. Facts and fancies about Java . of the Gedeh- 200 OP BUITENZORG crater surrovtads, as an impregnable bulwark,the palace and temple courts. The Hindoo period, however, has left inthis neighbourhood records more authenticthan Praboe Wangis fancy-built palace onthe heights. Near a native kampong, whichderives its name from this proximity, theso-called Batu Tiilis is found, a field coveredwith a quantity of stone slabs, some lyingprone, others still upright, adorned withfigures in bas-relief and covered with in-scriptions. The legend on the largest ofthese memorial tablets, traced in ancientJavan
. Facts and fancies about Java . of the Gedeh- 200 OP BUITENZORG crater surrovtads, as an impregnable bulwark,the palace and temple courts. The Hindoo period, however, has left inthis neighbourhood records more authenticthan Praboe Wangis fancy-built palace onthe heights. Near a native kampong, whichderives its name from this proximity, theso-called Batu Tiilis is found, a field coveredwith a quantity of stone slabs, some lyingprone, others still upright, adorned withfigures in bas-relief and covered with in-scriptions. The legend on the largest ofthese memorial tablets, traced in ancientJavanese characters, has been deciphered; itcelebrates the virtues and victories of aHindoo king. And the worn-away superscrip-tions and rude effigies discernible on theother stones probably commemorate con-temporary princes and warriors. The Bogorcountry-folk greatly venerate these relics ofa glorious past. Carriers walking by the side of their lum-bering, bullock-drawn pedati, which creaksso leisurely along the sun-scorched roads;. OP BTOTENZORG- 201 labourers on their way to the rice-fields,the light wooden ploughshare across theirshoulders, driving the patient yoke of oxenbefore them; women from the hill-villagesaround, who come to the Bogor market inhohday attire, a chaplet of jessamine blossomstwisted into their kondeh—aU turn asidefrom the road, to murmur a short prayer,and offer a handful of flowers, of frank-incense and yellow boreh unguent, or evenChinese joss-sticks and small paper lanternson the consecrated spot. Whether this bean act of homage to those ancient kingsand heroes, whose rude effigies adorn thestones, and whose spirits are beheved stillto haunt the spot; or simply a fetishisticadoration of these blocks of granite andthe curious signs engraved thereon, it isdifficult to decide; the worshippers them-selves hardly seem to know. When asked,they reply that they do as their fathers didbefore them, and as, therefore, must be right;unless, indeed, they merely smil
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