Note 318 — Chapter V · Magic Rites connected with the Several Departments of Nature (continued 2)

Everything being now ready, Bilal Umat carried a smoking censer thrice round the row of trays (walking always towards the left), and then lighting the five wax tapers of the left-hand tray, directed two of his men to take down this tray and sling it on a pole between them. This they did, and we set off in procession along the sandy foreshore at the back of the building until we came to a halt at a spot about fifty yards off, where Bilal Umat suspended the tray from the branch of a mangrove-tree about five feet from the ground. This done, he faced round towards the land, and breaking off a branch of the tree, gave utterance to three stentorian cooees, which he afterwards informed me were intended to notify the Land Spirits (Orang darat, lit. “Land Folk”) of the fact that offerings were awaiting their acceptance. Returning to the house, he manufactured one of the leaf-brushes318 which the Malays always used for the “Neutralising Rice-paste” (tĕpong tawar) rite, and we then started in a couple of boats for the fishing-stakes, taking with us the two remaining trays.