Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/631

JAVA 603 kind ; tlm former is a delicate little creature occurring singly or in pairs both in the mountains and in the coast districts ; the latter, living in herds of from fifty to one hundred in the grassy "opens," gives excellent sport to the native hunters. The kantjil (Tragulus javanicus) is little bigger than a hare. The royal tiger the same species as that of India is still frequent enough in the forests to make a tiger-hunt a characteristic Javanese scene, and to permit the native princes to exhibit at times a tiger and buffalo fight. 1 The leopard is also common: in the warm region specimens are occasion ally found in which the coat is almost uniformly black, the spots, however, being visible on inspection. In the tree tops, the birds find a treacherous enemy in the matjan rempak or wild cat (Felis minuta or Lcopardus javanensis), about the size of a common cat, with the markings of its larger namesake. The dog-tribe is repre sented by the fox-like adjag (Canis rut Hans), which hunts in fero cious packs. The Cheiroptera hold a prominent place in the fauna. Remarkable especially for size is the kalong or flying-fox (Ptcropus cdulis), a fruit-eating bat, which may be seen hanging during the day in black clusters asleep on the trees, and in the evening hastening in dark flocks to its favourite feeding grounds in the forest. The damage these do to the young cocoa-nut trees, the maize, and the sugar-palm leads the native to snare and shoot them ; and their flesh is good to eat. Smaller kinds of bats are not less abundant, perhaps the most common species being the Nycticejus Tcmminclcii. In certain places they congregate in myriads like seafowl on the cliffs, and their excrements produce extensive guano deposits, which the natives of Surakarta and Madiun, for example, utilize as sources of saltpetre. The house of Canneman, near Besuki, is the chosen haunt of a monstrous colony which have successfully defied all efforts made to expel them. The creature known to the Europeans as a flying cat, and to the natives as the kubin, is the Galcopithccus variegatus, marking a sort of transition from the bats to the lemuroids. Of these last Java has several species, held in awe by the natives for their supposed power of fascination, The apes are represented by the wou-wou (Hylobates leuciscus), the lutung, and kovi (Prcsbytcs maurus B.nd pyrrhus), the surili ( Prcsbytcs mitratus), ami, most general of all, Macacus cynomolgus. The existence of bands of the wou-wous is only too distinctly proved in the second zone by the loud and cacDphonous outcry from which their name is derived. The lutung or black ape prefers the temperate region, though it is met with as high as 7000 feet above the sea and as low as 20.00. The Macacus keeps for the most part to the warm coast regions. Eats, mice, porcupines, a particular kind of hare (Lcpus nigricollis confined to a very limited habitat), squirrels, flying squirrels, are the Javanese representatives of the Rodcntia ; and the Insectivora comprise a shrew mouse, three species of Cladobatcs, and Hylomys suillus, peculiar to Java and Sumatra. Agriculture, In the eyes of a Javanese to lack rice is to lack food. About the introduction of this divine cereal he tells strange legends, considering it the offspring of the body of Dewie Srie. The priesthood of this goddess is more influential often than that of the Prophet ; at an autumn festival the worshippers may be heard uttering the Mahometan Bismillah, and following it up with the seven fold repetition of her name. For a full harvest the choice of a lucky day is of greater importance than the careful tillage of the field , and to ensure a proper selection the Javanese must have the " windu," the year, the month, the day, the hour. In each of the eight years of the windu a special method of ploughing, of sacrificing, praying, &c., must be employed. 2 The Javanese is thus far from being an enlightened cultivator even of his one indispensable grain ; and, though the ancestral custom must in many cases be really the result of ancient experience, the blindfold way in which it is applied results in very bad husbandry. The cultivation of the rice appears at present to be often carried on at a dead loss. The varieties of the cereal known to the Javanese are numerous ; but they are commonly grouped as Oryza saliva, prxcox, montana, and glutinosa. The first is the kind mainly sown in the saivahs or irrigation-fields ; the montana, on the other hand, is suited 1 See, in Beauvoir s Voyage Hound the World, a description of the menagerie of the prince of Jokjokarta. 