CUSTOM OF CHEWING BETEL.
EMBLEMATIC PRESENTS.
ORATORY.
CHILDREN.
NAMES.
CIRCUMCISION.
FUNERALS.
RELIGION.
CUSTOM OF CHEWING BETEL.
Whether to blunt the edge of painful reflection, or owing to an aversion
our natures have to total inaction, most nations have been addicted to
the practice of enjoying by mastication or otherwise the flavour of
substances possessing an inebriating quality. The South Americans chew
the cocoa and mambee, and the eastern people the betel and areca, or, as
they are called in the Malay language, sirih and pinang. This custom has
been accurately described by various writers, and therefore it is almost
superfluous to say more on the subject than that the Sumatrans
universally use it, carry the ingredients constantly about them, and
serve it to their guests on all occasions--the prince in a gold stand,
and the poor man in a brass box or mat bag. The betel-stands of the
better rank of people are usually of silver embossed with rude figures.
The Sultan of Moco-moco was presented with one by the India Company, with
their arms on it; and he possesses beside another of gold filigree. The
form of the stand is the frustum of a hexagonal pyramid reversed, about
six or eight inches in diameter. It contains many smaller vessels fitted
to the angles, for holding the nut, leaf, and chunam, which is quicklime
made from calcined shells; with places for the instruments (kachip)
employed in cutting the first, and spatulas for spreading the last.
When the first salutation is over, which consists in bending the body,
and the inferior's putting his joined hands between those of the
superior, and then lifting them to his forehead, the betel is presented
as a token of hospitality and an act of politeness. To omit it on the one
hand or to reject it on the other would be an affront; as it would be
likewise in a person of subordinate rank to address a great man without
the precaution of chewing it before he spoke. All the preparation
consists in spreading on the sirih leaf a small quantity of the chunam
and folding it up with a slice of the pinang nut. Some mix with these
gambir, which is a substance prepared from the leaves of a tree of that
name by boiling their juices to a consistence, and made up into little
balls or squares, as before spoken of: tobacco is likewise added, which
is shred fine for the purpose, and carried between the lip and upper row
of teeth. From the mastication of the first three proceeds a juice which
tinges the saliva of a bright red, and which the leaf and nut, without
the chunam, will not yield. This hue being communicated to the mouth and
lips is esteemed ornamental; and an agreeable flavour is imparted to the
breath. The juice is usually (after the first fermentation produced by
the lime) though not always swallowed by the chewers of betel. We might
reasonably suppose that its active qualities would injure the coats of
the stomach, but experience seems to disprove such a consequence. It is
common to see the teeth of elderly persons stand loose in the gums, which
is probably the effect of this custom, but I do not think that it affects
the soundness of the teeth themselves. Children begin to chew betel very
young, and yet their teeth are always beautifully white till pains are
taken to disfigure them by filing and staining them black. To persons who
are not habituated to the composition it causes a strong giddiness,
astringes and excoriates the tongue and fauces, and deadens for a time
the faculty of taste. During the puasa, or fast of ramadan, the
Mahometans among them abstain from the use of betel whilst the sun
continues above the horizon; but excepting at this season it is the
constant luxury of both sexes from an early period of childhood, till,
becoming toothless, they are reduced to the necessity of having the
ingredients previously reduced to a paste for them, that without further
effort the betel may dissolve in the mouth. Along with the betel, and
generally in the chunam, is the mode of conveying philtres, or love
charms. How far they prove effectual I cannot take upon me to say, but
suppose that they are of the nature of our stimulant medicines, and that
the direction of the passion is of course indiscriminate. The practice of
administering poison in this manner is not followed in latter times; but
that the idea is not so far eradicated as entirely to prevent suspicion
appears from this circumstance, that the guest, though taking a leaf from
the betel-service of his entertainer, not unfrequently applies to it his
own chunam, and never omits to pass the former between his thumb and
forefinger in order to wipe off any extraneous matter. This mistrustful
procedure is so common as not to give offence.
TOBACCO.
Beside the mode before-mentioned of enjoying the flavour of tobacco it is
also smoked by the natives and for this use--after shredding it fine
whilst green and drying it well it is rolled up in the thin leaves of a
tree, and is in that form called roko, a word they appear to have
borrowed from the Dutch. The rokos are carried in the betel-box, or more
commonly under the destar or handkerchief which, in imitation of a
turband, surrounds the head. Much tobacco is likewise imported from China
and sells at a high price. It seems to possess a greater pungency than
the Sumatran plant, which the people cultivate for their own use in the
interior parts of the island.
