Goats And Buffaloes Are
Killed, And The Friends And Relatives Of The Bride Send Contributions
Of Food.
The wedding decorations are family property, and descend from
mother to daughter, and both bride and bridegroom are covered with
flowers, jewels, and gay embroidery.
The bride sits in state and
receives the congratulatory visits of her relatives and friends, and
after the actual ceremony is over, the newly-married couple sit on a
seat raised above the guests, and the sirih and betel-nut are largely
chewed. There are "floral decorations," music, and feasting; all
strangers are made welcome; the young men spend the afternoon in games,
among which cock-fighting usually plays a prominent part, and the
maidens amuse themselves in a part of the house screened off from the
rest of the guests by curtains, and made very gay.
As religious ceremonies attend upon marriage and death, so on the birth
of a child the father puts his mouth to the ear of the infant and
solemnly pronounces what is called the Azan or "Allah Akbar," the name
of the one God being the first sound which is allowed to fall upon his
ears on entering the world, as it is the last sound which he hears on
leaving it. There is a form of prayer which is used at births, and
another on the seventh day afterward, when the child's head is shaved.
The sage femme remains for forty days with the mother, who on the
fortieth day makes the ceremonial purifications and prayers which are
customary, and then returns to her ordinary duties. The child, as soon
as it can speak, learns to recite prayers and passages from the Koran,
and is very early grounded in the distinctive principles of Islam.
The children of both sexes are very pretty, but with strangers they are
very shy and timid. They look very innocent, and are docile, gentle and
obedient, spending much of their time in taming their pets and playing
with them, and in playing games peculiar to their age. Except in one or
two cases in Sungei Ujong, I have not seen a child with eye or skin
disease, or any kind of deformity.
There have been Rajahs all day in the veranda, and their followers
sitting on the steps, all received by Mr. Low with quiet courtesy, and
regaled with tea or coffee and cigarettes. A short time ago the
reigning prince, who does not appear to be a cypher, came with a great
train of followers, some of them only wearing sarongs, a grandson, to
whom he is much attached, and the deposed Sultan's two boys, of whom I
told you before. They are in Malay clothing, and seem to have lost
their vivacity, or at least it is in abeyance. Before I came here, I
understood from many people that "His Highness" is very generally
detested. So, also, says Sir Benson Maxwell in _Our Malay Conquests_.
Major M'Nair in his amusing book on Perak says:
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