Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/201

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LAKE GRATIE.
183

rally nearly black, with the addition, in the three large ones, of a long beard, hanging, like a semicircle, from their cheeks and chins.

The principal antiquities round the tank were an enormous head, called by the natives Buta, a corruption, I daresay, of Buddha, and a tomb, ornamented with figures, called a Kramat or shrine, on which, even now, they often burn incense.

Gratie is at the distance of one post from the Blue Water. We proceeded there next, passing on our way several very extensive sugar factories, strong with fermented odours, and noisy with the voices of Chinese and native coolies, and the jarring discord of machinery.

The ditches on either side of our road were full of water-lilies; and endless numbers of ducks were bathing in them, or diving for animalculaa in the muddy bottom.

The village of Gratie, and the surrounding neighbourhood, is famed for its breed of