170 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [February, 
the issue of a fight. They have regular rules adopted for the 
government of these feathered tournaments, and observe them 
with great scrupulosity. Besides this, they pit and fight quails; 
practise the amusement of fencing, a rude sport, in which they 
practise strange antics and contortions of the body, resembling 
in some respects the pyric, or war-dance, of the ancients. They 
have also a diversion among them of tossing a ball, in which they 
show a great deal of dexterity, receiving or tossing it with equal 
agility from the hand, toe, or heel of the foot, either into the air, 
or obliquely from one place to another. The Phoenicians practised 
a similar amusement, as described by Homer. 
The use of the betele-nut pervades all ranks, and both sexes 
learn to chew it at an early age. No one goes abroad without 
the article with him ; the wealthy carrying it in gold or silver 
boxes, and the poor in brass boxes or mat bags. It enters into all 
their little courtesies and civilities of life ; is always offered on 
meeting, and as a matter of politeness is never refused. When 
the first salutation is over, the betele is offered as a token of hos- 
pitality. Of tobacco they are also fond, and use it of their own 
raising, as well as the importations of that article from China. 
Oratory is highly esteemed, and there are many fluent speakers 
among them. This is natural among people in whose deliber- 
ations all are allowed to speak, and where superior talents are 
sure to give a corresponding degree of influence and importance 
to the possessor. 
The women among the Rejangs, like the fruits of their coun- 
try, are soon ripe, and soon decay ; they are mothers at fifteen, 
look old at thirty, and are gray-headed and shrivelled at forty. 
They keep no record of their ages, though fifty maybe considered 
old, and few live beyond the period of sixty years. 
In the villages a broad plank is kept, sometimes for generations, 
upon which, at their funerals, the corpse is carried to the burial- 
grounds. No coffin is used, and the subject is interred at a decent 
depth, wrapped round with a white piece of cloth. The women 
who attend the funeral keep up a hideous howl. At the head of 
the grave, a little shrub, or white flower, is always planted with 
care, and at the end of twelve months, a visit to the grave is 
performed by surviving friends ; at which time a buffalo is killed, 
and a feast takes place, in honour of the deceased. All their 
