Salted eggs are also an important article in the diet of the Javans. The eggs of ducks being most abundant, are chiefly preserved in this way. The eggs are enveloped in a thick covering made of a mixture of salt and ashes in equal parts, or salt and pounded bricks, and being wrapped each in a large leaf, they are placed on one another in a tub, or large earthen vessel. In ten days they are fit for use; but they are generally kept longer in the mixture, and, being thoroughly impregnated with salt, can be kept many months. In some districts, the eggs of the Muscovy duck are particularly employed for the purpose. In preparing their food, the Javans may be considered to observe the same degree of cleanliness which is usual with Asiatics in general; and in point of indulgence of appetite, they may be, perhaps, placed about midway between the abstemious Hindu and the unscrupulous Chinese. In a country where vegetation is luxuriant, and cultivation is already considerably advanced, it follows that there must be an abundant supply for a people who subsist principally on vegetable productions; and it may be asserted, that, except where the manifest oppressions of government, or the effects of civil discord, for the moment deprive the labourer of his just reward, there are few countries where the mass of the population are so well fed as on Java. There are few of the natives who cannot obtain their _káti_, or pound and a quarter of rice a day, with fish, greens, and salt, if not other articles, to season their meal. Where rice is less abundant, its place is supplied by maize or Indian corn, or the variety of beans which are cultivated; and even should a family be driven into the woods, they would still be able to obtain a bare subsistence from the numerous nutritious roots, shoots, and leaves, with which the forests abound. Famine is unknown; and although partial failures of the crop may occur, they are seldom so extensive as to be generally felt by the whole community. Thus abundantly supplied, the Javans seem by no means inclined to reject the bounties of Providence: they are always willing to partake of a hearty meal, and seldom have occasion to make a scanty one. Yet among them a glutton is a term of reproach, and to be notoriously fond of good living is sufficient to attach this epithet to any one. The Javans, except where respect to Europeans dictates a different practice, eat their meals off the ground. A mat kept for the purpose is laid on the floor, which, when the meal is over, is again carefully rolled up, with the same regularity as the table-cloth in Europe; and a plate of rice being served up to each person present, the whole family or party sit down to partake of the meal in a social manner. A principal dish, containing the _sámbel_, _jángan_, or other more highly seasoned preparation, is then handed round, or placed in the centre of the company, from which each person adds what he thinks proper to the allowance of rice before him.