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360 ADOLESCENCE CHAP.
of round ear-ring, which is of filagree-work, and is
called subang, is as much the emblem of virginity in
the western States as it ever was. The "discarding"
of these ear-rings (tanggal subang], which should take
place about seven days after the conclusion of the
marriage rites, is ceremonial in character, and it is even
the custom when a widow is (janda) married for the
second time, to provide her with a pair of subang
(which should, however, it is said, be tied on to her
ears instead of being inserted in the ear-holes, as in the
case of a girl who has never been married).
The rite of circumcision is of course common to
Muhammadans all over the world. Some analogous
practices, however, have also
non-Muhammadan Malayan
been noticed among the
races of the Eastern
and it is at least doubtful whether cir-
Archipelago,
cumcision as now practised by Malays is a purely
Muhummadan rite. Among Malays it is performed
by a functionary called the "Mudim," 1 with a slip
of bamboo, at any age (in the case of boys)
from about six or seven up to about sixteen years,
the wound being often dressed (at
least in town
districts) with fine clay mixed with soot and the
yolk of eggs, but when possible, the clay is mixed
with cocoa-nut fibre (rabok niyor), selumur paku uban,
and the young shoots of the Klat plantain {puchok
pisang Klat\ the compound being called in either case
these operations are regarded in the a rivet or nut screwed to the inner
family as the occasion of a festival. They part." Marsden, Hist, of Sumatra
do not here, as in some of the adjacent (ed. 181 1), p. 53.
islands (of Nias in particular), increase x The formula (shahadat) used by
the aperture of the ear to a monstrous the Mudim (tukang memotong) runs as
follows :
size, so as in many instances to be large
enough to admit the hand, the lower " Ashahadun la-ilaha-illa-'llak wa
parts being stretched till they touch ashahadun Muhammad al-Rasul Allah
the shoulders. Their ear-rings are allahumma aja'lni mina U-taivabina
l-matatakirrina."
mostly of gold filagree, and fastened, wa aja'lni mina '
not with a clasp, but in the manner of