Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/64

 case. The Regent of Lebak, Radhen Adhipatti Karta Natta Negara, had with a large attendance left Rangkas Betoong, and had, in spite of his great age, made the twelve or fourteen stages which separate his residence from the boundaries of the neighbouring division of Pandeglang.

A new Assistant-Resident was expected, and custom, which, in India more than anywhere, has the force of law, dictates that the officer charged with the government of a division shall be suitably received on his arrival. The Controller, a man of middle age, who for some months after the death of the previous Assistant-Resident had, as next in rank, looked after his late chief’s duties, was also present.

As soon as the time of arrival of the new Assistant-Resident had become known, a pendoppo had been hastily erected, a table and some chairs had been brought there, and some refreshments were placed in readiness. In this pendoppo the Regent and the Controller awaited the arrival of the new chief.

After a hat with a broad brim, an umbrella, or a hollow tree, a pendoppo is undoubtedly the simplest expression of the idea roof. Imagine four or six bamboo posts, driven into the ground, and connected at the top by further bamboos, whereon is fixed a covering made of the long leaves of the water-palm which in these parts is called atap, and you have a picture of such a pendoppo. It is, as you see, as simple as possible, and here, be it understood, it was simply meant to serve as a pied-à-terre for the European and native officials who came to welcome their new chief on the boundary.

I did not express myself quite correctly when I called the Assistant-Resident the Chief, also of the Regent. A digression on the mechanism of the government in these regions is, for a clear understanding of the things that are to follow, at this place necessary.

Netherlands India so-called—the adjective “Netherlands” appears to me somewhat inexact, but it was adopted officially—