— 54 — 



Sukitan. 



Tung Hsi Yang K'au (1618). Book IV. 



Sukitan (*) is commonly, but wrongly, called Sukit-kang ( 2 ) ; it is a 

 depenclency of Java and has many different settlements , of which Grissé ( 3 ) 

 is the cliief place. At Grissé there is a king, who is more than a hundred 

 years old and can predict future events (''). It is situated in the interior ( 5 ) 

 and the merchant-vessels only pass by without anchoring there, because the 

 current is very rapid. The people of this country go to Yortan ( 6 ) in order 

 to trade with the Chinese. 



The anchorage of the Chinese ships is at Yortan, which is a flat 

 country with a fortress built of stones. When the chief of this place goes 

 out , he ricles in a carriage drawn by four or eight horses , or by oxen ( 7 ) , 

 and is accompanied by more than a hundred attendants with arms and insig- 

 nia of his dignity. When the natives see their king, they conceal themselves, 

 only the women fold their hands and squat clown at the side of the road; 

 for the rest their customs are similar to those of Ha-kang (Bantam). 



The neighbouring countries are Surabaya and Tuban ( s ). In Tuban 

 there are many robbers and therefore the Chinese will not live there. They 

 have there the second son of the king, whose body weighed some hundreds 

 of caties, when he was only about ten years old; he was once stolen by 

 robbers , but they could not lift him and now he has been made a Datu ( 9 ) . 



O i&k ^Z 'Pi'» r ^'" s name uas no ^ ^ een nancie d clown by Javanese traditiou. 



P m w 



O t? jl -ü Ki-li-sik; Grissé is a European corruption of the nativc name Gersik. 



(") Probably the Snsnhunan or Sunan of Grissé, which dignity was filled by Arabs and their 

 descendants, who were first religions teachers and soon acqurred considerable spiritual and temporal 

 power. Many of them enjoyed the reputation of particular holiness. 



('"') Grissé has always been situated near the sea; the word interior here eau only meanthat 

 it was not accessible to sea-going vesscls. 



(°) fis ^[pj Yau-tong or Djiau-tong; in tonner thnes a trading port at the southern arm 

 of the Brantas, the same rivcr of which the northern arm llows past Surabaya, near the presenl 

 Bangil in the residency Pasuruan. 



(') ïhc Chinese text has "jpf ^-t- ycllow oxen, which means cpws or oxen, not buflaloes. 



(") 3fi& T^ft Tu-ban, according to the Ainoy pronuneiatiou ; the same which is elsewhere 

 written ^ ffi . 



