148 A NATURALIST'S WANBEEINGS 



His office is both a delicate and a difficult one. He must 

 himself be of good position in the community, and be more 

 or less a general favourite ; but especially must he be 

 intimately acquainted with the social position and rank of 

 all present ; for should he unwittingly call on two maidens or 

 two youths of different ranks to dance together he will have 

 committed a mistake which has many a time turned the 

 festival into a fight, for the parents or the relatives of the 

 higher-ranked of the dancers, feeling themselves insulted, 

 have suddenly revenged themselves by amok — that mode of 

 retribution which is to them the swiftest and most gratifying ; 

 the first victim being generally, the unfortunate Master of 

 the Ceremonies himself. 



The daughter of a low Penyimbang used to have the right 

 to have one girl attendant behind her, with a young man to hold 

 a white umbrella over her head ; but a maiden of the highest 

 rank was entitled to as many as six attendants, and to be shaded 

 by a silk umbrella, gaily ornamented with flowers and gold-leaf, 

 which, when she was not dancing, lay folded in front of her, by 

 the side of a cushion on which, her rank entitled her to place 

 her fans. The daughters of villagers without pangkat danced 

 in the best they could afford, but unattended and unshaded. 



The high-born youth was distinguished by the number 

 and gorgeousness of his krisses, and further by the number 

 of youths prostrate on the ground before him, on whom he 

 placed his foot as a sign of his authority. These customs 

 have now been greatly modified, as the 'attendants on the high 

 born were in former days their slaves (and slavery has been 

 for many years abolished by the Government), and where they 

 now appear they are paid servants, or relatives or friends who 

 have volunteered to take for the occasion the place of the 

 slaves of former days. 



White was the sign of nobility, which alone those of high 

 pangkat could use, all others being obliged to wear cloth of 

 a dark colour. Blue remains even now when all restrictions 

 have been removed by law, the commonest colour of garments 

 worn by the people ; but even yet the sight of white in one of 

 low rank incites envy or enmity. The Magistrate of one of 

 the districts informed me of a case he had shortly had before 

 him, in which the complainant had the white umbrella he wag 



