The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-09-22
NATIVE REGENT AND SERVANT.

enter them The thatched roofs oyerhang
covering the yerandas in front OF the
houses and sometimes the seats around the
sides. The ordinary house contains but one
or two rooms n recess In the rear forming
the sleeping place for the family. The
poorer houses have no beds. for tho people
sleep on the hoor. The cook stove Is IL
clay bowl with Q draft below Il. The
cooking Is done outside the house EXCEPT
BILE this Is easily arranged.
Country of Villages.
The houses in different parts of Java are
much the same. The island is as big as the
state OF New York. and Its 100000 people
live In villages You see no houses scat
tered over the landscape. There are no
barns In the fields and no buildings what
ever outside the towns excepting on the
tobacco, sugar and indigo plantations.
There are sometimes shcdA on high poles
in the rice districts, hut these are used
merely as watch houses to keep the birds
away away from the crops. The people walk
In gangs, and are often paid a share ~
the crop, bringing the ShcaYcs OF rice
home with them from the harvest. Almost
every house has rice granary connected
with It. This Is something like a corn
crib sloping outward as IL goes M, and
ending in a matched roof, which makes
1t quite picturesque. The rice is stored
away In the sheaf and threshed out as
needed by the women with peste and NOR
tar
Many Of the houses have pigeon cotes on
poles erected beside them, miniature eli.
uons of the houses below. The Javanese
breed many pigeons They have strings
hanging from the pigeon houses to the
ground, by which they communicate with
The birds
Tho government keeps record of The
villages as well as OF the houses The gate
10 every street has "A number on IT, and |
venture the officials can tell lust exactly
how many people live in each street and
house.
Mohanlmeranisn in Java.
visited the great Mohammedau mosque
here at Bandong. and had a chat with
some OF the priests In charge Of II through
my Interpreter. The mosque is beauti.
full white building with many white col.
umns UNFOLDING It's portcoes. and with n
little moat Of water separating 1t from the
country about. This moat is walled with
stone and the water Is only a few inches
deep. II Is deep enough, however 10 n
cessltate that all who 20 In shall take ~
their shoes. ! was told TINT | couid enter
y would come In barefouted, and Il was
mus that padded through the moat and
tramned MP the wide steps Of this shrIne
or Mahomet. Here l met an old felloyy il
long gown and white turban, who walked
with me through the mosque. We W kcd
up the steps Into room about aCo ieet
square, lighted from the top by bearts
shaped wlndows covered with wrofsal-
iVh sIatlnk' Tue noof was OF black lSar.
Die ana at the back was n Dulnlt of whIto
and gold, where the Imam stood ana called
out the prayers There We're mats hefore
this pulpit and upon them several bare oot.
ca JaYanese were rising and failing In their
deYotions. ] am told that the pious Mo.
hammednns here pray i've times a day
They begin AZ daybreak and pray again AZ
noon az $3.50 p. m, at 9 and at night.
Like Out Filipino Mohammedans.
The mass OF the natives are very loose
as 10 their religious observances The men
seldom go to the mosque, and their Moham-
mechanism is Of character more like that
OF our sulu islanders than that Of Arabia