ecure and its enjoyment greater. Every evening,
during the fine season, the large square in the Chinese
quarter--composed of massive comfortable buildings, contrasting
favourably with the fragile huts of the Javans--is converted into a kind
of fair, where the whole city assembles. "The place is illumined with a
thousand torches, which increase, to a stranger's eyes, the curious
exotic character of the scene. Javans, Chinese, Europeans, Liplaps, (the
Batavian term for the children of Europeans and Javan women,) and
various other races, crowd thither to gaze at the shows and
performances. There jugglers and rope-dancers display their dexterity,
far surpassing that of their European brethren; Chinese comedies are
acted, and Chinese orchestras jar upon the ear of the newly arrived
foreigner; the Rongengs (dancing girls) go through their series of
voluptuous attitudes; gongs are beaten, trumpets blown; Chinese gamblers
lie upon the ground and rob the Javans at the much-loved games of tzo
and topho." The people of Java are very musical, after their fashion,
and have all manner of queer instruments, many of a barbarous
description, some borrowed from the Chinese. They are much addicted to
dramatic exhibitions and puppet shows, and claim to be the original
inventors of the _ombres chinoises_, figures moved behind a transparent
curtain. Crawford, in his "History of the Indian Archipelago," gives
them the credit of this triumph of inventive genius, which has found its
way from the far Fast to the streets of London, and to Monsieur
Seraphin's saloon in the Palais Royal.

Javan diversions are not all of the same human and gentle character as
those just cited. 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. Before speaking of them, we turn to Dr. Selberg's spirited
account of a tiger-hunt, which occurred during his stay at Surabaya.
Tigers of various species abound in Java. The commonest are the royal
tiler and the leopard, of which latter animal the black tiger is a
bastard variety. Cubs of both kinds are fre