So 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
accident, cholera or smallpox) the body is generally interred in a waste place, 
a few planks or bamboos being placed above it to prevent the earth falling on 
it. In the town of Patani, however, a part of the cemetery is reserved for 
the burial of such persons in a more orthodox fashion. 
Among the Siamese of the Patani States, Senggora and Patalung, a body 
may be either cremated, buried, or exposed (permanently or for a time) 
suspended between the branches of a tree or between poles fixed in the ground ; 
the first being the orthodox, and the last the indigenous, method. Cremation, 
sometimes preceded by temporary interment, is the only mode of disposing 
of the dead officially recognized by the Siamese of Siam proper, except in the 
case of persons who have perished through cholera, smallpox or other epidemic 
diseases, the spirit or principle of which, it is believed, would be disseminated 
abroad by burning the body, which is preserved in a chest or jar in a monastery. 
The bodies of persons of high rank are always kept in this way for some time 
before cremation. Among the Siamese of the Patani States, however, burial 
Is almost as common as cremation, though in some cases the bones are 
subsequently disinterred and burnt, the ashes being deposited behind the altar in 
a temple. Even when cremation has been decided upon, a shower of rain, by 
postponing the ceremony for half an hour, may cause the friends to bury the 
body, as they are always anxious to get rid of it as soon as possible. Unlike 
the Malays, they dread to look on the face of a corpse, lest it should haunt 
them in their dreams, — 
The following is an account of the preliminary ceremonies in a case, that 
of a poor woman, in which the body was cremated ; they were witnessed by 
Mr, Robinson and myself at Ban Kassot, on the Rhaman-Jalor boundary. 
(At the moment of the woman's death a sudden gust of wind, which was noted 
by our Siamese servant, swept through the village, and was believed to be the 
result of the spirit’s passage). That evening we heard a monotonous chant 
or dirge proceeding from the house in which the body lay, the solos being 
taken by the village medicine-man (called mdr in the local dialect of Siamese), 
who officiated in the absence of the monks, the nearest monastery being at 
Bayu, nearly two days’journey distant ; the dead woman’s family and friends 
acted as chorus. We were afterwards told that they had been reading ‘ the 
scriptures of the Prophet Moses/ that is to say, of Buddha/ the particular 
work chosen on such occasions being an account of the various countries — 
among them Ligor or Nakawn Sitamarat—to which the ashes of Buddha were 
distributed after his cremation. We heard the chanting again after the funeral, 
but were informed that on this occasion the friends were merely consoling 
t. Antra , part. I, pp. 59, 91. 
