Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/153

 CURIOUS LAMP. 137

himself in a similar situation at the assault of Jaen, dismounted from his horse, kissed the fair and trembling hand, and then joined his men, he, \vithout pausing to consider the imprudence of the act, rashly seized the girl by the waist, and at- tempted to carry her away by force, a design in which he was defeated. The princess, as she turned out to be, irritated at the capture of her father's Kraton, and the insult now offered to her- self, stabbed the young officer in the neck with a kriss she wore concealed in the folds of her sarong, inflicting a wound from the effects of which he died shortly after.

A relative of our host's gave us a lamp so very primitive in its construction, that, had we not been told, we should never have imairined the use to which it was put. It consisted of a little box, cut out of a solid piece of wood, in the form of a leaf, and slightly hollowed out in the middle. A close-fitting lid, ])laccd over it, can be shifted

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