Malay Magic _ Being an introduction to the - Walter William Skeat

shadows fall    upon    the rice.   (Yang   mĕnuwei sampei  habis   mĕnuwei,    tiada

buleh   mĕnindeh    bayang.)

5. The light placed near the head of the Rice-child’s bed might not be
   allowed to go out at night, whilst the hearth-fire might not be allowed to go
   out at all, night or day, for the whole three days.

The above taboos are in many respects identical with those which have to be
observed for three days after the birth of a real child.

I may add that every day, when the reapers start their reaping, they have to
repeat the following charm:—

“A  swallow has fallen, striking    the ground,

Striking    the ground  in  the middle  of  our house-yard;

But ye, O   Shadows and Spectral    Reapers,

See that    ye  mingle  not with    us.”

When reaping, they must cover their heads and must face the sun, no matter
what hour of the day it is, in order to prevent their own shadows from falling
upon the rice in the basket at their side.

Pounding the first of the padi.—I witnessed this ceremony three days later, at
about 9 A.M. The three baskets filled with the first reapings were removed from
the mat on which they had been placed, and their contents emptied out upon a
new mat, to each corner of which four rice-ears were tied, and trodden out (di-
irekkan) by the owner of the field. Then the rice was poured back into two of the

baskets, and the straw of the rice “heads” was plaited into a wreath.^219

Drying the first of the padi.—Preparations being complete, the two baskets full
of newly-cut rice were carried down the steps and out to an open part of the
field, a little way from the house, and there spread on a mat in the sun to dry. To
spread it properly is not an easy matter, the operator (who in this case was the
owner), standing on the mat and spreading the grains with a long sweeping
motion of the hand from one side of the mat to the other (the process being
called di-kekar, di-kachau, or mĕmbalikkan jĕmoran). In the present case several
objects were placed in the centre of the mat, consisting of—

1. A basket-work stand (one of those used for the cooking-pots, and called