After dinner we stayed to see a curious half superstitious scene
acted by the Malay women. A large wooden spoon dressed in garments,
and which had been carried to the grave of a dead man, they pretend
becomes inspired at the full of the moon, and will dance and jump
about. After the proper preparations, the spoon, held by two women,
became convulsed, and danced in good time to the song of the
surrounding children and women. It was a most foolish spectacle;
but Mr. Liesk maintained that many of the Malays believed in its
spiritual movements. The dance did not commence till the moon had
risen, and it was well worth remaining to behold her bright orb so
quietly shining through the long arms of the cocoa-nut trees as
they waved in the evening breeze. These scenes of the tropics are
in themselves so delicious that they almost equal those dearer ones
at home, to which we are bound by each best feeling of the mind.
The next day I employed myself in examining the very interesting,
yet simple structure and origin of these islands. The water being
unusually smooth, I waded over the outer flat of dead rock as far
as the living mounds of coral, on which the swell of the open sea
breaks.
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