Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/126

 110 LIFE IN JAVA.

would appear that lie was a linguist a qualifica- tion which suggested to me the idea that he might possibly have been some missionary whose religious zeal had excited the suspicion or hostility of the higher Javanese powers.

To judge from the impression on the slab, I fancy he must have found a sedentary position the most comfortable, for the hard stone in one part is hollowed out like the floor of Cliil- lon "as if the cold pavement were a sod." The length of chain allowed him, according to all appearance, must have been very short.

Some of the stories related by the natives about this poor victim, though vague and uncertain, are worth repeating. One is to the effect that the sailor, when brought before the then reigning Sultan, refused to humble himself by bending his knees and paying homage to him an act which so incensed the tyrannical monarch that he at once ordered him to leave his presence, and afterwards

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