2 In the first year, for example, of the windu, AH}), the work is begun on Friday, and the first furrow is drawn from south to north in the middle of the field. The sacrificial feast consists mainly of rice not cooked in steam (Sega Ihoet). For details as to rice culture, its super stitions, &c., see Bijdr. totde T. L. en V. Kunde van Ned. Ind., 1874. for those in which there is no artificial irrigation, either gogo-land, which has been only rudely cleared from the forest and brought under imperfect or temporary tillage, or the tagal, which is regularly subject year after year to the processes of husbandry. Some idea may be formed of the extent of agricultural activity in Java from the following statement of the amount of land (in bouws, the bouw or balm being about If acres) cultivated for their own use by the natives of Java and Madura, excluding the native states and the private properties : Total, i.e., 2d and 3d Columns. With Rice as First Crop. With any other Plant as First Crop. With Rico as Second Crop. With any other Plant as Second Crop. 1874 2,481,702 2,182,146 299,556 22,302 732,949 1875 2,399,770 2,092,152 307,618 91,531 823,125 1876 2,581,807 2,247,490 334,317 98,210 870,725 1877 2,015,906 2,291,135 324.771 97,899 871,662 1878 2,840,856 2,417.-! 80 423,376 106,252 950,372 In 1879, leaving out of view the native territories and the private estates, the area under cultivation was 2,929,644 bouws. Of this aggregate, 1,504,052 bouws were sawahs capable of irrigation, 813,153 sawahs dependent on the rains, 49,219 marsh-sawahs, and 563,220 tagal fields. The system of communal proprietorship and annual redivision of the soil largely holds throughout Java, especially in the case of the irrigated lands ; in a large number of instances it has taken the place of individual ownership within quite recent years, and in other instances the opposite process has been carried through. There are villages where the redistribution is repeated regularly every year, others where this is only done as often as the number of legitimate share-takers is increased or diminished. In some to prevent the excessive parcelling of ths land a certain quota of the claimants are kept in abeyance at each term of allotment. To the reclaimer of virgin land belongs the ownership of the same. Details will be found in the official Eindrcsume van het onderzock naar de rcchtcn van den inlander op den grand, of which an epitome appears in De Indische Gids, 1880. Besides rice the Javanese cultivate for their own use, on a smaller scale, maize (jagung), ground nuts, yams, C olocasia antiquorum, Colcus tuberosus, and cassava. The gardens and orchards in which their huts are embowered contain a great variety of fruits. The cocoa-nut holds an increasingly important place, the best of the many varieties being the idjo ; and the banana is even more common. For an account of these as well as other fruits cultivated in the native orchards (Artocarpus inlegrifolia, &c.) see a paper by Gelpke in De Indische Gids, 1880. The Javanese possess buffaloes, ordinary cattle, horses, dogs, and cats. Attempts made by the Government to introduce the ass (1841) and the camel (1843-45) were not successful. The buffalo was probably introduced by the Hindus. The ordinary cattle are of very mixed race ; the Indian zebu having been crossed with the banting and with European cattle of miscellaneous origin. The horses, though small, are of excellent character, and their masters, according to their own ideas, are extremely particular in regard to purity of race. Riding comes very naturally to the Javanese ; horse-races and tournays have been in vogue amongst them from early times. The native sheep are of no value for their wool, and the finest merinos, introduced by Holle in 1872, soon degenerated to the same condition. 3 Bees (apparently the small stingless Mcli- pona minuta) are kept by the natives of the Preanger. The attempt to introduce the European varieties made in 1877-8 has proved very much of a failure. See Buitenzorg Report, 1879. The production of rice is not of more importance to the native Javanese than the cultivation of the coffee-plant is to their European masters. The first coffee-plants grown in Java of which we have historical accounts were brought from Kananore on the coast of Malabar in 1696 ; but they perished in the earthquake and flood of 1699, and the honour of reintroducing the precious shrub belongs to Hendrik Zwaardekroon. 4 The first shipment of Javanese 3 The number of buffaloes in Java (exclusive of Batavia, Surakarta, and Jokjokarta) in 1837 was 1,046,844; of cattle, 340,125 ; and of horses, 221,150. By 1876 the corresponding numbers were 2,235,613 buffaloes, 1,290,649 cattle, 532,612 horses. Since 1873 there are statistics for the whole island: in 1877 the buffaloes numbered 2,754,498; the cattle, 1,727,841; and the horses, 618,411. The cattle plague made its appearance in the island in 1879. See Kesteren, "De Veestapel of Java," in De Indische Gids, 1880. 4 See N. P. van den Berg, " Voortbrenging ent Verbruik van Koffie " (Tijdsch. voor Nijver. en Landb., 1879). Widji Kawah is mentioned in a Kawi inscription of 856, and " Bean-soup" is included in the list of Javanese beverages by David Tappen (1667-1682).