The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

The bride, after this, receives the bridegroom with a low obeisance, in testimony of her regard for him, extending similar marks of respect to his parents, who attend him. The married couple are then placed in a situation elevated above the rest of the company; and in token of their afterwards living together, and sharing the same sustenance, commence eating síri from the same síri-box.

In some districts, after leaving the mosque, the bridegroom and his father proceed to the house of the bride's parents, where they obtain her company in a procession through the village or town. On these occasions, the bride is carried on a litter, which is generally fashioned in the form of a garúda, and the bridegroom is mounted on horseback. All the relations and friends of the parties attend, carrying flowers and refreshments, together with the presents made to the bridegroom on his marriage. The procession moves on to the sound of the national music, and the occasional firing of cannon. A feast is given in the evening at the house of the bride's parents, at which the new married couple remain for the night. The term given to the bride and bridegroom is peng'ánten, and the marriage ceremony is called láki rábi.

On the next day in some districts, and on the fifth in others, the bridegroom (or peng'ánten lánang), and bride (peng'anten wádon), together with the whole train of relations and friends, visit in like manner the house of the bridegroom's father. This ceremony is called únduh mántu (accepting the daughter-in-law.) There they both again sit down to eat síri in some place of distinction; similar entertainments are repeated, and on the following day they return with the same pomp and form to the bride's dwelling, the ceremony being now completed.

With the exception of the delivery of the sri káwin, and the procession to the mosque, there is very little in these ceremonies conformable to the Mahomedan precepts.

Marriages are frequently contracted between children, and then termed gántung káwin (hanging-on marriages); but in this case the parties are kept separate, and the principal ceremonies are reserved till they attain the age of puberty. Such contracts proceed from a laudable solicitude, on the part of parents, to provide a suitable and advantageous match for their children as early as possible; and to the same cause, as much, perhaps, as from the influence of climate and intemperance of manners, may be attributed the early age, at which matrimonial engagements are sometimes consummated.

Whatever may be the reasons for such early marriages, one of the most serious consequences is the facility with which they are dissolved. The multiplication of divorces is mentioned by the poets, the moralists, and the historians of the Roman empire, as one of the greatest causes and symptoms of the corruption and degeneracy of the period in which they lived; and certainly it had proceeded to great lengths, when Seneca could say that a woman computed her age, not by the annual succession of consuls, but of husbands[104]. The Javans, though a simple people, are in this respect too like the profligate and dissolute Romans.

In no part of the world are divorces more frequent than on Java; for besides the facilities afforded by the Mahomedan ordinances, a woman may at any time, when dissatisfied with her husband, demand a dissolution of the marriage contract, by paying him a sum established by custom, according to the rank of the parties: about twenty dollars for a person of the lower orders, and fifty dollars for those of the degree of Demáng or Mántri. The husband is not bound to accept it; but he is generally induced to do so, from a consideration, that the opinions and custom of the country require it; that his domestic happiness would be sacrificed in a contest with his reluctant companion; and that, by continuing his attachment, he would incur the shame of supporting one who treated him with aversion or contempt. This kind of divorce is termed mánchal. The husband may at any time divorce his wife, on making a settlement upon her sufficient to support her according to her condition in life.

A widow may marry again at the expiration of three months and ten days after her husband's death.

When a person of rank or property dies, all his relations, male and female, meet at the house of the deceased, to testify their grief at the death and their respect for the memory of the departed. On that occasion, what is termed selámat money is distributed among all according to circumstances. The priests, who are to perform the service at the place of interment, receive a Spanish dollar, a piece of cloth, and a small mat each.

When the corpse is washed[105] and wrapped in a white cloth, it is carried out of the house on a bier covered with coloured chintz, on which garlands of flowers are hung as drapery. On this occasion, no means of costly pomp or impressive solemnity are neglected in the use of umbrellas (páyung), pikes, and other insignia of honour. All the relations and friends accompany the corpse to the grave, where the priest addresses a prayer to heaven and delivers an exhortation to the soul of the deceased; of which the substance commonly is, "that it should be conscious of being the work of the Creator of the universe, and after leaving its earthly dwelling, should speed its way to the source whence it issued." After this ceremony the corpse is interred, and the other priests continue their prayers and benedictions.