Death And Cremation

Strange as it seems, it is in their creamation ceremonies that the Balinese have their greatest fun. A.cremation is an occasion for gaiety and not for mourning, since it represents the accomplishment of their most sacred -duty: the ceremonial burning of the corpses of the dead to liberate their souls so that they can thus attain the higher worlds inid-befree for reincarnation into better beings.

At cremation ceremonies hundreds of people in a wild stampede carry the beautiful towers, sixty feet high, solidly built of wood and bamboo and decorated with tinsel and expensive silks, in which the bodies are transported to the cremation grounds. There the corpses are placed in great cows (hewn out of tree-trunks to serve as coffins and covered with precious ma. terials) , and cows, towers, offerings, and ornaments are set on fire, hundreds and even thousands of dollars burned in one afternoon in a mad splurge of extravagance by a people who value the necessities of life in fractions of pennies.

To the Balinese, the material body is only the shell, the container of the soul. This soul live in evry part of the body, even in the hair and nails, but it is concentrated in the head which is near-holy to them. A Balinese observes the rank of his head inrelation to the rest of his body, and for this reason no one would -stand on his head or take any position that would place his feet on. a higher level. It is an offence even to pat a small child on the head and there is no worse insult than " I'll beat your head! " One's soul wanders away during sleep (dreams arc its travels and adventures), without becoming, however, entirely detached from the body, and it is considered dangerous to awaken a person too suddenly. Children are never beaten, so as not to shock their tender, still undeveloped souls.

Madness, epilepsy, and idiocy are the results of a bewitched soul, but oedinary sickness is due to a weakened, polluted soul rather than to mere physical causes. ' Life vanishes when the soul,
escapes from the body through the 'mouth, and death occur's when it refuses to return. The relatives of a dying man who has lost consciousness go to the temple of the dead and, through a
medium, beg the deities for the release and return of his soul. By force of habit, the soul lingers near the body when death comes, and. remains floating in space or lives in a tree near by
until,liberated by the obliteration, of the corpse by the elements by earth, by fire, and by water, to destroy the last unclean tie that. binds the souls of the dead to this earth. By cremation the soul
is released to fly to the heavens for judgment and return to be reborn into the dead man's grandchildren. Failure to, liberate the soul by, neglecting to perform the cremation or by incom-,
plete or, improper rites would force the soul to turn into a ghoset that would haunt the careless descendants.

Cremation rites were probably not introduced into Bali until the time of majapahit, about. the'thirteenth century but the ancient Balinese animists already, believed that their 'life-fluid
was immortal and that after death it returned to animate other beings. They. Practiced the obliteration of the corpse by 'burial or, as is still done in the primitive village of Sembiran, simply
by abandoning the. bodies in the forest at the edge of a ravine to be eaten by wild animals. A man in Bali is born into a superior state - a higher caste -. if his behaviour on this earth has been good; otherwise he will reincarnate into a lower.stage of life to begin over again the progressive march towards.. ultimate perfection Aman "who is guilty'of'serious- crimes is punished by being reborn, often for periods of thousands of years, into a tiger, a dog, a snake, a worm, or a poisonous mushroom.

Between incarnations, until the time comes for its return to this. earth, the soul goes to Indra's heaven, the swarga, a reservoir where "life is just as in Bali, but devoid of all trouble and illness." But this process does not go on forever; when the individual has attained the highest', wisdom and has reached the highest position among men, that of a Brahmana who has been ordained as a priest, he hopes to obtain liberation from this cycle of births. and become a god. The man of low caste attributes his state to former misconduct, redeemable in future lives only through a virtuous existence, which entitles him to be reborn into a higher and higher caste.

A mans life on this earth is but an incident in the long process of the soul's evolution.

The grand send-off of the soul into heaven, in the form of a rich and complete cremation, is the life-ambition of every Balinese. He looks forward to it, often making provision during life with savings or property that can be pawned or sold to finance his cremation. The greatest happiness that comes to a Balinese -family, is to have, in this way, accomplished the liberation of, the souls of their dead, but complete cremation ceremonies are so costly that a family of limited means have to wait often for years., haunted by the fact that their dead are not yet cremated, and are sometimes obliged to sacrifice their crops and their lands in order to pay for the ceremonies. The expenses of, a cremation are enormous; besides the priest's fees, the great amounts of holy water used and the costly towers coffins offerings and so forth there is the food and entertaiment provide for days for the hundreds of guest and assistants that help in the ceremonies

A rich-cremation adds greatly to the prestige o a well-to-do family, giving occasion for gay, extravagant festivities that are eagerly anticipated despite the financial burden they represent

A good average for a great cremation is seldom thousand ringgits or about two million kepengs (a ringgit is worth about one gold dollar in normal exchange), but there:' cremations of princes that cost as much as fifty thousand guilders (at the time of writing, about twenty five thousand dollars

The cremation of the mother of, Naseh, a former servant of' ours, was the poorest we ever witnessed. She was burned three days after her death with only the most essential rites then the costs amounted to more than the, fifty Naseh had succeeded in borrowing. A unique and rather ,improvised cremation of a nobleman of Pemetjutan cost,only three hundred and fifty guilders because the body had to be burnet on the same day the death occurred and I was told. By relatives that had the corpse been kept for the reglementary forty, two days, the cremation would have cost over guilders. The extraordinary decision to cremate. a, caste immediately became possible only because the the community was preparing for, their greatest in,a decade could not have taken place bad there been an im, cremated corpse in the village. The family was in difficult,financial circumstances and they. welcomed the decision.

