This is “a small frame of bamboo or wood,”[122] usually from two to three feet square and turned up at the sides, which are decorated with a long fringe (jari’lipan) of plaited cocoa-nut leaf. Four rattan “suspenders” of equal length (tali pĕnggantong) are fastened to the four corners, and are thence carried up to meet at a point which may be from two to three feet above the tray.
These trays appear to be divisible into two classes, according to the objects which they are intended to serve. In the one case certain offerings (to be described presently) are laid upon the tray, which is carried out of the house to a suitable spot and there suspended to enable the spirits for whom it is designed to feed upon its contents.[123] In the other case certain objects are deposited upon it, into which the evil spirits are ceremoniously invited to enter, in which case it must obviously be got rid of after the ceremony, and is therefore hung up in the jungle, or set adrift in the sea or the nearest river; in the latter case it is called the “keeled sacrifice-tray” (anchak pĕlunas), and falls into line with other objects which are occasionally set adrift for the same purpose.
The offerings placed on the sacrificial tray vary considerably, according to the object of the ceremony, the means of the person for whose benefit they are offered, the caprice of the medicine-man who carries out the ceremony, and so on.[124]
I shall therefore, in the present place, merely describe the contents of a more or less typical tray, with the main points of the accompanying ritual.
The bottom of the tray having been lined with banana-leaf, and thickly strewn with parched rice, there are deposited in the tray itself five “chews” of betel-leaf, five native “cigarettes” (rokok), five wax tapers, five small water-receptacles or limas (made of banana-leaf and skewered together at each end), and five copper cents (or dollars). The articles just enumerated are divided into five portions, one of which is deposited in the centre of the tray, and the remainder in its four corners. Besides this there are to be deposited in the tray fourteen portions of meat (of fowl, goat, or buffalo, as the case may be), and fourteen portions of Malay “cakes,” care being taken in each case to see that there are seven portions of cooked and seven portions of uncooked food provided. The rattan “suspenders,” again, are hung with two sets of ornamental rice-receptacles made of plaited cocoa-nut leaf (fourteen of the long-shaped kind, or lĕpat, and fourteen of the diamond-shaped kind, or kĕtupat). Besides this, two sets of (cooked and uncooked) packets of rice (each stained a different colour) are sometimes deposited in the tray, the colours used being white, yellow, red, black, blue, green, and purple. The only other articles required for the tray are a couple of eggs, of which one must, of course, be cooked and the other raw.
Of the water-receptacles, those in alternate corners are filled with water and cane-juice, the central receptacle being filled with the blood of the fowl (or other animal slain for the sacrifice).
Upon the ground, exactly underneath the tray, should be deposited the feathers, feet, entrails, etc., of the fowl, portions of whose flesh have been used for the tray, together with the refuse of the parched rice and a censer. Strictly speaking, a white and a black fowl should be killed, but only half of each cooked, the remainder being left raw. The “portions” of fowl are as small as they can possibly be, a mere symbol (ʿisharat) of each kind of food being all that the spirits are supposed to require. Sometimes funnel-shaped rice-receptacles are used, which are skewered with a bamboo skewer and called kĕronchot. Occasionally a standard censer (sangga?) is used, the end of a piece of bamboo being split up and bent or opened outwards for several inches, and a piece of rattan (cane) being wound in and out among the split ends, so as to form a sort of funnel (about nine inches in diameter at the top), which is lined with banana leaf, filled with earth, and planted vertically in the ground, great care being taken to see that it does not lean out of the perpendicular. Live embers are placed upon it, incense crumbled over it (between the finger and thumb), and the appropriate charm recited. A specimen of a charm or formula used during the burning of incense will be found in the Appendix.[125]
The kĕtupats are called—(1) S’ri nĕg’ri (seven-cornered), or the “luck of the country”; (2) Buah k’ras (six-cornered), or the “candle-nut”; (3) Bawang puteh (six-cornered), or “garlic”; (4) Ulu pĕngayoh (four-cornered), or the “paddle-handle”; (5) Pasar (five-cornered), or the “market”; (6) Bawang merah (six-cornered), or the “onion”; (7) Pasar Pahang (six-cornered), or the “Pahang market”; (8) Tĕlor, or the “hen’s egg.”
The lĕpats are called—(1) Lĕpat daun niyor (5–6 inches long and made of cocoa-nut leaves); (2) Lĕpat tilam (of plantain leaves); (3) Lĕpat daun palas (of palas leaves, three-sided).
Diminutive models of various objects (also made of cocoa-nut leaves) are often added, e.g. burong ponggok, the owl; kĕr’bau, the buffalo; rusa, the stag; tĕkukur, the ground-dove; kĕtam, the crab; and (but very rarely) kuda, the horse.