Smyrna times., 1905-12-06

uliInl IU lLO lnhI
PLACE At MALAY WEDDING
SOME REMARKABLE CEREMONIES DE-
SLRIBED BY AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.
Actual Wedding Day Preceded by Week of
Nightly Peastiug-Affair Ends With Ger
emouiaI Bathing TO Avert Ill Luck.
A week of nightly festivities general |
V precedes the actual wedding day,
end in the case of rajah two months !
of festivity may follow it. In Singa- |
pore. where cOsmopolitanism has in
fected everything, the guests will be in
vited to feed one night on white mans
fare and yet another on curry, Malay
fashion. with their fingers; the bride
will appear one night in an English
gown. the next as a Chinese lady, and
then gray robed, gay sashed, as Il
geisha girl; the bridegroom will be
driven around town in a buggy. But
UP country in Malayland proper, where
these corruptions have hardly as yet
crept in, there will be only the decora-
tions of houses with curtains and flow
ers, feasting. the staining of finger tips,
palms and soles of the feet red with
henna (d performance without magic
import and borrowed from the Arabs,
whose ladies consider fingers so colOred
beautiful and always affect this henna
dye); and there will be the brushing of
forehead and hands with rice paste,
which forms an Indispensable ingredi-
ent of the medicine mans pot and
which is used on so many occasions to
avoid i'll luck This is preliminary.
Finally the morning before the sand
ing, which is the essential lay part OF
the wedding and the. part l was to see,
the legal and religious rite is perform
| ed. a kind of registry office business,
where the dowry is paid over, conduct
ed before the kathi, or Mohammedan
| priest, and in the absence of bride and
women folk The sword dance by the
| two Patanis finished, the bridegroom
was escorted away, and the people
| turned homeward; also, to don native
dress and be present by invitation at
a Malay dinner at the rajah's house
and the subsequent marriage ceremony
or sanding. About . o'clock the we'd
ding procession collected to escort the
bridegroom. attired just as he had been
in the afternoon, in a pilgrims flowing
Arab robes, across to the house of his
bride. After describing the ceremony
the writer proceeds: On the next day
at o'clock In the afternoon the mar
riage party 'reassembled, this time for
the ceremonial bathing, mandi tolak
bola, or mandi sampat, to avert i'll
luck. The bridegroom, dressed in his
holiday silks and escorted by his
friends, went over to the brides house
where he has to live awhile under the
eyes of his mother-in-law. There ht
changed his attire for the shabby
clothes that are always reserved fol
ablution and, with a towel over hi:
shoulders, passed into the inner room
|
dressed in old clothes. awaited his com
ing. Amid the buzZing. gathering ant
laughing of the mothers of the kan
pong the pair grasp each the end of
handkerchief and so united march OIL
into the passage. The narrow passag
with the split bamboo floor is crowde,
with excited women, and every one eS
cept the mazed victims is laughin
and talking. They, poor things. 81
with down turned faces, dumb, me
tionless, walking, sitting, standing, nc
of their own accord, but mechanical
and under the compulsion of cage
hands.
Bowl after bowl Of water is poure
over the bedraggled pair. straine
through the cocoanut fronds and th
cloth. The milk of the young coco;
nut is emptied after it. The cocoanr
shoots and cloth are soaked and dril
Ia ping. Two women continue to drenC
\ the couple, but for the sheer coined
enacted by the rest had not been pr
pared. though | had expected som
~ ! thing from seeing my friend the raja
n. doff his official European khaki fl
y something less elaborate than his sill
of yesterday. | was soon to lear
The excited women having finisht
with the victims in chief, turned the
attention to the audience and vent,
II their feelings by douslng every OF
within reach. the rajGh and myself /
cluded. We could only retort with /
- effectual handfuls. while they we
Of practiced arm and equipped wi
basins. However, fortune favored 1
Often bamboo squirts, salted or pc
4 pered water or rice water are emplo
' ed. The women lead the bride avs
for fresh toilet. The groom dons /
silks again and waits, no short time,
the passage till his spouse shall ha
y had her toilet completed to the sat
u faction Of the matrons. Once more t
y bridegroom is ushered inside, and
and his bride are seated side by sic
Ia as on the previous evening. The n;