54 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



The Banclialmn is a feast for children, and is a very pretty 

 custom. The children all gather together in the house and 

 courtyard of the giver of the feast ; some come alone, some are 

 carried by their mothers, and all are happy. The food is 

 distributed to them, each child bringing a little bowl to take 

 its share of the curry stuffs and rice, and great merriment 

 and good-humour prevails on these occasions. When each 

 child has shared in the feasting and merrymaking, the 

 grown-up people take bowls of water, and all at once set 

 about throwing the water over the crowd of children. A 

 regular fusillade of water is kept up until, in a very short 

 while, the elders have splashed and chased every laughing and 

 happy child out of the compound. Throughout the feast 

 there is much burning of aromatic substances, and little 

 smouldering fires are placed beneath the beds of all the 

 children in the house, and the ashes of these little fires {ahu 

 hunchahan) are carefully preserved. Should there be an 

 absent child in the family of the giver of the feast, his 

 portion of the food is put into a little bowl, and placed apart 

 upon his bed, so that he, though absent, may share in the 

 festivities of his family. 



The ceremonies connected with death and burial are always 

 of peculiar ethnological interest, and some of the customs of 

 the Cocos Islanders are worthy of record. In common with 

 many Eastern races, it is a strict duty among the Malays to 

 watch by the body, from the moment that life has gone, until 

 it is finally lowered into the grave. This duty is studiously 

 carried out in Cocos, and in all the observances connected 

 with burial an extreme reverence is shown for the body of 

 the departed spirit. Immediately after death, the corpse is 

 washed and little plugs of the fluffy natural island cotton 

 are placed in the ears, and between the fingers. I do 

 not know why the cotton is placed in between the fingers, 

 nor do I know the reason for the curious practice of putting 

 a needle into each pad, when the body is that of a woman 

 Avho has died in childbirth. The origin of the custom 

 seems lost in obscurity, but it is only one of the many 