EMBLEMATIC PRESENTS.
The custom of sending emblematical presents in order to make known, in a
covert manner, the birth, progress, or change of certain affections of
the mind, prevails here, as in some other parts of the East; and not only
flowers of various kinds have their appropriate meaning, but also
cayenne-pepper, betel-leaf, salt, and other articles are understood by
adepts to denote love, jealousy, resentment, hatred, and other strong
feelings.
ORATORY.
The Sumatrans in general are good speakers. The gift of oratory seems
natural to them. I knew many among them whose harangues I have listened
to with pleasure and admiration. This may be accounted for perhaps from
the constitution of their government, which being far removed from
despotism seems to admit, in some degree, every member of the society to
a share in the public deliberations. Where personal endowments, as has
been observed, will often raise a private man to a share of importance in
the community,superior to that of a nominal chief, there is abundant
inducement for the acquisition of these valuable talents. The forms of
their judicial proceedings likewise, where there are no established
advocates and each man depends upon his own or his friend's abilities for
the management of his cause, must doubtless contribute to this habitual
eloquence. We may add to these conjectures the nature of their domestic
manners, which introduce the sons at an early period of life into the
business of the family, and the counsels of their elders. There is little
to be perceived among them of that passion for childish sports which
marks the character of our boys from the seventh to the fourteenth year.
In Sumatra you may observe infants, not exceeding the former age, full
dressed and armed with a kris, seated in the circle of the old men of the
dusun, and attending to their debates with a gravity of countenance not
surpassed by their grandfathers. Thus initiated they are qualified to
deliver an opinion in public at a time of life when an English schoolboy
could scarcely return an answer to a question beyond the limits of his
grammar or syntax, which he has learned by rote. It is not a little
unaccountable that this people, who hold the art of speaking in such high
esteem, and evidently pique themselves on the attainment of it, should
yet take so much pains to destroy the organs of speech in filing down and
otherwise disfiguring their teeth; and likewise adopt the uncouth
practice of filling their mouths with betel whenever they prepare to hold
forth. We must conclude that it is not upon the graces of elocution they
value an orator, but his artful and judicious management of the subject
matter; together with a copiousness of phrase, a perspicuity of thought,
an advantageous arrangement, and a readiness, especially, at unravelling
the difficulties and intricacies of their suits.
CHILD-BEARING.
The curse entailed on women in the article of child-bearing does not fall
so heavy in this as in the northern countries. Their pregnancy scarcely
at any period prevents their attendance on the ordinary domestic duties;
and usually within a few hours after their delivery they walk to the
bathing-place, at a small distance from the house. The presence of a sage
femme is often esteemed superfluous. The facility of parturition may
probably be owing to the relaxation of the frame from the warmth of the
climate; to which cause also may be attributed the paucity of children
borne by the Sumatran women and the early decay of their beauty and
strength. They have the tokens of old age at a season of life when
European women have not passed their prime. They are like the fruits of
the country, soon ripe and soon decayed. They bear children before
fifteen, are generally past it at thirty, and grey-headed and shrivelled
at forty. I do not recollect hearing of any woman who had six children
except the wife of Raddin of Madura, who had more; and she, contrary to
the universal custom, did not give suck to hers.
TREATMENT OF CHILDREN.
Mothers carry the children not on the arm, as our nurses do, but
straddling on the hip, and usually supported by a cloth which ties in a
knot on the opposite shoulder. This practice I have been told is common
in some parts of Wales. It is much safer than the other method, less
tiresome to the nurse, and the child has the advantage of sitting in a
less constrained posture: but the defensive armour of stays, and
offensive weapons called pins, might be some objection to the general
introduction of the fashion in England. The children are nursed but
little, not confined by any swathing or bandages, and, being suffered to
roll about the floor, soon learn to walk and shift for themselves. When
cradles are used they are swung suspended from the ceiling of the rooms.
AGE OF THE PEOPLE.
