tercourse with foreigners, may preserve them in
some measure from becoming victims to so diseased
a degree of credulity as that of which the
Javanese afford such extraordinary instances. Two
of these of a most singular nature I shall now quote.
Some years ago it was discovered, almost by accident,
that the scull o f a buffalo was superstitious-
ly conducted from one part of the island to another
! The point insisted upon was never to let it
rest, but keep it in constant progressive motion.
It was carried in a basket, and one person was nq
sooner relieved from the load than it was taken up
by another ; for the understanding was, that some
dreadful imprecation was denounced against the
man who should let it rest. In this manner the
scull was hurried from one province to another,
and after a circulation of many hundred miles, at
length reached the town of Samarang, the Dutch
2-overnor of which seized it and threw it into the
sea, and thus the spell was broke. The Javanese
expressed no resentment, and nothing further was
heard of this unaccountable transaction. With
whom, or where it originated, no man could tell.
In the month of May 1814, it was unexpectedly
discovered, that in a remote but populous part of
the island of Java, a road was constructed, leading
to the top of the mountain Sumbeng, one of the
highest in the island. An inquiry being set on
foot, it was discovered that the delusion which gave
rise to the work had its origin in the province of
Banyumas, in the territories of the Susunan, that
the infection spread to the territory of the Sultan,
from whence it extended to that of the European
power. On examination, a road was found constructed
twenty feet broad, and from fifty to sixty
miles in extent, wonderfully smooth and well made.
One point which appears to have been considered
necessary was, that the road should not cross rivers,
the consequence of which was, that it winded in a
thousand ways, that the principle might not be infringed.
Another point as peremptorily insisted
upon was, that the straight course of the road
should not be interrupted by any regard to private
rights; and in consequence trees and houses were
overturned to make way for it. The population of
whole districts, occasionally to the amount of five
and six thousand labourers, were employed on the
road, and among a people disinclined to active exertion,
the laborious work was nearly completed in
two months ; such was the effect of the temporary
enthusiasm with which they were inspired. It appeared
in the sequel, that a bare report had set the
whole work in motion. An old woman had dreamt,
or pretended to have dreamt, that a divine personage
was about to descend from heaven on the mountain
Sumbeng. Piety suggested the propriety of
constructing a road to facilitate his descent, and
divine vengeance, it was rumoured, would pursue