Javan

“ A multitude of both factions were collected in the square, and a fierce struggle was going on near the gates; the Zealots endeavouring to tear them down, and those of Simon's parry striving to repulse them. Meanwhile flames were raging furiously, and volumes of smoke and fire came down upon the crowd; while the shrieks of the prisoners, the shouts of the combatants, and the crash of falling timbers combined to increase the horror of the scene.
Javan was bold and resolute in the highest degree. No danger ever deterred him from prosecuting an object which he earnestly desired to accomplish. ”

“ But what is to be expected from a country, where the natives are so treated, so oppressed? To-day the Javan is ordered to plant his garden with coffee trees: he does so, and although well aware how little he will get for the fruit, he sees them grow up with pleasure, considering their produce as a tribute which he must pay to his master for enjoyment of protection; but now, when they are about to bear fruit, he is ordered to root them out: he does so, and four months afterwards he is again ordered to plant others! Can a more infamous tyranny be imagined? ”

“ A Javan has received an outrage, perhaps a blow, but he preserves his usual calm, grave demeanour, until on a sudden, and with a terrible shriek, he draws his kreese, and attacks not only those who have offended him, but unoffending bystanders, and often the persons he best loves. It is a temporary insanity, which usually lasts till he sinks from exhaustion, or is himself struck down. The paroxysm over, remorse assails him, and he bewails the sad results of his matta glab or blinded eye, by which term the Javans frequently designate the amók. ”

“ His idea of property is modified by the three kinds of subjects to which it is applied: rice fields, gâgas, and fruit trees. A Javan has no rice fields he can call his own; those of which he had the use last year will be exchanged next year for others. They circulate (as in the regency of Semárang) from one person to another, and if any one were excluded, he would infallibly emigrate. ”

“ Surely he will be accepted of the Lord, though he may die in ignorance of Him for whose sake alone his sins are pardoned and his obedience rewarded. But Javan gives me far more anxiety. His zeal is so mixed up with cruelty—his temper is so unhumbled—and his conduct so fearfully opposed to the love and mercy and charity that ought to characterize all pardoned sinners, that I cannot think of him without fear and dread. ”

“ The lower class is indolent and insensible beyond conception, and although certain persons, who presume to be perfectly acquainted with the character of the Javan, maintain the contrary, still I am convinced by daily experience, that the Javan in general is most shockingly lazy, and that nothing but fear of his superior, and apprehension of being punished, or momentary distress or want, can compel him to labour. ”

“ The natives, who are called Jaos (Javans) , are so proud that they think all mankind their inferiors; so that, if a Javan were passing along the street, and saw a native of any other country standing on any hillock or place raised higher than the ground on which he was walking, if such person did not immediately come down until he should have passed, the Javan would kill him, for he will permit no person to stand above him ”

“ Although mild and peaceable in disposition, the Javans are passionately fond of fights between animals. Whilst beholding these encounters, their usual calm gravity and mysterious reserve disappear, and are replaced by the noisy, vehement eagerness of an excited boy. Cock-fights are in great vogue, and in many an old Javan poem the exploits of the crested combatants are related in a strain of laughable magniloquence. But other and more serious contests frequently take place. ”

“ Notwithstanding the despotic nature of their government, and the feudal principles on which it rests, the Javan must be considered as a patriarchial people, still retaining many of the virtues, and all the simplicity, which distinguish that state of society. ”

“ In the house of Zadok, piety, charity, faith, and resignation glowed with an inextinguishable flame, and its inmates were as a burning and a shining light in the midst of a thick darkness. The influence of Javan over the partizans of Simon was sufficient to preserve his family from the visits of the plunderers, or if a few of the ruffians attempted to enter the gates, they found them too well secured and guarded; and hitherto the effects of the famine had not been felt so powerfully in that habitation as in almost every other. ”

“ Of the causes which have tended to lower the character of the Asiatics in comparison with Europeans, none has had a more decided influence than polygamy. To all those noble and generous feelings, all that delicacy of sentiment, that romantic and poetical spirit, which virtuous love inspires in the breast of an European, the Javan is a stranger, and in the communication between the sexes he seeks only convenience, and little more than the gratification of an appetite. But the evil does not stop here: education is neglected and family attachments are weakened. ”

“ If the Javan is a person of rank, or in affluent circumstances, he will be found superstitious, proud, jealous, vindictive, mean, and slavish towards his superiors, haughty and despotic towards his inferiors and those unfortunate beings that are subject to his orders, lazy and slothful. ”

“ The greater part of these schemes Javan kept profoundly secret; and after he had lauded the courage and the zeal of Simon, and expatiated on his patriotism and his fitness to take the command of the Jewish forces, as successor to the captive Josephus, he turned the conversation to his own personal adventures and dangers, since he had escaped from the Roman camp. His sufferings and privations had frequently been very severe, as he was compelled to lurk among rocks and uninhabited wildernesses for several days together, for fear of falling into the hands of his enemies. ”

“ In attempting to exhibit some of the more striking features of the Javan character, it becomes necessary to distinguish between the privileged classes of society and the mass of the people. Long continued oppression may have injured the character of the latter, and obliterated some of its brighter traits ”

“ Oh no; his love is present with me now, and dearer is that love to me than all this world can offer!"
"Is this your final declaration, Theophilus?" asked Javan, with a look of great anxiety: "are you so resolved to perish both in body and soul, and to be cut off eternally from the portion of Israel?"
"O Javan!" replied the prisoner, "I will say to you, are you still thus hardened against the truth, and determined to despise the salvation of the Lord? The drowning man, who has grasped a powerful arm to save him from destruction, does not wantonly abandon his hope ”