The country people can very seldom give an account of their age, being
entirely without any species of chronology. Among those country people
who profess themselves Mahometans to very few is the date of the Hejra
known; and even of those who in their writings make use of it not one in
ten can pronounce in what year of it he was born. After a few taun padi
(harvests) are elapsed they are bewildered in regard to the date of an
event, and only guess at it from some contemporary circumstance of
notoriety, as the appointment of a particular dupati, the incursion of a
certain enemy, or the like. As far as can be judged from observation it
would seem that not a great proportion of the men attain to the age of
fifty, and sixty years is accounted a long life.
NAMES.
The children among the Rejangs have generally a name given to them by
their parents soon after their birth, which is called namo daging. The
galar (cognomen), another species of name, or title, as we improperly
translate it, is bestowed at a subsequent, but not at any determinate,
period: sometimes as the lads rise to manhood, at an entertainment given
by the parent, on some particular occasion; and often at their marriage.
It is generally conferred by the old men of the neighbouring villages,
when assembled; but instances occur of its being irregularly assumed by
the persons themselves; and some never obtain any galar. It is also not
unusual, at a convention held on business of importance, to change the
galar of one or two of the principal personages to others of superior
estimation; though it is not easy to discover in what this pre-eminence
consists, the appellations being entirely arbitrary, at the fancy of
those who confer them: perhaps in the loftier sound, or more pompous
allusion in the sense, which latter is sometimes carried to an
extraordinary pitch of bombast, as in the instance of Pengunchang bumi,
or Shaker of the World, the title of a pangeran of Manna. But a climax is
not always perceptible in the change.
FATHER NAMED FROM HIS CHILD.
The father, in many parts of the country, particularly in Passummah, is
distinguished by the name of his first child, as Pa-Ladin, or Pa-Rindu
(Pa for bapa, signifying the father of), and loses in this acquired his
own proper name. This is a singular custom, and surely less conformable
to the order of nature than that which names the son from the father.
There it is not usual to give them a galar on their marriage, as with the
Rejangs, among whom the filionymic is not so common, though sometimes
adopted, and occasionally joined with the galar; as Radin-pa-Chirano. The
women never change the name given them at the time of their birth; yet
frequently they are called, through courtesy, from their eldest child,
Ma-si-ano, the mother of such a one; but rather as a polite description
than a name. The word or particle Si is prefixed to the birth-names of
persons, which almost ever consist of but a single word, as Si Bintang,
Si Tolong; and we find from Captain Forrest's voyage that in the island
of Mindanao the infant son of the Raja Muda was named Se Mama.
HESITATE TO PRONOUNCE THEIR OWN NAME.
A Sumatran ever scrupulously abstains from pronouncing his own name; not
as I understand from any motive of superstition, but merely as a
punctilio in manners. It occasions him infinite embarrassment when a
stranger, unacquainted with their customs, requires it of him. As soon as
he recovers from his confusion he solicits the interposition of his
neighbour.
ADDRESS IN THE THIRD PERSON.
He is never addressed, except in the case of a superior dictating to his
dependant, in the second person, but always in the third; using his name
or title instead of the pronoun; and when these are unknown a general
title of respect is substituted, and they say, for instance, apa orang
kaya punia suka, what is his honour's pleasure for what is your, or your
honour's pleasure? When criminals or other ignominious persons are spoken
to use is made of the pronoun personal kau (a contraction of angkau)
particularly expressive of contempt. The idea of disrespect annexed to
the use of the second person in discourse, though difficult to be
accounted for, seems pretty general in the world. The Europeans, to avoid
the supposed indecorum, exchange the singular number for the plural; but
I think with less propriety of effect than the Asiatic mode; if to take
off from the bluntness of address be the object aimed at.
CIRCUMCISION.
The boys are circumcised, where Mahometanism prevails, between the sixth
and tenth year. The ceremony is called krat kulop and buang or lepas malu
(casting away their shame), and a bimbang is usually given on the
occasion; as well as at the ceremony of boring the ears and filing the
teeth of their daughters (before described), which takes place at about
the age of ten or twelve; and until this is performed they cannot with
propriety be married.
FUNERALS.
