the performances from the B'rata Yud'ha and Romo, as well as the Topeng; the Pelog which accompanies the Wayang Gedog; the Kodok Ngokek, Chara Bali, Senenan and others. The Javanese music is peculiarly harmonious, but the gamut is imperfect.
Whatever portion of astronomical science may have in former times been communicated to Java, the people of the present day have no pretensions to distinction on this account. It is true they possess the signs of the zodiac, and still preserve a mode of calculating the seasons, the principles of which must have been discovered by a people well acquainted with the motions of the heavenly bodies. They also possess several works on judicial astrology; but in this they follow only what is laid down for them in the few pages of a book almost illegible, and in the traditions of the country.
It was my intention in this place to have attempted some sketch of the interesting and peculiar features of the Javanese character, with reference to those admirable institutions which distinguish the constitution of society among this people; but I have already trespassed too long on your kindness—and there are two subjects which have recently attracted my particular attention, and which, on account of their novelty, I am desirous of bringing to your notice. During my late tour through the Eastern Districts, I visited the Teng'gar mountains, on which it had been represented to me that some remains of the former worship of Java were still to be found, and accident threw me on the shores of Bali, while attempting to reach Banyuwangi. The simplicity of the people who inhabit the Teng'gar mountains, and the fact of such remains being still in existence in Java, is entitled to record; and I am aware that whatever information I may be able to communicate respecting Bali, however imperfect, will be accepted.
Teng'gar mountains.—To the eastward of Surabaia and on the range of hills connected with Gunung Dasar, and lying partly in the District of Pasuraun and partly in that of Probolingo, known by the name of the Teng'gar mountains, we find the remnant of a people still following the Hindu worship, who merit attention not only on account of their being the depositaries of the last trace of that worship discovered at this day on Java, but as exhibiting a peculiar singularity and simplicity of character.
These people occupy about forty villages, scattered along this range of hills in the neighbourhood of the Sandy Sea, and are partly under Pasuraun and partly under Probolingo. The scite of the villages, as well as the construction of the houses is peculiar, and differs entirely from what is elsewhere observed in Java. The houses are not shaded by trees, but built on spacious open terraces, rising one above the other, each house occupying a terrace, and being in length from thirty to seventy, and even eighty feet. The door is invariably
