Majapahit, and the celebrated gong named Bentur Kadaton; and, although the other governments do not at the present day admit of any interference on the part of this state, they still evince a marked respect and courtesy to that family, as the Asal Rajah Bali, (the stock from which they sprung).
The population is roughly estimated by the number of male inhabitants whose teeth have been filed, and whose services each prince can command, and who amount to upward of 200,000. The female population is understood rather to exceed the male; and, as it may be considered that only the active and able bodied men are included in the above list, an average of four to a family may be fairly taken, giving a total population for the whole island exceeding eight hundred thousand souls.
The form of government, institutions and prevailing habits, are represented to be the same throughout the island; and the following sketch of B'liling may afford a just notion of the whole.
The government is despotic, and vested in the prince alone, who is assisted in all affairs relating to the internal administration of the country, by a head Perbakal, (immediately under officers of this name, are placed the heads of villages,) and by a Radin Tumunggung, who conducts the details of a more general nature, of commerce and foreign intercourse. The constitution of each village is the same; the head or chief is termed Perbakal, and the assistant, Kalian Tempek. These officers are invariably selected from among the people of the village; the son, however, generally succeeding the father, if competent to perform the duties. Under the head Perbakal, who has the designation of Perbakal Rajah, are several inferior Perbakals for general duties and communications with the villages; and under the Radin Tumun'gung a similar establishment, bearing the rank and designation of Kalian Tempek. Among the heads of villages are many whose families have formerly distinguished themselves in the wars of Bali, and who are termed Gusti. The command of the military is at present vested in a chief of the Bramana cast, and who seems to receive honours and respect next to the prince himself.
Whatever, at former periods, may have been the extent and influence of the Hindu religion, Bali is now the only island in the Eastern Seas, in which that religion is still prevailing as the national and established religion of the country. That high spirit of enterprize which burst the bounds of the extensive confines of India, like the dove from the ark, rested its weary wing for a while in Java, till driven from thence it sought a refuge in Bali, where even amongst the rudest and most untutored of savages, it found an asylum. The four grand divisions of the Hindus are here acknowledged, and the number of Bramana (Bramins) attached to the small
