(tahu mĕniarap). This contrivance, it is alleged, prevents the child from starting
and straining its muscles. Over the child’s mat is suspended a sort of small
conical mosquito-net (kain bochok), the upper end of which is generally stitched
(di-sĕmat) or pinned on to the top of the parent’s mosquito curtain, and which is
intended to protect the child from any stray mosquito or sandfly which may have
found its way into the bigger net used by his parents.
Next comes the ceremony of marking the forehead (chonting muka), which is
supposed to keep the child from starting and straining itself (jangan tĕrkĕjut
tĕrkĕkau), and from convulsions (sawan), and at the same time to preserve it
from evil spirits. The following are the directions:—Take chips of wood from
the thin end (kapala?) of the threshold, from the steps of the house-ladder, and
from the house furniture, together with a coat (kesip) of garlic, a coat of an
onion, assafœtida, a rattan cooking-pot stand, and fibre from the “monkey-face”
of an unfertile cocoa-nut (tampo’ niyor jantan). Burn all these articles together,
collect the ashes, and mix them by means of the fore-finger with a little “betel-
water.”
Now repeat the proper charm,^25 dip the finger in the mixture, and mark the
centre of the child’s forehead, if a boy with a sign resembling what is called a
bench mark , if a girl with a plain cross +, and at the same time put small daubs
on the nose, cheeks, chin, and shoulders. Then mark the mother with a line
drawn from breast to breast (pangkah susu) and a daub on the end of the nose
(cholek hidong). If you do this properly, a Langat Malay informed me, the Evil
One will take mother and child for his own wife and child (who are supposed to
be similarly marked) and will consequently refrain from harming them!
In addition to the above, if the child is a girl, her eyebrows are shaved and a
curve drawn in their place, extending from the root of the nose to the ear (di-
pantiskan bĕntok taji dĕri muka sampei pĕlipis). The mixture used for marking
these curves consists of manjakani mixed with milk from the mother’s breast.
Another most curious custom which recalls a parallel custom among North
American Indians, is occasionally resorted to for the purpose of altering the
shape of the child’s head. When it is considered too long (tĕrlampau panjang), a
small tightly-fitting “yam leaf cap” (songko’ daun k’ladi), consisting of seven
thicknesses of calladium (yam) leaves is used to compress it. This operation is
supposed to shorten the child’s skull, and the person who fits it on to the child’s