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TERNATE 254
APPENDICES
quitasols, standards, and ornaments together with the priests accounted for another fifty
persons. The King’s European bodyguards marched on both sides of the dead body. Then
followed six European undertakers, all in mourning with crepe hanging from their hats.
Then came the Ternatese Prince Outhoorn Aiyan Saha. The funeral procession was
followed by a number of Chinese all in mourning clothes, with white shawls on their heads.
Finally came the wives and concubines of the notables and other distinguished Ternatese
ladies, all dressed in white, with Sulanese jute bags round their waists to show that they
were high-born and not slaves.
In this way, then, was the King’s dead body taken from the palace to the main
temple, and then, after a few religious ceremonies, again placed on the bed of state. Next
the funeral procession followed the road straight to the boundary of the Ternatese and
Makassarese quarters and then went to the royal graveyard via a side street behind the
Ternatese quarter. Besides the above-mentioned procession, the dead body was now
followed by a considerable crowd of other people.
After the procession arrived at the graveyard, His Excellency the Governor and the
Members of the Political Council were invited by Prince Outhoorn to come under the sabu
which had been erected before the grave of the King, where the dead body had been taken
and stripped by the priests of its gold, silk, [p. 350] and many-colored linens. The King was
laid to rest by the priests in a grave, three fathoms deep, in which a few of the priests were
sitting. At this time, singing and all kinds of ceremonies took place, and the soldiers of the
Companies, citizens, Ternatese, and Makassarese, all made three charges. The guns of
Fort Orange were fired nine times and those at Fort Terlucco were fired four times.
By seven o’clock the dead body had been committed to the earth and the religious
ceremonies had been carried out by the priests. H.E. the Governor and the Members of the
Council and other people returned to the royal court where they were treated to a glass of
wine or beer, cracknell cookies, and assorted cakes. This continued until about eight
o’clock, when H.E. the Governor and the Council took leave of the royal family and returned
to the Castle. The other members of the assemblage left too.
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