By virtue of,” etc.
[219] A cat having given birth to kittens the night before the ceremony, I was told by the Pawang that it was a very good sign, and that it was a known rule that if there was nobody else who could bear children at the time, God was wont to substitute a cat (mĕnggantikan kuching). [↑]
[220] The drying usually takes longer, but the exceptional heat of the sun on the day in question enabled the operation to be hastened. [↑]
[221] Nothing of the male sex may stand or sit opposite the point of the sieve (nyiru) during this winnowing. [↑]
[222] The charms are the same as those given supra, viz. “A swallow has fallen,” etc., and “Herons from all this region.” They are in the pantun form, and accordingly there is little connection discernible between the first and the second half of the quatrain; the latter always contains the actual point, the former at most something analogous or remotely parallel. [↑]
[223] The extreme voluminousness of Malay folk-lore upon the subject of rice-planting makes it impossible to do more than give a general idea of the ceremonies described. The ceremonies, however, are comparatively homogeneous in all parts of the Peninsula, and the specimens given may be taken as fairly representative. In the Appendix (xciii. seqq.), will be found a number of invocations, collected by Mr. O’Sullivan and myself, which are addressed to the rice-spirit and may help to emphasise or explain some of the details. One of these invocations should certainly help to emphasise the strength of the anthropomorphic conception of the Rice-soul as held by Malays. It runs as follows (vide App. [cx].):—
“Cluck, cluck, soul of my child!
Come and return home with me,
Our agreement has reached its term.