228 COURT OF JURTTOR. 



Justice, held in an open building, called Pendoppo, a 

 large roof supported l)y pillars, erected upon a plat- 

 form a few feet above the ground. It had fine rice- 

 straw hangings all round to shut out rain or sun from 

 any part of it. The European judge presided at a 

 table cpvered with documents and law books as else- 

 where, to his right and left native dignitaries were seated 

 to watch the proceedings, and assist in propounding 

 knotty questions according to Mahomedan law, whilst 

 the prisoners squatted upon the steps in front. I was 

 much interested in the proceedings, which, however, being 

 carried on mostly in Malay, and translated to me into 

 French, lost much of their importance by this process. 

 I was, however, struck by the ready and even justice 

 meted out with due regard to native habits and pre- 

 judices, and the punishments, in case of conviction, were 

 far from excessive. 



Having seen enough of Buitenzorg to leave a very 

 pleasant impression upon my mind, I returned to 

 Batavia for a night only, which, however, seemed to 

 me the longest I had ever spent, owing to fearful suffer- 

 ings from prickly heat, by the Dutch in their euphonic 

 language called " 7"Ooi/e hund" (red dog), which here 

 takes the form of red blotches, as large as a hand, quite 

 unlike the spotty appearance of the same disorder so 

 frequent in the Levant and in India. 



