Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/98

 84 LAWS. The judicial proceedings, as already mentioned, are conducted with much solemnity, and the an- cient laws punish want of attention to the forms of the court. In the Javanese laws we have, with this view, the following singular enactments, so characteristic of the simple manners of the people : " If a person refuse to pay attention to the forms of court he shall be fined ten pieces of money." — '* If a person address the judge out of his turn he shall be fined two pieces of money." — " If any one bring victuals or other gift to the judge, when he has a suit in court, he shall lose his cause.'* The prosecutor, or plaintiff, states his own cause to the judge, often in a strain of considerable elo- quence, and he then produces his witnesses. The accused makes his defence in a similar manner, and, in his turn, brings forward his evidence. The judge hears and decides forthwith, and the sen- tence is carried into effect on the spot. Attorneys or advocates are seldom or ever had recourse to. The following is the description of the qualifi- cations and duties of a Javanese judge, from a work called Niti Praja : * *' A judge must, in all cases, be impartial, to enable him to weigh all causes which come before him with the same ex- actness that merchandise is weighed in a scale, and
 * Raffles's History of Java, Vol. I. p. 277.