MALACCA VILLAGE 83 



wraps it carefully up in a piece of new cloth. It is then 

 deposited in the earth, and covered up ; the stake is replanted, 

 and hung with the various trappings and implements belonging 

 to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves ; and 

 the whole night is spent in repetitions of these dismal and 

 disgustful rites. 



" On the morning following, the ceremony is concluded by an 

 offering of many fat swine, when the sacrifice made to the dead 

 affords an ample feast to the living : they besmear themselves 

 with the blood of the slaughtered hogs ; and some, more voracious 

 than others, eat the flesh raw." * 



A few hundred yards from the houses in the bay, and on 

 the seaward side of the same point, is situated the larger 

 village where the headman resides ; the path connecting the 

 two crosses the site of one of the old Moravian mission estab- 

 lishments, where the brick foundations of some of the buildings 

 once standing there may yet be seen.j- 



This larger village :J: contains fifteen to twenty houses closely 

 packed together, and fronted by a tall row of kanaia standing 

 in the water. Bamboo posts, too, split at the upper end and 

 spread out fanwise, are planted at intervals along the beach ; 

 they are put up yearly by every man in the village, to keep 

 fever and devils {iwi) away ; and several grotesque figures of 

 crocodiles {y^o), placed in little shelters, raised on poles, prevent 

 their living counterparts from attacking the villagers when 

 they enter the water. 



The houses are of two kinds, round and rectangular ; the 

 latter are used as kitchens and storerooms, but there is a fireplace 

 in the others, where much of the cooking is done. The conical 

 roofs are made of attaps of nipah palm, neatly fastened to a 



* Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. 



t "The Danes have long maintained a small settlement at the place which 

 stands on the northernmost point of Nankauri within the harbour. A sergeant 

 and three or four soldiers, a few black slaves, and two rusty pieces of ordnance, 

 compose the whole. They have here two houses, one of which, entirely built of 

 wood, is their habitation ; the other, formerly inhabited by the missionaries, serves 

 now for a storehouse." — Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches^ vol. iv. 



t Malacca. 



