Note 47 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

The ear-boring ceremony (bĕrtindek) appears to have already lost much of its ceremonial character in Selangor, where I was told that it is now usually performed when the child is quite small, i.e. at the earliest, when the child is some five or seven months old, and when it is about a year old at the latest, whereas in Sumatra (according to Marsden) it is not performed until the child is eight or nine.47 Still, however, a special kind of round ear-ring, which is of filagree-work, and is called subang, is as much the emblem of virginity in the western States as it ever was. The “discarding” of these ear-rings (tanggal subang), which should take place about seven days after the conclusion of the marriage rites, is ceremonial in character, and it is even the custom when a widow (janda) is married for the second time, to provide her with a pair of subang (which should, however, it is said, be tied on to her ears instead of being inserted in the ear-holes, as in the case of a girl who has never been married).