Volume 1

Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost].

  • Reinhold Rost
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of rice, wrapped up in banana leaves, having been served, the bridegroom presented a portion to his future wife, who quickly took it and eat it; that done, she returned his politeness by offering him some too. Then together they distributed the re- mainder among the different members of the assembly. The Juru-krah having received a ring from the bridegroom, gave it back to him, wlio then put it on a finger of the left hand of his bride. The bride also, having received another from the Juru- krah, in her turn put it on a finger of the left hand of her future husband; this terminated the ceremony. “ They are married,” each tells the other. Large plates of rice are now served up with vegetables, and all set about satisfying their hunger. I remarked that the young couple ate off the same plate. When one of the tribe dies, the corpse is wrapped in a white shroud, and washed a first time, the body remaining in this state to allow the relations of the deceased time enough to arrive, when it is washed again; then two men carry him to his last resting-place, the others either follow or precede the body. Arrived at the place of burial, the deceased is placed in a grave dug in a solitary spot, either in a lying, standing, or sitting posi- tion ; if a child, it is placed in one of the two last positions, facing the east; if a grown-up person, facing the west. If the deceased- has been a man of bad habits, or guilty of some crime or other, his face is placed to the east, doubtless to signify that, like a traveller in the desert without a guide, he had strayed and lost himself in false by-paths, and that, in the matter of good works, he had, like a young child, remained at the commencement of life. Care is taken to put by his side, together with a lance, a parang, but more generally rice, cups and old clothes; some plant flowers and fruit-trees near the grave. If asked why they do this, their only answer is, that such was the custom of their forefathers. At the foot of the grave a fire is lighted for three days, after which time the visits to the grave cease. The Mantras do not wear any mourning, and seldom lament over their dead. The deceased’s house is abandoned by his survivors, and generally the little village even migrates.1 The day of a person’s death is kept a day of mourning; all work ceases immediately. Misled by some persons, and by the Mantras themselves, I had thought this tribe might well be one of those of whom several modern travellers have affirmed that they are without any idea whatever of God; still I found it difficult to believe. And, indeed, a greater familarity with their language, and a residence of a few months more in the forest, proved to me that I had guessed rightly. I was agreeably surprised to discover that, 1 [G. A. Wilken, 1. 1. pp. 97-100.]
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