In travelling myself through some of the native provinces, and particularly in Madúra, where the forms of the native government are particularly observed, I have often seen some hundreds drop on my approach, the cultivator quitting his plough, and the porter his load, on the sight of the Túan besár's carriage. At the court of Súra-kérta, I recollect that once, when holding a private conference with the Susúnan at the residency, it became necessary for the Ráden adipáti to be dispatched to the palace for the royal seat: the poor old man was as usual squatting, and as the Susúnan happened to be seated with his face towards the door, it was full ten minutes before his minister, after repeated ineffectual attempts, could obtain an opportunity of rising sufficiently to reach the latch without being seen by his royal master. The mission on which he was dispatched was urgent, and the Susúnan himself inconvenienced by the delay; but these inconveniences were insignificant, compared with the indecorum of being seen out of the dódok posture. When it is necessary for an inferior to move, he must still retain that position, and walk with his hams upon his heels until he is out of his superior's sight.
Besides this deference in the posture of the body, a deference, equally striking and still more defined, is shewn in the language used to a superior. The vernacular language of the country is never allowed to be used on such occasions, but only an arbitrary language, distinguished by the term bása, the language, or bása kráma, the polite language, or language of honour. The common people are thus not permitted to use the same language as the great, or in other words, are by the political institutions of the country, in a great degree, deprived of the use of their mother tongue. This subject will however be more particularly treated of in another chapter. That a set of people who have received some mental culture will necessarily discover it in their language, and that a line of distinction will be thus drawn between the well informed and the ignorant, is natural; and of the employment of a different number of persons in the verbs and pronouns, according as supremacy, respect, or familiarity is to be expressed, the modern European languages afford abundant example: but that one class of words should be exacted from the lower orders as a homage to the powerful, and another class given in exchange, serving to remind them of their inferiority, is a refinement in arbitrary power, which it would be difficult to parallel.
Having thus seen the nature and extent of the general deference paid to a superior on Java, the reader will be prepared, in some degree, for the still further humiliations which are expected from a subject on public occasions. No one approaches his sovereign or immediate chief, no child approaches his father, without súmbah, (to that is, obeisance) closing his hands and raising them to his forehead, in token of respect. On public or festival days, it is usual for the inferior chiefs, not as in Europe, to kiss the hand, but to kiss the knee, the instep, or the sole of the foot, according to the relative distance of rank between the parties.
The royal seat is a large stool or bench of gold or silver with a velvet cushion: it is called dámpar, and attends the sovereign wherever he may go.
Among the regalia (upachára), which are always carried in procession when the sovereign moves abroad, and are arranged behind him while seated on the dámpar, are the following golden figures:—the hásti or gája, that of an elephant; the hárda walíka or nanágan, that of a serpent; the jajáwen sánting, that of a bull; the sángsam, that of a deer; and the sáwung gáling, that of a cock fowl; each of a size to be borne in the hand. These, with the kútuk and chapúri for tobacco and síri, the pakachohán or golden spitting-pot, and a variety of golden salvers, bowls, &c. distinguished by the respective names applicable to their different purposes, have descended as pusákas, or heir-looms, in the royal family, and are esteemed with the highest degree of veneration.
When the sovereign moves abroad, he is attended by numerous spearmen (wáhos), the duty of eight of whom is to attend the figures of the sacred elephant and bull, near which are also led four horses richly caparisoned. The royal páyung, or state umbrella, is carried in front of the procession on these occasions, in which are also invariably carried four trunks or boxes (brókoh), each borne by two men, and containing the clothes of the sovereign, caparison for his horses, his personal arms, implements, provisions, and in short every thing required for an establishment: this rule is observed whenever the sovereign moves out of the palace. His mat (lánté) is likewise borne in procession, together with two saddle horses for his use when necessary.
The ceremonies and state of the native courts have lost much of their genuine character, from the admission of European customs, introduced by the Dutch after the last Javan war. Salutes are regulated after the European order, and the Javans have availed themselves of many of the customs of Europeans, to render the ceremonies of state more striking. Thus both the Susúnan and Súltan are furnished with large gilt carriages, after the fashion of those used by the Lord Mayor of London. When the former drinks wine with the governor, the rest of the company are offered white wine, while they alone drink red, and a flourish of trumpets sounds as the glass approaches their lips.
It may be observed, that few people are more attached to state and show than the Javans; that, in general, the decorations employed and the forms observed are chaste, and at the same time imposing, calculated to impress a stranger with a high idea of their taste, their correctness and yet love of splendour. The ornaments of state, or regalia, are well wrought in gold; the royal shield is richly inlaid with precious stones, and the royal krís is hung in a belt, which, with its sheath, is one blaze of diamonds. In processions, when the European authority is to be received, each side of the road, for miles, is lined with spearmen in different dresses, and standing in various warlike attitudes; streamers flying, and the music of the gámelán striking up on every side. Páyungs, or umbrellas of three tiers, of silk richly fringed and ornamented with gold, are placed at intervals, and nothing is omitted which can add to the appearance of state and pomp. Among the ensigns displayed on these occasions are the Monkey flag of Arjúna, and a variety of other devices taken from the poems of antiquity, as well as the double-bladed sword, and a variety of inscriptions from the Arabs.
The chiefs of provinces, and the petty chiefs in their gradation below them, keep up as much of the form and ceremony of the chief court as is consistent with their relative rank and means; and, in their turn, exact from their vassals the same degree of respect which the sovereign exacts from them.
On occasions when the Regents are anxious to shew particular respect to Europeans, as on the entrance of the Governor, or other high officer travelling, it is the custom, particularly in the Súnda districts, to erect triumphal arches of bámbu at the entrance of the principal villages; and the taste and variety displayed on these occasions have been often noticed, as evincing a refinement beyond what the general results of their present state of civilization might justify.