218 



A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



pact and picturesque, best describod by saying that they are 

 furnished in front with a broad, partly roofed verandah, fenced 

 round by a close bamboo wickerwork, nearly concealing the 

 inmates when stunding erect, and protected by a strong door, 

 which is reached by a stair. With their floors on the level of 

 the verandah and their doors opening on to it, are little huts 

 built out beyond the edge of the verandah, for cooking pur- 

 l>oseB, for keeping fowls in, for storing rice and for other con* 

 veniences, altogether forming a most convenient, commodious, 

 and secure dwelling, below which, as usual, their store of 

 chopped wood is kept. 



One morning I was awakened by a vigorous clattering of 

 sticks, accompanied by much laughter. On locjking out I 

 perceived that most of the rice-blocks of the Tillage had been 

 hauled together, and that the maidens of the place were 

 beatiug on them in concert a lively tattoo for some happy 

 ocejiision. As each block and each stamjier produced a 

 different note, the resulting music wtis by no means inhar- 

 monious. Throughout the forenoon the boys and youths, 

 lounging in groups, indulgefl at intervals in bursts of cheer- 

 ing very like our own hurrah : " Wf^i-wma-uM^m-iM ! " 

 The jubilation was on account of a marriage whieh was that 

 evening to be solemnised in the village. Next afternoon I 

 was again surprised by peals of "Woo-a*s!" proceeding from a 

 crowd coUected near the house of the newly married pair, 

 whence shortly, amid vociferous cheering, the bridegroom 

 appeared, weariug on his head the cap of a Vic^-chi(.>f ui' the 

 margrt, dressed in a saroug suspended by a gold-buckled belt, 

 his body otherwise bare save for a sash-like cloth across his 

 chest. By his side he wore a gold-handled kriss, and carried 

 in his right hand a be-flagged lance with its tip sheathed— 

 the wedding staff. Over his head one of his young men held a 

 white umbrella, another carried his siri-box, while a drum and 

 several gongs played in advance of the pri)cession. A little 

 Ijchiud him C4irae the bride weeping, in a purple silk badjo and 

 a red jjetticoat worked with thread of gold, attended by all 

 the maidens of the village, some of whom performed for her 

 the same offices as the young men did for her husband. The 

 processions wended their way to the river, where both the bride 

 and the bridegroom were bathed hy their respective attendants, 