“ On another stone is seen a man with the proboscis of an elephant, and in his hand a dog; on the third is a man blowing a Javan bellows.
The natives informed us, that the country people were in the habit of making offerings to these sculptures, which they highly esteemed, from a tradition that they represented the original Javan túkang bési, or workman in iron and steel. ”

“ It is evident that they have long been acquainted, and have carried on their iniquitous attachment for a considerable time; but as yet the girl has resisted the solicitations of the Roman to fly with him from her parents. We must secure him, Javan. We must secure him this very night, and force him by tortures to confess what unhappy maiden he has thus beguiled from her duty as a child of Israel. And mark these concluding passages, Javan—do they not betoken the writer to be a believer in the crucified impostor, and that the man she thus so sinfully loves is of the same obnoxious creed? ”

“ We are within reach of help, and I am armed, so do not tremble."
"I do not fear for myself, Theophilus, but for you and Naomi. If Javan knew of our visits to Bethany—if Javan knew that his sister and his cousin were disciples of Jesus—oh, I believe no ties of blood would prevent him from denouncing you to the tyrants who make religion a mask for cruelty and murder."
"Silence, dear Claudia," said Naomi in a low whisper; "your eagerness makes you forget that you are perhaps within hearing of the person whom you think you saw lurking so near. Let us proceed quickly. ”

“ But if his circumstances admit of it, he has no scruple to entertain other women as concubines, who hold an honourable rank in his household. The progeny from these connections is often immense. It has already been stated, that a Javan chief has been known to have upwards of sixty acknowledged children; and it too often happens, that in such cases sons having been neglected in their infancy, become dissipated, idle and worthless, and spring up like rank grass and overrun the country, or serve but to fill up a long and useless retinue. ”

“ His bigotry and his revenge were sated by the capture and condemnation of Theophilus; and the conduct of his cousin had convinced him that threats and sufferings were ineffectual to make the Nazarenes forsake their opinions. He did not therefore wish to apprehend his uncle, and have to witness the same exhibition of fortitude and faith which had excited his admiration in Theophilus, and the same grief and horror which his exertions for the honour of Judaism had already caused to his parents and relatives. What a strange mixture of good and evil was Javan! ”

“ The artistic perception inborn in the Javan natives is nowhere more clearly manifested than in the colour and form of their dress. Nothing impresses the visitor more quickly or more pleasantly than the gay and graceful groups which throng the streets or roads. The light cottons and silken cloths which the natives wear are admirably suited to the climate, and an exquisite taste seems to govern the selection of colours and the fashion of wearing their garments. Both men and women alike wear the sarong, a long decorated cloth wound round the lower limbs and fastened at the waist ”

“ Verily they at length come to the extremity with those who accompany: there are none among them who have been terrified: the existence of the body is dissolved and lost. There are none acquainted with books who are terrified.
Translation of another Inscription in the ancient Javan, or Kawi, Character, on a Stone found in the interior of the District of Surabaya. ”

“ No person considers himself bound to servitude. The Javans, however, [Vol I Pg 159] in the Príang'en regencies, in Chéribon, and in the eastern districts, pretend to have an unquestionable right to all the fruit trees and síri plants, at or near their kámpung or désa."
"There is not," says Mr. Knops, another of the Dutch Commissioners, "a single Javan, who supposes that the soil is the property of the Regent, but they all seem to be sensible that it belongs to government, usually called the sovereign among them ”

“ That is to say, "snakes are moving while men are working:" alluding to the two snakes which appear entwining together between and above the two men who are mastering an animal. The coin with the date 1489, bears a Javan inscription of Pangéran Rátu, the title by which a prince of Bantam, who reigned in that year, is recognized by the Javans. ”

“ It is easy to conceive, that the common Javan was not able to make any money after paying these taxes and contributions, at least not so much as he wanted for himself and family; particularly if we take into consideration, that it is very seldom one man is the sole proprietor of a jung alone, but that it is often divided between three and four persons, and that, with the most successful harvest, such a jung does not produce more than thirty to thirty-five ámats of pári. ”

“ With these words Javan left his friend, who watched his dark figure as he traversed the valley, and emerged into the bright moonlight, that rendered the open plains as clear as in the day. Marcellus envied him, for he was going where Naomi dwelt; and it would be his privilege to protect her in time of danger: but he pitied the deceit and the pride of his heart, which could induce him to seek safety and freedom at the expense of truth, and regard his captors as unworthy to be treated with the faith and confidence due from man to man, whether friends or foes. ”

“ The following day Javan was absent from home until late in the afternoon, when he came to inform his father that Mary, the daughter of Eleazar, the wealthy lady of Bethezob, had arrived in Jerusalem, having at length followed his counsel, and sought safety for herself and her numerous suite of attendants in the Holy City. She wished to procure a large and handsome dwelling for herself ”

“ They are taken from their home against their will, and in violation of all their views and habits. In general, neither their language or customs are in the least understood by their new master, for though most of the commanders in the eastern trade may speak the Malayan language, and be accustomed to the Malayan character, they know nothing of the Javan language, and but little of the manners, habits, and prejudices of the Javan people. ”

“ In this manner, until of late years, since they have been subjected to the regulations of the Javan chiefs, they were continually moving from one part of the island to another. They have still their separate chiefs, and preserve many of their peculiar customs. Those who are Mahomedans employ in their religious functions priests who differ from others in being less scrupulous. They have always been treated with so much contempt by the Javans, that Kálang is an epithet of reproach and disgrace. ”