A Brahmanic priest is essential to a, proper.crmation and only the destitute would call upon a lesser priest,the quality of the ceremonies the priest performs is determined by, the to him. There is a choice of three kinds of cremation utama the highest, costing an average of fifty dollars in,fees for the priest alone; madia the medium class cremation for about twenty-five dollars; and nista, the low for about five dollars The rites for each are abaut-the same the difference consisting
in the quality and power of the magic formulas and symbols and, the sort of holy water used, the credentials given by, to the soul entering heaven, and the more or less thorough purification of the soul.

It is always a good resource, in a great cremation of to provide. a retinue of souls for his trip into the beyond and to profit at the same time by the magical and social advantages of a more elegant cremation. In Krobokan we witnessed the release Of two hundred and fifty souls of commoners who accompanied a member. of the royal family. It is of extreme importance, however, to keep within the rules prescribed for each caste, the breach of which would bring dreadful punishment upon guilty relatives who in their craving for ostentation should use rites or materials for the accessories allotted to a higher caste. These rules are at times infringed and it becomes the source of malicious gossip if a family use a cow instead of a lion to burn their deceased, or if they have more roofs in their tower than is their right. In a few cases the right of cremation is denied, as in the death of exiles from the island. Lepers are buried in hidden places and their redemption, is carried out by pious persons, secretly and through an effigy

THE BODY

To the Balinese only-the,soul is really important, the body being simply an unclean object: no hysteria. Details which would be considered weird and shocking elsewhere are regarded naturally and with great indifference. I have seen a. corpse poked, to help it bum, by relatives who were making loud jokes and scolding the body because-it would not burn quickly enough, so they could go home.
When a man dies, his relatives, near and far, are expected to assemble and bring-presents of food to the immediate family of the deceased. It is believed' that the ghost of the dead man will bring them bad luck if they are not informed within three days. Automatically all relatives of the dead man- become impure, sebel, and cannot enter the temples until. the complete purification rites have- be-en performed. This impurity extends to the house and even. to the entire village, and the higher the Position of the dead one, the greater the degree of uncleanliness of the village.

A sign of death in a house is the lamp called damar kurung,
made of white tissue paper stretched over a bamboo frame and hung outside the gate. This lamp hangs from abird also of bambo and white. paper, which is suspended from the end of a tall bamboo pole, high over the roofs. Every night while the corpse is in the house the lamp is ht to show the way wandering soul. The corpse is placed in one of the pavilions the house to await an auspicious day to be treated and, for burial, or to be mummified if it is to be kept in the High priests may not be buried and it is customary to k bodies within the house until time for their cremation comes this was also done to the corpses of princes, and in the great palaces there is even a special court devoted to this purpose but this is becoming rare nowadays because of the extraordinary expenses it involves.

on the first auspicious day after the death occurs, two' are erected in the courtyard of the house for the purificaton of, the body; one for the sun and another for Pradjapati, the deity of cremation. These are decorated with lamaks and filled offerings that are renewed daily. The naked corpse is then, placed on a stretcher wit its sexual parts covered with a small, of cloth or by the hand of the wife or husband. The, sprinkles the body with holy water and recites prayers; t combed and anointed with perfumed oil and the teeth are filed off if this had not been done during life. The body is then rubbed with a mixture of rice flour and tumeric, with salt, vineger and sandalwood powder. The toes and thumbs are bound with white yarn, and rolls of kepengs are tied to the hands which are folded over the breast in an attitude of prayer. the banten sutji: shreds of mirror glass which are laid on lids, bits of steel on the teeth, a gold ring with a ruby mouth, jasmine flowers in the nostrils, and iron nails on,, limbs - all symbols of the more perfect senses with person will be reborn; stronger and more beautiful, as bright as mirrors, teeth like steel, breath as fragrant as'_' and bones of iron ", (according to Wirtz). The head is covered with a white cloth, and an egg is rolled all over -the body to signify its newly acquired purity. The corpse is next wrapped in many yards of white cloth, in a straw mat, and again in more yards of cloth, and finally bound tightly on the rant6, an external covering of split bamboo tied with rattan.

If the corpse is to be buried and not mummified, it is taken to the cemetery with music, accompanied by singing relatives, who carry offerings and bamboo tubes with holy water. Before lowering the body into the shallow grave, the offerings are dedicated to Mother Earth, a prayer is recited, and money is thrown in to pay for the ground used. The corpse is laid in the grav6 with an open bamboo tube in the place of the mouth to let the soul out, the grave is filled, and a bamboo structure with a roof of white tissue paper is erected over it. A small altar of bamboo is placed next to the grave for offerings, brought daily for a period of twelve days. Offerings are brought again forty-two days after the date of death, when it is considered, that the soul has been completely detached from the body and the cremation can take place, provided there is money available; otherwise it has to be postponed until means are obtained, often years later.

