Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

io8 BURIAL CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS
was done to save time, but I noticed near the foot of
another grave close by the ruined framework of a
similar hut which had evidently, from the remains of
the fan-palm leaves, been roofed in a similar manner.
A ladder, consisting of an inclined stick, was added
for the soul to climb up to its hut by. The hut had
just been furnished (before my arrival) with models
of the " sentong " (a long basket made of a kind of
fan-palm leaf, which is strapped to the back and
generally used by the Besisi women in this district
for carrying jungle produce),^ a small closed rice-bag
(" sumpit ") filled with seed-rice, and an open wallet
(" bujam ") containing young shoots of the wild betel-
leaf (" chambai "), one of the edible kinds of marine
bivalve called " lokan," and a piece of newly-woven
matting about 9 inches square, on which had been
deposited the smallest possible "portions" of boiled
rice, fish, acid fruits (" asam kelubi "), water, and
sugar (but no salt).
The deceased's father now unloosed the fastenings
of the mats and the shroud in which the body
was wrapped, and stripped the latter of its selvage.'^
Next he wetted the deceased's face and breast with
the midrib of a banana - leaf dipped in water, and
removed her own garment (" sarong "), which was laid
aside to be burned. Then the shroud was re-
adjusted and the body laid in the grave, with the
head pillowed upon the banana-leaf rib. A plank
made of some soft wood (probably "jelotong," not
unlike deal), resting against sticks put ready to
support it, was then placed in a sloping position
• The articles deposited in the hut ^ This is a Malay custom, the
are always, I was told, distinctive of strips of selvage (taken from the shroud
the sex of the dead : thus for a man, itself) being used to tie up the dead
choppers, etc., would be used. body. Cp. Malay Magic, p. 401.