CHE 60LIMAN ? S NARRATION. 
359 
families are wealthy, on blangas. He then takes a cock and ahen 9 
cats their throats with a knife, and lets the blood fall into a cup in 
which he also places the bloody knife. Having dipped his fingers 
in the mingled blood, he touches first the bride’s and then the bride- 
groom’s forehead, and so in succession different parts of their per¬ 
sons from the head to the foot, chanting all the time certain forms. 
When the feet have been marked with the blood, the ceremony is 
completed. A great feast follows, during the excitement of wh ich, 
if the parties can afford it, a slave is sometimes killed. On the 
earth which is soaked with his blood a large pot of boiled rice is 
emptied. This is mixed with the bloody earth, and the men rush 
forward crying out “ If you are a man, eat! if you are a man, eat 1” 
till the whole has been«devoured. 
Common people are buried, but men of rank or wealth are burn¬ 
ed as in B&li. The half burned bones and ashes are gathered up 
and placed in a small wooden house on high poles like a ruma per- 
p£Ltf (pigeon house). Slaves are killed, in order that they may fol¬ 
low the deceased and attend upon him. Before they are killed the 
relatives who surround them enjoin them to take great care of their 
master when they join him, to watch and shamp oo him when he is 
indisposed, to be always near him, and to obey all his behests. The 
female relatives of the deceased then take a spear and slightly wound 
the victims, after which the males spear them to death. 
About ten years ago Sirip Zin, a P&ngdran of Pontiana, who was 
then settled at Sdmpefc, where he had married four wives, visited 
Mentangi, and, conceiving a liking for me, told Pangjahan that I 
was a relative of his, and that he wished to carry me with him to 
Sampet. Pangjdhan consented, and I accompanied him on his re¬ 
turn. Sirip Zin was exceedingly kind to me and gave me a wife. 
* When I had lived at Sampet for several years I heard that my sister 
Mariam had been carried away by pirates about the time of the rain 
of ashes [the eruption of Tamboro in 1815] and sold at Rhio, where 
she was living. I sent her a letter by a prahu that was proceeding 
to Rhio, and some time afterwards I received a reply from her re¬ 
questing me to come to Rhio. Sirip Zin would not let me go at that 
