Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ia is cock-fighting, which is found practicallyever^where, while in Java combats between wild beasts andtournaments were extremely popular; a form of football, inwhich a cane ball is kicked from one player to another is INDONESIA 103 common, especially among the Malays and in Borneo. Dancingis another favourite amusement, and is much esteemed in Java,where the sultan and wealthy nobles kept troupes of dancing-girlsin their harems. Pantomimic dances are found in Borneo andamong the negritos ; among the Batak of Sumatra this exerciseis confined to the male sex. Of musical instruments the gong and the jews-harp are uni-versal ; in Java series of the former are combined with variousbells and xylophones (fig. 85) to form an orchestra called gamcJan.Drums are found in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines,and a peculiar form of bamboo rattle in the first-named island.Among the negritos, Sakai and Jakun, the usual instruments ofpercussion are simple sticks and stampers of bamboo. Bamboo
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 85.- Mu.-jical instrument with metal keys. .J.avji. harps, of which the strings are either cut from the rind of thebamboo itself, or composed of vegetable fibre attached, occur inSumatra (Batak), Borneo, among the negritos, Sakai and Jakun ;and fiddles, usually with two strings, in Java, Sumatra, Borneo,and the Philippines. Mouth- and nose-flutes are practically uni-versal ; and in Borneo an elaborate form of mouth-organ, consist-ing of a gourd air-chamber and a number of reeds, also occurs. Thepresence of local scripts in Java, Sumatra (Batak, fig. 86 b), and thel-hilippines (Tagljanua) gave rise in those islands to what, at anyrate in the first two cases, well deserves the name of literature. Indonesian religion consists in the propitiation of spirits whichfill the air, and are mainlymahjvolcnt, always siekingan()i)portnnityto do harm to men. Thes<3 are called Ilantu (Malays, Borneo),Anito (Philippines), or some similar word. The ghosts of the dead, )04 ASIA often confused t

Note About Images