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242 VEGETATION CHARMS CHAP.
laying the little bundle of seven ears in it, anointed
them with oil and tied them round with parti-coloured
thread (benang panchawarna), after which she fumi-
gated them with the incense, and strewing rice of each
kind over them, folded the ends of the cloth over
them, and deposited them as before in the basket,
which was handed to the first bearer. Then standing
up, she strewed more rice over the sheaf, and tossing
some backwards over her head, threw the remainder
over the rest of the party, saying " tabek "
("pardon") as
she did so, and exclaiming " kur semangat, kur seman-
gat, kur semangat /" (" cluck, cluck, soul !
")
in a loud
voice. Next she pushed the cocoa-nut shell (which
had contained the tepong tawar) into the middle of the
sheaf, and removed all traces of the lane which had
been trodden round the sheaf (to make it accessible)
by bending down the surrounding ears of rice until the
gap was concealed.
Then the First Bearer, slinging the basket of the
Rice-child about her neck (by means of the red cloth
before referred to), took an umbrella l
from one of the
it to shield the Rice-child from the
party, and opened
effects of the sun, and when the Pawang had reseated
herself and repeated an Arabic prayer (standing erect
again at the end of it with her hands clasped above
her head), this part of the ceremony came to an end.
Moving on to another part of the field, the Pawang
now cut the next seven " heads " and deposited them
in one of the three rice-baskets, which she then handed
to one of the female bearers, telling
her and her two
companions to reap the field in parallel straight lines
1 This umbrella had been forgotten, house to fetch it ; as without it, I was
and we were compelled to wait while told, the Rice -child could not be
one of the "bearers" returned to the escorted home.