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; over this the former wear a _badjoe_, or short open jacket, and the latter a _kabaia_, or cloak, closed at the waist by a silver pin (_peniti_), and reaching down almost to the bottom of the sarong. Over the right shoulder is gracefully flung a long scarf called a _slendang_, used by mothers to carry their babies, and by the men as a belt when they are engaged in any active work. A square cloth (_kain kapala_) is worn on the head by men; it is folded in half diagonally, and then folded over and round the head until it looks much like a turban. On the top of this a wide straw hat (variously shaped) is carried, to protect the wearer against the sun. The women, on the contrary, wear nothing but their glossy black hair, or carry a bamboo umbrella if they wish for a similar protection. The native weapons are the bamboo spear, and the short wavy sword called a _kriss_; but the only arm they carry nowadays is a _golok_, or straight piece of iron with a handle and sheath, used for lopping off boughs and cutting wood. The better class of natives use European furniture, but the ordinary peasants and artisans, who live in a bamboo cottage, use nothing but a single bed on which the whole family sleep, and a chest for clothes, both made, like the house, of bamboo. [Illustration: WOMAN COOKING RICE. KOMPOR. _Page_ 51.] The staple diet is rice and dried fish, with vegetables and fruits: cakes and pastry are rare luxuries, and purchased at the market or from itinerant vendors. The cooking arrangements are very simple. Nearly everything is cooked in a _priok_, or frying-pan, which is heated over a _kompor_, or stove of earthenware, or on bricks on a flat stove raised from the ground. In both cases charcoal is burnt, being made to burn brightly by a fan. The rice (which is to them what bread is to us) is not _boiled_, but _steamed_. A copper vessel (_dang-dang_) is filled with hot water, and the rice is then placed in a cone-shaped bamboo basket (_koekoesan_), which is placed point downwards into the vessel and covered with a bamboo or earthenware top (_kekep_). The dang-dang is then placed over the fire either in the _kompor_ or on the bricks.