The high priest is next consulted to determine the propitious day on which to bold the cremation - a date far enough in advance to allow for the elaborate preparations. A few days before the date named, the relatives start for the cemetery to dig up the remains. The grave is opened and the body removed or as much of the body as remains after an interment which lasts from a month and seven days to even two years and longer. Sometimes there is not more than a few bones to be found, but even these are collected and arranged as nearly as possible in the form of the human body. These are wrapped in a bundle of new white cloth and carried back to the house. It was an eerie sight. when on a rainy day the men of Pemetjutan were opening the graves for a mass cremation, searching the mud-filled trenches, cavorting and shouting with delight the discovery of a blackened jaw-bone or a femur.

and brocades and ornamented with the family's heirlooms: go] and silver vessels, peacock feathers, jewelled krisses, and so forth

The remains are covered with many cloths bearing magic inscriptions, over which are placed the offerings and the many ritual accessories that symbolize or contain the dead:man's soul.

Among these are the kekreb sinom, a sort of lattice of coconut leaves with flowers in the crossings; and the ukur, a human representation showing the proper position of the bones and nerves, usually simply kePengs (the bones), strung on ropes of white yarn (the nerves), but the prosperous use ukurs made -of silver or gold plaques representing the head, hands, feet, and bones held together by wires of the same metal. These are used for display and are replaced by an ordinary ukur.of coins for the actual burning. An interesting accessory is the angenan, a curious structure made of a'ripe coconut filled with rice (the heart) as the base of an upright stick surmounted by an elaborate structure of. coloured threads (the brains) and a little lamp made of an eggshell (the soul) , supported by a bent piece of rattan - (the arm). This is supposed to commemorate the love and remembrance of the dead person. Of great importance is the kadjang, a sort of, shroud, yards of white cloth covered 'with cabalistic symbol$.. drawn by the priest, who also writes the ulantaga, the credentials. by which the soul is admitted into the swarga, inscriptions on little pieces of a sort of- tapa from Celebes, a specially prescribed,',. paper made of beaten tree-bark. Offerings are made again to the sun, to Pradjapati, and for the evil spirits. There are also special offerings for the soul itself to take along on its trip to the beyond: food for the soul, for its retinue, and for presents to give out',, along its way. These are the ponguriagan, pisang djati, nasi angkab, pandjang ilan, and bubuh pirata, the essential cremation offerings.

THE SOUL

By this time the corpse has lost'all importance,' and from this time on, the family is concerned entirely with the soul of the dead person, A most important accessory for the ensuing ceremonies, and the object around which the rites revolve, is the adegan, the effigy in which the soul is embodied to be purified. The adegan consists of two images', one silhouetted out of palm leaf in the traditional tjili shape and a more realistic one drawn on a thin tablet of sandalwood:, bound together and placed- on a, silver vase that rests on a silver platter. Betel-nut, sirih leaves and flowers for praying are placed inside the vase to make the. soul comfortable and, nothing being too good for it the to-do add a third,image made of beaten gold, bracelets, ankleits and a comb of silver.or gold. The person's.name is written a small label of palm-leaf attached to each adegan. There is effigy for each corpse, but only the adegan is used should remains be available; for instance, if no bones should be found on opening the grave, if its location has been forgotten, or if.
the person died at sea or in a foreign land.

The souls are provided daily with " drinks," holy water,from sacred springs. Processions go regularly to distant mountain-springs to fill the new clay pots inscribed with a lotus and I
sacred syllable ong, while someone casts coins into the waters and recites prayers for the spirit of, the spring. Rolls of ancient black " coppers are tied to the neck of each pot with the special
white yarn used in ritual, and each pot is provided with a label' bearing the name of the dead. The pots of holy water -are then deposited on the pavilions where the bodies lie.
The elusive souls are next " awakened " and captured in the effigies. They are taken to the burial ground, and the company kneels, in front of the open graves strewing afferings on theground and singing songs.the men dig The earth alittle knocking upon it, and call the souls to aweken while someone scatters pennies to distract the devils that wait ready to pounce upon the e and pollute them. The procession returns home, each effigy now incorporating a soul, carried on the bead of a girl, to be blessed in the shrine of each household. Each effigy is then cured as if it were a corpse: it is sprinkled with holy water, the various, ingredients (banten SUtji to anttain physical perfection shreds of mirror, flowers, a gold ring, nails, etc.) are placed over it the, egg rolled along its length, and it is decorated with gold and silver obiects. The cured effigies are placed near the corpses, wayang music is plaved. and the little egg shell lamps of the angenans are lit for the night.the Ceremonies acquire greater significance as the date for the
cremation approaches. A great procession is held on the, the cremation day to take the effigies to the house of the high, priest for their final blessing. It is important that this procession be grand and luxurious, and, all the relatives of the dead Parade in it dressed in the finest clothes obtainable, with brocades gold flowers, jewellery, and jewelled krisses much in evidence orchestras, baris dancers, and scores of bovs carrying spears bannersand flags, followed by long lines of women offerin bearers come at the bead of the parade; they represent the retinue souls in the effigies which are borne on silver platters on the heads of a specially picked group of beautiful girls in ceremonial full, dress - diadems of trembling gold flower-on elaborate arrange ments of lacy scarfs binding their breasts and yellow orgreen skirts of brocade trailing in the dirt often the youngest decendant of the family aboy or a girl dressed in silks and gold riding on a gilt palanquin and shaded by gilt umbrellas Groups of men relatives close the procession. In once saw some fifty men uniformed in yellow trailing loincloths. magenta breast-cloths, and white bead-dresses, all wearing gold krisses, awkwardly conscious of being admired, marching in triple file to the beat of gongs and drums amidst bursting firecrackers.

