Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/92

 76 LIFE IN JAVA.

say he prefers the open air because he can com- mune, in the silence of night, with the spirits of bygone monarchs, or hold converse with his tempo- ral and spiritual adviser, Ngaisatomy, who, by day, hides herself in a large cannon covered with red cloth, and caged round by trellis-work of bamboo, and is only exhibited to the public on grand occa- sions. This cannon stands in the Sitingil, one of the courts near the palace, and its inmate w^ams the Kaiser of the approach of danger ; so, at least, the natives assert, and implicitly believe.

Simple and inexperienced as are the habits of the old Susuhunan, his exchequer has been so low of late that he has been constrained in many in- stances to borrow. In fact, matters had arrived at such a pitch before I left, that the tradespeople would neither sell, nor give credit for anything demanded by the members of the Imperial Court, without a written order from the Resident.

The Susuhunan generally drives through the

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