Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/44

32 CLASSIFICATION AND this our royal letter to our servant, that he may be made high from being low, and be placed in our confidence by being raised to the rank of a noble. Moreover, we empower him to wear and use such dress, decorations, and insignia, as belong to a high noble, giving for his subsistence of our royal pro- perty within a certain district, the quantity of land laboured by one thousand families." This, in a few words, points out the absolute dependence of the nobility upon the will of the sovereign. The noble once nominated may be looked upon as a kind of emanation of his master, and receives from all his dependants, in their several gradations, a portion, and a large one, of the honours due to the sovereign, of whom he is the representative. The inferior chiefs are addressed by their depend- ants on their bare knees. This patriarchal subor- dination extends through every class of society, and is not confined to political dependance, but pervades the domestic economy of the people. The genius and the idiom of the language has taken the impression in proportion as the refine- ments of absolute power have been extended, a subject which has been already treated at length in considering the Javanese language, the dialect of that tribe which has the most despotic government. Though there be no hereditary nobility among the Indian islanders, and every man's title dies with himself, no people are fonder of titles, or pride 7