284 LOMBOCh. [chap. xii. 



debating whether they should go and search for him, when 

 they saw him coming clown with the two hoys. And 

 when he met them he looked very grave, hut said nothing ; 

 and then all descended together, and the procession re- 

 turned as it had come ; and the Rajah went to his palace 

 and the chiefs to their villages, and the people to their 

 houses, to tell their wives and children all that had 

 happened, and to wonder yet again what would come of it. 

 And three days afterwards the Rajah summoned the 

 priests and the princes. and the chief men of Mataram, to 

 hear what the great spirit had told him on the top of the 

 mountain. And when they were all assembled, and the 

 betel and sirih had been handed round, he told them what 

 had happened. On the top of the mountain he had fallen 

 into a trance, and the great spirit had appeared to him 

 with a face like burnished gold, and had said — " Rajah ! 

 much plague and sickness and fevers are coming upon all 

 the earth, upon men and upon horses and upoji cattle ; but 

 as you and your people have obeyed me and have come up 

 to my great mountain, I will teach you how you and all 

 the people of Lombock may escape this plague." And all 

 waited anxiously, to hear how they were to be saved from 

 so fearful a calamity. And after a short silence the Rajah 

 spoke again and told them, — that the great spirit had com- 

 manded that twelve sacred krisses should be made, and 

 that to make them every village and every district must 



