to him. The throne was some years ago of ivory and
tortoiseshell; and when the place was governed by queens a curtain of
gauze was hung before it, which did not obstruct the audience, but
prevented any perfect view. The stranger, after some general discourse,
is then conducted to a separate building, where he is entertained with
the delicacies of the country by the officers of state, and in the
evening returns in the manner he came, surrounded by a prodigious number
of lights. On high days (ari raya) the king goes in great state, mounted
on an elephant richly caparisoned, to the great mosque, preceded by his
ulubalangs, who are armed nearly in the European manner.

DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY.

The whole kingdom is divided into certain small districts or communities,
called mukim, which seem to be equivalent to our parishes, and their
number is reckoned at one hundred and ninety, of which seventy-three are
situated in the valley of Achin. Of these last are formed three larger
districts, named Duo-puluh duo (twenty-two), Duo-puluh-limo
(twenty-five), and Duo-puluh-anam (twenty-six), from the number of mukims
they respectively contain; each of which is governed by a panglima or
provincial governor, with an imam and four pangichis for the service of
each mosque. The country is extremely populous; but the computations with
which I have been furnished exceed so far all probability that I do not
venture to insert them.

REVENUES.

The regular tax or imposition to which the country is subject, for the
use of the crown, is one koyan (about eight hundred gallons) of padi from
each mukim, with a bag of rice, and about the value of one Spanish dollar
and a half in money, from each proprietor of a house, to be delivered at
the king's store in person, in return for which homage he never fails to
receive nearly an equivalent in tobacco or some other article. On certain
great festivals presents of cattle are made to the king by the
orang-kayas or nobles; but it is from the import and export customs on
merchandise that the revenue of the crown properly arises, and which of
course fluctuates considerably. What Europeans pay is between five and
six per cent, but the Kling merchants are understood to be charged with
much higher duties; in the whole not less than fifteen, of which twelve
in the hundred are taken out of the bales in the first instance, a
disparity they are enabled to support by the provident and frugal manner
in which they