File:THE LITTLE JAVANESE PEOPLE.jpg

English: THE LITTLE JAVANESE PEOPLE. The photographs here given afford a close study of the little people who came from Java to the World's Fair, and were established in

a settlement of thirty-six houses, a bazaar, kiosk, coffee-house, temple and theatre on the north side of Midway Plaisance, east of the Ferris Wheel. At the left is a dancing girl, who rates as a great beauty, and at home dances only before the Sultan of Solo, one of the native princes of the island. On the right are the bride and groom who were married with the customary festivities in the early weeks of the Fair, and then returned to their parents to live apart for another year, as the bride was but nine years old. The face of the woman portrayed at the left discovers many of the characteristics of gentleness which made the Javanese so well beloved by those who met them frequently. The girls danced, or postured, to music that was principally made on metal gongs, struck with soft hammers, and always in the minor or sad key. Some of these

notes were very deep and resonant, and might be heard a long distance. Three of the males, like the boy in the picture, would carry onglongs, or bamboo strung on reeds, and the shaking of these extraordinary instruments with concerted effort produced soft, sad, and peculiar music. The Javanese were homesick, and mourned bitterly over their dead. But they gained the good-will of the millions who saw them.