house. To understand what this means to a Malay, you must realise that the seat
in the doorway, at the head of the stair-ladder that reaches to the ground, is to
him much what the fireside is to the English peasant. It is here that he sits and
looks out patiently at life, as the European gazes into the heart of the fire. It is
here that his neighbours come to gossip with him, and it is in the doorway of his
own or his friend’s house that the echo of the world is borne to his ears. But,
while Sĕlĕma is ill, Umat may not block the doorway, or dreadful consequences
will ensue, and though he appreciates this and makes the sacrifice readily for his
wife’s sake, it takes much of the comfort out of his life.
“Sĕlĕma, meanwhile, has to be equally circumspect. She bridles her woman’s
tongue resolutely, and no word in disparagement of man or beast passes her lips
during all these months, for she has no desire to see the qualities she dislikes
reproduced in the child. She is often tired to death and faint and ill before her
hour draws nigh, but none the less she will not lie upon her mat during the
daytime lest her heavy eyes should close in sleep, since her child would surely
fall a prey to evil spirits were she to do so. Therefore she fights on to the dusk,
and Umat does all he can to comfort her and to lighten her sufferings by constant
tenderness and care.”^33
The medicine (sambaran bara), used by the mother after her confinement,
consists of the ashes of a burnt cocoa-nut shell pounded and mixed with a pinch
of black pepper (lada hitam sa-jimput), a root of garlic (bawang puteh sa-labuh),
and enough vinegar to make the mixture liquid. This potion is drunk for three
consecutive mornings. A bandage is swathed about her waist, and she is treated
with a cosmetic (bĕdak) manufactured from tĕmu kuning, which is pounded
small (and mixed as before with garlic, black pepper, and vinegar), and applied
every morning and evening for the first three days. During the next three days a
new cosmetic (bĕdak kunyit t’rus) is applied, the ingredients being kunyit t’rus
pounded and mixed in the same way as the cosmetic just described.
At the same time the patient is given a potion made from the ash of burnt durian
skins (abu kulit durian), mixed as before with vinegar; the fruit-stalk, or “spire,”
of a cocoa-nut palm (manggar niyor) being substituted if the durian skin is not
obtainable.
A poultice (ubat pupok) is also applied to the patient’s forehead, after the early
bathing, during the “forty-four days” of her retirement; it consists of leaves of