could not go himself into every village and every house,
and count all the people; and if he ordered it to he done
by the regular officers* they would quickly understand
what it was for, and the census would be sure to agree
exactly with the quantity of rice he got last year. It was
evident therefore that to answer his purpose no one must
suspect why the census was taken ; and to make sure of
this, no one must know that there was any census taken
at all. This was a very hard problem; and the Rajah
thought and thought, as hard as a Malay Rajah can be
expected to think, but could not solve i t ; and so he was
very unhappy, and did nothing but smoke and chew betel
with his favourite wife, and eat scarcely anything ; and
even when he went to the cock-fight did not seem to care
whether his best birds won or lost. For several days
he remained in this sad state, and all the court were
afraid some evil eye had bewitched the Rajah ; ami an
unfortunate Irish captain who had come in ior^ a cargo of
rice and who squinted dreadfully, was very nearly being
krissed, but being first brought to the royal presence was
graciously ordered to go on board and remain there while
his ship stayed in the port.
One morning however, after about a week’s continuance
of this unaccountable melancholy, a welcome, change took
place, for the Rajah sent to call together all the chiefs
and priests and princes who were then in Mataram, his
capital c ity ; and when they were all assembled in anxious
expectation, he thus addressed them :
“ For many days my heart has. been very sick and 1
knew not why, but now the trouble is cleared away, for
I have had a dream. Last night the spirit of the ‘ Gunong
Aeons’—the great fire mountain-& o o appeared to me, and
told me that I must go up to the top of the mountain.
All of you may come with me to near the top, but then
I must go up alone, and the great spirit will again appear
to me and will tell me what is of great importance to me
and to you and to all the people of the island. Now go
all of you and make this known through the island, and
let every village furnish men to make clear a road for us
to go through the forest and up the great mountain.”
So the news was spread over the whole island that the
Rajah must go to meet the great spirit on the top of the
mountain; and every village sent forth its men, and they
cleared awjiy the jungle and made bridges over the mountain
streams and smoothed the rough places for the Rajah’s
passage. And when they came to the steep and craggy
rocks pf the mountain, they sought out the best paths,
sometimes along the bed of a torrent, sometimes along
narrow ledges of the black rocks; in one place cutting down
a tall tree so as to bridge across a chasm, in another constructing
ladders to mount the smooth face of a precipice.
The chiefs who superintended the work fixed upon the