Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/39

Rh. Personal ambition also secures fidelity in the discharge of this civic duty. If the sub-official is at all an aspiring man, he feels that he may entertain a hope of some day filling the capallaship; and thus, small as this ambition may seem, it is frequently sufficient to stimulate a man in the performance of his duties.

The system, on the whole, interested me not a little; and knowing, as I do, something of our possessions in the East, I regret that this admirable plan of village government has not been adopted in some of them. It would not only be a means of curtailing local expenditure, but it would also insure the safety of the subject, by bringing criminals to speedy justice.

A building connected with this police is the Guardo, or guard-house, a small shed, with an attap roof, open in front, and its three sides walled in by poles fixed in the ground, and not unfrequently also covered with attap. In some