e a girl's, his anklets and bracelets, gold chains
and jeweled girdle, and a mitre-shaped _coiffure_ of black and gold
studded with enormous diamonds, any one of which would make the fortune
of a Pall-Mall pawnbroker. A score of attendants about his own age were
standing at the back of the young heir, while four diminutive dwarfs
and four jesters in comic garb crouched at his feet, and innumerable
other subordinates--such as the fan-holder, the handkerchief-holder, the
tea- and bouquet-holders, etc. etc.--made up the retinue of this
youthful dignitary. At a subsequent interview the _sonsouhounan_
presented me to his mother and several other ladies of the royal harem.
The sultan was first married at the age of twelve, and had at the time
of our visit forty-eight wives.

[Illustration: THE ELDEST SON OF THE SULTAN OF SOURAKARTA.]

There is very much to interest the tourist in this Javanese city, so
unlike the Anglo-Oriental settlements one meets elsewhere in the East,
nor does he soon weary of its noble sultan and splendid Oriental court;
but time forbade our tarrying longer than the third day, after which we
pressed onward to the neighboring principality of Djokjokarta. This is
the name most conspicuous in Javanese history, since there, from 1825 to
1830, floated victoriously the colors of the revolt, and victory was
purchased at last only by the blood of fifteen thousand soldiers, of
whom eight thousand were Europeans, and Djokjokarta remained as it was
before, an independent sovereignty. The sultan, who belongs to an
ancient family, is fine-looking, with a somewhat martial air, and a
native dignity evidently the heritage of high birth. On our first
interview he wore above the ordinary silk sarang a tight-fitting jacket
of French broadcloth (blue), richly embroidered and trimmed with gold
lace.

[Illustration: THE SULTAN OF DJOKJOKARTA.]

He displayed also a collection of crosses, stars, and other decorations
conferred by various European powers, the French predominating. He had
evidently a partiality for _la belle France_, and exhibited with no
little pride an album containing photographs of Louis Philippe and Louis
Napoleon. He conversed well in several languages, readily using either
Arabic or French in lieu of his vernacular, and was evidently up to time
in regard to the current political topics of the day. He introduced the
ladies of our party to his young and beautiful sultana, and invited them
to accompany he