410 SINGAPORE. 



The Chinese funerals may be occasionally seen. They are seldom 

 attended by more than the six bearers, and the music, which con- 

 sists of a tambourine, gong, and triangle. The coffin is generally 

 made of some hard wood with scrolls at each end, and appears pon- 

 derous. It is carried along at a very rapid pace, and the mode of 

 evincing respect for the dead differs strangely from ours. 



The Hindoo Mahomedans appear to be as fond of theatrical shows 

 and processions as the Chinese ; and as the day of our landing was 

 also a holiday with them, we had the advantage of witnessing these 

 ceremonies. The subject of commemoration was the Marama, or 

 funeral obsequies of Hassoun arid Houssien. The observance of this 

 forms a prominent distinction between the Shiites and the Sonnites 

 sect of the Mahomedan belief. The former consider the caliphs 

 who succeeded to the power of Mahomet as usurpers of the rights 

 of Ali, and bewail annually the death of his children, slain by the 

 emissaries of the illegal occupant of the pulpit of the Imauns. The 

 legend alleges that the children of Ali were hidden in a well, and con- 

 cealed from the pursuit of their enemies by a spider, who spun his 

 web over its mouth. Seeing this, the bloodthirsty pursuers had 

 passed the well several times without suspecting that it contained 

 the objects of their search. At last, however, a lizard was heard to 

 chuck within it, by which it was known that some one lay there con- 

 cealed : the hiding-place was thus discovered, and Hassoun and Hous- 

 sien taken out and slain. 



In the procession which we saw, nearly all this sect of Maho- 

 medans in Singapore must have joined. A temple, some twenty- 

 five feet high, was carried about by thirty or forty Malays hired for 

 the occasion. In front of all came the guards and swordsmen, fan- 

 tastically dressed, who cleared the way. 



The bold and expert manner in which these handled their weapons 

 was somewhat startling to the crowd and the lookers-on. I must con- 

 fess that I momentarily expected to see a head hewn in two, or an arm 

 severed from the body. These were about a dozen in number ; and 

 when they had cleared the way, they practised sham-fights among 

 themselves, which from their expertness and grace had a fine effect. 

 They were followed by dancers, boys in female attire, gaudily dressed. 

 Next came some of the branded criminals, who were convicts, and 

 then the temple, with its vast piles of tinsel ornaments of paper, borne 

 on men's shoulders, who were concealed from view by the draperies ; 

 then came the music, consisting of small drums, instruments some- 



