e white bridges gay with
the many coloured garb of the Malay population, the red-tiled roofs
embowered in a wealth of verdure, and the pillared verandahs veiled
with gorgeous creepers, tumbling in sheets of purple and scarlet from
cornice to floor, compose a characteristic picture, wherein Dutch
individuality triumphs over incongruous environment. Waving palms clash
their fronds in the sea-breeze; avenues of feathery tamarind and
bending waringen trees surround Weltevreden with depths of green
shadow; the scarlet hybiscus flames amid tangled foliage, where the
orange chalices of the flowering Amherstia glisten from sombre
branches, and hang like fairy goblets from the interwoven roofs of
tropical tunnels, pierced by broad red roads. On this Sunday afternoon
of the waning year which introduces us to Weltevreden, family groups
are gathered round tea tables canopied with flowers and palms, in the
white porticos of the Dutch villas, and the startling deshabille
adopted by Holland in the Netherlands India almost defies description.
The ladies, with stockingless feet thrust into heelless slippers, and
attired in the Malay _sarong_ (two yards of painted cotton cloth),
supplemented by a white dressing-jacket, display themselves in
verandah, carriage, or street, in a garb only fit for the bath-room;
while the men, lounging about in pyjamas, go barefoot with the utmost
_sangfroid_. The _sarong_, as worn by the slender and graceful Malay,
appears a modest and appropriate garb, but the grotesque effect of
native attire on the broad-built Dutchwoman affords conclusive proof
that neither personal vanity nor a sense of humour pertain to her
stolid personality. Dutch Puritanism certainly undergoes startling
transformations under the tropical skies, and the Netherlands India
produces a modification of European ideas concerning what have been
called "the minor moralities of life," unequalled in colonial
experience. An identical exhibition fills the open corridors of the
Hotel Nederlanden, built round a central court, and the general resort
of the guests during the hot hours of the January days. Evening dress
is reserved for State occasions, and though _sarong_ and _kabaja_ be
discarded at the nine o'clock dinner, the blouse and skirt of morning
wear in England suffices even at this late hour for the fair Hollander,
who also concedes so far to the amenities of civilisation as sometimes
to put on her stockings. So much of life in Java is sp