Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/596

 576 JAVA the silkworm not being reared in Java, a coarse cloth is woven also by the women. Paper of the nature of the ancient papyrus is a manufac- ture peculiar to the Javanese. In science the people have made little progress, possessing only a rude notion of astronomy and a slight knowledge of arithmetic. Their architecture at the present day hardly deserves the name, though the country abounds with remarkable remains of temples built many centuries ago by the ancestors of the present inhabitants. In number and beauty these structures are prob- ably unsurpassed by the architectural remains of any country in the world, but the action of tropical vegetation is rapidly destroying them. The most extensive and interesting of these ruins are at Brambauam, near the cen- tre of the island, at Borobodo, 80 m. west- ward, and at Gunong Prau, 40 m. southwest of Samarang. At Brambanam are the " thousand Temple of Borobodo. temples," consisting of 296 small temples ar- ranged in five concentric parallelograms, and forming a quadrangle of 540 by 510 ft., exactly facing the cardinal points. The celebrated temple of Borobodo is a vast domed structure erected on an inconsiderable elevation. It is a connected series of terraced walls, compo- sed of seven tiers one above another, and all surmounted by a triple circle of 72 towers surrounding the dome. It is 620 ft. square, and rises to a height of about 100 ft. The walls are profusely ornamented with sculpture. Wallace says that the amount of human labor and skill expended on the great pyramids of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that required to complete this sculptured hill temple in the interior of Java. The temples on the mountain of Gunong Prau are reached by four flights of stone steps from different directions, there being more than 1,000 steps in each flight. Of the other fine arts, music is the one in which the Javanese have made the greatest progress. They are passionately fond of it, and have generally fine musical ears. Their melodies are wild, plain- tive, and interesting, and more pleasing to the European ear thqn any other Asiatic music. They have wind and stringed instruments, but their most common instruments are drums and gongs. In religion the Javanese are Moham- medans, which faith was established by Arab conquerors in the 15th century, and has entire- ly displaced Brahmanism and Buddhism, the ancient religions of the country, except among a few people in the Tenger mountains. During the rule of the Portuguese in the 16th century, the Catholic missionaries formed some native congregations, of which a few remnants are still left. The Dutch government showed it- self decidedly opposed to all missionary labor, and Protestant missions were therefore not be- gun until the island passed in 1811 under the rule of England. After the restoration of the Dutch administration, all missionaries but the Dutch were in 1842 forbidden to perform missionary labors, but the Dutch missionary societies were allowed to establish missions. The results of their la- bors are as yet of no great importance. The number of missionaries in 1872 did not reach 20, who partly belonged to the Reformed and partly to the Mennonite church. The Roman Catholics have a vicar apostolic at Batavia, and 16 priests. The commerce of Java is transacted chiefly at the ports of Batavia, Samarang, and Surabaya. Among the principal exports are coffee, sugar, rice, indigo, tea, tobacco, spices, India rubber, birds' nests, camphor, and rattans. In 1871 the value of the merchandise and specie exported was 7,604,691, and that of the imports was 4,489,693. About one half of the rice exported and four fifths of the other exports go to the Netherlands. In June, 1872, the length of rail- roads in operation was 161 m., and in January, 1873, the number of telegraph offices was 38. There was regular connection with the other isl- ands of the archipelago by means of 15 steam- ers belonging to the Netherlandish India steam- boat company. The most important feature of Javanese society is the village, which forms a complete body politic, with considerable powers of self-government. Its officers are elected by the people, and are charged with the collection of the taxes and the maintenance of public order. At the time of the conquest two native sovereigns, a sultan and an emperor,