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THE SOCIAL ORDER It was surprising to discover the extent to which the question of rank obsesses so simple and democratic a people as the Balinese. In our house every time Gusti came near, everyone scrambled down the veranda steps to place themselves at a level lower than his. Once in Ubud we received a visit from two little girls, highcaste dancers of ten. They were to spend the night in the house, but they would not sleep unchaperoned and a servant was appointed to watch over them; when they heard he was to sleep in the attic, twenty feet up, they snatched their pillows and ran upstairs, not to be defiled a second longer by an inferior located above them. They perferred to sleep on a hard bench rather than in the bed made for them, while the poor servant had to sleep on the floor. Once we visited a high priest, who invited us to remain for lunch; when the food came he apologized for having to ask us to sit down, because, he said, “ the gods would not like it “ if he, a Brahmana, placed himself at a level lower than ours. We observed similar situations over and over again among people of all classes. Five centuries of feudal domination by an aristocracy have made the Balinese so conscious of caste, the determination of a man's place in society by his birth, that the whole of their social life and etiquette is moulded by this institution. A member of the aristocracy is constantly on the look-out so that his inferiors may keep to their appointed level and address him in the language of respect.
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