28th Oct.
Since I wrote,we have had more really cold weather,but yesterday the summer seems to have begun.The air is as light and clear as if THERE WERE NONE,and the sun hot;but I walk in it,and do not find it oppressive.All the household groans and perspires,but I am very comfortable.
Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour or more,in the hot dust of the Malay burial-ground.They buried the head butcher of the Mussulmans,and a most strange poetical scene it was.The burial-ground is on the side of the Lion Mountain -on the Lion's rump -and overlooks the whole bay,part of the town,and the most superb mountain panorama beyond.I never saw a view within miles of it for beauty and grandeur.Far down,a fussy English steamer came puffing and popping into the deep blue bay,and the 'Hansom's'
cabs went tearing down to the landing place;and round me sat a crowd of grave brown men chanting 'Allah il Allah'to the most monotonous but musical air,and with the most perfect voices.The chant seemed to swell,and then fade,like the wind in the trees.
I went in after the procession,which consisted of a bier covered with three common Paisley shawls of gay colours;no one looked at me;and when they got near the grave,I kept at a distance,and sat down when they did.But a man came up and said,'You are welcome.'
So I went close,and saw the whole ceremony.They took the corpse,wrapped in a sheet,out of the bier,and lifted it into the grave,where two men received it;then a sheet was held over the grave till they had placed the dead man;and then flowers and earth were thrown in by all present,the grave filled in,watered out of a brass kettle,and decked with flowers.Then a fat old man,in printed calico shirt sleeves,and a plaid waistcoat and corduroy trousers,pulled off his shoes,squatted on the grave,and recited endless 'Koran',many reciting after him.Then they chanted 'Allah-il-Allah'for twenty minutes,I think:then prayers,with 'Ameens'and 'Allah il-Allahs'again.Then all jumped up and walked off.There were eighty or a hundred men,no women,and five or six 'Hadjis',draped in beautiful Eastern dresses,and looking very supercilious.The whole party made less noise in moving and talking than two Englishmen.
A white-complexioned man spoke to me in excellent English (which few of them speak),and was very communicative and civil.He told me the dead man was his brother-in-law,and he himself the barber.
I hoped I had not taken a liberty.'Oh,no;poor Malays were proud when noble English persons showed such respect to their religion.
The young Prince had done so too,and Allah would not forget to protect him.He also did not laugh at their prayers,praise be to God!'I had already heard that Prince Alfred is quite the darling of the Malays.He insisted on accepting their FETE,which the Capetown people had snubbed.I have a friendship with one Abdul Jemaalee and his wife Betsy,a couple of old folks who were slaves to Dutch owners,and now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort,with 'Betsy,fruiterer,'painted on the back of an old tin tray,and hung up by the door of the house.Abdul first bought himself,and then his wife Betsy,whose 'missus'generously threw in her bed-ridden mother.He is a fine handsome old man,and has confided to me that 5,000pounds would not buy what he is worth now.I have also read the letters written by his,son,young Abdul Rachman,now a student at Cairo,who has been away five years -four at Mecca.
The young theologian writes to his 'HOOG EERBARE MOEDER'a fond request for money,and promises to return soon.I am invited to the feast wherewith he will be welcomed.Old Abdul Jemaalee thinks it will divert my mind,and prove to me that Allah will take me home safe to my children,about whom he and his wife asked many questions.Moreover,he compelled me to drink herb tea,compounded by a Malay doctor for my cough.I declined at first,and the poor old man looked hurt,gravely assured me that it was not true that Malays always poisoned Christians,and drank some himself.
Thereupon I was obliged,of course,to drink up the rest;it certainly did me good,and I have drunk it since with good effect;it is intensely bitter and rather sticky.The white servants and the Dutch landlady where I lodge shake their heads ominously,and hope it mayn't poison me a year hence.'Them nasty Malays can make it work months after you take it.'They also possess the evil eye,and a talent for love potions.As the men are very handsome and neat,I incline to believe that part of it.
