SINGAPORE. 387 



The Chinese funerals may be occasionally seen. They are seldom 

 attended by more than the six bearers, and the music, which consists 

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

 some hard wood with scrolls at each end, and appears ponderous. 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 and 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 concealed 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 concealed : the hiding-place was 

 thus discovered, and Hassoun and Houssien taken out and slain. 



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

 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, fantastically 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- 

 what resembling clarionets, and quantities of small bells, accompanied 

 with a monotonous chaunt, and long trains of followers, with banners, 

 afterwards. This procession was very differently conducted from 



