CHAPTER XI

Summary

The religion which they profess is that of Mahomet, and there is no other throughout the islands, save among the foreigners who land there; albeit of these the most frequent are Arabs, Malabars, and Indians of Sumatra, who hold the same faith. Their temples are called Mesquites, which are well built of fair worked stone, and well bonded; they have thick walls, and stand in the middle of a large walled square, which is their cemetery, where they bury their dead,–or rather, some of them: for they choose burial-places where they will, and everyone likes to have a place for his own. The temple is square, facing the west, for that, they say, is the direction of the sepulchre of Mahomet. It has three doors, and at the entrance to each, on the outside, there is a large well, descended by steps, the bottom and sides of which are paved and fitted with flat stones, well polished and neat, to accommodate them at their ablutions; and thence to the door is a paved way of the same stone (for all the rest of the close or cemetery is only sand), so that they may not be soiled after bathing, and then they must mount eight or nine steps to the elevation of the temple.