At their funerals the corpse is carried to the place of interment on a
broad plank, which is kept for the public service of the dusun, and lasts
for many generations. It is constantly rubbed with lime, either to
preserve it from decay or to keep it pure. No coffin is made use of; the
body being simply wrapped in white cloth, particularly of the sort called
hummums. In forming the grave (kubur), after digging to a convenient
depth they make a cavity in the side, at bottom, of sufficient dimensions
to contain the body, which is there deposited on its right side. By this
mode the earth literally lies light upon it; and the cavity, after
strewing flowers in it, they stop up by two boards fastened angularly to
each other, so that the one is on the top of the corpse, whilst the other
defends it on the open side, the edge resting on the bottom of the grave.
The outer excavation is then filled up with earth, and little white flags
or streamers are stuck in order around. They likewise plant a shrub,
bearing a white flower, called kumbangkamboja (Plumeria obtusa), and in
some places wild marjoram. The women who attend the funeral make a
hideous noise, not much unlike the Irish howl. On the third and seventh
day the relations perform a ceremony at the grave, and at the end of
twelve months that of tegga batu, or setting up a few long elliptical
stones at the head and foot, which, being scarce in some parts of the
country, bear a considerable price. On this occasion they kill and feast
on a buffalo, and leave the head to decay on the spot as a token of the
honour they have done to the deceased, in eating to his memory.* The
ancient burying-places are called krammat, and are supposed to have been
those of the holy men by whom their ancestors were converted to the
faith. They are held in extraordinary reverence, and the least
disturbance or violation of the ground, though all traces of the graves
be obliterated, is regarded as an unpardonable sacrilege.
(*Footnote. The above ceremonies (with the exception of the last) are
briefly described in the following lines, extracted from a Malayan poem.
Setelah sudah de tangisi, nia
Lalu de kubur de tanamkan 'nia
De ambel koran de ajikan 'nia
Sopaya lepas deri sangsara 'nia
Mengaji de kubur tujuh ari
Setelah de khatam tiga kali
Sudah de tegga batu sakali
Membayer utang pada si-mati.)
RELIGION.
In works descriptive of the manners of people little known to the world
the account of their religion usually constitutes an article of the first
importance. Mine will labour under the contrary disadvantage. The ancient
and genuine religion of the Rejangs, if in fact they ever had any, is
scarcely now to be traced; and what principally adds to its obscurity,
and the difficulty of getting information on the subject, is that even
those among them who have not been initiated in the principles of
Mahometanism yet regard those who have as persons advanced a step in
knowledge beyond them, and therefore hesitate to own circumstantially
that they remain still unenlightened. Ceremonies are fascinating to
mankind, and without comprehending with what views they were instituted
the profanum vulgus naturally give them credit for something mysterious
and above their capacities, and accordingly pay them a tribute of
respect. With Mahometanism a more extensive field of knowledge (I speak
in comparison) is open to its converts, and some additional notions of
science are conveyed. These help to give it importance, though it must be
confessed they are not the most pure tenets of that religion which have
found their way to Sumatra; nor are even the ceremonial parts very
scrupulously adhered to. Many who profess to follow it give themselves
not the least concern about its injunctions, or even know what they
require. A Malay at Manna upbraided a countryman with the total ignorance
of religion his nation laboured under. "You pay a veneration to the tombs
of your ancestors: what foundation have you for supposing that your dead
ancestors can lend you assistance?" "It may be true," answered the other,
"but what foundation have you for expecting assistance from Allah and
Mahomet?" "Are you not aware, replied the Malay, that it is written in a
Book? Have you not heard of the Koran?" The native of Passummah, with
conscious inferiority, submitted to the force of this argument.
If by religion is meant a public or private form of worship of any kind,
and if prayers, processions, meetings, offerings, images, or priests are
any of them necessary to constitute it, I can pronounce that the Rejangs
are totally without religion and cannot with propriety be even termed
pagans, if that, as I apprehend, conveys the idea of mistaken worship.
They neither worship God, devil, nor idols. They are not however without
superstitious beliefs of many kinds, and have certainly a confused
notion, though perhaps derived from their intercourse with other people,
of some species of superior beings who have the power of rendering
themselves visible or invisible at pleasure. These they call orang alus,
fine, or impalpable beings, and regard them as possessing the faculty of
doing them good or evil, deprecating their wrath as the sense of present
misfortunes or apprehension of future prevails in their minds. But when
they speak particularly of them they call them by the appellations of
maleikat and jin, which are the angels and evil spirits of the Arabians,
and the idea may probably have been borrowed at the same time with the
names. These are the powers they also refer to in an oath. I have heard a
dupati say, "My grandfather took an oath that he would not demand the
jujur of that woman, and imprecated a curse on any of his descendants
that should do it: I never have, nor could I without salah kapada
maleikat--an offence against the angels." Thus they say also, de talong
nabi, maleikat, the prophet and angels assisting. This is pure
Mahometanism.
