290 DEATH OF DANIEL TAVERNIER book iii
some
diamond rings made according to the fashion of the country. For
although these people have for their sole garment only two or three
ells of calico, nevertheless, they always like to have some diamond
rings or earrings, and they pay well for them. When I was at the port,
ready to embark, a small barque arrived from Bantam with my brother,
who was very ill with a bloody flux, which arose from the debauches he
had indulged in with the King of Bantam. The sight of his condition
caused me to give up my voyage and to do what I could for his cure, but
all my care and all the remedies which could be applied availed
nothing, and at the end of thirty days God took him from this world.
For his funeral I was obliged to follow the somewhat strange customs,
which the Dutch have invented to cause expenditure of money by the
heirs of a deceased l person. The first is the fee to those
who go to pray at the burial, for the more prayers are said the more
honourable is the interment. If only one be engaged he pays him but 2
ecus, but if two he must pay 4 ecus to each ; if three, each ought to
receive 6 ; and if twelve, the payment goes on increasing in the same
ratio. As I wished that the thing should be done in an honourable
manner, and in ignorance of this pleasant custom, I engaged six of
these persons, and when it came to paying them I was astonished to find
that each one demanded 12 ecus, and that I had to pay 72 for this
single item. As for the pall which is placed on the bier, it must be
hired at the hospital, and it is a right which the poor enjoy who
derive profit therefrom. The commonest is of cloth, and the three
others of velvet, one without fringe, another with fringe, and a third
with fringe and large tassels at the four corners. This causes an
expenditure of from 5 to 30 ecus, and I paid 20 for the one which was
placed on my brother's bier. A cask of Spanish wine, which was drunk at
the interment, cost me 200 piastres.3 I gave 26 for three hams and some ox tongues, and 22 for
The
foregoing lines of this chapter are in the English translation by John
Phillips, compressed into the following quaintly expressed sentence :—'
While I stay'd at Batavia my brother dy'd; and it was pretty to
consider what the Dutch made me pay for his funeral.' 2 £45.
