The First Day,
Being The Greatest Shew, There Were Certain Forts Made Of Canes And
Other Trash, Set Up In Front Of The King's Pageant, In Which Some Javans
Were Placed To Defend, And Other Companies To Assault Them, Many Times
The Assailants Firing Upon The Defenders.
All this was only in jest
among the Javans with their pikes; but our men and the Hollanders were
in earnest with their shot, and were therefore forced to be kept
asunder.
Meeting the Dutch merchants in the evening, I asked one of them if he
thought that Holland were able to wage war with England, that they
should make such contention with our men, striving who should go
foremost? I likewise told them all, that if the English had not once
gone before, they might have gone behind all the other nations of Europe
long ago. But they answered, that times and seasons change: And
doubtless, owing to their great numbers here in India, they hold
themselves able to withstand any other nation in the world. I cannot,
however, say what may be the opinion of their states at home, and of the
wiser of their nation.[128]
[Footnote 128: In this business of the Dutch, wherein many shewed their
pride and ingratitude, as the fault I hope is not in their nation, but
only personal, I have mollified the author's style, and left out some
harsher censures. Beati pucifici. - Purch. in a side note.]
Always, a little before the shews began, the king was brought out from
his palace, sitting on a man's shoulders bestriding his neck, and the
man holding him by the legs. Many rich tirasols, [parasols or
umbrellas,] were carried over and round about him. His principal guard
walked before him, and was placed within the rails, round about the
pageant. After the king, a number of the principal people followed,
seeming to have their stated days of attendance. The shews were in this
manner: First came a crew armed with match-locks, led by some
gentleman-slave; then come the pike-men, in the middle of whom were
the colours and music, being ten or twelve pans of tomback, carried on a
staff between two people. These were tuneable like a peal of bells, each
a note above the other, and always two people walked beside them who
were skilled in the country music, and struck upon them with something
they held in their hands. There was another kind of music, that went
both before and after; but these pans or gongs formed the principal.
The pike-men were followed by a company of targeteers carrying darts.
Then followed many sorts of trees with their fruit hanging upon them;
and after these many sorts of beasts and birds, both alive, and also
artificially made, that they could not be distinguished from those that
were alive, unless one were near.
Then came a number of maskers, who danced and vaulted before the king,
shewing many strange tumbling tricks, some of these being men and others
women. After all these followed sometimes two hundred or even three
hundred women, all carrying presents of some kind; only that every ten
were headed by an old motherly woman empty handed, to keep them in order
like so many soldiers. These presents were commonly rice and
cashes[129] on frames of split canes, curiously laid out for show, and
adorned with gilt paper, but the present itself seldom exceeded the
value of twelve-pence. Then followed the rich presents, being commonly
some rich tuck,[130] or some fine cloth of the country fashion,
curiously wrought and gilded, or embroidered with gold, for the king's
own wearing. These were also carried by women, having two pikes borne
upright before them; and every present intended for the king's wearing
had a rich parasol carried over it. Last of all followed the heir to the
person sending the present, being his youngest son, if he had any, very
richly attired after their fashion, with many jewels at gold, diamonds,
rubies, and other precious stones, on their, arms and round their
waists, and attended by a number of men and women. After he has made
his obeisance to the king, he sits down on the ground on a mat, and all
the presents are carried past the king's pageant into the palace, where
certain officers are ready to receive them.
[Footnote 129: A species of coin formerly explained. - E.]
[Footnote 130: Tuck, tuke, or tuque, the old term for a turban, worn by
Mahometans, or for the sash of which it is made. - ASTL. I. 301. c.]
When all these were gone by, a person within the king's pageant spoke
out of the devil's mouth, commanding silence in the king's name. Then
begins the chief revels, accompanied with music, and now and then the
musketeers discharged a volley. The pikemen and targeteers also
exhibited their feats of arms, being very expert, but their shot
exceedingly unskilful. Always when the pikemen and targeteers go up to
charge, they go forwards dancing and skipping about, that their
adversaries may have no steady aim to throw their darts or thrust their
pikes. During the shews, there likewise came certain representations of
junks, as it were under sail, very artificially made, and laden with
rice and cashes. There were also representations of former history,
some from the Old Testament, and others from the chronicles of the Javan
kings. All these inventions have been learnt by the Javans from the
Chinese, or from the Guzerates, Turks, and others who come hither for
trade, for they are themselves ignorant blockheads.
Our present was preceded by a fine pomegranate tree full of fruit, some
ripe, half ripe, green, and only budded. It had been dug up by the
roots, and set in earth in a frame made of rattans like a cage. The
earth was covered with green sod, on which were three silver-haired
rabbits, given me by the vice-admiral of our fleet; and all among the
branches we had many small birds fastened by threads, which were
continually fluttering and singing.
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