Note 48 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

The rite of circumcision is of course common to Muhammadans all over the world. Some analogous practices, however, have also been noticed among the non-Muhammadan Malayan races of the Eastern Archipelago, and it is at least doubtful whether circumcision as now practised by Malays is a purely Muhummadan rite. Among Malays it is performed by a functionary called the “Mudim,”48 with a slip of bamboo, at any age (in the case of boys) from about six or seven up to about sixteen years, the wound being often dressed (at least in town districts) with fine clay mixed with soot and the yolk of eggs, but when possible, the clay is mixed with cocoa-nut fibre (rabok niyor), sĕlumur paku uban, and the young shoots of the k’lat plantain (puchok pisang k’lat), the compound being called in either case ubat tasak. The ceremony is associated with the common purificatory rite called tĕpong tawar, and with ayer tolak bala (lit. evil-dispelling water). Lights are kept burning in the house for several days (“until the wound has healed”), and the performance of the ceremony is always made the occasion for a banquet, together with music and dancing of the kind in which Malays take so much delight. The cause of these rejoicings is dressed for the occasion “like a bridegroom” (pĕngantin), and is said to be sometimes carried in procession.