Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/94

78 windows were all closed, we could see nothing more of the interior.

Behind the female portion of the royal family were seated several dancing girls and attendants, holding the tumpat syree, &c., ready, at a nod or look from one of the family, to envelope the necessary ingredients in a betel leaf. Their dress was very simple, something similar to that of the bride I before described—the sarong, which passed over the chest and under the arms, concealing the bosom, but leaving the shoulders and neck entirely bare. This garment was confined round the waist by a long scarf, called the stagen. The movements of these girls, as well as of any one who approached within a prescribed distance of the Kaiser, were very peculiar. Whenever they were required to minister to the wants of his majesty, or of the ladies, they crawled with knees doubled so that the heels almost touched the nether part of the thighs. How they managed to move along I