Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/288

244> RELIGION OF BALI. In the year 1 633, four years after the last at- tack on Batavia by the sultan of Mataram, the Dutch, dreading a renewal of hostilities on the part of that prince, sent a mission to the island of Bali to request the assistance of the prince of Gel^ gely who appears at that time to have been sole sovereign of the island. The manuscript account of this mission has been translated by Mons. Pre- vost, and affords an interesting and most curious account of the funeral ceremonies of the Balinese princes. The ambassadors found the king in the deepest affliction on account of the death of his two eldest sons, and the dangerous illness of his queen, who, in fact, also died soon after their ar- rival. No business could be transacted until after that princess's funeral, which the king, according to the Dutch statement, gave orders, in compli- ment to the Europeans, should take plate in eight days, although, in conformity to ancient usage, the ceremony ought not to have taken place earlier than a month and seven days after death. The Dutch narrative proceeds as follows. " The same day, about noon, the queen's body was burnt with- out the city, with two and twenty of her female slaves j and we consider ourselves bound to render pres< rver de la putrefaction. On i^nUTre cnfin dans le meme caisse, qu'on terme avec des chevilks <ie bois, dans le cinie- tidre qui est un endroit enclos et couvert d'ais."~.P. 115, 116,