182 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



Megaug I came on their ' burial-ground, laid out in the forest 

 by the pathside— a great elevated quadrangular, mound; in 

 length just enough to admit a full-grown body. A rough 

 stone at head and foot indicated where each person lay side 

 by side with his neighbour. Only the married people are 

 interred io this common burying-place, in the right, perhaps, 

 of their being parents of the people; all others^ youths 

 and infants — useless oflf-shoots of their race — are buried any- 

 \yh^re in the forest, ,and always some distance from where 

 their elders lie. An unmarried woman about to give biyth i.% 

 a child is compelled to leave the village and retreat to the 

 forest, whence after .some forty days of solitary sojourn she 

 returns — never with her offspring — and the village is purified' 

 by the sacrifice of a buffalo. Their most sacred oath is sworn 

 by placing a hand over the grave of their forefathers amid.' 

 the incense of be:nzoin, or in a circle drawn on the ground : 

 "May, the. spirit' of my forefathers afflict me if, I have spokeft 

 felsely," being thp foii;mula. The same manner of swearing 

 obtains, I am told,, among the inhabitants of thei Makakau, 

 Komering (Muara-dua), Semindo, and Blalau (Hoodjoong} 

 regions. The Kisam people swear also by drinking the 

 water in which a kriss has been dipped, as .well as by the 

 spirit of Tuan Raja Gnawo, who has his dwelling-place, OU; 

 Mount Dempo. 



