DARE NOT SHOW THEIR LEGS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXIV, Issue 3327, 13 August 1934, Page 7

DARE NOT SHOW THEIR LEGS.

Women are put to death if they dare to show their legs at the palace of the Sultan of Surakarta, in the island of Java. Only the Sultan’s daughters can exhibit publicly the fact that they have legs to stand on. To observe this rule all other ladies of the court are obliged to remain on their knees before the Sultan, facing him, and to move about on their knees so he cannot be conscious of the fact that they have legs. This rule applies on all public occasions, and, although the death penalty never has been applied for a violation, it is only because the rule has never been broken. Of course, the Sultan makes an exception of dancing entertainments, and he gets around this problem by making it plain that dancing entertainments are not State functions. One of the curious rules of the Javanese theatre which rather hampers the casting director is that all men must have in real life the rank of the parts they play. For instance, if there is a play that has sultans or kings in it, these parts can be played only by princes of the blood royal. Fortunately the Sultan happens to have thousands of male relatives, and many of them are glad to get a chance to appear on the stage. It is also a rule that no man shall walk upright in the presence of the Sultan, the procedure being for all men to remain kneeling until the Sultan has left the scene. This rule would be rather an awkward one for actors treading the boards when the Sultan is present at a performance, but a way has been found to get around it. When the Sultan goes to the theatre he sits three steps higher than any of the actors on the stage or anybody else in the audience, so that, all men being below him, it cannot be said that any man is walking upright in the presence of the Sultan.