The Chiefs Who
Superintended The Work Fixed Upon The Length Of Each Day's
Journey Beforehand According To The Nature Of
The road, and chose
pleasant places by the banks of clear streams and in the
neighbourhood of shady trees, where
They built sheds and huts of
bamboo well thatched with the leaves of palm-trees, in which the
Rajah and his attendants might eat and sleep at the close of each
day.
And when all was ready, the princes and priests and chief men
came again to the Rajah, to tell him what had been done and to
ask him when he would go up the mountain. And he fixed a day, and
ordered every man of rank and authority to accompany him, to do
honour to the great spirit who had bid him undertake the journey,
and to show how willingly they obeyed his commands. And then
there was much preparation throughout the whole island. The best
cattle were killed and the meat salted and sun-dried; and
abundance of red peppers and sweet potatoes were gathered; and
the tall pinang-trees were climbed for the spicy betel nut, the
sirih-leaf was tied up in bundles, and every man filled his
tobacco pouch and lime box to the brim, so that he might not want
any of the materials for chewing the refreshing betel during the
journey. The stores of provisions were sent on a day in advance.
And on the day before that appointed for starting, all the chiefs
both great and small came to Mataram, the abode of the king, with
their horses and their servants, and the bearers of their sirih boxes,
and their sleeping-mats, and their provisions.
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