The procession goes to the priest's house, where he waits to consecrate the effigies through a performance of maweda, the spoken formula emphasized by gestures of the hands. The priest recites his formulas, flings flowers, and sprinkles holy water towards the effigies, which are reverently held in front of him by the kneeling girls. After the ceremony the procession returns home, stopping along the way in the temple of the family's origin to offer a final prayer. At the house, towards dusk, the baris dancers perform war dances to cast a protecting net of magic vibrations, and shows are given to entertain the guests. Relatives, guests, and populace spend the night divided between watching an all-night shadow-play and listening to public readings of the Balinese classic Bhima Swarga, the tale of the fantastic adventures of Bhima on his visit to Hades. Tradition prescribes that this should be read aloud from beginning to -end on the eve of cremation. In dark comers people huddle to steal naps. Outside, the orchestras, among them the gambang, only heard at cremations, boom and bum throughout the night.

THE CREMATION

The great towers in which the corpses are carried to the cremation ground and the animal-shaped coffins in which they will be burned, the two most spectacular factors in a cremation, have waited ready for days in some corner of the village, covered with screens of woven palm-leaf.

The cremation tower is a high structure solidly built of wood and bamboo, bound together with rattan and covered with Coloured paper ornaments and cotton-wool dyed in bright colours, and glittering with tinsel and small mirrors. Shaped like the temple gates and the sun altars, the tower represents again the Balinese conception of the cosmos: a wide base, often in the shape of a turtle with two serpents entwined around its body, the symbol of the foundation, upon which the world rests, supporting three gradually receding platforms -the mountains, with bunches of paper flowers and leaves on the corner of each platform to represent the forests. Then comes an open space, the bale balean, " rather like a house," the space between heaven and earth. This consists of four posts backed with a board on one side, and with a protruding platform to which the bodies are fastened. The bale balean is topped by a series of receding roofs like a pagoda to represent the heavens. These are always in odd numbers which vary according to the caste of the family: one for Sudras, from three to eleven for the aristocracy, and none for the Brahmanic priests. The back of the tower is nearly covered with a gigantic bead of Bhoma, the Son of the Earth, a wild-eyed, fanged monster with enormous outstretched wings, that spread some ten feet on each side of the tower. This mask and the wings are covered with bright-coloured cotton-wool. As many as seventy-five men are often required to carry the great tower and its complementary bridge, a tall bamboo runway by which the upper stages of the tower are reached. Strict caste rules also dictate the shape of the patulangan, the sarcophagi: Sudras are entitled only to burn their dead in open cases shaped like a gadjamina, a fantastic -animal, half el6pbant, half fish. Today the majority of the nobility use the bull for men and the cow for women, animals supposedly once reserved -for Brahmanas; Satrias were entitled only to a singha, a winged lion; and Wesias used the deer. Towers and coffins are not made by ordinary villagers but by artist specialists who are directed by a master craftsman. The cows are splendidly carved out of wood, the hollow body hewn out of a tree-trunk, the back of which opens like a lid. The whole animal is covered with coloured,felt or velvet, lavishly ornamented with goldleaf, cotton-wool, and silk scarfs. Caste again decides whether the animal should be black, white, spotted, yellow, orange, or purple. With true Balinese playfulness, their sexual organs are clearly defined and those of bulls often are made so that they can be put into action by means of a bidden string.

From dawn of the day of the cremation the house teems with excited people attending to the last details; the hosts wait on the notable guests, the women see to the offerings, hordes of halfinaked men proceed to uncover the towers and the sarcophagi and bring them to the front of the house gate. Delegations are sent to the cremation grounds to put the final touches on the bamboo altars and on the platforms of tightly packed earth, roofed with coloured paper and tinsel, where the corpses will be cremated.

When everything is ready and the guests have been served with their final banquet, the village kulkul is beaten to start the march to the cremation grounds; the way to the tower is cleared of evil influences by sprinklings of holy water, and a great fire is often made to prevent rain during the day. Eventually the corpses are taken' out, not through the gate, but over a bridge or through a hole knocked out somewhere in the house walls. The groups of men in loincloths that carry the bodies are greeted with fireworks, and handfuls of kepengs are scattered, as a traditional custom and not because the people actually believe the evil spirits to be interested in pelnnies.

