342 A NATVBALI8T IN CELEBES ch. xiv 



gorgeous little ' sedan chair ' temple, to be carried in the 

 procession by some of the leading Chinamen of Manado. 

 I was unable to get a very good view of the Tapi Kong, but 

 my impression is that he is a wooden figure of a Chinaman 

 about one foot in height, in a sitting attitude, gorgeously 

 dressed in coloured silks. 



When the Tapi Kong had been safely housed and carried 

 off by his bearers, the other two deities were similarly re- 

 moved, and then the procession started. In order to get a 

 good view of it we ran round to another part of the village, 

 and waited in the house of a friendly Chinaman to see the 

 fun. It was accompanied by a great crowd of men bearing 

 torches and firing off squibs, crackers, and guns, or beating 

 drums and cymbals, and making as much noise and con- 

 fusion as possible. 



First of all came some cars containing coarse and 

 clumsy artificial green foliage and flowers and some three 

 or four gorgeously dressed Chinese children, sitting upon 

 invisible seats in the leaves and flowers as in a pantomime. 

 Then came a tremendous dragon, which must have been 

 fifty or sixty feet long, with a gaping mouth, armed with 

 fearful teeth and great red eyes shooting flames, enough 

 to give a child the nightmare for weeks. If it had not 

 been so obviously a gigantic Chinese lantern, borne upon 

 the shoulders of the faithful, it might have reminded one 

 perhaps of the Latin Grammar quotation : 



Monstrum horrendum informe ingens, 



although it certainly had no lumen ademptnm.. 



After this came a man borne on a platform, naked to the 

 waist, with his pigtail tied up round his head, who was 

 supposed to be slashing his back with a naked sword. 

 Long streaks of red paint represented the gashes he did 

 not make in his religious fervour. 



