ative block-stamped variety, which is at least a colourable imitation
of the real article. Wherever we went, however, we could see that the
native art had not been lost entirely. Women sit outside their little
huts by the roadside tracing the most elaborate designs in brown and
blue dye upon the cloth with tiny funnel-shaped implements.

This cloth is styled batik. According to the ground of white, black or
red, it is known as batik latur puti, batik latur irang, or batuk latur
bang. To prepare it to receive the design, the cloth is steeped in rice
water, dried and calendered. The process of the batik is performed with
hot wax in a liquid state applied by means of the chanting. The
chanting is usually made of silver or copper, and holds about an ounce
of the liquid. The tube is held in the hand at the end of a small stick,
and the pattern is traced on both sides of the tightly drawn suspended
cloth. When the outline is finished, such portions of the cloth as are
intended to be preserved white, or to receive any other colour than the
general field or ground, are carefully covered in like manner with the
liquid wax, and then the piece is immersed in whatever coloured dye may
be intended for the ground of the pattern. The parts covered with wax
resist the operation of the dye, and when the wax is removed, by being
steeped in hot water till it melts, are found to remain in their
original condition. If other colours are to be applied, the process is
gone over again. It will thus be seen that a considerable amount of
skill is required. In the ordinary course, the process of the batik
occupies about ten days for common patterns, and from fifteen to
seventeen days for the finer and more variegated.

Some of the sarongs worn by the native aristocracy and the European
ladies are not only beautiful in pattern and working but most expensive
in price.

In our excursions in the neighbourhood of Djocjakarta, we had ample
opportunity of seeing the industry of the Javanese. Wherever one went,
there were long processions of stunted women bravely carrying enormous
burdens on their backs, often with a baby slung in the slandang astride
the hip. The cheery, coquettish look of the Soendanese was absent here.
All seemed to be borne down by the seriousness of a strenuous physical
life. No songs arose from the fields; scarcely a head was raised from
the laborious planting of tufts of paddy roots as our kreta rattled
past. While mothers toiled