385
The giving of the name, for which the seventh day is also recommended by the law of Islam, generally takes place in Acheh at the end of the period of convalescence, and is not attended by much ceremony. The teungku is called to the house or the child sent to him. He consults a Malay manual which gives the names most suitable for a child born on a given day of the week and month throughout the year. Before the name is fixed, the child is usually called Si Chut or Nyaʾ Chut both meaning "the little one," or else Si Chuëng[1] or Si Khèb, both of which words have a somewhat unsavoury significance; or, if a boy, it may be called Si Gam (mannikin), or if a girl, Si Inòng (little woman). Such names, universal and indistinctive as they are, remain in many cases the only ones by which those that bear them are known all their life long. Many dispense with the Arabic names given by the teungku's skilled advice, and have in their places names borrowed from some object of daily use or mere nicknames indicating some bodily characteristic or defect.
After the 10th day begin the visits of congratulation. Female acquaintances drop in at odd times and bring some little gift for the mother or the child. These presents are called neumè ("things brought"). Those intended for the child consist especially of the little sweet banana known as pisang seumatu or the sourish pisang klat, both of which may be eaten by sucking infants without causing indigestion. Bananas are given to newborn children as early as the seventh day after birth, and it is the universal custom in Acheh to habituate the infant as much as possible from the very beginning to eat regular food in addition to the mother's milk.
The gifts of the visitors to the mother usually consist of fresh fruits such as oranges of various sorts (bòh kruët mamèh, bòh giri), plates of yellow glutinous rice, etc.
From the second day after its birth the child is twice a day, at about 7 A.M. and 5 P.M., bespued (seumbō) by an old woman with
- ↑ Chuëng properly means the smell of urine. In other parts of the Archipelago, as for instance in Java, children's names are very often borrowed from such ideas or from the names of the sexual organs. Thus we find in Java tolé or kontolé, li (contracted from pěli) which signify the male organ; lup or kulup = uncircumcised, for boys, and ruk (from turuk) or mèʾ from těmèʾ (= pudendum muliebre) for girls. [Kulup is a very common name among Malays; they do not however seem to employ any of the others mentioned above. (Translator)].
