cannon-balls, the largest possessing the faculty of granting untold wealth to those strong enough to carry it three times without stopping round the _sela gilang_, whose legend, carved by a prisoner of war, either a spirit of the air or a magician, reveals in its marginal commentary a philosophic mind coupled with linguistic talents: _zoo gaat de wereld--così va il mondo--ita movet tuus mundus--ainsi va le monde_. Selo, Imogiri and Pasar Gedeh: so goes the world indeed, and the nameless prisoner of war’s motto, preserved near the _pasarahan dalam_, the imperial garden of rest, would be hardly less appropriate over the gates leading to the _kratons_, the residences[69] of the Susuhunan of Surakarta and the Sooltan of Jogjakarta, where they do the grand in the grand old way, cherishing the memories of a power gone by. A visit to the Principalities without an invitation to attend some function at Court cannot be called complete and it is a treat to watch the ceremonial exercises connected with one of the three _garebegs_[70] or with the salutations on imperial birthdays and coronation-days in the roomy _pendopos_, the open halls whose general style betrays its Hindu origin no less than the aspect, the dresses, the movements of the native nobility, officials and retainers, an assemblage of a fairy tale, betray their Hindu parentage. The _bangsal kenchono_, the audience-chamber of the Sooltan at Jogja, is a masterpiece of construction in wood, the carved beams and joists, richly gilt and painted in bright colours, forming a ceiling of wonderful airiness and elegance; in the _bangsal witono_ the Sooltan shows himself to the people on days of great gala; in the _bangsal kemandoongan_, a hall in one of the many open squares of the palace grounds, seated on his _dampar_ or throne, he used to witness the execution of his subjects sentenced to death, who were krissed[71] against the opposite wall; another of these open squares was dedicated to pleasures which remind of the _munera gladiatoria_, more especially of the _ludi funebres_, and kindred amusements with a good deal of local colour: we find it chronicled of Sunan Mangku Rat I., Java’s Nero, that once he beguiled a tedious afternoon in his _kraton_ at Kartasura by stripping a hundred young women and letting a few tigers loose among them. The dining-hall (_gedong manis_: room of sweets) in the _kraton_ at Jogja, to the south of the audience-chamber, can easily hold three hundred guests with the host of servants they require; at Solo the imperial stables and coach-houses[72] are scarcely inferior in interest to the friend of horses, riding, driving and coaching, than the Kaiserlich-Königliche Marstall at Vienna or the Caballerizas Reales at Aranjuez. But of all the sights at the Courts of the Principalities of Central Java it is the human element that fascinates most, a waving mass of silent figures in the magnificent setting which reflects centuries