[11] Governor of Java’s northeast coast from 1801 to 1808, in whose garden at Samarang “several very beautiful subjects in stone were arranged, brought in from different parts of the country.” Raffles, History of Java, vol. ii., P. 55.
[12] Paraphrases of a fossil statute, periodically paraded and then returned to its pigeon-hole, like a relic carried round in procession on the day of the particular saint it belongs to and then shut away in its repository for the rest of the year. Of what avail are enactments and ordinances persistently ignored and never enforced?
The bodies remained silent,
Only the souls did commune,
For in the light of the eyes
Came and departed the souls.
[14] The oldest, perhaps the only original form of native poetry, happily compared, by Professor R. Brandstetter, with the Italian stornelli. In contradistinction to the sha’ir, the charm of the pantoon lies, or should lie, in its being improvised. It consists of four lines, of which the third rimes with the first and the fourth with the second; the first two contain some statement generally but loosely connected with the meaning of the last couplet, except, to quote Dr. J. J. de Hollander, that they determine the correspondence of sound. Here is one in translation:
Whence come the leeches?
From the watered ricefield they go straight to the river.
Whence comes love?
From the eyes it goes straight to the heart.
[15] The title of Sooltan was assumed, probably for the first time in the history of Java, by the ruler of Pajang when, in 1568, he added Jipang to his domains.
[16] This lady was a prisoner of the Pangeran of Jakarta (Yacatra) from whom Baron Sookmool, charmed by her beauty when he arrived in Java to trade for his father, the wealthy merchant Kawit Paru, bought her for three big guns, whose history, in the legendary lore of the island, is inextricably mixed up with the mariage à trois of Kiahi Satomo (for the nonce taking domicile at Cheribon), Niahi Satomi and the maryam of Karang Antu referred to in the preceding chapter.
[17] Plumeria acutifolia Poir., fam. Apocynaceae, planted extensively in cemeteries; its flowers, for this reason called boonga kuboor (grave-flowers), have a very pleasant odour and are used to scent clothes, etc.
[18] About 1468, by Raden Patah.