246 DJOKJAKARTA.
and even woman, carries. Many of these krisses,
from their antiquity, are much appreciated, and often
fetch very high prices. The sheath is generally
covered with rhinoceros hide, which is likewise made
at Klaten. I was also shown some curious weapons
and utensils for various purposes.
The latter portion of the journey was mostly down*
hill, Djokjokarta standing only 360 feet above the
sea-level, and we reached that town about sunset,
where I had some difficulty in finding the small hotel,
which had not even a supper to offer. The capital of
Djokjo, on the banks of the Oepac, and near the base
of the Merapi,—a volcano rising abruptly to a height
of 8.500 feet,—has its fort, now occupied by Dutch
troops, and its Kraton, the residence of Sultan
(Hamangkoe Bouvono Seriopati Ingalogo Ngaodoer
Bachman Saidin Panatogomo) Balifatolah YI. The
entire arrangement of the palace is much the same
as that at Soerakarta, only on a larger scale, and the
buildings more substantial, consisting of the usual
courts, halls, and colonnades, as well as mosques, and
even the menagerie of wild beasts, without which
these, but half-civilized, rulers can apparently not
exist. They revel in cruelty; and if they are
restrained from exercising that passion upon their
subjects they accept the alternative of ferocious beasts.
SULTAN OK DJOKJO. 247
, The Sultan, short and stout, and evidently a bon-
vivant, was attired much in the same fashion as his
neighbour, with the addition of a peculiar ornament
attached to his ears in the shape of a rosette, surmounted
by a leaf pointing upwards, and incrusted
with diamonds, strongly resembling ass s ears,
meaning no disrespect to His Majesty, who is rather
intelligent than otherwise. The Dutch Besident,
who had held his post for many years, took me over
the ruins of an old fortified palace, commenced by
the first, and finished during the reign of the second
Sultan of Djokjo. I t was called Chateau d Eau, or
its synonym in the Javanese tongue, and its last
occupier was the present ruler’s grandfather: it
consists of a mass of solid masonry surrounded by a
broad moat, now dry, bearing the appearance of an
extensive fort, with several inner lines of defence
made accessible by tunnels. There were also double
roofed gateways, built of brick and covered with
cement, connected by long winding avenues of splendid
trees. The immense extent of these rums,
embodying pavilions and galleries, now covered with
vegetation, from moss and ferns to large trees which
had taken root in the crevices, had an exceedingly
pleasing and picturesque effect. I t was here that
the then Sultan defied the Dutch army from 1825