A second party waits outside ready to snatch the corpse from the first group, and a realistic free-for-all ensues; one group rushes against the other, yelling and. hooting like madmen until the attacking party runs off, knocking one another down, turning and. whirling the body in all directions " to confuse it so that it can not find its way back to the house." The corpse is disrespectfully rough-handled all the way to the tower, carried up the bamboo runway, and securely tied to the plank on the uppermost stage, the bale balean. Meantime the women, unconcerned with

pranks of the men, rush to the cremation place in a disorderly',,,, stampede, quite in contrast with the solemn procession of the day', before. Instead of silks and gold, they wear ordinary clothes and most of them go with uncovered breasts. They carry the accessories, offerings, and the pots of holy water. The decaying evilspirit offerings that lay for days near the corpses are piled up on bamboo stretchers and rushed to the cemetery, followed by hordes of hungry dogs that fight for the rotten food that falls oil the ground.

Although there is no organization committee, the procession is soon under way. The orchestras that have played incessantly since the day before march at the head of the parade followed by the spear-bearers, the baris dancers, and the men who carry the cows; then come the women with the effigies, then the towers and the bridges, carried by a wild mob of lialf-naked, shouting men who deliberately choose the most difficult paths, falling into ditches and splashing each other with mud, almost toppling the towers over, and whirling them to further mislead the dead. The high priest rides in a dignified and mystic attitude amidst all this hullabaloo. Each tower is led to the cemetery by a long rope tied at one end to the platform where the corpses are fastened, the other end held by the hands of relatives. This rope has a special significance, and in cremations of members of the royal family, the descendants of the Dewa Agung of Klungkung, it takes the shape of a great serpent that serves as a vehicle for the souls.

The noisy procession dashes along in disorderly fashion, raising clouds of dust, accompanied by fireworks and war music, until it reaches the cemetery, just outside the village. There the cows are placed on the bald pabasmian, the cremation pavilions, their final destination; a canopy of new white cloth, a " sky," is stretched under the paper and tinsel roof directly over the funeral pyre, and detachments from the procession walk three times around the pavilions to do them honour. The bridge is placed against the tower and men run up the runway while the attendant who rode on the tower releases two small chickens that were tied by the feet to the posts of the stage where the bodies are fastened. They are used as a substitute for the doves that in olden times were released by the widows that were sacrificed and cremated with the corpse of a prince. Their significance was probably symbolic, although the Balinese now say that they are only " to teach the soul bow to fly. This may be a typical tongue-in-cheek Balinese answer to dodge a complicated explanation for out siders.

The remains are then handed down by the mien lined along the runway until they reach the ground. Each group carrying a corpse is attacked again by another party of yelling men who aim to take the body by force in fierce hand-to-hand battles. Clothes are torn to shreds and men are trampled upon until the victorious party makes away with the corpse. Meantime women attendants spread the kadjang, the long white shroud which they hold stretched over their heads, attaching one end of the cloth to the corpse, held up high by as many hands as its length permits. Thus led by the kadi2ng, the body is taken to the coffin, now opened by lifting the lid that forms the back of the animal, and the corpse is placed inside. Relatives crowd around it to supervise the last details and have a last look at the body, which they expose by cutting the many bindings with a special knife inscribed with magic syllables.

The high priest steps onto the platform and recites prayers over the corpse, at intervals pouring pot after pot of holy water on it, dashing the empty pots to the ground to break them, which is one of the rules. The body is so thoroughly soaked in holy water that one begins to wonder bow it is possible that it will bum. Next the important accessories,' together with thousands of kepengs as ransom to Yama, the lord of bell, are spread over the body; costly- silks and brocades are piled on it, and the lid is replaced, while the more voluminous offerings are put under the coffin to serve as fuel. The priest stands facing the closed coffin for a final blessing and often he himself sets off the pyre. Fire from matches is considered unclean and it should be procured by friction or by a sun-glass.

The orchestras play all at once, the angk1ung louder and more aggressive than ever, while the gambang hums solemnly near where the old men and the women relatives have assembled to watch the body burn. The air is heavy with the odour peculiar to cremations, which haunts one for hours after, a mixture of decaying organic matter, sweating bodies, trampled grass, charred flesh, and smoke. The mob plunders the towers to rescue the mirrors, silks, and tinsel before it is set on fire. Everybody is tense and they dash about excitedly feeding the fires, all except the high priest, who is in a trance, performing the last maweda on a high platform, the elderly men, who drink palm wine from Tall bamboo vessels, sitting in a boisterous group, and the daughters and wives of the dead men, who remain unemotionally quiet in the background.

