Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/128

112 that the stranger might in time gain an influence over the minds of his superstitious subjects, he issued a command that the sailor should, without delay, be conveyed to his Kraton. This order was at once obeyed, and no sooner was the poor man in his power than he had him chained to the black stone, giving it out that he was a kind of sea-spirit of ill-omen, who, to deceive them, had taken the form of a white man. At the same time he issued a proclamation to the effect that whoever approached the prisoner after dusk should be severely punished.

At first a couple of sentinels were placed over him by night and day; but the unfortunate man conducted himself so quietly, and seemed so resigned to his fate, that, after a few months, this guard was dispensed with, and he was left to pass his nights and days in solitude, the fear with which the Sultan inspired all his subjects being so great, and their belief in his assertion that the man was