Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/32

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14
LIFE IN JAVA.

containing five hundred or more Filippinos, or primeros, in one hand, and a lighted Chinese joss-stick in the other; while another boy brings a tray, on which is a cup of tea and some cakes. Another delicious cold bath generally succeeds the smoke, after which the luxurious European retires to dress for the evening, reappearing with the usual mouth appendage, and a stick in hand—no hat, of course, for the Batavian fashion is for neither gentlemen or ladies to wear anything on their heads, except when they go to church on Sundays. Thus attired, he wends his way quietly to the Koningen's Plain, or to that of Waterloo, to gaze on the élite and fashion walking or driving about, which the ladies do in full dress—décolleté—and wearing ornaments in their hair.

The carriages containing gentlemen are distinguished by the lighted joss-stick in the hand of one of the footmen, who stands behind his master, ever ready to present the aromatic torch. The quantity