yam-leaf (daun k’ladi di-ponjut) or cocoa-nut (?), and carried away and
deposited at the foot of a shady tree, such as a banana (or a pomegranate?).
Sometimes (as had been done in the case of a Malay bride at whose “tonsure” I
assisted^28 ), the parents make a vow at a child’s birth that they will give a feast at
the tonsure of its hair, just before its marriage, provided the child grows up in
safety.
Occasionally the ceremony of shaving the child’s head takes place on the 44th
day after birth, the ceremony being called balik juru. A small sum, such as $2.00
or $3.00, is also sometimes presented to a pilgrim to carry clippings of the
child’s locks to Mecca and cast them into the well Zemzem, such payment being
called ’kêkah (ʿakêkah) in the case of a boy, and kĕrban in the case of a girl.^29
To return to the mother. She is bathed in hot water at 8 o’clock each morning for
three days, and from the day of birth (after ablution) she has to undergo the
strangest ceremony of all, “ascending the roasting-place” (naik saleian). A kind
of rough couch is prepared upon a small platform (saleian), which is about six
feet in length, and slopes downwards towards the foot, where it is about two feet
above the floor. Beneath this platform a fireplace or hearth (dapor)^30 is
constructed, and a “roaring fire” lighted, which is intended to warm the patient
to a degree consistent with Malay ideas of what is beneficial! Custom, which is
stronger than law, forces the patient to recline upon this couch two or three times
in the course of the day, and to remain upon it each time for an hour or two. To
such extremes is this practice carried, that “on one occasion a poor woman was
brought to the point of death ... and would have died if she had not been rescued
by the kind interposition of the Civil Assistant-Surgeon; the excessive
excitement caused by the heat was so overpowering that aberration of mind
ensued which continued for several months.”^31
As if this were not enough, one of the heated hearth-stones (batu tungku) is
frequently wrapped up in a piece of flannel or old rags, applied to the patient’s
stomach so as to “roast” her still more effectually. This “roasting” custom is said
to continue for the whole of the forty-four days of uncleanness. During this
period there are many birth-taboos (pantang bĕranak) applying to food, the
following articles being usually forbidden: (1) things which have (from the
Malay point of view) a lowering effect on the constitution (sagala yang sĕjuk-