210
These were newly-plaited round baskets, three in number, and diminishing in size from the
Pawang’s right to her left (the big one being supposed to contain seven, the medium size five,
and the smallest one three, gĕmalan of padi); they were each bound round, just under the rim,
with the female variety of the creeper called ribu-ribu freshly gathered that morning. ↑
211
One of these was called the pĕnuwei sulong (lit. eldest rice-cutter), which was only to be used
—when the Pawang had done with it—by the owner of the rice-field, and the blade of which is
fitted into a piece of the wood called pompong; the reason given being that the pompong was
the wood of which these instruments were originally made, whilst what I may call the handle
of the instrument was made of a slip of bamboo stopped from end to end with wax. About the
other two pĕnuweis there was nothing specially remarkable. ↑
212
These are the names of two girls mentioned in the “Malay Annals” (Sĕjarah Malayu) to whose
rice there happened a strange phenomenon. The following is Leyden’s translation (in which the
names appear as Ampu and Malin). “The name of its (the country of Palembang’s) river was
Muartatang (Muartenang ?) into which falls another river named Sungey Malayu (Malay
River), near the source of which is a mountain named the mountain Sagantang Maha Miru (v.
p. 2, supra). There were two young women of Belidung, the one named Wan-Ampu, and the
other Wan-Malin, employed in cultivating rice on this mountain, where they had large and
productive rice-grounds. One night they beheld their rice-fields gleaming and glittering like
fire. Then said Ampu to Malin, ‘What is that light which is so brilliant? I am frightened to look
at it.’ ‘Make no noise,’ said Malin, ‘it is some great snake or naga.’ Then they both lay quiet
for fear. When it was daylight they arose and went to see what it was shone so bright during
the night. They both ascended the hill, and found the grain of the rice converted into gold, the
leaves into silver, and the stalks into brass, and they were extremely surprised, and said, ‘This
is what we observed during the night.’” The account proceeds to show how the prodigy was
due to a supernatural visit from a descendant of Raja Secander Zulkarneini.—Leyden, Mal.
Ann., pp. 20, 21. The words in brackets are mine. ↑
213
Whilst drawing together the heads of the sheaf before actually planting the sugar-cane in the
ground, the following lines were repeated by the Pawang:—