168 Journal of the F.M S . Museums. [Vor. IX, 
the small platform thus created, the whole space being just 
large enough to receive the tomb. 
When the foundations of the tomb, if they may so be 
called, had been exposed and the earth on the inner side of 
the wall cleared away, the squared stones and also the 
undressed boulders were taken up and relaid, being firmly 
bound together with cement and, in the ease of the squared 
blocks, placed on a concrete foundation. ‘The next step was 
to deal with the inner and outer walls of the tomb proper, and 
here some opposition might have been encountered on the 
part of the local Malays who were working as coolies for me, 
but a k&nduri (feast) before starting work smoothed the way ; 
and the only stipulations made by the local Imam (priest), 
who was employed as my headman, were that the headstone 
of the grave should not be moved and that the earth in the 
central compartment, where presumably Sheikh Ahmad’s body 
lies,! should be disturbed as little as possible when moving 
the large blocks of stone at the sides. These large stones, 
both of the inner and outer wall of the central part of the 
tomb, were lifted and placed on a concrete foundation six 
inches in thickness. 
The spaces between the inner and outer walls of the cen- 
tral block were filled with earth as, of course, was also the 
central chamber. Some subsidence of the contents of the 
latter had caused the inner row of blocks to cant inwards, 
especially when they were in contact with the heavy uprights 
lower wall, but not on the inner. They were thus set up 
perpendicularly in this position on a thick block of cement 
which took the place of the earth removed. 
the central block we came upon three interesting objects. 
One of these was a blue-and-white porcelain, crackled Ming 
1 Any remains must, long ago, have been destroyed by termites. The 
whole structure was riddled with their nests at the time of my visit. 
