Each House In The Kampong Seemed To Have All Its Inmates At Home Doing
Nothing But Chewing Betel-Nut.
In their home deshabilles the men wear
only the sarong, and a handkerchief knotted round their heads, and I
Think that the women also dispense with an upper garment, for I noticed
at the approach of two strange men they invariably huddled another
sarong over their shoulders, heads, and faces, holding it so as to
conceal all but their eyes. The young children, as usual, were only
clothed in silver ornaments. This neglige dress in the privacy of their
homes is merely a matter of custom and climate, for these people are no
more savages than we are. These glimpses of a native tropic life,
entirely uninfluenced by European civilization, are most interesting.
In these kampongs the people have music, singing, story-telling,
games, and religious ceremonies, perhaps the most important of all. I
have not heard that the Perak Malays differ in their religious
observances from the other Malays of the Peninsula. It seems that
before "a parish" can be formed there must be forty-four houses. The
kampong may then have a properly constituted mosque in which every
Friday the religious officer recites an oration in praise of God, the
Prophet, and his vicegerents, from the steps of a rostrum. The same
person performs the marriage ceremony. Another official performs
sacrificial duties, and recites the service for the dead after the
corpse has been lowered into the grave. There is an inferior official
of the mosque who keeps it clean, and reports to the Imaum absentees
from public worship, goes round the villages to give notice of public
prayer, assists at burials, and beats the great drum of the mosque. The
Imaum appears to be the highest functionary, and performs what are
regarded as the most sacred rites of Islamism. There are regular fees
paid to these persons for their services, and at sacrifices they
receive part of the victim. I was afraid of going into any of the
mosques. They are all conical buildings of wood and attap raised on
wooden pillars, and are usually on small knolls a little way from the
kampongs. They have no minarets, but the larger ones have a separate
shed in which the drum or gong used for the call to prayer is kept.
Buffaloes are sacrificed on religious occasions, and at the births,
circumcisions, marriages, and shaving of the heads of the children of
wealthy people. The buffalo sacrificed for religious purposes must be
always without blemish. Its bones must not be broken after death,
neither must its horns be used for common purposes. It is slain near
the mosque with solemn sacrificial ceremonies, and one-half is usually
cooked and eaten on the spot by the "parishioners."
While I am on the subject of religious observances, I must tell you
that I saw a Moslem funeral to-day from a respectful distance. The
graves are decently placed together usually, though some of the pious
rich have large isolated burial places.
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