JtO€> Defcription of the Ijlayid of Borneo^ 



ceremonies. When a bachelor has conceived an attachment 

 for a young woman^ he employs fome female to alk her in 

 marriage from her parents; but he is fure of receiving a de- 

 nial unleJs he has given a proof of his courage by cutting off" 

 the head of an enemv. If his oft'er is accepted, he carries to 

 his bride a prefcnt, which confifts of a male or female flave, 

 two drelTes, and a water-pot, on which fome of their favourite 

 figures are reprefented. When the wedding-day arrives, the 

 bride and the bridegroom each give an entertainment at their 

 houfes ; at the conclufion of which the bridegroom, in his 

 beft apparel, is condudted to the refidence of the bride, 

 where he finds at the door one of her relations, who fmears 

 over him the blood of a cock which has been killed for that 

 purpofe ; and the fame ceremony takes place in regard to the 

 bride, with the blood of a hen. They then prelent to each 

 other their bloody hands j but it is confidered as a bad omen 

 if the blood, in confequence of this joining of hands, fpirts 

 out too far around them. The new-married couple then re- 

 main together, and the whole folenmity ends with a fecond 

 entertainment. When the wife lies-in, the hufband aflumes 

 the office of nurfe, and no other care is ufual on this occafion 

 ^an that one of their conjurers, whom they call halian, 

 gives the newly-delivered woman fome medicines, amidll 

 linging, and beating on certain inllruments named gindang. 

 If the wife die, the hufband cannot enter again into the mar- 

 ried ftate until he has cut off the head of fome individual of 

 another nation, and thereby avenged the death of his wife. 



When a Biadjoo dies, the body is put into a coffin, and 

 kept in the houfe until all the remaining males of the family, 

 father, fon, and other near relations, have purchafed a flave ; 

 ■who is to be beheaded on the day when the body is burnt, in 

 order that he may attend the deceafed in the other world. 

 Before this unfortunate wretch is butchered, it is earneftly 

 recommended to him to be faithful to his mafter on the other 

 fide of the grave. The aihes of the burnt body are afterwards 

 coUefted in one of the above-defcribed water-pots, and the 

 pot, together with the head of the flave who has been 

 ftrangled, is depofited in a fmall edifice or tomb built for 

 that purpofe. A year often elapfes before the relations of 



the 



