BIRDS NESTS KARANCt BOLLOXG. 
305 
the head of this table and proposes different toasts to the success of 
the approaching collection. After the guests have satisfied them¬ 
selves opium is offered to every person present. The company 
enjoy themselves some with dancing to the music of the Gamelang, 
some with opium smoking, while others occupy themselves with 
chewing seree, and this continues till midnight, when the feast 
ends. 
After this feast (on Sunday morning) the head men take their de¬ 
parture for their rocks, and, if the sea is not too rough, the 
ladders are joined in order to reach the entrance of the holes 
that they may collect six birds nests, which, from prudence, are again 
compared with the musters. The harvest then is arranged. But 
if it should be found that the nests are not yet ready to be ga¬ 
thered, further preparations are stopped in order that the swallows 
may not be disturbed. If it is found that the nests are of the proper 
bulk, the work is continued by making stages and ladders and 
fastening them to the rocks into which the collectors have to des¬ 
cend. AH these operations being completed in five or six days, 
the inhabitants of the nearest dessa go to the cliffs Dahar and Gedee 
•with the men belonging to these cliffs, accompanied by gandeks 
and sontonas who carry with them the requisite bags to contain 
the nests which may he gathered. 
The number of collectors for the first day is limited to 80 or 90 
persons for each ot the two cliffs, and this number afterwards dimi¬ 
nishes as the nests are gathered.—When the bags are filled they are 
brought to the godown under the direction of a Guru. On arriving, 
there, a sedeka is given, consisting of red and white bubor, and this 
feast is regulated by the collectors of the day for each cliff. Af¬ 
ter the priest has. spoken his benediction over it and the dishes have 
been eaten, the nests arc weighed and stored in the godown on a 
flooring of plank made for them. 
The work of the remaining cliffs Wollo Medjiengklek and Na- 
gosarie is nearly the same, but the collection at the first two places 
is made by the people employed without any payment on ac¬ 
count of the smallness of the produce. With respect to the last, sixty 
or seventy persons are ordinarily employed, and 57 to GO rupees cop¬ 
per is paid for each collection to the head men. The sum is divided 
amongst the bekels and the people. On account of these cliffs being 
