The Rájás still assert their right to the throne of Karang Assam by adding its name to their royal title. The higher officers of state are called Gusti. The most numerous grade of officers are the Pámbakals (heads of villages) who rank according to the number of persons under their jurisdiction, thus there are pambakals of 1,000, of 500 &c., The high court is composed of 12 Brahmans. Any person who has a complaint goes to whatever advocate he chooses, who reduces it to writing. The defendant puts in his defence in the same mode. The evidence of the witnesses is also written.[1] The whole case being thus stated, the court meets and discusses it. Their opinion is then recorded and carried up to the Rájá. If he approves of it, it becomes the judgment.
The country behind Mataram is a plain of very rich soil laid out in paddy fields which are irrigated by water conducted from deep and large lakes in the mountains. The produce is abundant. Rice is measured by the kuda (i, e. horse) or horseload of 3 piculs. The Rájá receives 150 out of every 800 íkats or sheaves of paddy. Every householder or head of a family pays annually a tax of 2 dollars. Land is measured by the tunnah (not tanah as it has been written) which Nákhodá Muda says is a definite measure, and not a term to express land, greater or smaller according to its fertility, yielding a certain quantity of produce,—a definition which I have seen somewhere.
Widows frequently burn themselves on the funeral pires of their husbands, but no conpulsion whatever is used towards them.
In Sassak, as in Celebes, very few dollars are in use, the current coin being small copper pieces, so that to make a payment of no
- ↑ According to Mr. Zollinger the pleadings are all written impromtu at the hearing (or rather reading) of the cause, not a word being spoken by either party from first to last. Tijd. voor Neerland Indic.
at war with that of Riling, the latter gained the mastery; but the Raja having afterwards been deserted by his subjects and delivered into the hands of the Raja of Karrang Assam, the latter, after putting him to death, was emboldened to attempt the invasion of B'liling in order to procure human bones to build a temple in fulfilment of a vow. This led to his being abandoned by the great body of his subjects, and his subsequent ferocity in offering up a human sacrifice to propitiate the gods having excited their horror and detestation, he fled with his followers to Sassak and founded the Hindu dynasty of that island.
