The sun is overhead when the natives emerge the next day. Unaccustomed to violent exercise such as that of the night before, some of them wearily drag themselves to the shade of the groves with the air of persons trying to show signs of animation merely to save their friends the trouble of a funeral.
Long into the night the mad festival continues. To exert themselves in any productive occupation to a like extent would kill them
The drums are tuned in a peculiar manner. Having no strings fastened to the heads with which to tighten them, they place small lumps of resin mixed with clay on the heads to produce the desired sound
The women seem to be absolutely fagged out, and their feet drag as they prepare food for the men. There is little to interest one in the kampong to-day, but later on, when the heat of midday is past, the women gather in groups to prepare wady, the fermented drink of the Kia Kias. Its preparation is neither nice nor sanitary. The female of the species being more deadly than the male, the women macerate in their mouths the ingredients of the drink, to extract the juices. For the killing mixture that produces wady, they chew up cocoanut meat, certain roots and leaves they gather in the jungle, and the acrid outer husk of the cocoanut.
This juice mixed with saliva is diluted with water and stored in gourds. It is allowed to ferment, enough sago starch being added to aid the process. After the mixture has stood a day or two in the heat of the sun, it has sufficient “kick” to floor a mule. While the wady is ripening the kampong rests and visitors from a distant kampong drop in to attend the coming wady party, for an invitation has been sent them by messenger.
While the feast was in progress there seems to have developed a real love-affair between two members of the community. They have decided that they are for each other and that henceforth they will live together. The decision is a momentous one, for it involves a ceremony so utterly incomprehensible to the white man that we are aghast at its unbridled license.
According to Kia Kia ideas, a woman, to remain true to her husband, must have removed from her mind any desire for male companionship other than his. She therefore must submit herself to every man of her tribe before the marriage is recognized. This ceremony is made the occasion for an orgy, and though the participants are severely punished by the Dutch officials when discovered, it is still in vogue clandestinely.
It is due to this that many of the women prefer to remain single and free to choose. Those who undergo the frightful ordeal are never molested, we are told. Indeed, it is said that two out of every five women succumb after such an experience. Preparations are in progress for the ceremony, which is to take place this evening, and the bride is even now adorning herself with feathered finery and besmearing her dusky body with oil and paint. After night has settled down, all the natives repair to a clearing where the drums are calling and a huge fire is built. The occasion is one of merriment and the ceremony continues far into the night.