(c)Nature of Rites
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
1. Leaves of the grass called sambau dara, which is said to be the symbol of a “settled soul” (ʿalamat mĕnĕtapkan sĕmangat), and which hence always forms the core of the bouquet.22
2. The leaves of the sĕlaguri, which appears to be “a shrub or small tree with yellow flowers (Clerodendron disparifolium, Bl., Verbenaceæ; or Sida rhombifolia, L., Malvaceæ, a common small shrub in open country),”23 which is described as one of the first of shrubs (kayu asal), and is said to be used as a “reminder of origin” (pĕringatan asal).
3. The leaves of the pulut-pulut (the exact identity of which I have not yet ascertained, but which may be the Urena lobata, L., one of the Malvaceae), which is said to be used for the same purpose as the preceding.
4. The leaves of the gandarusa (Insticia gandarusa, L., Acanthaceæ), a plant described as “often cultivated and half-wild—a shrub used in medicine.”
The selection of this plant is said to be due to its reputation for scaring demons (ʿalamat mĕnghalaukan hantu). So great is its efficacy supposed to be, that people who have to go out when rain is falling and the sun shining simultaneously—a most dangerous time to be abroad, in Malay estimation,—put a sprig of the gandarusa in their belts.
5. The leaves of the gandasuli (which I have not yet been able to identify, no such name appearing in Ridley’s plant-list, but which I believe to be a water-side plant which I have seen, with a white and powerfully fragrant flower).24 It is considered to be a powerful charm against noxious birth-spirits, such as the Langsuir.
6. The leaves of the sapanggil (which is not yet identified).
7. The leaves of the lĕnjuang merah, or “the common red dracæna” (Cordyline terminalis, var. ferrea, Liliaceæ).25 This shrub is planted in graveyards, and occasionally at the four corners of the house, to drive away ghosts and demons.
8. The leaves of the sapĕnoh (unidentified), a plant with big round leaves, which is always placed outside the rest of the leaves in the bunch.
9. To the above list may be perhaps added the satawar, sitawar or tawar-tawar (Costus speciosus, L., Scitamineæ, and Forrestia, spp. Commelinaceæ); and
10. The satĕbal (Fagræa racemosa, Jack., Loganiaceæ).
Leaves of the foregoing plants and shrubs are made up, as has been said, in small sets or combinations of five, seven, or even perhaps of nine leaves a piece. These combinations are said to differ according to the object to which the rice-water is to be applied. It is extremely unlikely, however, that all magicians should make the same selections even for the same objects—rather would they be likely to make use of such leaves on the list as happen to be most readily available. Still, however, as the only example of such differentiation which I have yet been able to obtain, I will give the details of three separate and distinctive combinations, which were described to me by a Selangor magician:—
(1) For a wedding ceremony
sambau dara
tied round with a string of shredded tree-bark.
sĕlaguri
pulut-pulut
sapanggil
sapĕnoh
(2) For blessing fishing-stakes
gandarusa
tied with the creeper ribu-ribu.
sĕlaguri
sapanggil
lĕnjuang merah
sapĕnoh
(3) For the ceremony of taking the rice-soul
lĕnjuang merah
tied with ribu-ribu.
sĕlaguri
pulut-pulut
sapanggil
sapĕnoh
Further inquiry and the collection of additional material will no doubt help to elucidate the general principles on which such selections are made.
Short rhyming charms are very often used as accompaniments of the rite of rice-water, but appear to be seldom if ever repeated aloud. The following is a specimen, and others will be found in the Appendix:26—
“Neutralising Rice-paste, true Rice-paste,
And, thirdly, Rice-paste of Kadangsa!
Keep me from sickness, keep me from death,
Keep me from injury and ruin.”
Other not less important developments of the idea of lustration by water are to be found in such ceremonies as the bathing of mother and child after a birth and the washing of the floor (basoh lantei) upon similar occasions, the bathing of the sick, of bride and bridegroom at weddings, of corpses (mĕruang),27 and the annual bathing expeditions (mandi Safar), which are supposed to purify the persons of the bathers and to protect them from evil (tolak bala).