Our discussion so far indicates that the relation of various signs in the Babad Pamijahan expresses certain assumptions about the relation between East and West, as well as about genealogy. In other perspectives, these relations can be meaningful for the society if there is mediation, or an interpretant to bring the synchronic level into a temporal dimension. Between the past and the present, there is a reasoning process. People make every effort to connect the past and the present through certain narrative discourses.

Narratives of the origins of Pamijahan are among the most authoritative in Pamijahan. Accordingly, the custodian has held versions of them for several decades. The guild of custodians (pakuncenan) not only serves pilgrims but also delivers these ‘true’ narratives to them. The Babad Pamijahan connects the Pamijahanese with the aristocratic tradition from both Sundanese and Javanese forebears. It not only provides the genealogical sources which connect the Wali with two important rulers in Java, the King of Pajajaran and Sunan Giri Laya, a powerful missionary in early conversion of Eastern Java to Islam (Fox 1991,32-3), but also furnishes the villagers with various schematic categories. (Levi-Strauss 1968-1977; Parmentier 1994) Among these is the shaping of perceptions of space and place, and it is to this I turn in the following chapter.