Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay PeninsulaSkeat, Walter William
Religion
Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula
Skeat, Walter William
Magic -- Malay Peninsula; Malays (Asian people) -- Folklore; Malays (Asian people) -- Social life and customs
When the child has been bathed, it is fumigated, and deposited for
the first time in a swinging-cot (the Malay substitute for a cradle)
which, according to immemorial custom, is formed by a black cloth
slung from one of the rafters. To fumigate [561] it you take leaves of
the red dracæna (jenjuang merah), and wrap them round first with the
casing of the charred torch (puntong) used at the severing of the cord
(pembuang tali pusat), then with leaves of the t'rong asam ("acid"
egg-plant), and tie them round at intervals with a string of shredded
tree-bark (tali t'rap). The funnel-shaped bouquet thus formed is
suspended above the child's cot (buayan); a spice-block (batu giling)
is deposited inside it, and underneath it are placed the naked blade
of a cutlass (parang puting), a cocoa-nut scraper (kukoran), and one
of the basket-work stands used for the cooking-pots (lekar jantan),
which latter is slung round the neck of the cocoa-nut scraper. This
last strange contrivance is, I believe, intended as a hint to the
evil spirit or vampire which comes to suck the child's blood, and
for whom the trap described above is set underneath the house-floor.
Now get a censer and burn incense in it, adding to the flame, as it
burns, rubbish from beneath a deserted house, the deserted nest of a
mer'bah (dove), and the deserted nest of the "rain-bird" (sarang burong
ujan-ujan). When all is ready, rock the cot very gently seven times,
then take the spice-block out of the cot and deposit it together with
the blade of the cutlass upon the ground, take the child in your arms
and fumigate it by moving it thrice round in a circle over the smoke
of the censer, counting up to seven as you do so, and swing the child
gently towards your left. At the word "seven" call the child's soul
by saying "Cluck, cluck! soul of Muhammad here!" [562] (if it is a
boy), or "Cluck, cluck! soul of Fatimah here!" (if it is a girl);
deposit the child in the cot and rock it very gently, so that it does
not swing farther than the neck of the cocoa-nut scraper extends
(sa-panjang kukoran sahaja). After this you may swing it as far as
you like, but for at least seven days afterwards, whenever the child
is taken out of the cot, the spice-block, or stone-child (anak batu)
as it is called, must be deposited in the cot as a substitute for
the child (pengganti budak).
Once in every four hours the child should be bathed with cold water,
in order that it may be kept "cool." This custom, I was told, is
diametrically opposite to that which obtains at Malacca, where the
child is bathed as rarely as possible. The custom followed in Selangor
is said to prevent the child from getting a sore mouth (guam).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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