always used sacrificially. ↑
75
In Denys’ Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya, under the word “Marriage,” we find:—
“The only terms for marriage in Malay are the Arabic and Persian ones, respectively nikah and
kahwin, the native ones having probably been displaced by these and forgotten.”
Both these words are used in Selangor, the first (nikah), which properly signifies the mere
ceremony or “wedding,” being more commonly used by the better class of Malays than the
more comprehensive kahwin, which corresponds pretty nearly to the English word “marriage.”
Words describing the married state with reference to one of the parties only, however, are in
frequent use: such as the bĕrsuami and bĕristri of the higher classes, and the bĕrlaki and
bĕrbini of the common people; and yet again there is the word bĕrumah-rumah, which is
applied indifferently to either of the two parties or to both, and is the politest word that can be
used with reference to the common people, but is never applied to Rajas, in whose case
bĕrsuami and bĕristri alone are used.
I may add, on the authority of Mr. H. Conway Belfield, lately Acting-Resident of Selangor,
that a curious periphrastic expression is sometimes used by Perak women in talking of their
husbands, whom they call rumah tangga, which literally means “House and House-ladder,”
and which is tantamount to saying, “My household,” instead of “My husband.” ↑
76
I remember Mr. C. H. A. Turney (then Senior District Officer at Klang) telling me of a great
disturbance that arose at Klang because too many of these big pillows were being used at a
Malay wedding. Order was only restored by the intervention of the police. ↑
77
A hasta is the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, or about
eighteen inches. ↑
78
There is, I believe, a special ceremony connected with the opening of this curtain which is
performed by the bridegroom after the wedding ceremony, special cakes, called “curtain-
openers” (kueh pĕmbuka k’lambu), being eaten. ↑
79
C. and S. give—“Bun (Dutch), a large tin or copper box for tobacco or sirih leaves—Van der
Tuuk.” “Bun” is given as a “trunk” in a Dutch Dictionary. ↑
80
This is called main zikir—or, more commonly, jikir—maulud if it is unaccompanied, and zikir