We have examples of the funerals of tribes that have not embraced either the
Mahommedan or Hindu religions in the instances of the inhabitants of the island of
Nias on the western coast of Borneo, and of the Kayan Dyaks of Borneo. Those
of the first of these are thus)described by a writer in the Malayan Miscellany, published
under the auspices of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1822, and believed to be a distinguished
botanist, the late Dr. Jack. “ The mode of burial in the southern division of the
island,” (that most remote from Malay influence) “ is peculiar. The body is not
committed to the earth, but is inclosed in a wooden shell or coffin, which is elevated
on four posts, and then given to enjoy the free winds of heaven. Flowering shrubs
and creepers are generally planted beneath, which soon climb up and cover the coffin
with foliage. These cemeteries are at some little distance from the villages, and when
not quite recent, have nothing unpleasant or disgusting in their appearance. On the
contrary, there is something almost poetic in the idea of placing the remains of their
friends, as it were, beyond the reach of the worm, suspended in the air amid verdure
and flowers; and if they might be supposed to have had further a moral object in
view, what could be more forcible than to see the very sepulchres hastening to
decay amid the wild luxuriance, and unfading freshness of the shrubs they had
supported.”
The funerals of the Kayan Dyaks of Borneo are thus described by Mr. Robert
Burns. “ After death, the Kayans very stupidly keep the body in the house from
four to eight days, and sometimes even longer. Generally, the first day after death,
it is put into a coffin, scooped from the trunk of a tree, and carved, according to the
importance or means of the relatives. Day and night, during the time the body is
kept in the house, lights are placed at each side of the coffin, and should these happen
to get extinguished, it is considered most unfortunate. Also, during the four or five
days after the corpse has been removed, torches are kept at the place where it lay.
Previous to its removal, a feast is prepared, and part of the food is placed beside the
corpse: the relatives devour the remainder. The removal of the body takes place
soon after, and, although it be invariably much decomposed, the nearest relatives,
especially the women, express their grief in a most inconsolable manner, and with
cries most pitiable, long and affectionately hug the coffin, and with their faces on it
inhale the odour, and continue doing so, until it reaches the place of disposal, which
is on the loft of a small wooden house on posts, about twelve feet high. The tombs
of the chiefs are built of hard wood, supported by nine massive posts, from twelve to
fourteen feet high, and which, with the other parts of the building, are elaborately
carved. Several articles which belonged to the deceased are conveyed to the tomb
with the corpse, but are not deposited with it. On the death of a person, the
relations directly lay aside all apparel of foreign manufacture, and wear only a kind
of bark cloth instead, for a prescribed number of days after the funeral.”—Journal
of the Indian Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 149.
The only people of the Archipelago who continue to follow Hinduism are those of
Bali, and such of the inhabitants of this island as have recently settled in the neighbouring
one of Lomboc as conquerors, and of their funerals a very interesting account
has been given by Mr. Zollinger in the Journal of Netherland India. “ The Balinese
of Lomboc,” says he, “ burn their dead. This is accompanied by very many ceremonies,
which cost incredible sums of money. The poor, for this reason, often bury
their dead, but always so that they can recover the bones, should it ever happen that
they can gather together enough of money to meet the expenses of a cremation.
The rich after death are embalmed, because months and even years often elapse
before they are burned. Wives may suffer themselves to be burned after the death
of their husbands, but they are not compelled to do so. Such an event very seldom
occurs, and during my stay, there was only a single widow who allowed herself to be
krised. They have the choice of allowing themselves to be either burned or krised.
The first is the more rare. The wives of the rajas, however, must suffer themselves
to be burned. When a raja dies, some women are always burned, even should they
be but slaves. The wives of the priests never kill themselves. Having been present
at one of these horrid spectacles, I shall relate how it was conducted. A gusti
(lord) who died at Ampanan, left three wives. One of them resolved to let herself
be krised in honour of him, and that against the will of all on both sides of her
family. The woman was still young and beautiful; she had no children. They told
me that a woman, who, under such circumstances, suffered herself to be killed, had,
indeed loved her husband. She intended to accompany him on his long journey to
the gods, and she hoped to be his favourite in the other world. The day after the
death of the gusti, his wife took many baths, she was clothed in the richest manner,
and passed the day with her relatives, drinking, chewing betel, and praying. About
the middle of a space before the house, there were erected two scaffoldings or platforms
of bamboo, of the length of a man, and three feet above the ground. Under
these a small pit had been dug, to receive the water and blood that was about to flow.
