The Reaping Ceremony
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
And the bearer of the Rice-child added—doubtless on the Rice-child’s behalf:—
“This measure is not a measure filled with pepper,
But a measure filled with rice-husks.
My coming is not merely fortuitous,
But great (rather) was my desire, the wish of my heart.”
She then entered the house and laid the Rice-child (still in its basket) on a new sleeping-mat with pillows at the head. About twenty minutes later the three Bearers returned,218 each of their rice-baskets covered with a sarong. These baskets were carried into the bedroom and deposited in order of size on the mat at the foot of the soul-basket, the largest basket being the nearest to the soul-basket. Finally, the Pawang removed the sarongs which covered each basket and deposited them on the Rice-child’s pillow, and sticking the “pĕnuweis” into her hair, fumigated the entire row of baskets and the Rice-child, and covered them over with the long white cloth, after which the wife of the master of the house was told to observe certain rules of taboo for three days.
Plate 5.—Rice-Soul Baskets.
Model, showing the baskets used at the ceremony of bringing home the rice-soul. The oval-shaped basket on the left is that which contains the rice-soul, together with the egg, iron nail, and candle-nut, etc., used as charms to keep away evil spirits from the rice-soul or “rice-child.”
Page 244.
The following were the taboos imposed upon her:—
1. Money, rice, salt, oil, tame animals, etc., were forbidden to leave the house, though they might enter it without ill consequences.
2. Perfect quiet must be observed, as in the case of a new-born child.
3. Hair might not be cut.
4. The reapers, till the end of the reaping, were forbidden to let their shadows fall upon the rice. (Yang mĕnuwei sampei habis mĕnuwei, tiada buleh mĕnindeh bayang.)
5. The light placed near the head of the Rice-child’s bed might not be allowed to go out at night, whilst the hearth-fire might not be allowed to go out at all, night or day, for the whole three days.
The above taboos are in many respects identical with those which have to be observed for three days after the birth of a real child.
I may add that every day, when the reapers start their reaping, they have to repeat the following charm:—
“A swallow has fallen, striking the ground,
Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard;
But ye, O Shadows and Spectral Reapers,
See that ye mingle not with us.”
When reaping, they must cover their heads and must face the sun, no matter what hour of the day it is, in order to prevent their own shadows from falling upon the rice in the basket at their side.
Pounding the first of the padi.—I witnessed this ceremony three days later, at about 9 A.M. The three baskets filled with the first reapings were removed from the mat on which they had been placed, and their contents emptied out upon a new mat, to each corner of which four rice-ears were tied, and trodden out (di-irekkan) by the owner of the field. Then the rice was poured back into two of the baskets, and the straw of the rice “heads” was plaited into a wreath.219
Drying the first of the padi.—Preparations being complete, the two baskets full of newly-cut rice were carried down the steps and out to an open part of the field, a little way from the house, and there spread on a mat in the sun to dry. To spread it properly is not an easy matter, the operator (who in this case was the owner), standing on the mat and spreading the grains with a long sweeping motion of the hand from one side of the mat to the other (the process being called di-kekar, di-kachau, or mĕmbalikkan jĕmoran). In the present case several objects were placed in the centre of the mat, consisting of—
1. A basket-work stand (one of those used for the cooking-pots, and called lĕkar jantan).
2. A bowl of water deposited upon this stand and intended “for the Rice-soul (sĕmangat padi) to drink when it becomes thirsty with the heat of the sun.”
3. A big iron nail.
4. A candle-nut (buah k’ras).
5. Six trodden-out rice “heads,” a couple of which tied in a slip knot (simpul pulih) are fastened to each corner of the matting.
Pounding of the rice from the three baskets.—When the rice had been sufficiently dried, it was once more collected in the baskets, and carried back to the house to be pounded.220 That operation took place the same evening, when the rice was pounded and winnowed221 in the ordinary way, the only noteworthy addition being the tying of bunches of the grass called sambau dara to the upper ends of the long wooden pestles which the Malays use for the pounding operation.
Disposal of the empty rice-stalks from the three baskets.—The chaff thus obtained was deposited in a heap by the owner of the field in a place where three paths met, crowned with a wreath made of the empty rice-stalks, and covered by a big stone which was intended, I was told, to keep it from being blown away.
The sugar-cane was left to grow in the midst of the mother-sheaf, until the latter should be reaped by the wife of the owner; when this takes place, it is carried back to the house and used for next year’s reaping. Meanwhile the “heads” of the mother-sheaf are pounded, and the grain thus obtained is mixed with the grain obtained from the Rice-soul, and deposited in the rice-bin (kĕpok) together with a stone, a lump of rosin (damar), and a wreath composed of the empty rice-ears. I may add that I saw the articles which had been deposited in the previous year in the rice-bin of the Malay at whose house I witnessed the ceremony which I have just described.
I did not witness the preliminary search for the mother-sheaf (in which the Rice-soul was supposed to be contained), but it was described to me by the Pawang, and performed for my benefit by the people of the house. The Pawang’s description ran as follows: In order to confine the “Rĕngkesa” (a Spectral Reaper) to the boundaries, visit the four corners of the field, and at each corner tie a knot in a rice-leaf, and hold your breath while you repeat the following charm:—
“In the name of God, etc.,
A swallow has fallen striking the ground,
Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard.
But ye, O Shadows and Spectral Reapers (Rĕngkesa),
Have your appointed place on the Boundaries (of this field).
By virtue of,” etc.
These noxious spirits being thus confined to the Four Corners, you may search in safety till you find one of the special varieties of rice-ear in which the Rice-soul resides.