Bukan-nya aku mĕmbantai lilin
Aku mĕmbantai hati, jantong, limpa Si Anu.
↑
259
Bukan-nya aku mĕnjamu sakalian yang lain,
Aku mĕnjamu hati, jantong, limpa Si Anu.
↑
260
Probably Ventilago leiocarpa, Benth. (Rhamneæ). ↑
261
The explanation of this ceremony is that the shadow is supposed in some way to embody or at
least represent the soul. Thus the female reapers of the first ripe padi are specially enjoined to
reap in a straight line facing the sun, so that their shadow may not fall upon the rice-soul in the
basket at their sides (vide pp. 242–244, supra). No doubt the speaker’s shadow-soul is expected
to fetch the woman’s body-soul, and the beating of the shadow-soul is perhaps purely
ceremonial, to drive away evil influences from it, before it starts on its journey, but this latter
suggestion is merely conjectural. The first line of the charm, however, in which the speaker
addresses his shadow by name (Irupi) as he strikes it with the cane, points out most clearly the
connection between the body-soul (or puppet-soul) and the shadow-soul, to which I have
referred. The coverlet or white cloth is no doubt the soul-cloth, into which the woman’s soul is
expected to enter when it arrives. ↑
262
p. 570, supra. ↑
263
Bukan-nya aku mĕmbawa detar, aku kandong sĕmangat Si Anu. ↑
264
Supra, pp. 47–54, 76, 77, 452–456, and under the headings Birds, Beasts, Vegetation,
Minerals, etc. ↑