestick, apparently rapt in enchantment, I must confess I could not catch a single note harmonious or otherwise.

The danseuse was a plain-looking woman, with a face of the ordinary Javanese type, coarse features, high cheeks bones, and very large mouth, disfigured with black teeth, which, however, they consider a mark of beauty. Her feet were small, as is the case with all of this race, both male and female. Her hair was dressed in the usual manner, tightly drawn back from the forehead, and rolled in a large conday, or knot, at the back, through