Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/158

 Regency, and I myself should oppose it where I could, but if neither you, nor the Regent, nor I knew it

“Chiefs of Lebak! who shall then do justice in Bantam-Kidool?

“Hear me, and I will tell you how justice would be done in such a case.

“There comes a time when our wives and children shall weep while preparing our shroud, and the passers-by shall say, ‘A man has died there.’ Then he who arrives in the villages shall bring the news of the death of him that has died, and the person who lodges him shall ask, ‘Who was the man that died ?’

“&#x202F;‘He was good and just. He did justice, and drove not the suppliant from his door. He listened patiently to all who came to him, and returned that which had been taken away. And him who could not plough his land, because the buffalo had been taken out of his stables, he assisted to seek for the buffalo; and where the daughter had been carried off from the house of her mother, he sought the thief and brought the daughter back. And where work had been done, he did not withhold the wages, nor take away the fruit of him who planted the tree, nor the coat that was another’s, nor eat the food that belonged to the poor.’

“Then it shall be said in the villages:—

“&#x202F;‘Allah is great: Alla has taken him home. His will be done: a good man has died.’