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Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/48

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LIFE IN JAVA.

An anatomical museum, in which there are some objects of interest, and a library, are attached to the hospital; connected with which are also two medical schools for native students of both sexes. The doctor pointed out to me about five and twenty of the male students, who rose and bowed very respectfully as we entered, and to several questions which were put to them gave most satisfactory replies. They struck me as having a more intellectual cast of countenance than the generality of Javanese; though this may be owing, as some philosophers say, to a constant habit of study. The whole conversation was carried on in the Malay language, as it is the Dutch policy not to teach any native their own tongue.

The Javanese, like the natives of India, are fond of dancing spectacles, or notches; and when a "company" assembles in the street, or in any compound or yard of a house, it arrests the steps