The Country For Many Miles
Behind Sourabaya Is Perfectly Flat And Everywhere Cultivated;
Being A Delta Or Alluvial Plain, Watered By Many Branching
Streams.
Immediately around the town the evident signs of wealth
and of an industrious population were very pleasing; but as we
went on, the constant succession of open fields skirted by rows
of bamboos, with here and there the white buildings and a tall
chimney of a sugar-mill, became monotonous.
The roads run in
straight lines for several miles at a stretch, and are bordered
by rows of dusty tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little
guardhouses, where a policeman is stationed; and there is a
wooden gong, which by means of concerted signals may be made to
convey information over the country with great rapidity. About
every six or seven miles is the post-house, where the horses are
changed as quickly as were those of the mail in the old coaching
days in England.
I stopped at Modjokerto, a small town about forty miles south of
Sourabaya, and the nearest point on the high road to the district
I wished to visit. I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Ball, an
Englishman, long resident in Java and married to a Dutch lady;
and he kindly invited me to stay with him until I could fix on a
place to suit me. A Dutch Assistant Resident as well as a Regent
or native Javanese prince lived here. The town was neat, and had
a nice open grassy space like a village green, on which stood a
magnificent fig-tree (allied to the Banyan of India, but more
lofty), under whose shade a kind of market is continually held,
and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge and chat. The
day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the village of
Modjo-agong, where he was building a house and premises for the
tobacco trade, which is carried on here by a system of native
cultivation and advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo
trade in British India. On our way we stayed to look at a
fragment of the ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit,
consisting of two lofty brick masses, apparently the sides of a
gateway. The extreme perfection and beauty of the brickwork
astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine and hard, with
sharp angles and true surfaces. They are laid with great
exactness, without visible mortar or cement, yet somehow fastened
together so that the joints are hardly perceptible, and sometimes
the two surfaces coalesce in a most incomprehensible manner.
Such admirable brickwork I have never seen before or since. There
was no sculpture here, but an abundance of bold projections and
finely-worked mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for many miles
in every direction, and almost every road and pathway shows a
foundation of brickwork beneath it - the paved roads of the old
city. In the house of the Waidono or district chief at Modjo-
agong, I saw a beautiful figure carved in high relief out of a
block of lava, and which had been found buried in the ground near
the village. On my expressing a wish to obtain some such
specimen, Mr. B. asked the chief for it, and much to my surprise
he immediately gave it me. It represented the Hindu goddess
Durga, called in Java, Lora Jonggrang (the exalted virgin). She
has eight arms, and stands on the back of a kneeling bull. Her
lower right hand holds the tail of the bull, while the
corresponding left hand grasps the hair of a captive, Dewth
Mahikusor, the personification of vice, who has attempted to slay
her bull. He has a cord round his waist, and crouches at her feet
in an attitude of supplication. The other hands of the goddess
hold, on her right side, a double hook or small anchor, a broad
straight sword, and a noose of thick cord; on her left, a girdle
or armlet of large beads or shells, an unstrung bow, and a
standard or war flag. This deity was a special favourite among
the old Javanese, and her image is often found in the ruined
temples which abound in the eastern part of the island.
The specimen I had obtained was a small one, about two feet high,
weighing perhaps a hundredweight; and the next day we had it
conveyed to Modjo-Kerto to await my return to Sourabaya. Having
decided to stay some time at Wonosalem, on the lower slopes of
the Arjuna Mountain, where I was informed I should find forest
and plenty of game, I had first to obtain a recommendation from
the Assistant Resident to the Regent, and then an order from the
Regent to the Waidono; and when after a week's delay I arrived
with my baggage and men at Modjo-agong, I found them all in the
midst of a five days' feast, to celebrate the circumcision of the
Waidono's younger brother and cousin, and had a small room in an
on outhouse given me to stay in. The courtyard and the great open
reception-shed were full of natives coming and going and making
preparations for a feast which was to take place at midnight, to
which I was invited, but preferred going to bed. A native band,
or Gamelang, was playing almost all the evening, and I had a good
opportunity of seeing the instruments and musicians. The former
are chiefly gongs of various sizes, arranged in sets of from
eight to twelve, on low wooden frames. Each set is played by one
performer with one or two drumsticks. There are also some very
large gongs, played singly or in pairs, and taking the place of
our drums and kettledrums. Other instruments are formed by broad
metallic bars, supported on strings stretched across frames; and
others again of strips of bamboo similarly placed and producing
the highest notes. Besides these there were a flute and a curious
two-stringed violin, requiring in all twenty-four performers.
There was a conductor, who led off and regulated the time, and
each performer took his part, coming in occasionally with a few
bars so as to form a harmonious combination.
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