NO NAME FOR THE DEITY.
The clearest proof that they never entertained an idea of Theism or the
belief of one supreme power is that they have no word in their language
to express the person of God, except the Allah tala of the Malays,
corrupted by them to Ulah tallo. Yet when questioned on the subject they
assert their ancestors' knowledge of a deity, though their thoughts were
never employed about him; but this evidently means no more than that
their forefathers as well as themselves had heard of the Allah of the
Mahometans (Allah orang islam).
IDEA OF INVISIBLE BEINGS.
They use, both in Rejang and Passummah, the word dewa to express a
superior invisible class of beings; but each country acknowledges it to
be of foreign derivation, and they suppose it Javanese. Radin, of Madura,
an island close to Java, who was well conversant with the religious
opinions of most nations, asserted to me that dewa was an original word
of that country for a superior being, which the Javans of the interior
believed in, but with regard to whom they used no ceremonies or forms of
worship:* that they had some idea of a future life, but not as a state of
retribution, conceiving immortality to be the lot of rich rather than of
good men. I recollect that an inhabitant of one of the islands farther
eastward observed to me, with great simplicity, that only great men went
to the skies; how should poor men find admittance there? The Sumatrans,
where untinctured with Mahometanism, do not appear to have any notion of
a future state. Their conception of virtue or vice extends no farther
than to the immediate effect of actions to the benefit or prejudice of
society, and all such as tend not to either of these ends are in their
estimation perfectly indifferent.
(*Footnote. In the Transactions of the Batavian Society Volumes 1 and 3
is to be found a History of these Dewas of the Javans, translated from an
original manuscript. The mythology is childish and incoherent. The Dutch
commentator supposes them to have been a race of men held sacred, forming
a species of Hierarchy, like the government of the Lamas in Tartary.)
Notwithstanding what is asserted of the originality of the word dewa, I
cannot help remarking its extreme affinity to the Persian word div or
diw, which signifies an evil spirit or bad genius. Perhaps, long
antecedent to the introduction of the faith of the khalifs among the
eastern people, this word might have found its way and been naturalized
in the islands; or perhaps its progress was in a contrary direction. It
has likewise a connexion in sound with the names used to express a deity
or some degree of superior being by many other people of this region of
the earth. The Battas, inhabitants of the northern end of Sumatra, whom I
shall describe hereafter, use the word daibattah or daivattah; the
Chingalese of Ceylon dewiju, the Telingas of India dai-wundu, the Biajus
of Borneo dewattah, the Papuas of New Guinea 'wat, and the Pampangos of
the Philippines diuata. It bears likewise an affinity (perhaps
accidental) to the deus and deitas of the Romans.*
(*Footnote. At the period when the above was written I was little aware
of the intimate connexion now well understood to have anciently subsisted
between the Hindus and the various nations beyond the Ganges. The most
evident proofs appear of the extensive dissemination both of their
language and mythology throughout Sumatra, Java, Balli (where at this day
they are best preserved), and the other eastern islands. To the Sanskrit
words dewa and dewata, signifying divinities in that great mother-tongue,
we are therefore to look for the source of the terms, more or less
corrupted, that have been mentioned in the text. See Asiatic Researches
Volume 4 page 223.)
VENERATION FOR THE MANES AND TOMBS OF THEIR ANCESTORS.
The superstition which has the strongest influence on the minds of the
Sumatrans, and which approaches the nearest to a species of religion, is
that which leads them to venerate, almost to the point of worshipping,
the tombs and manes of their deceased ancestors (nenek puyang). These
they are attached to as strongly as to life itself, and to oblige them to
remove from the neighbourhood of their krammat is like tearing up a tree
by the roots; these the more genuine country people regard chiefly, when
they take a solemn oath, and to these they apostrophise in instances of
sudden calamity. Had they the art of making images or other
representations of them they would be perfect lares, penates, or
household gods. It has been asserted to me by the natives (conformably to
what we are told by some of the early travellers) that in very ancient
times the Sumatrans made a practice of burning the bodies of their dead,
but I could never find any traces of the custom, or any circumstances
that corroborated it.