The men in charge poke the corpses unceremoniously with long poles, adding debris from the towers, all the while joking and talking to the corpse. The crowd is neither affected nor touched by the weird sight of corpses bursting out of the halfburned coffins, becoming anxious only when the body is slow to burn. Soon the cow's legs give way and the coffin collapses, spilling burning flesh and calcinated bones over the fire until they are totally consumed, often not without a good deal of poking. Small boys are then permitted to fish out the kepengs with long sticks after the unburned pieces of wood are taken away. Water is poured over the embers, and the remaining bits of bone with some ashes are piled into a little mound which is covered with palm-leaves. Green branches of dadap are tied to each of the four posts of the cremation pavilion, and surrounded by a rope of white yarn, thus closing it " to forget the dead." The remaining ashes ire then blessed and placed in an urn, a coconut inscribed with the magic ong and wrapped in white cloth. It is customary that this be done just as the sun has begun to set. A new procession is formed for the march to the sea, where the ashes will be disposed of. On arrival at the seashore, or at, the river if the sea is too far away, the priest Wades into the water to ask of the sea or the river spirit to carry the ashes safely out. The ashes are then carefully strewn over the waters and the whole congregation bathes, to cleanse themselves before returning home in the darkness.

THE SACRIFICE OF WIDOWS

Cremation rites have remained practically unchanged for the last three hundred years, except perhaps for the suppression of the notorious Indian custom of suttee, the sacrifice of widows of deceased notables, burned alive on their husband's pyre. This custorn seems to have enjoyed great popularity at one time among the Balinese aristocracy, although today it has become Merely a legend. A hundred years ago the pioneer historian of the Malay Archipelago, John Crawfurd, gave us the first English account of a widow-burning that took place in 1633, when the Dutch sent a mission to Bali to gain the prince of Gelgel, then sole sovereign, as their ally against the Sultan of Mataram, who was driving attacks on Batavia. The Dutch found the Balinese king making preparations for the cremation of his wife and his two eldest sons. The manuscript account of the mission was translated by a Monsieur Prevost and published in an early histoire des Voyages. Among the passages of the Dutch narrative quoted by Crawfurd are the following:

... About noon, the queen's body was burnt without the city with twenty-two of her female slaves. . . . The body was drawn out of a large aperture made in the wall to the right side of the door, in the absurd opinion of cheating the devil. . . . The female slaves destined to accompany the dead went before, according to their ranks . . . each supported behind by an old woman, and carried on a Badi (tower), skillfully constructed of bamboos, and decked all over with flowers. Before them were placed a roast pig, some rice, betel and other fruits as an offering to their gods, and these unhappy victims of the most direful idolatry are thus carried in triumph, to the sound of different instruments, to the place where they are to be poignarded and consumed by fire. There, each found a particular scaffold prepared for her, in the form of a trough, raised on four short posts and edged on two sides with planks. . . . Some of the attendants let loose a pigeon or a fowl, to mark that their soul was on the point of taking its flight to the mansions of the blessed. . . . They were divested of all their garments, except their sashes, and four of the men, seizing the victim, two by the arms, which they held extended, and two by the feet, the victim standing, the fifth prepared himself for the execution, the whole being done without covering the eyes. . . .

" Some of the most courageous demanded the poignard themselves, which they received in the right hand, passing it to the left, after respectfully kissing the weapon. They wounded their right arms, sucked the blood which flowed from the wound, and stained their lips with it, making a bloody mark on the forehead with the point of the finger. Then returning the dagger to their executioners, they received a first stab between the false ribs, and a second under the shoulder blade, the weapon being thrust up to the hilt towards the heart. As soon as the horrors of death were visible in the countenance, without a complaint escaping them, they were permitted to fall on the ground . . . and were stripped of their last remnant of dress, so that they were left in a state of perfect nakedness. The executioners receive as their reward two hundred and fifty, pieces of copper money of about the value of five sols each, The ' nearest relations, if they be present, or persons hired for the occa. sion . . . wash the bloody bodies . . . covering them with wood
in such manner that only the head is visible, and, having applied
fire, they are consumed to ashes. . . .

" The women were already poignarded and the greater number of them in flames, before the dead body of the queen arrived, borne on a superb Badi of pyramidal form, consisting of eleven steps, supported by a number of persons proportioned to the rank of the deceased. . . . Two priests preceded the Badi in vehicles of particular form, each holding in one hand a cord attached to the Badi, as if giving to understand that they led the deceased to heaven, and with the other ringing a little bell, while such a noise of gongs, tambours, flutes and other instruments is made, that the whole ceremony has less the air of a funeral procession than of a joyous village~fcstival. . . . The dead body was placed on its own funeral pile which was forthwith lighted. The assistants then regaled them selves with a faast while the musicians, without cessation, struck the car with a tumultous melody, not unpleasing. . . .

" At the funeral of the King's two sons a short time before, 42 woman of the one, and 34 of the other, were poignarded and burnt in the manner above described; but on such occasions the princesses of royal blood themselves leap at once into the flames . . . because they would look upon themselves as dishonoured by anyone's laying hands on their persons. For this purpose a kind of bridge is erected over a burning pile, which they mount, holding a paper close to their foreheads, and having their robe tucked under their arm. As soon as they feel the beat, they precipitate themselves into the burning pile. . . . In case firmness should abandon them . . . a brother, or another near relative, is at hand to push them in, and render them, out of affection, that cruel office. . . .

when a prince or princess of the royal family dies, their women Or slaves run around the body, tittering cries . . . and all crazily solicit to die for their master or mistress. The King, on the following day, designates those of whom lie makes choice. From that moment to the last of their lives, they are daily conducted at an early 11our, each in her vehicle, to the sound of musical instruments . . . to perform their devotions, having their feet wrapped in white linen, for it is no more permitted them to touch the bare earth, because they are considered as consecrated. The young women, little skilled

in these religious exercises, are instructed by the aged women who accompany them. . . . Those who have devoted themselves, are made to pass the night in continual dancing and rejoicing. . . . All pains are taken to give them whatever tends to the gratification of their senses, and from the quantity of wine which they take, few objects are capable of terrifying their imaginations. . . . No woman or slave, however, is obliged to follow this barbarous custom. . . ."

