Note 26 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

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 fumigate26 it you take leaves of the red dracæna (jĕnjuang merah), and wrap them round first with the casing of the charred torch (puntong) used at the severing of the cord (pĕmbuang 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 (lĕkar 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.