Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/114

 98 LIFE IN JAVA.

middle of rice and cane plantations, and, unlike Brambanan, mortar has been used to cement the trachyte together. The tower is A^ery much dilapidated, and in many parts the ruins are overgrown by weeds, grass, and shrubs.

Between the seventh station and Djokdja, we jiass Gavan, the country-retreat of the Sultan, which, until six years ago, was the annual place of interview between him and his " elder brother," the Susuhunan. They came in great pomp and state, and, following an old-established custom, the younger sovereign sat on the ground, and, after a short preliminary ceremonial had been gone through, approached the throne without his sandals, knelt, and paid homage, or honnaht, to the "ob- ject of adoration." As these interviews drew a large number of peo])le together, the Dutch thought it expedient to discontinue them ; and, in order to reconcile the Sultan to this, represented to him that, so long as a prince rendered homage to another.

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