nt of the changed and modernised city. The
twang of double-stringed lutes, the tinkle of metal tubes, and the
elusive melody of silvery gongs, echo from the ages whence dance and
song descend as an unchanged inheritance. An itinerant minstrel recites
the history of _Johar Mankain_, the Una of Java, who shone like a jewel
in the world which could not tarnish the purity and devotion of one
whose heart entertained no evil thought. In the intricate byways of the
crumbling Kraton, a professional story-teller draws a squalid crowd of
women from their dark hovels and cellars, with the magic wand of
enchantment wielded by the reciter of heroic deeds from the _Panji_,
exaggerated out of all recognition by the addition of fairies and
giants, demons and dwarfs, to the simple human element of the original
story. The apathy and decay of native life, lacking all the scope and
interest common to a strenuous age, appears galvanised into some
fleeting semblance of vitality by the extravaganza presented to it, for
the language of hyperbole is the natural expression of Eastern thought,
and penetrates into mental recesses unknown and unexplored by the
relater of unvarnished facts. The quick response of the native mind to
Nature's teaching, and the wealth of tradition woven round flower and
tree, mountain and stream, foster the love of marvel and miracle in
those whose daily wants are supplied by the prodigality of a tropical
climate, for the innate poetry of the race has never been crushed out
by the weight of practical necessities.

A permit being obtained to view the interior of the Susunhan's palace
under a Dutch escort, we present ourselves at the colonnaded portico,
where the Prince Probolingo, brother of the Susunhan, receives his
visitors with simple courtesy. This descendant of a hundred kings is
simply attired in a dark brown _sarong_ and turban, the _kris_ in his
belt of embroidered velvet ablaze with a huge boss of diamonds.
Attendants, holding State umbrellas over the favoured guests, usher
them through marble-paved courts, in one of which a little prince is
seated, with furled golden umbrella behind him to denote his rank, a
group of royal children playing round him, their lithe brown forms
half-hidden in the green shadows of a great tamarind tree. A superb
marble ball-room with crystal chandeliers, forms an incongruous modern
feature of the spacious Palace, but helps to popularise the so-called
"Nail of the Universe" among th