Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/97

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TRADITION OF A CANNON.
81

on two others of smaller dimensions: "Conract Antoniz me fecit. Hacoe, 1599." Above the trunnions are two eagles and a castle, and below these figures the words, "Middleburg and Jacop Beurel, Burgomeister." In the Sitingil we were shown the celebrated Ngaisatomy. There is a curious tradition concerning another gun, the Kyhaisatomy, which is said to have travelled across the country to Batavia without the aid of man or beast. Although brought back to Soerakarta, and chained inside the Kraton, so strong was its predilection for the large city that it broke loose in the dead of night and returned to Batavia, where it remained only for a short time, and was on the point of having for some other bourne, when it was caught by some men. To manifest its displeasure, it slipped from their hands and fell on the foot of one of them, producing elephantiasis. Such was the terror created by the imaginary prowess of this gun, that men refused to come near it. It was not until it