The remainder of the narrative proceeds like any other of the great cremations that are held today. Another interesting account of widow-burning is given us by an eyewitness, the scholar Friederich, of the cremation of the Dewa Manggis, Radja of Gianyar, which took place in that town on December 22, 1847:

" The corpse was followed by the three wives who became Belas. A procession went before them, as before the body. . . . They were seated in the highest storeys of the Bades. . . . After the body of the prince had arrived at the place of cremation, the three Belas in their Bades, each preceded by the bearer of the offerings destined for her, with armed men and bands of music, were conducted to the three fires
" Their Bades were turned around three times and were carried around the whole place of cremation. The women were then car. ried down steps from the Bades and up the steps of the places erected for their cremation. These consisted of squares of masonry three feet high filled with combustibles which had been burning since morning and threw out a glowing heat; the persons appointed to watch them fed the fire, and at the moment when the women leaped down, poured upon it a quantity of oil and arrak, so that it flared up to a height of eight feet and must have suffocated the victims at once. Behind this furnace stood in erection of bamboo in' the form of a bridge, of the same width as the square of masonry about forty feet long and from sixteen to eighteen feet high; steps of bamboo led up to it in the rear. In the centre there is a smaall house, affording a last resting-place to the victim, in which she waits till the ceremonies for her husband are finished and his body hasbegun to burn. The side of the bamboo scaffold nearest the fire it protected by a wall of wet Pisang (banana) steins. Upon the bridge lies a plank smeared with oil, which is pushed out a little over the fire as soon as the time for the leap draws near. There is a door at the end of the bridge that is not removed until the last minute. the victim sits in the house on the bridge, accompanied by a female priest and by her relatives. . . . Then she makes her toilet; her hair
especially is combed, the mirror used, and her garments newly arranged; in short, she arrays herself exactly as she would for a feast. Her dress is white, her breasts are covered with a ,white Slendang (scarf); she wears no ornaments, and after the preparations to which she has been subjected, her hair at the last moment hangs loose.
When the corpse of the prince was almost consumed, the three Belas got ready; they glanced one towards another to convince themselves that all was prepared; but this was not a glance of fear, but of impatience, and it seemed to express a wish that they might leap at the same moment. When the door opened and the plank smeared
with oil was pushed out, each took her place on the plank, made three Sembahs (reverences) by joining her hands above her head, and one of the bystanders placed a small dove upon her head. When the dove flies away the soul is considered to escape. They immediately leaped down. There was no cry in leaping, no cry from the
fire; they must have suffocated at once. One of the Europeans present succeeded in pushing through the crowd to the fire and in seeing the body some seconds after the leap - it was dead and its move merits were caused merely by the combustion of the materials cast upon the flames. On other occasions, however, Europeans have
heard cries uttered in leaping and in the first moments, afterwards. . . .

" During the whole time from the burning of the prince till the leap of the victims, the air resounded with the clangour of numerous bands of music; small cannon were discharged and the soldiers had drawn up outside the fire and contributed to the noise by firing off their muskets. There was not one of the 50,000 Balinese present who did not show a merry face; no one was filled wit], repugance and disgust except a few Europeans whose only desire was to see the end of such barbarities."

It was only the wives of princes that were thus sacrificed; the Brahmanas did not consider it necessary for the redemption of

From the time their decision was made, the widows were regarded as already dead and deified. They lived a life of constant pleasures, exempt from all duties and constantly attended by the other wives. Their feet were not supposed to touch the impure ground and, like goddesses, they were carried everywhere, lavishly dressed and half-entranced. A Brahmanic priestess was constantly at their side, encouraging them to their sacrifice with flowery descriptions of the beauties of life among the gods. Friederich tells that when tile time came, they were so thoroughly hypnotized that " they jumped into the fire as if it were a bath."

However shocking this practice may seem to us, it is not difficult to understand why it was acceptable to die Balinese; the scriptures not only sanctioned it, but even encouraged the sacrifices, and to the victims it was a short cut to attain the higher spiritual state ever so much more important than their insignificant physical life on this earth. Both the early Dutch narrative and Friederich make it clear that no compulsion was used and that the women to be sacrificed had to make their decision by the eighth day after their husband's death. They could,, neither withdraw nor volunteer later.

The Dutch did all that was in their power to stamp out this practice and set a strict prohibition on widow-sacrifices. The last, official cremation in which a woman was burned took place just after the conquest of South Bali; we were present, however, at a cremation in Sukawati at which we were told by a reliable in

former that the noble wife of the deceased prince had died conveniently in a mysterious manner three days before the cremation in order to be burned together with her husband. Despite the Dutch claim of having suppressed widow-sacrifices, it seems that the custom was already dying out, like many other extravagant practices that became too costly. Nearly one hundred years ago, during two years' residence in the island, Friederich witnessed only one case of widow-burning, that which he describes.

