The principal exports are rice, birds'-nests, coarse cloths, cotton yarn, salted eggs, dínding, gámbir, and oil: the principal imports are opium (which the inhabitants are unfortunately much addicted to), káyu pélet, betel-nut, ivory, gold, and silver. The Bálians dislike a seafaring life, and hold the profession of a merchant in disrepute. Their fairs and markets are few and little frequented. The trade that was at one time carried on with the greatest success was the traffic in slaves. The usual price of a male slave was from ten to thirty dollars, of a female from fifty to one hundred. This disgraceful traffic, it may be hoped, will soon be entirely annihilated. While it existed in its full vigour, all prisoners taken in war, all who attempted to evade the laws by emigration, all insolvent debtors, and a certain class of thieves, were subjected to the sad condition of slavery. These laws still subsist, and are enforced, as formerly, for the purpose of procuring the home supply; but the diminution of the foreign demand must limit exceedingly their exercise, and in a short time ameliorate the state of the unhappy individuals who had suffered by them[304].
But the most interesting character of the Bálians arises out of the frame of their government, the code of their laws, and the system of their religion. I have, in one part of this work, particularly described, and in others repeatedly alluded to, the traces of Hinduism on Java; and if these traces had not been decided and manifest in themselves, their interpretation would have been rendered manifest by what occurs in Báli.
In Báli not more than one in two hundred, if so many, are Mahomedans, and the great body of the people profess the creed and observe the institutions of a religion which has become extinct in the rest of the Archipelago. On Java we find Hinduism only amid the ruins of temples, images, and inscriptions; on Báli, in the laws, ideas, and worship of the people. On Java this singular and interesting system of religion is classed among the antiquities of the island. Here it is a living source of action, and a universal rule of conduct. The present state of Báli may be considered, therefore, as a kind of commentary on the ancient condition of the natives of Java. Hinduism has here severed society into casts; it has introduced its divinities; it has extended its ceremonies into most of the transactions of life; it has enjoined or recommended some of its severest sacrifices, such as the burning of a widow on the funeral pile of her husband: but yet the individual retains all the native manliness of his character and all the fire of the savage state.
By this system the Bálians are divided into four casts: 1. The Bramána, 2. Rusi or Satria, 3. Wisia, and 4. Sudra. The princes of the island are generally, but not always, of the Bramána cast: the present Raja of Bliling is of the second class. The government is despotic, there being no check on the will of the chief nor any sharer of his power[305]. He is assisted in his internal administration by a head Parbákal; and in the general affairs of his government, the management of foreign correspondence, and the superintendence of his foreign relations, by an officer called Ráden Tumúng'gung.
The system of village government is established here as on Java. The constitution of each village is the same. The head, or chief, is termed Parbákal, and the assistant Kalían Témpek: these officers are invariably selected from among the people of the village which they are appointed to govern. The office of Parbákal is considered hereditary, if the successor is competent; and on a vacancy occurring, the Parbákal recommends the successor of a Kalían Témpek.
Under the head Parbákal, who is termed Parbákal Rája, are several inferior Parbákals, as assistants to that officer in conveying his orders to the heads of villages; and under the Ráden Tumúng'gung is placed a similar establishment, consisting of about a hundred persons, with the rank and title of Kalían Témpek.
Many of the Parbákals of villages in Bliling have the title of Gústi, which descends in their families, and which serves to distinguish them as nobles. These probably originated in their conduct in war. The command of the military is at present vested in a chief of the Bramána cast, styled Rája Bángen Senapáti; Bángen being the district which contains the principal Braminical establishment. He seems to receive honours and respect next to the Rajah himself.
The heads of kampongs in which foreigners reside are termed Pang'gáwa; and in speaking collectively of the heads of villages, the Raja uses the term Papang'gáwa.
The administration of justice is generally conducted by a court, composed of one Jáksa and two assistants: in addition to whom, in the determination of any cause of importance, several Bramánas are called in. Their decisions are guided by written laws. The civil code is called Degáma, the criminal code Agáma. Before these courts three or four witnesses are required to substantiate any criminal charge. Their witnesses are examined on oath, and people of any cast are competent to take such oath and to be so examined. The form of administering the oath requires of the person who takes it to hold a bason of water in his hand, and after repeating, "may I and my whole generation perish, if what I allege is not true," to drink the water.
The form of procedure requires the prosecutor or plaintiff to be heard first on oath: his witnesses are next examined, then the prisoner or defendant and his witnesses, after which the court decides on a general view of the whole of the evidence submitted to its consideration. No torture is employed to procure evidence: mutilation is unknown. The usual punishments are death, confinement, and servitude. The laws, in some instances, are severe, in others lenient. In the execution of the punishment awarded by the court there is this peculiarity, that the aggrieved party or his friends, are appointed to inflict it: for though the judge steps in between the prosecutor and person whom he pursues, so as to restrain the indiscriminate animosity of the one and to determine the criminality of the other, the Bálians have not advanced so far in the refinement of criminal justice, as to consider criminal offences in the nature of offences perpetrated against the state, and punishable by its officers.