METEMPSYCHOSIS.
They have an imperfect notion of a metempsychosis, but not in any degree
systematic, nor considered as an article of religious faith. Popular
stories prevail amongst them of such a particular man being changed into
a tiger or other beast. They seem to think indeed that tigers in general
are actuated with the spirits of departed men, and no consideration will
prevail on a countryman to catch or to wound one but in self-defence, or
immediately after the act of destroying a friend or relation. They speak
of them with a degree of awe, and hesitate to call them by their common
name (rimau or machang), terming them respectfully satwa (the wild
animals), or even nenek (ancestors), as really believing them such, or by
way of soothing and coaxing them; as our ignorant country folk call the
fairies the good people. When a European procures traps to be set, by the
means of persons less superstitious, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
have been known to go at night to the place and practise some forms in
order to persuade the animal, when caught, or when he shall perceive the
bait, that it was not laid by them, or with their consent. They talk of a
place in the country where the tigers have a court and maintain a regular
form of government, in towns, the houses of which are thatched with
women's hair. It happened that in one month seven or eight people were
killed by these prowling beasts in Manna district; upon which a report
became current that fifteen hundred of them were come down from
Passummah, of which number four were without understanding (gila), and
having separated from the rest ran about the country occasioning all the
mischief that was felt. The alligators also are highly destructive, owing
to the constant practice of bathing in the rivers, and are regarded with
nearly the same degree of religious terror. Fear is the parent of
superstition, by ignorance. Those two animals prove the Sumatran's
greatest scourge. The mischief the former commit is incredible, whole
villages being often depopulated by them, and the suffering people learn
to reverence as supernatural effects the furious ravages of an enemy they
have not resolution to oppose.
The Sumatrans are firmly persuaded that various particular persons are
what they term betuah (sacred, impassive, invulnerable, not liable to
accident), and this quality they sometimes extend to things inanimate, as
ships and boats. Such an opinion, which we should suppose every man might
have an opportunity of bringing to the test of truth, affords a
humiliating proof of the weakness and credulity of human nature, and the
fallibility of testimony, when a film of prejudice obscures the light of
the understanding. I have known two men, whose honesty, good faith, and
reasonableness in the general concerns of life were well established, and
whose assertions would have weight in transactions of consequence: these
men I have heard maintain, with the most deliberate confidence and an
appearance of inward conviction of their own sincerity, that they had
more than once in the course of their wars attempted to run their weapons
into the naked body of their adversary, which they found impenetrable,
their points being continually and miraculously turned without any effort
on the part of the orang betuah: and that hundreds of instances of the
like nature, where the invulnerable man did not possess the smallest
natural means of opposition, had come within their observation. An
English officer, with more courage and humour than discretion, exposed
one imposture of this kind. A man having boasted in his presence that he
was endowed with this supernatural privilege, the officer took an
opportunity of applying to his arm the point of a sword and drew the
blood, to the no little diversion of the spectators, and mortification of
the pretender to superior gifts, who vowed revenge, and would have taken
it had not means been used to keep him at a distance. But a single
detection of charlatanerie is not effectual to destroy a prevalent
superstition. These impostors are usually found among the Malays and not
the more simple country people.
NO MISSIONARIES.
No attempts, I have reason to think, have ever been made by missionaries
or others to convert the inhabitants of the island to Christianity, and I
have much doubt whether the most zealous and able would meet with any
permanent success in this pious work. Of the many thousands baptized in
the eastern islands by the celebrated Francis Xavier in the sixteenth
century not one of their descendants are now found to retain a ray of the
light imparted to them; and probably, as it was novelty only and not
conviction that induced the original converts to embrace a new faith, the
impression lasted no longer than the sentiment which recommended it, and
disappeared as rapidly as the itinerant apostle. Under the influence
however of the Spanish government at Manila and of the Dutch at Batavia
there are many native Christians, educated as such from children. In the
Malayan language Portuguese and Christians are confounded under the same
general name; the former being called orang Zerani, by corruption for
Nazerani. This neglect of missions to Sumatra is one cause that the
interior of the country has been so little known to the civilized world.