Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/297

 RELIGION OF BALI. 2o3 slave to whose lot it falls to wash the dead body of her mistress, dming the month and seven days be- fore the funeral rites. It is, in fact, for the per- formance of this task that her life is saved, and li- berty afterwards given to her to retire where she pleases into the country, to earn her livelihood. " To obviate the infection which would otherwise be generated by preserving the dead bodies so long in a climate of such excessive heat, the y are oblig- ed daily to rub them with salt, and with pepper, and other aromatics, so that they fall away to mere skin and bone. Afterwards these drugs, which fprm a coat of four or five inches thick, are washed off, and it is in this state that the bodies are burnt. The coffin, which contains the body, is perforated at the bottom, to permit the animal fluids to run off, and these are received into a vessel, which is daily emptied with much ceremony. "^^ The province of Blambangan^ composing the eastern extremity of Java, was, down to very late years, subject to the Balinese, and chiefly inhabit- ed by that people. Cavendish, in his circumnavi- gation of the globe, passed through the straits between Java and Bali, touching at the former island. Purchas gives the following curious sequent.
 * Histpire General dcs Voyages, Tom. XVII, p, 5*2, rt