[69] Diamond, i.e. the girl about whom the wooing party has come to treat. [↑]
[70] The kati is the “Indian” pound (1⅓ pound avoir.), and the tahil is its sixteenth part. The phrase sakati lima is explained by Klinkert as an elliptical expression = sa-kĕti lima laksa, i.e. 150,000 cash (pitis). Vide Kl. sub voce. [↑]
[71] i.e. when the sago is being extracted from the stem. [↑]
[72] The native substitute for a rowlock. [↑]
[74] This line is obscure, the word “bingku” (which I have translated rim, on the supposition that it may be merely a longer form of biku), not appearing in any dictionary. The next line also is not quite clear, but it would appear to mean “let us make sacrifice,” rice stained with saffron being always used sacrificially. [↑]
[75] In Denys’ Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya, under the word “Marriage,” we find:—
“The only terms for marriage in Malay are the Arabic and Persian ones, respectively nikah and kahwin, the native ones having probably been displaced by these and forgotten.”
Both these words are used in Selangor, the first (nikah), which properly signifies the mere ceremony or “wedding,” being more commonly used by the better class of Malays than the more comprehensive kahwin, which corresponds pretty nearly to the English word “marriage.” Words describing the married state with reference to one of the parties only, however, are in frequent use: such as the bĕrsuami and bĕristri of the higher classes, and the bĕrlaki and bĕrbini of the common people; and yet again there is the word bĕrumah-rumah, which is applied indifferently to either of the two parties or to both, and is the politest word that can be used with reference to the common people, but is never applied to Rajas, in whose case bĕrsuami and bĕristri alone are used.