Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF PERAK 355
As soon as the last guest had arrived, which was
usually about mid-day, the dishes were placed upon the
mats. Nowadays the host provides the rice and the
betel-leaf, and every one who receives the invitation
gives about ten cents towards the purchase of luxuries.
Formerly, however, those ten cents were paid in kind,
and consisted of various supplementary dishes, such as
fish, game, and vegetables. Waiting on the guests,
on the other hand, was the duty of the householder
and his wife and his grown-up daughters.^
-
Before the meal commenced, as soon as the guests
had chosen their places (the women and children
sitting together in one place and the men in another),
the magician took the censer and dispatched it seven
times round the circle of guests, who continued to
pass it round from hand to hand until it returned
again to the magician, the latter calling out "one,
two, three, four," and so forth each time that he
received it, until the seven circuits were completed.
These were, however, the only words uttered by the
magician during the ceremony, and he did not turn in
any special direction.
When this proceeding was over, the magician
waved the censer seven times round the reaping-
knives and the cloth in which the seven rice-heads
were wrapped, and both of the latter being suspended
from one of the central pillars of the house,
the censer was simply passed around that i)illar.
Next, the censer was carried round all the rice-
sacks (which were intended to receive the harvested
rice), and, lastly, seven times round the cooking-pots,
which stood apart by themselves. It was then
deposited at the foot of the pillar at the top of which
' Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 154. - Ibid.