305
the work is actually done by an expert, all the women assembled in the sramòë likōt nominally take part in it, and the professional hair-dresser must nowise neglect to invite at least the most important guests to share in the andam, the invariable answer being, however[1]: "It matters not; I leave the task to you".
Before the commencement of the andam the necessary steps must be taken to avert evil influences, and means employed to ensure what is technically called "cooling".
As we know, in the native languages of the E. Archipelago all happiness, peace, rest and well-being are united under the concept of "coolness", while the words "hot" and "heat" typify all the powers of evil. Thus when a person has either just endured the attack of a "hot" influence, or has luckily contrived to escape it, the adat prescribes methods of "cooling" in order to confirm him in the well-being which he has recovered or escaped losing. The same methods are also adopted for charming away evil things and baneful influences, the removal of which is regarded as an imperative necessity. For instance, the completion of a house, and various domestic festivities, are made the occasion for a process of "cooling"; so also with a ship when newly built or after the holding of a kanduri on board; and before the padi is planted out the ground must be purified from “hot” or dangerous influences.
"Cooling."In Acheh this cooling[2] is called peusijuëʾ (making cool). The most effective method of cooling consists in besprinkling the person or thing to be cooled with leupōng taweuë[3], i. e. water mixed with a little rice-flour; also the strewing over the object of a little husked and unhusked rice mingled together (breuëh padé).
The besprinkling with leupōng taweuë is performed with the help of certain small plants[4]. Among the plants which always appear in this improvised holy-water sprinkler are included the sisijuëʾ (a name which in itself implies cooling) and the manèʾ-manòë[5] to which
- ↑ Hana peuë, idin lōn taʾandam,
- ↑ Peuchruëng in the highlands.
- ↑ This properly means unflavoured flour or dough, since no salt or flavouring component is mixed with it.
- ↑ The use of this "neutralizing rice-flour" (těpong tawar) with a sprinkling-brush formed of leaves and twigs of certain plants is also universal among the Malays. See Skeat's Malay Magic pp. 77–80 etc. (Translator).
- ↑ This cooling plant is known at Batavia as chakar (elsewhere chochor or sosor), bebek (the Sundanese bun tiris), and is used in Java as in Acheh for certain mysterious purposes
