Evening star., 1901-11-02
The Imperial Ruler Of a Native
State in Java.
HIS MILLIONS OF SUBJECTS
$4,000 People Live Within the
Palace Walls.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATUR RES
Copyright. 1901, by Frank C. carpenter.)


SpeciaI Correspondence Of The Evening Star
SOLO. State of Soerkarta, Java.
Have you ever heard of the Sultan Of
Solo? 1 don't mean the Sultan of Sulu.
The latter is a little six by nine nabob in
the lower part of the Philippine islands?
The Sultan of Solo is the greatest native
ruler Of Java. He has millions of subjects
in his own province of Soerkarta and the
most Of the y, 600 900 of Javanese people
look up to him as the successor of Maho-
met and the intermediary between them
and their god. 1 have written something
of the Sultan of DjoKJakarta. This sultan
is a much greater man. His capital city
is the largest native city in Java and it
has in the heart of it vast palace inclos-
ure containing thousands of mobiles, SER
wants and slaves. / am told that there are
%, 900 people living inside the palace walls.
These include the princes and all the other
relatives of the imperial family and their
retinues.
The SuItan's Wives.
They also inclose a vast female popula-
tion. All Mohammedans have the right to
more than one wife. and the sultan can
have as many as he wishes. He has one
head wife and numerous concubines, as well
as many female slaves and servants. The
ladies of the harem proper seldom come
outside the palace and they are not seen
by the men who call upon his majesty. The
sultana, or head wife, often takes a party
with her when she goes out driving but at
other times the looSer forms of Mohamme-
dan seclusion are preserved The most of
the women in the palace are noble women.
They are the daughters of the native chiefs
and they esteem it an honor to be chosen
as wives of his majesty.
How the Ladies' Dress.
I have described the dress of the ladies
of the Djokja court. 1t is much the same
in Solo. According to law the thousands of
women inside the palace wear decolette
dresses. All except the sultana and the
pr:ncesses are perfectly bare as to their
shoulders and arms. They have a special
pattern of dress which is not permitted to be
wCrn outside the palace, and their sarongs,
although made of calico. are very ex-
pensive, for they are all decorated by hand
by the artistic printers of the kingdom.
The owman's dress is somewhat as fol-
lows: First there is a strip of cal
leo ornamented with original decora-
tons about three yards long and a foot
wide which is wrapped round and round the
body ju-t under the arm pits binding the
breasts so tightly that it is often injurious
TO health. The upper part of the shoulders
and arms have no covering and there is a
strip of bare yellow skin from three to six
inches wide between the breast band and the
sarong-hke skirt which forms the rest of
tightly about the body and the waists are
considerably compressed. The Javanese
girl is quite as proud of her small waist as
her American sister, and she is very par
ucular as to the pattern of her sarong.
Black Teeth Are Fashionable.
She spends much time also upon her
teeth; not in making them white, but in
giving them the jet black hue which is
fashionable among the natives of this part
of the world. Both here and in the Philip
pines both sexes black their teeth, and al
most every tribe has a different method of
filing them. In Mindanao 1 saw hundreds
OF men and women VINO had their teeth
hollow ground, just though they had
taken a rat-tal file and scooped out the
front of their teeth. In Java the men some
times file their teeth to a point, so that the
upper and lower jaw each contain a ragged
saw, the teeth of which fit into one another
like steel rat trap. The women file their
teeth off straight. and sometimes cut them
down at the sides so that they are almost
square. They laugh at the white teeth of
the foreigners. and say that We have teeth
like dogs, for dogs have white teeth. They
sometimes file off or pull out the canine
teeth because these teeth resemble dog
teeth. A well-filed set of teeth is a girls
badge of womanhood. 1t is her coming-out