One of the forms of lustration by water, however, appears rather to take the place of a sub-rite, forming an integral portion of a large class of ceremonies, such as those relating to Building, Fishing, Agriculture, Marriage, and so forth. Hence it will be necessary to give a general sketch of its leading features in the present context. The ceremony of lustration by water, when it takes the form of the sub-rite referred to, is called "Tepong Tawar," which properly means "the Neutralising Rice-flour (Water)," "neutralising" being used almost in a chemical sense, i.e. in the sense of "sterilising" the active element of poisons, or of destroying the active potentialities of evil spirits. The rite itself consists in the application [142] of a thin paste made by mixing rice-flour with water: this is taken up in a brush or "bouquet" of leaves and applied to the objects which the "neutralisation" is intended to protect or neutralise, whether they be the posts of a house, the projecting ends of a boat's ribs (tajok p'rahu), the seaward posts of fishing-stakes (puchi kelong), or the forehead and back of the hands of the bride and bridegroom. The brush must be first fumigated with incense, then dipped into the bowl which contains the rice-water, and shaken out almost dry, for if the water runs down the object to which it is applied it is held to "portend tears," whereas if it spreads equally all round (benchar) it is lucky. The composition of the brush, which is considered to be of the highest importance, appears to vary, but only within certain limits. It almost invariably, in Selangor, consists of a selection of leaves from the following plants, which are made up in small bouquets of five, seven, or nine leaves each, and bound round with ribu-ribu (a kind of small creeper), or a string of shredded tree bark (daun t'rap). The following is a list of the leaves generally used:-- 1. Leaves of the grass called sambau dara, which is said to be the symbol of a "settled soul" (`alamat menetapkan semangat), and which hence always forms the core of the bouquet. [143] 2. The leaves of the selaguri, which appears to be "a shrub or small tree with yellow flowers (Clerodendron disparifolium, Bl., Verbenaceæ; or Sida rhombifolia, L., Malvaceæ, a common small shrub in open country)," [144] which is described as one of the first of shrubs (kayu asal), and is said to be used as a "reminder of origin" (peringatan asal). 3. The leaves of the pulut-pulut (the exact identity of which I have not yet ascertained, but which may be the Urena lobata, L., one of the Malvaceae), which is said to be used for the same purpose as the preceding. 4. The leaves of the gandarusa (Insticia gandarusa, L., Acanthaceæ), a plant described as "often cultivated and half-wild--a shrub used in medicine."