354 DESCRIPTION OF SAVU CHAP, xv 



heat should beget ill-blood, but refer it immediately to this 

 court. 



After the Eadja we could hear of no ranks of people but 

 landowners, respectable according to the quantity of their 

 land ; and slaves, the property of the former, over whom, 

 however, they have no other power than that of selling 

 them for what they will fetch, when convenient; no man 

 being able to punish his slave without the concurrence and 

 approbation of the Kadja. Of these slaves some men have 

 500, others only two or three; what was their price 

 in general we did not learn, only heard by accident that a 

 very fat hog was of the value of a slave, and often bought 

 and sold at that price. When any great man stirs out he 

 is constantly attended by two or more of these slaves, one 

 of whom carries a sword or hanger, commonly with a silver 

 hilt, and ornamented with large tassels of horse hair ; the 

 other carries a bag containing betel, areca, lime, tobacco, 

 etc. In these attendants all .their idea of show and 

 grandeur seems to be centred, for we never saw the Radja 

 himself with any more. 



The pride of descent, particularly of being sprung from a 

 family which has for many generations been respected, is by 

 no means unknown here; even living in a house which has 

 been for generations well attended is no small honour. It is 

 a consequence of this that few articles, either of use or 

 luxury, bear so high a price as those stones which by having 

 been very much sat upon by men have contracted a bright 

 polish on their uneven surfaces ; those who can purchase 

 such stones, or who have them by inheritance from their 

 ancestors, place them round their houses, where they serve 

 as benches for their dependents, I suppose to be still more 

 and more polished. 



Every Eadja during his lifetime sets up in his capital 

 town, or nigrie, a large stone, which serves futurity as a 

 testimony of his reign. In the nigrie Seba, where we lay, 

 were thirteen such stones, besides many fragments, the 

 seeming remains of those which had been devoured by time. 

 Many of these were very large, so much so that it would be 