In a small house at one side of and opposite to these frame-works were two others,
and entirely similar. At four o’clock in the afternoon, the body of the gusti was
brought out, wrapped in fine linen, and placed on the left of the two central platforms.
A priest of' Mataram (the capital) removed the cloth from the body, while young
persons hastened to cover the private parts of the dead with their hands. They
poured much water over the corpse, washed it, combed the hair, *and covered the whole
body with champaka and kanangega flowers (Michelia champaka and Uvaria odorata).
A white net was then produced. The priest took a silver cup with holy water, called
chor, on which he strewed flowers. He first sprinkled the deceased with this water,
and then poured it through the net on the body, which he blessed, praying, singing,
and making various mystical and symbolical motions. He finally powdered the body
over with flour of coloured rice and chopped flowers, and placed it on dry mats.
Women then brought out the wife of the gusti on their crossed arms. She was
clothed in white linen only. Her hair was crowned with flowers of the Chrysanthemum
Indicum. She was tranquil, and betrayed neither fear nor regret. She
placed herself, standing before the body of her husband, raised her arms on high, and
prayed in silence. Women approached her and presented to her small bouquets of
the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and other flowers. She took them, one by one, and placed
them between the fingers of her hands raised above her head. On this, the women
took them away and. dried them. On receiving and giving back each bouquet,
the wife of the gusti turned a little to the right, so that when she had received
the whole, she had turned quite round. She prayed anew in silence, went to
the corpse of her husband, kissed it on the head, the breast, below the naval,
the knees, the feet, and then returned to her place. They took off her rings; she
crossed her arms on her breast. Her brother (on this occasion one by adoption),
placed himself before her, and asked her with a soft voice if she was determined to
die, and when she gave a sign of assent with her head, he asked her forgiveness for
being obliged to kill her. At once, he seized his kris, and stabbed her on the left
side of the breast, but not very deeply, so that she remained standing. He then
threw away his kris and ran off. A man of consideration then approached her, and
buried his kris to the hilt in the breast of the unfortunate woman, who sunk down,
at once, without a cry. The women placed her on a mat, and sought by rolling and
pressure to cause the blood to flow as quickly as possible. The victim being not
yet dead, she was stabbed again with a kris between the shoulders. They then laid
her on the second platform near her husband. The same ceremonies that had been
practised with him began for the wife. When all was ended, both bodies were
covered with resin and cosmetics, enveloped in white linen, and placed in the small
lateral house on the platform. There they r e m a i n , until the time arrives for their
being burned together.
“ It is always a near relation who gives the first wound, but never father or son.
Sometimes dreadful spectacles occur: such was one at which Mr. King was present.
The woman had received eight kris stabs and was yet quite sensible. At last, she
screamed out, impelled by the dreadful pain, ‘ Cruel wretches, are you not able to
give me a stab that will kill me 1 ’ A gusti who stood behind her, on this, pierced
her through and through with a kris.
“ The native spectators, whom I had around me, saw in the slaughter, which took
place before our eyes, nothing shocking. They laughed and talked as if it was
nothing. The man who had given the three last stabs wiped his kris, and restored it
to its place in as cold-blooded a manner as a butcher would have done his knife after
the slaughter of an animal.
“ Only the wives of the most considerable personages of the land allow themselves to
be burned, because the ceremony is attended with much more expense than krising.
They make on such an occasion a very high platform of bamboo. The woman
ascends, after many ceremonies, and when the fire is at its greatest heat, she springs
from above into the middle of the flames. Mr. King (an English merchant long
resident in^ Lomboc) thinks that they do not suffer much, because during the leap
they are stifled, and, at all events, the fire strengthened by fragrant resins, is so fierce
that death must speedily ensue.”
It will be seen by these statements that the ordinary funeral rites of the Balinese
much resemble those of the Buddhists of Siam and Ava,—that the concremation is a