so long as the provisions hold out. On the last of
these days the coffin is carried out and set in an open space, where it
is surrounded by the female mourners, on their knees, with their heads
covered, and howling (ululantes) in dismal concert, whilst the younger
persons of the family are dancing near it, in solemn movement, to the
sound of gongs, kalintangs, and a kind of flageolet; at night it is
returned to the house, where the dancing and music continues, with
frequent firing of guns, and on the tenth day the body is carried to the
grave,
preceded by the guru or priest, whose limbs are tattooed in the shape of
birds and beasts, and painted of different colours,* with a large wooden
mask on his face.

(*Footnote. It is remarkable that in the Bisayan language of the
Philippines the term for people so marked, whom the Spaniards call
pintados, is batuc. This practice is common in the islands near the coast
of Sumatra, as will hereafter be noticed. It seems to have prevailed in
many parts of the farther East, as Siam, Laos, and several of the
islands.)

He takes a piece of buffalo-flesh, swings it about, throwing himself into
violent attitudes and strange contortions, and then eats the morsel in a
voracious manner. He then kills a fowl over the corpse, letting the blood
run down upon the coffin, and just before it is moved both he and the
female mourners, having each a broom in their hands, sweep violently
about it, as if to chase away the evil spirits and prevent their joining
in the procession, when suddenly four men, stationed for the purpose,
lift up the coffin, and march quickly off with it, as if escaping from
the fiend, the priest continuing to sweep after it for some distance. It
is then deposited in the ground, without any peculiar ceremony, at the
depth of three or four feet; the earth about the grave is raised, a shed
built over it, further feasting takes place on the spot for an indefinite
time, and the horns and jaw-bones of the buffaloes and other cattle
devoured on the occasion are fastened to the posts. Mr. John and Mr.
Frederick Marsden were spectators of the funeral of a raja at Tappanuli
on the main. Mr. Charles Miller mentions his having been present at
killing the hundred and sixth buffalo at the grave of a raja, in a part
of the country where the ceremony was sometimes continued even a year
after the interment; and that they seem to regard their ancestors as a
kind of superior beings, attendant