THE AFTERMATH

To have got rid of the corpse that, with its uncleanliness, bound the soul to the material world, despite the strenuous sacrifices of the family and the countless rites performed does not yet mean that the duties of the descendants are over. It is now essential that the liberated soul be consecrated by further ceremonies, often even more elaborate than the cremation itself, as one of the pitara, the full-fledged ancestral deities. After this the soul receives the name of Dewa Yang, literally a " God," and is allotted a resting-place in the family temple to protect the household.

There are further minor ceremonies within the next twelve days after the remains have been disposed of, such as the metuhun, when the relatives congregate and through a medium, usually a medicine-man, a balian in a trance, communicate with the soul to ask if all is well. I was told that once the balian encountered difficulties in establishing contact with the soul, but an old woman relative suddenly went into ecstasy and spoke to the spirit of the dead man in order to inform the anxious family of the success of the cremation. Then there are the ngerebuhin, when the soul receives offerings, and the mapegat, the final breaking of the last ties with this earth, symbolized by burning a thread and smashing egg-shells. The relatives, the house, and the precious objects used in the ceremonies that were not meant to be destroyed have still to be cleansed from the impurity they acquired by their contact with the dead. But the greatest of all the funeral ceremonies, the consecration of the soul, is the mukur, when the deceased is symbolized by an object called a " blossom," by means of which the ceremonies are performed.

The mukur takes place forty-two days after the cremation and consists in offerings and magic incantations by the high priest, meritorious acts to help the travelling soul to attain its highest goal, the heaven allotted to it by caste, and to predispose the supreme judges to overlook minor sins and be lenient. There are various heavens, each on a higher and higher level, the stages of the cosmic meru, symbolized by the temple pagodas and by the cremation towers. Each heaven is dedicated to one of the castes: the highest is of course for the Brahmana Siwa, the next for the Brahmana Budda, and the lower ones for the Satrias and wesias. The common people have to be content to go to the swarga, the purgatory where they enjoy a perfect life in pure Balinese earthly fashion.

The mukur ceremony is extremely complicated, but is, in a way, so similar to the cremation itself that a detailed description of it would only result in a repetition of the ceremonies already described. The same guests are entertained, similar offerings and accessories are made, the same priests are engaged, ,and a second tower (bukur) is constructed, this time tall and slender and entirely decorated in white and gold. Again many orchestras and troupes of actors arc engaged and pretentious banquets of turtle and roast pig are served.

Great stages raised high above the ground are built at the house for offerings and for the priest. The altars are higher and more beautifully decorated than ever, the devil offerings more elaborate than before, and the participants wear their best clothes and jewellery, the women adding a band of white cloth and a little fan of white paper worn on the head as a symbol of the purity of the occasion. The ceremonies begin by the making of new effigies identical to the adegans used for the cremation, which are given life, blessed, purified by the priest, and then killed " by being burned. The ashes are collected and placed in individual coconut shells with a short stick through their
middle. These coconuts are then wrapped in white cloth, decorated with flowers, and provided with a gold knob at the top, a gold ring with a ruby, a string of about two hundred kepengs,
an image representing the dead drawn oil a sandalwood slab, and a label of palm-leaf bearing the name of the person. This is the sekar, a " blossom." a When ready, the sekars arc placed oil
silver platters, the relatives mike a ceremonial reverence to them, and they are deposited oil the high stage, which is now filledwith expensive silks and offerings. At the mukur of the Radja
of Djerokuta we saw glasses of foreign commodities such as whisky, brandy, and gin.

After the night of vigil spent in watching dramatic performances, listening to music, and so forth, the priest performs his most powerful mantras, the relatives pray, and the sekars are brought down, each member of the family placing one over his or her head to absorb their beneficial influence. They are then broken up, burned, and the ashes placed again in a new sekar identical with the former. These are placed on the white and gold biers and again a great procession starts off for the sea, of ten miles away, with the same mad recklessness as when the corpses were carried to be cremated. The procession stops a, the seashore and the sekars are brought down, placed on a boat, and taken out to the open sea, where they arc thrown into the waters, far enough so that they will not be washed ashore. The biers are again dismantled and burned. All the accessories are destroyed; nothing must remain, and what is not broken tip is burned. Special patrols are appointed to destroy whatever is returned by the waves.

The ceremony over, the happy participants, now relieved of their strenuous duties, take a general bath just at the water's edge, the women unconcerned in a group just a few yards away from

the boisterous men, who play and splash in the breaking waves, There is still the long walk home from the shore, and the crowd returns in the blazing midday sun - hot, exhausted, and considerably poorer than before, but in high spirits and happy to

have accomplished their greatest duty to those to whom they owe their existence: the consecration of their dead so that they shall continue to guide them as deities in the same way in which, as ordinary human beings, they helped and protected them. All of this has been achieved by the triple purifying action of earth, fire, and water.