2.52 LOMBOCK. [chap. x. 



Manuel. " Why, you know," said the Malay, " that in our 

 countries to the westward, if a man dies or is killed, we 

 dare not pass near the place at night, for all sorts of noises 

 are heard which show that ghosts are about. But here 

 there are numbers of men killed, and their bodies lie un- 

 buried in the fields and by the roadside, and yet you can 

 walk by them at night and never hear or see anything at 

 all, which is not the case in our country, as you know very 

 well." " Certainly I do," said Manuel ; and so it was 

 settled that ghosts were very scarce, if not altogether 

 unknown in Lombock. I would observe, however, that as 

 the evidence is purely negative we should be wanting in 

 scientific caution if we accepted this fact as sufficiently 

 well established. 



One evening I heard Manuel, Ali, and a Malay man 

 whispering earnestly together outside the door, and could 

 distinguish various allusions to " krisses," throat-cutting, 

 heads, &c. &c. At length Manuel came in, looking very 

 solemn and frightened, and said to me in English, " Sir — 

 must take care ;— no safe here ; — want cut throat." On 

 further inquiry, I found that the Malay had been telling 

 them, that the Eajah had just sent down an order to the 

 village, that they were to get a certain number of heads for 

 an offering in the temples to secure a good crop of rice. 

 Two or three other Malays and Bugis, as well as the 

 Ambovna man in whose house we lived, confirmed this 



