444 



A NATimALIST'S WANDERINQS 



" yet it is more powerful than any other gun, however new ") ; 

 besifles these there is a bag containing the vestments of the 

 priest, which are a broad banil of scarlet cloth for his head, a 

 circular breastplate of gold, worn suspended on the neck ; two 

 gold discs, about 15 centimetres in diameter, to cover the earn; 

 a broad crown of gold, with two long buffalo-like horns of the 

 same material projecting from it, and gold annlets and earrings. 

 Within this enclosure there is, besides, the most sacred object 

 of all — the Tatu-LnU ^ or stone on which the offerings are laid 

 to the invisible deity. Each of these stones they believe to 

 have been given to the people of Timor for tliis purpose when 

 the universe wiis made. In the larger portion of the building 

 there is a fire-place, and vessels and cooking utensils sacred to 

 the use of the Uma-LulL 



The different bnildiiigs are fitted up in the same way, but 

 only on high occasions is the central one opened. It is kept 

 open during the whole time of war, and in it quarrels arising 

 between the different districts of the kingdom are arranged. 

 In times of flood or of drought or of famine an offering is made 

 to ward off this disaster. If a man has an ordinary sickness 

 in his house, he does not consult either of the larger LuU 

 honses, but offers a fowl or a pig to the 1/wZi— at a little railed- 

 off portion — in his own house. If he should lose several 

 members of his liimily, or he be oppressed by any other great 

 distress, he then applies to the priest for permission to speak 

 with the Lull. Then, brmging rice with a pig or a fowl, he 

 enters the JJma-huU with the Dato^ each going io by his own 

 door. When the Bato has put on his proper vestments he 

 kills the fowl or other animal, and having placed a piece of 

 flesh from its heart and the side of its head on the Yaiu-IfuU^ 

 or altar-stone, he cooks the rest along with the rice on the lire 

 in the Ltili house. After both have partaken of this food, the 

 Dai^ converses with the Luli, and thereafter turning to the 

 applicant he gives him siri and piuang-nut, with tJie assurance 

 that the sickness will depart or his difficulty disapjiear. Before 

 planting their Indian com or paddy crop, they kill a pig or 

 fowl, and both on their own ImU stone and on that in the sacred 

 house common to the district, they lay a piece of its flesh. 



Their greatest ceremonial, however, takes jdace on the eve 

 of a war* I shall never forget the graphic description given 



