The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

136 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.CHAPTER XII.LOMBOCK :HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUS.The Rajah of Lombock was a very wise man, and he showedhis wisdom greatly iu the way lie took the census. Formy readers must know that the chief revenues of the Rajahwere derived from a head-tax of rice, a small measure beingpaid annually by every man, woman, and child in theisland. There was no doubt that every one paid this tax, for itwas a very light one, and the land was fertile and the peoplewell otf ; but it had to pass througli many hands before it reachedWhen the harvest was over thethe Government storehouses.villagers brought their rice to the Kapala kampong, or head ofthe village ; and no doubt he sometimes had compassion on thepoor or sick and passed over their short measure, and sometimeswas obliged to grant a favour to those who had complaintsagainst him ; and then he must keep up his own dignity by havinghis granaries better tilled than his neighbours, and so the ricethat he took to the " Waidono " that was over his district wasgenerally a good deal less than it should have been. And all the" Waidonos " had of course to take care of themselves, for thej''were all in debt, and it was so easy to take a little of the Governmentrice, and there would still be plenty for the Rajah.And the " Gustis " or princes wlio received the rice from theWaidonos helped themselves likewise, and so when the harvestwas all over and the rice tribute was all brought in, the quantitywas found to be less each year than the one before. Sicknessin one district, and fevers in another, and failure of the cropsin a third, were of course alleged as the cause of this fallingotf; but when the Rajah went to hunt at the foot of the greatmountain, or went to visit a " Gusti " on the other side of theisland, he always saw the villages full of people, all lookingwell-fed and hapjDy. And he noticed that the krisses of hiscliief3 and otficers were getting handsomer and handsomer ; andthe handles that were of yellow wood were changed for ivory,and those of ivory were changed for gold, and diamonds andemeralds sparkled on many of them ; and he knew very wellwhich way the tribute-i'ice went. But as he could not pi'ove ithe kept silence, and resolved in his own iieart some day to havea census taken, so that he might know the number of his people,and not be cheated out of more rice than was just andreasonable.But the difficulty was how to get this census. He could notgo himself into every village and every house, and count all thepeople ; and if he ordered it to be done by the regular officers