manufactured from joints of bamboo, and called panah ayer, or “water-bows.”
A set of similar objects (including nasi adap-adap), is prepared by the relatives
of the bride, and deposited upon the ground in the place selected for the bathing
ceremony. A bench being added for the bride and bridegroom to sit upon, the
ceremony commences with the customary rite of tĕpong tawar, after which the
two kinds of holy water, ayer tolak bala and ayer salamat, are successively
thrown over the pair.
Now, according to the proper custom, during the proceedings which follow, all
the bride’s relatives should surround the bride’s seat, and the bridegroom’s
relatives should stand at a distance; but, in order to save themselves from a
wetting, the women of both parties now usually assemble round the bride and
bridegroom, where they are protected by a sheet which is hung between them
and the men; for all the young men now proceed to discharge their “water
arrows,” and as they are stopped by the sheet they proceed to turn their syringes
against each other, until all are thoroughly wetted.
Meanwhile a young cocoa-nut frond, twisted into a slip-knot with V-shaped ends
(something like the “merry thought” of a fowl), is presented to the bride and
bridegroom, each of whom takes hold of one end, and blowing on it (sĕmbor)
thrice, pulls it till it comes undone, and the lĕpas-lĕpas rite is concluded. Finally,
a girdle of thread is passed seven times over the heads and under the feet of the
bride and bridegroom, when the bridegroom breaks through the thread and they
are all free to return homewards. This latter ceremony is called ’lat-’lat. The
guests then return to their homes, divest themselves of their wet garments, and
put on their wedding attire. The bĕrsuap-suapan, or feeding ceremony, is then
performed (both vessels of adap-adap rice being used), and then all parties
disperse for the usual games. Seven days after the “Concluding Day” (Hari
Langsong), the ceremony of Discarding the Earrings (i.e. subang, the emblems
of virginity) is performed by the bride.
Raja Bôt of Selangor, who attaches great importance to the lustration ceremony,
and says that it ought not to take place later than the seventh day (at a Raja’s
wedding), thus describes the full ceremony as once arranged by himself:—A
small bath-house was built at the top of a flight of seven steps, and water was
pumped up to it through a pipe, whose upper end was made fast under the roof
of the shed, and terminated in the head of a dragon (naga), from whose jaws the