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footsteps hither to you is in order that I may fetch away this Si Nyaʾ[1]. The invitation is politely accepted, but a considerable time is allowed to elapse before it is acted upon.
Finally, after due notice of the visit has been given the bride repairs to the gampōng of her husband[2] accompanied by a crowd of female relatives and fellow-villagers. She takes with her from 6 to as many as 20 idangs[3] of sweetmeats, which gift is paid for by the bridegroom's mother at the fixed rate of 1 dollar per idang. This return gift is, however, intended for the more advanced in years of the women who attend the bride.
Feast and "handwashing".The welcoming (sapa) of these guests is attended with a certain amount of ceremony, but is by no means so tediously protracted as at the wedding. Here too we find idangs of the sort which we have seen in use at the penjamèë. At the conclusion of the feast there takes place a ceremony (probably a survival from ancient times) which bears the name of "handwashing", though there is in fact no washing of hands. The mother of the bridegroom rubs some yellow glutinous rice behind the ears of the bride (peusunténg see p. 306). The bride then greets her with the usual respectful obeisance (seumbah) and receives as a gift in return for this greeting a peculiar ring (eunchiën giléʾ), which is worn on the thumb[4]. Sometimes a money present is given instead, and in those districts where it is the custom for the bridegroom to give back half the dowry after the wedding, the bride receives this half[5]—usually with an additional sum superadded—on this occasion.
The ancient adat also prescribes that the bride when returning home should receive as a parting gift from her mother-in-law a cow-buffalo. This should properly speaking not be slaughtered, but kept as a keubeuë peunulang[6] for breeding purposes only, as a special blessing
- ↑ Nyang tōʾ langkah lōn keunòë baʾ dròënen, geujuë jaʾ tuëng Si Nyaʾ nyòë. Si Nyaʾ is a pet name for children.
- ↑ The technical expression is jaʾ gampōng or rumòh lintō = "to go to the gampōng (or house) of the bridegroom."
- ↑ The idang of sweetmeats (peunajōh) consists of only a single dalōng; the idang for feasts is, as we have already seen, composed of two.
- ↑ This ring consists of a succession of thick knobs or balls held apart by little thin strips of metal.
- ↑ See p. 340 above.
- ↑ Peunulang is the special term applied to all that children receive from their parents for their support. It is thus opposed to peusaka or inherited property, but is taken into account on a division of the latter, so that a child who has received more peunulang than the others, gets less peusaka.
