Travels in India (Tavernier) 127.7

127.7

He did the same with the cloth, which he cut up into many pieces, only keeping for himself what was sufficient to cover the middle of his body, and this distribution having been made he disappeared before all the crowd, who have never since heard what had become of him, notwithstanding all the research that they could make; this ought to show sufficiently that in these matters the work of the devil is manifested. As there are many Chinese at Batavia, I shall give here an account of a custom which I have observed among that kind of idolaters. When a Chinaman is at the point of death, all the relatives and friends who come to see him range themselves about him, and ask him, while crying, where he wishes to go, that if he wants anything he has only to say it and that they will give it to him, be it gold, silver, or women. When dead many ceremonies are performed at their funerals; these consist principally in displays of fireworks, in which the Chinese excel all the other nations of the world, and a man must be very poor if something is not expended on them at his death. Moreover, some silver is placed in a small box, which is buried near the deceased, and a quantity of food is placed near the grave in the belief that he will come to eat it. As some soldiers of the garrison are sent out of Batavia every evening to make the circuit of the town during the night, they on one occasion took it into their heads to go to these graves, where they ate up what had been left;