Page:Letters of a Javanese princess, by Raden Adjeng Kartini, 1921.djvu/273

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LETTERS OF A JAVANESE PRINCESS

who have almost no clothes on their bodies and who are smoking straw, or eating rice. Naturally we must begin the conversation, for an inferior would rather be silent a whole day than to speak first to his superior.

They work under the supervision of an "Indo."[1]

He is good to his people, who come and go freely in his presence, and are always treated with consideration. We often hear them make little pleasantries with the toewan, a certain indication that the "baas" is good to them. If they receive orders to work over-time, we never hear them grumble. That is pleasant, is it not? And this sinjo[2] might well serve as an example.

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  1. Indo-European used commonly to denote a many-mixed blood.
  2. Sinjo from the Portuguese "Senhor," indicating master, used toward natives with European blood.