Sketches from Formosa.

FAR AFIELD NORTHWARD 65
very maudlin between his whiffs, and spoke in a way which
reminded one of the process of driving nails into rotten
wood. As for the savages it was hardly possible they
could catch my meaning, their confusion being only
increased when writing-materials were brought out, and
I commenced to make a few jottings in their presence.
They were afraid that something was now being prepared
to harm them, and after an unsuccessful attempt at
and the note-
explanation they still seemed frightened,
book had to be put away.
I had not before heard of a rather curious custom which
is observed by those Bu-hwan. When anyone dies, his
friends do not convey the body to the outside of the
village for burial. The log fire, which always keeps
smouldering at one end of the apartment, is immediately
cleared away, and a deep hole is dug into which the body
is placed in a sitting posture. Pipes and tobacco, with
other articles used by the deceased while living, are placed
some simple ceremony of mourning is
beside the body ;
gone through, a couple, of the nearest relatives fill up the
grave, and then everything goes on as usual.
They commence the erection of their houses or cabins
by digging a large square pit about four feet deep. The
earth, forming the floor of this pit, is afterwards firmly
beaten down, and the sides built up with large stones.
The walls are then carried three feet higher than the
ground, a bamboo framework or roofing is constructed
overhead so as to form eaves about two feet broad on
either side, and above this thin slates are placed to com-
plete the structure.
The Chief and two or three others, who received benefit
from my medicines, were remarkably friendly on the
second morning after my arrival. Their fevers had left
them, and they were feeling comparatively fresh and
vigorous. They proposed to show me their wells, which
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