Note 24 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

The next process is the purification of mother and child by a ceremony which consists of bathing both in warm water just not hot enough to scald the skin (ayer pĕsam-pĕsam jangan mĕlochak kulit), and in which are leaves of lĕngkuas, halia, kunyit t’rus, kunyit, pandan bau, areca-palm blossom, and the dried leaves (kĕronsong or kĕresek) of the pisang k’lat. This has to be repeated (every?) morning and evening. In most places the new-born infant is, as has been said, laid upon a mat and formally adopted by the father, who breathes into the child’s ear24 a sort of Muhammadan prayer or formula, which is called bang in the case of a boy, and kamat in the case of a girl. After purification the child is swaddled in a sort of papoose; an inner bandage (barut) is swathed round the child’s waist, and a broad cloth band (kain lampin) is wound round its body from the knees to the breast, after which the outer bandage (kain bĕdong) is wound round the child’s body from the feet to the shoulder, and is worn continually until the child is three or four months old, or, in Malay parlance, until he has learned to crawl (tahu mĕniarap). This contrivance, it is alleged, prevents the child from starting and straining its muscles. Over the child’s mat is suspended a sort of small conical mosquito-net (kain bochok), the upper end of which is generally stitched (di-sĕmat) or pinned on to the top of the parent’s mosquito curtain, and which is intended to protect the child from any stray mosquito or sandfly which may have found its way into the bigger net used by his parents.