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duism (see the present author’s Java in “the XIVth Century”, vol. IV, p. 480). In the Islamic period the cult of local spirits was discouraged by orthodox divines. Nevertheless some of these cults survived. Moreover Islam imported into 1 Java the old Muslim veneration for the graves of sainted people, developing into a cult of saints. Popular devotion became attached to sacred graves, found in many places all over Java. According to orthodox Islamic theology the saints can only act as intercessors with God in behalf of humanity. They do not possess any power of their own. It seems likely, however, that in some cases, in particular in the interior of the country, Muslim saints are the successors of local spirits in the worship of the peasantry; the cult of the graves has succeeded old rites on familiar sacred spots. Religion in Java has always been connected with ancestor worship, the cult of the Old Ones who founded social order. Each dynasty had its ancestor who was worshipped reli giously as a mythic hero. In the Islamic period of Javanese cultural history, in local cults of the countryside and old North Coast towns, a distinction could be made between: A. worship on sacred spots, village shrines, often called pëpundèn; B. worship on the graves of holy men (the apostles of Islam, the waits) or on places that were supposed to be such graves, and C. worship on the graves of ancient Kings. The three cults were more or less Islamized. Moreover they tended to amalgamate. As a rule local sacred places, villages shrines, pëpundèns (A) only arrested the

attention of Javanese and Dutch scholars and authors in case of spectacular sites on hills, on the tops of mountains, on the brink of lakes etc. The local legends registered under 48.500 are mostly connected with sacred places of this kind. If the sites were not spectacular, nor the legends interesting, village shrines were as a rule overlooked. Meanwhile it seems quite likely that some of them date from ancient times. The tops of mount Lawu and mount Mërapi, Dlepih and the shore of the Southern Ocean, where periodical offerings were sent by the Java nese Kings (mentioned in 49.000), are to be mentioned in this context. (B, C) Sacred graves of holy men of Islam and ancient or modern Kings alway attracted attention. In several cases graves of Muslim saints became objects of pilgrimages (Cër- bon, Dëmak, Tuban, Grësik, Surabaya, Tëm- bayat). In some circles of devotees the merit of pilgrimaging to the Javanese walls’ graves was considered equal to that of performing the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, which is one of the pillars of Islam. Graves of Kings and great men also at tracted pilgrims, in the first place descend ants, or people who believed themselves to be descendants, and servants of the deceased. In fact all Royal, noble or important Java nese families had their private cemeteries somewhere in the country. The grave of the oldest ancestor, the founder of the family, was always the centre. The graves were more or less well cared for by the descendants, and offerings were brought in the eighth Muslim month, Sha c ban, called accordingly in Javanese: Ruwah (from Arabic arwah: spirits). The sacred cemeteries of the Muslim Mataram dynasty were in Kuta Gëdé and