Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. Ill SAVAGE MALAYS OF SELANGOR 75
plate and water from the dish. All parties then
adjourned to the " Balei " or tribal " Hall," where a
feast was in course of preparation, and where the bride
and bridegroom were made to eat and drink from the
same dish, and shortly afterwards time compelled me
to leave.
I may add, however, that during the entire night
before the wedding from dark to dawn the Besisi
never ceased beating their drums and playing on
their rude bamboo flutes and stringed bamboos
(" banjeng "),
I may add also that the bride and bridegroom
looked little more than children, and that there is no
apparent limit of age for marriage among these people.
Before we departed one of the Batins remarked to
me that the mound by which we were at the time
standing was the emblem of his religion, or (as he
put it) the " priest of his tribe." ^ There can, I think,
be little doubt as to the meaning of this statement,
and given some such sacred emblem, the procession
around it would be natural enough. Whether the
I'ace or the walk round it was the older institution
must remain a moot point, until further evidence on
the point is obtainable ; most
probably the walk is the
survival.
With regard to the age at which the Besisi women
are married, we are told by Logan that among the
Besisi a child of a few years old was not unfrequently
betrothed to her intended husband, who took her to
his house and brought her up.-
1 The expression employed (in Malay) * J. I. A. vol. i. p. 270. Logan
was "kita-punya Imam," i.e. "our compares this with the custom of the
priest." The statement was a purely vol- "Dayaks" near Banjermassin, where
untary one, and not in response to any betrothal takes place at the age of four
question of mine. In Pahang a fire takes or six years. A similar custom occurs
the place of the mound (p. 82, hifi-a). in Java.