Malay Magic / Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula

by Walter William Skeat

In addition to the above, if the child is a girl, her eyebrows are shaved and a curve drawn in their place, extending from the root of the nose to the ear (di-pantiskan bĕntok taji dĕri muka sampei pĕlipis). The mixture used for marking these curves consists of manjakani mixed with milk from the mother’s breast.

Another most curious custom which recalls a parallel custom among North American Indians, is occasionally resorted to for the purpose of altering the shape of the child’s head. When it is considered too long (tĕrlampau panjang), a small tightly-fitting “yam leaf cap” (songko’ daun k’ladi), consisting of seven thicknesses of calladium (yam) leaves is used to compress it. This operation is supposed to shorten the child’s skull, and the person who fits it on to the child’s head uses the words—“Muhammad, short be your head” in the case of a boy, and “Fatimah, short be your head” in the case of a girl.

Now comes the ceremony of administering to the infant what is called the “mouth-opener” (lit. “mouth-splitter,” pĕmb’lah mulut); first, you take a green cocoa-nut (niyor sungkoran), split it in halves (di-b’lah niyor), put a “grain” of salt inside one-half of the shell (di-buboh garam sa-buku), and give it to the child to drink, counting up to seven, and putting it to the child’s mouth at the word seven (lĕtakkan di mulut-nya). Then repeat the ceremony, substituting asam (tamarinds?) for the salt. Finally, take a gold ring, and after rubbing it against the inside of the cocoa-nut (cholek di-dalam niyor), lay it upon the child’s lips, (lĕtakkan di bibir-nya), saying “Bismillah,” etc. Do the same with a silver and amalgam (gold and silver) ring respectively, and the ceremony will be at an end.

I may note, in passing, that it is in allusion to the above ceremony that you will sometimes hear old men say “It’s not the first time I tasted salt, I did so ever since I was first put into my swinging-cot” (aku makan garam dahulu, dĕripada tatkala naik buayan).

Sometimes a little “rock” sugar (gula batu) is added to make the “mouth-opener” more palatable.

From the time when the child is about twenty-four hours old until it is of the age of three months, it is fed with rice boiled in a pot on the fire, “broken” (di-lechek) by means of a short broad cocoa-nut shell spoon (pĕlechek), mixed with a little sugar and squeezed into small receptacles of woven cocoa-nut leaf (kĕtupat).

Later it is taught to feed at the breast (mĕnetek), which continues until it is weaned by the application of bitter aloes (jadam) to the mother’s breasts.

In the rice-jar (buyong b’ras) during this period, a stone, a big iron nail, and a “candle-nut” must be kept, and a spoon (sĕndok) must always be used for putting the rice into the pot before boiling it. Moreover, the mother, when eating or drinking, must always cross her left arm under her breasts (di-ampu susu-nya di lĕngan kiri) leaving the right arm free to bring the food to the mouth.

When the child has been bathed, it is fumigated, and deposited for the first time in a swinging-cot (the Malay substitute for a cradle) which, according to immemorial custom, is formed by a black cloth slung from one of the rafters. To fumigate[26] it you take leaves of the red dracæna (jĕnjuang merah), and wrap them round first with the casing of the charred torch (puntong) used at the severing of the cord (pĕmbuang tali pusat), then with leaves of the t’rong asam (“acid” egg-plant), and tie them round at intervals with a string of shredded tree-bark (tali t’rap). The funnel-shaped bouquet thus formed is suspended above the child’s cot (buayan); a spice-block (batu giling) is deposited inside it, and underneath it are placed the naked blade of a cutlass (parang puting), a cocoa-nut scraper (kukoran), and one of the basket-work stands used for the cooking-pots (lĕkar jantan), which latter is slung round the neck of the cocoa-nut scraper. This last strange contrivance is, I believe, intended as a hint to the evil spirit or vampire which comes to suck the child’s blood, and for whom the trap described above is set underneath the house-floor.

Now get a censer and burn incense in it, adding to the flame, as it burns, rubbish from beneath a deserted house, the deserted nest of a mĕr’bah (dove), and the deserted nest of the “rain-bird” (sarang burong ujan-ujan). When all is ready, rock the cot very gently seven times, then take the spice-block out of the cot and deposit it together with the blade of the cutlass upon the ground, take the child in your arms and fumigate it by moving it thrice round in a circle over the smoke of the censer, counting up to seven as you do so, and swing the child gently towards your left. At the word “seven” call the child’s soul by saying “Cluck, cluck! soul of Muhammad here!”[27] (if it is a boy), or “Cluck, cluck! soul of Fatimah here!” (if it is a girl); deposit the child in the cot and rock it very gently, so that it does not swing farther than the neck of the cocoa-nut scraper extends (sa-panjang kukoran sahaja). After this you may swing it as far as you like, but for at least seven days afterwards, whenever the child is taken out of the cot, the spice-block, or stone-child (anak batu) as it is called, must be deposited in the cot as a substitute for the child (pĕngganti budak).