Interior of the Maicsohum. 247 



doiibtedly been formed accidentally, and it appears wrong and 

 unfair to attribute to them any more recondite significance. 

 The monument rests upon four wooden pillars, with pyramidal 

 pinnacles or ornaments, and is richly decorated with fine 

 white muslin, which gives to the whole very much the ap- 



pearance of an old-fashioned English " fourposter," with its 

 costly drapery and curtains. While the curtains are spread 

 out all around, several small green and white bannerets stand 

 at the upper and lower end of the sarcophagus. The whole 

 interior is, as it were, impregnated with the incense which 

 devout Malay pilgrims from time to time burn here, espe- 

 cially after the forty days' fast (Ramadan), or leave behind 

 upon the steps of the tomb in flasks or in paper-boxes. On 

 such occasions, they always bring wax-candles and linen cloth 

 as an ofi^jring, with the latter of which they deck the tomb 

 afresh, so that a perfect mountain of white linen rises 

 above the stone floor. During their devotions they unceas- 

 ingly kiss this white mass of stufi^, and as they arc continu- 



