Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

72 MARRIAGE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS part hi
leaf building (a Balei or Tribal Hall, built on the plan
of the letter T) which had been erected for the
occasion. With the earth, or rather clay, thrown up
from the pit Penghulu Lempar constructed a mound ^
about the height of a man's waist and in the shape of a
truncated cone, surmounted by a small globe and knob,
so that it was not unlike a gigantic bell and bell-handle.
In the morning, just before the ceremony, I saw
Penghulu Lempar decorating it with flowers, and when
I asked him where he learnt how to make the mound,
he replied that he was quite used to doing so in Johor.^
The flowers were arranged as follows :— First, round
about the mound were planted half a dozen long stems
of what Lempar called the "Owl-flower";^ to these
were added several blossoming stems of the wild red
" Singapore " "* rhododendron, and
to these were again
added some young shoots of fan-palms and other kinds
of palms. ^ Into the mound itself Lempar stuck some
stems of a common blossoming reed.*'
To these, the natural products of the jungle, he
added a bunch of the following artificial "flowers"
manufactured from strips of fan-palm " leaf. These
were intended to represent the sun ;
^ coconuts,^
nooses or " earrings ";^'^ the blossom of the wild " seal-
1 The Besisi told me that the mound ever, that the custom is more widely
was always artificial and always of the spread. Cp. Maxwell,y. A'. A. S., S. B.,
same remarkable shape. The reason of No. I, p. 112.
its being called an ant-hill is merely that ^ " Bunga ponggoh," called by the
the Malay word ("busut") means a Langat Malay who accompanied me
" mound " of any kind (whether natural, " satawar hutan," or "wild sata-
e.g. an ant-heap, or artificial), so that war."
Bes. " kodok."
the confusion arose easily enough. '' Mai. " kedudok "'
;
The shape of the mound is not •''
I.e. "nibong"and "kepau."
necessarily phallic; I have not been '" " SC-ndayan," or "senderayan."
able to discover any parallel ceremony. ' " Kepau."
^ I mention this because the Batin ^ Bes. "met are'," or " tongkat
afterwards told me that the custom was langit."
only kept up among the tribes of Ulu " Bes. " niyu."
Batu Pahat. It seems certain, how- '" Bes. "subang."