Malay Magic by Walter William Skeat

be allowed to go out at night, whilst the hearth-fire might not be allowed to go out at all, night or day, for the whole three days. The above taboos are in many respects identical with those which have to be observed for three days after the birth of a real child. I may add that every day, when the reapers start their reaping, they have to repeat the following charm:-- "A swallow has fallen, striking the ground, Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard; But ye, O Shadows and Spectral Reapers, See that ye mingle not with us." When reaping, they must cover their heads and must face the sun, no matter what hour of the day it is, in order to prevent their own shadows from falling upon the rice in the basket at their side. Pounding the first of the padi.--I witnessed this ceremony three days later, at about 9 A.M. The three baskets filled with the first reapings were removed from the mat on which they had been placed, and their contents emptied out upon a new mat, to each corner of which four rice-ears were tied, and trodden out (di-irekkan) by the owner of the field. Then the rice was poured back into two of the baskets, and the straw of the rice "heads" was plaited into a wreath. [428] Drying the first of the padi.--Preparations being complete, the two baskets full of newly-cut rice were carried down the steps and out to an open part of the field, a little way from the house, and there spread on a mat in the sun to dry. To spread it properly is not an easy matter, the operator (who in this case was the owner), standing on the mat and spreading the grains with a long sweeping motion of the hand from one side of the mat to the other (the process being called di-kekar, di-kachau, or membalikkan jemoran). In the present case several objects were placed in the centre of the mat, consisting of--