— 52 — 



house they beat drums and gongs and rejoice for several days, after which 

 they go away. 



Their burial-rites are as follows. When a father or mother are about 

 to die , the sons and daughters ask them first whether after their death they ' 

 prefer to be eaten by dogs , to be burnt . or to be thrown into the water. The 

 parents give their orders according to their wishes and after their death their 

 directions are carried out. If it is their wish to be eaten by dogs , the body 

 is carried to the seashore or into the wilderness, where a number of dogs 

 soon arrive; if the flesh of the corpse is eaten completely, it is considered 

 propitious, but if not, the sons ancl daughters lament and weep and throw 

 the remains into the water. 



When rich people , chiefs , or men of rank die , their favourite concu- 

 bines swear before their master's death, that in case he dies they will go with 

 him. On the day the corpse is taken out of the house, a high wooden scaf- 

 folding is erected , at the foot of which wood is piled up in a large heap , 

 and when the fire burns fiercely, two or three of his concubines, who have 

 sworn before, their heads covered with flowers and their body decked with 

 pieces of cloth of various colours, mount on the scaffolding and weeping 

 dance a long time , after which they jump down into the fire and are burnt 

 together with the corpse of their lord. 



Amongst the natives are many rich people. 



In their trading transactions the Chinese copper cash of different dy- 

 nasties are current. They have letters which are similar to those of Soli, 

 but they use no paper or pencils and wiïte by tracing on kadjang leaves 

 with a pointed * knive. They have rules of grammar and the language of 

 this country is very fine and soft. 



Their weights are as follows : a cati (kin) has twenty taels (liang) , a 

 tael sixteen ch'ien and a cliie/i four kobangs; a kobang is equal to 2.1S75 

 fê>i Chinese official weight, the ch'ien is 8,75 fên, their tael is 1.4 Chinese 

 taels and their cati has 28 Chinese taels, all in official weight of China (*). 



(') We have not been able to aseertain the official weights ancl measures of the dynasty 

 during which the above article was writtcn, but we have been 'told by a very reliable native scholar 

 that the present dynasty has made no change in this respect. Taking therefore the Institutions of 

 the present dynasty (Ta-Ch'ing Hwui-tien) as onr gnide, we arrive at about the following values: 

 a, Javanese cati = 1.12 kilogram, 

 a d". tael = 0.05G id. 

 a d°. ch'ien = 0.0035 id. 

 a kobang = 0.000875 id. 



For cati, tael and ch'ien the author gives the Chinese names. Kobang is vmtten #j5" ^K, 



