— 50 



and use is also very fine and many of them have adopted the Mahomedan 

 religion and observe its precepts. The third kind are the natives, who are 

 very ugly and unconth; they go about with nncombed heads and naked feet 

 and believe devoutly in devils, theirs being one of the countries called devil- 

 conntries in Bnddhist books. The food of these people is very dirty and 

 bad , as for instance snakes , ants and all other kinds of insects and worms , 

 which are kept a moment before the flre and then eaten ; the dogs they have 

 in their houses eat and sleep together with them, without their being dis- 

 gusted at all. 



It is told that in olden times a king of devils (Mararadja) with a green 

 face, a red body and brown hair, who lived in this country, united himself with a 

 bad spirit in the shape of an elephant and begot more than a hundred 

 children, who lived on human flesh and blood and devoured large numbers 

 of people. One day a peal of thunder came unawares and cleft a rock, inside 

 of which a man was seen sitting; the people were much astonished at this 

 and took him for their king, on which he led them against the ghostly 

 elephant and drove it away with its offspring; the scourge was thus don o 

 away with and the people multiplied again in peace, but on this account 

 they like fighting until now. 



Every year they have a //Meeting of bamboo spears". The lütli month 

 is the beginning of their spring (of the rainy monsoon), when the king 

 makes his wife ride in a pagoda-carriage before him , himself following in an 

 ordinary cart. This pagoda-carriage is more than ten feet high , with windows 

 on all sides ; underneath is a revolving axle and it is drawn by horses. At 

 the place of the meeting ranks are formed on both sides, every man holding 

 a bamboo spear without an iron point, but nevertheless very hard and 

 pointed ; every one of the combatants lias his wife or concubine with him , 

 armed with a stick three feet long and standing between them. At a sig- 

 nal on the drum , which beats quick or slow , two men advance with their 

 lances and commence fighting ; they engage three times and then their wives 

 separate them with their sticks, saying na-rah ! na-rah! (orla-rah! la-rah!) (}), 



() %$ /$U 5 probably the Javanese word larak, //to draw, to pull, to draw back", and ibis 

 exclamation would then mean : //pull them. back ! pull tliciu back !" Dr. Schlcgcl (v. Notcs p. 17) saystbis 

 game was called Na-tssc-ki by the Chiuesc and in othcr respects also his account differs from o ars, all 

 which is due to the fact that he lias nut quite caught the meaning of lus Chinese original, which 

 is indeed most slovenly coinposed and hard to uuderslaiul, unless, as in our case. one is assisted bj 

 a more complete description from other sources. As Dr. Schlegel bas giveti us the Chinese 1e\1 which 

 he translaied, it will bc easj to prove what we advanced jusl now. The incriminated passage runs 



