- A large iron nail.
13 to 15. Three Malay reaping instruments (pĕnuwei).^211
Close to the dulang stood a cocoa-nut shell filled with the tĕpong tawar, which
plays so prominent a part in Malay magic ceremonies, and a brush made up of
the leaves of seven different plants, bound up as usual with a cord of kulit t’rap
(the bark of the Wild Breadfruit), and ribu-ribu (a kind of small creeper). The
plants which supplied the leaves of which the brush was composed, were as
follows:—
- Sapĕnoh. 2. Sapanggil. 3. Jĕnjuang (or lĕnjuang) merah (the Red Dracæna).
- Gandarusa. 5. Pulut-pulut. 6. Sĕlaguri. 7. Sambau dara (a kind of grass).
But the most interesting object was a small oval-shaped basket bound with the
ribu-ribu creeper, and about fourteen inches long, which was standing just in
front of the three rice-baskets and close to the Pawang, and which, as I
afterwards found out, was intended to serve as the cradle of the Rice-soul (or
“Rice-baby”). I examined it, however, and found that as yet it only contained the
following objects:—
- A strip of white cloth (folded up and lying at the bottom of the basket).
- Some parti-coloured thread (bĕnang panchawarna or pancharona).
- A hen’s egg.
- One of the hard jungle-nuts (candle-nuts) already referred to.
- A cockle shell (k’rang).
- A long iron nail.
- Five cubits of red cloth by means of which the soul-basket was to be
slung round the neck of its bearer. (The correcter custom would require an
expensive cloth of the kind called jong sarat, or the “Loaded Junk,”
according to my informant the Pawang.)
Three new Malay skirts or sarongs were added, (one to each basket), and
everything being ready, the various receptacles described above were entrusted
to five female bearers (Pĕnjawat), who descended from the house, with the
Pawang at their head, and set out for the rice-field. Before they had gone many
yards they were joined by the owner of the field, who walked in front of them
bearing what was called the junjongan padi. This was the stem and leaves of a
dark red kind of sugar-cane, which was used in substitution for the black or