IN THE COUNTRY OF KIM A. 
091 
The Orang Dongo are not fond of descending into the plain, and if 
they do so they hasten to return as soon as their business is fin- 
nished. They are not at all attached to the people of the plain, 
and these cheat and rob them in trade. That which still more 
frightens them, are the vexations and the extortions to which they 
are exposed on the part of their chiefs, both great and small. For¬ 
merly the father of the present Sultan forced them to give him a 
horse for a knife, a hatchet or a similar object. Even at present 
the chiefs make no scruple of demanding as a gift whatever takes 
their fancy at any time. 
The mountaineers have also their feasts, such as those at births, 
at marriages and at deaths. I have not assisted at any of these do¬ 
mestic feasts* A young man who is about to be married pays a 
certain sum to the parents of the girl. This sum (jujnr in Mai.) is 
not a fixed one, and varies according to the fortune of the parties. 
It is ordinarily paid in naturalia , for example, in buffaloes, horses, 
wax, cotton cloths &c* The newly married always commence house 
keeping in a new house. 
The law relating to the right of heritage is very simple. All the 
survivors, sons and daughters, father or mother, brothers or sisters, 
inherit equal shares. But that which is more curious, and what I 
have never met with any where else, is that the defunct himself in¬ 
herits from himself also, that is to say, he also has his part in the 
heritage ! All that falls of the heritage to the deceased is divided 
into three parts. Whatever can be burned ought to be burned. 
What cannot be burned, such as arms and ornaments, is buried with 
the deceased. All that is living in the possession of the defunct ought 
to be killed for the purpose of being eaten by the survivors at the 
funeral entertainments which are not finished until all is consumed. 
To bury the dead they make a round and deep hole in the ground 
into which they put the corpse erect, giving him his arms, rings, 
bracelets &c., then they put a brass basin (bokor in Malay) on the 
head, and close the tomb with a llagstone. I have seen many 
of these stones shutting tombs. In the mountains to the south east 
of Bfma the interment is still more extraordinary. They cut a trunk 
of a lonthar tree of the length of a man, then split the trunk and 
hollow out the two halves. In one of these two halves they lay the 
dead body, and place the other upon it. This coffin is placed upright 
some place out side the village. Leaves of the lonthar are put up¬ 
on it which serve as an umbrella (payong in Malay.) When the 
