$2 
FASCICULI MALAYENSES 
a young child, came forward and threw water over the body in turn* the women 
present being evidently affected, though they made no noisy demonstration of 
grief. When all had performed the rite, the medicine-man placed the dead 
woman's hands in an attitude of prayer similar to that often given to recum¬ 
bent effigies at home, insinuated between them a spray of the flowers of the 
Indian Shot {Canna in die a) y and bound the two together by means of a hank 
of cotton thread plaited in between the fingers. The jaw was tied up with a 
white cloth, the coffin was brought into the house and the body lifted into it 
by the who then placed the clothing worn by the dead woman on it as a 
covering. A chew of betel was placed by her side. The coffin was carried off 
by two bearers, who shouldered a pole passed through ropes tied round it, to 
the place of cremation, which was some miles distant from the village. Rain 
threatening, a noisy discussion arose as to whether the corpse should be buried 
or cremated, and the mourners joked, in what seemed a most heartless way, 
about its lightness ; but all of this talking and jesting was probably mere drama, 
to prove that their souls were unaffected by emotion and therefore strong 
enough to withstand the ghost. In the end cremation was decided upon and 
the body was burnt in the coffin, the remains being then interred until such 
time as the monks might visit the village, when a further ceremony would be 
performed. No ceremonial impurity attached to those who had assisted in 
the rites, and in the case of a rather richer funeral, which took place in the 
same village a few days later, the planks of which the coffin was made were 
rescued from the flames to be used for other purposes. In each case the 
house where the death had occurred was carefully cleaned as soon as the 
corpse had been removed. 
During the last century several different kings of Siam have promulgated 
edicts againts the practice of * tree-burial 1 in Lower Siam, and it has nominally 
ceased to be ; but when a governor who is ignorant of local usages is appointed 
in any of the Siamese Malay States, and often on other occasions, a revival of 
the practice takes place. We found it common both at Nawngchik and at 
Lampam, though Mr. Skeat and I had great difficulty in seeing a case in the 
neighbourhood of the latter place in 1899. In Patalung, and probably in 
Senggora, the Buddhists appear to practice it whenever an opportunity offers, 
while in the Patani States it seems to be resorted to chiefly in the case of 
fatal epidemics ; so far as we could discover, it is wholly a Buddhist practice 
in the East Coast districts, but it is said to be common among the mixed 
Mahommedan population of Trang. As the methods employed are most 
complicated, and probably less degenerate, in the more northerly states, I 
will first describe them as they exist in Patalung. In this state two types 
