388
"Have you not seen those sparks? They are the seumangats which have now returned." And fortunately for the credit of the expert, there are always one or two women who are kind enough to answer in the affirmative.
Grown-up people speak of the loss of their seumangat only figuratively, to express great astonishment or confusion. The common expression kru seumangat! used to one who has borne himself too politely or submissively towards the speaker, seems to contain the rudiment of a notion of this soul with its occasional departures from the body as a bird which may be summoned back by the word kru, which is used to call fowls home.
End of the oven period.After the 44 momentous days[1] have passed, there takes place what is known as the "removal of the oven" (bòïh dapu); this however as a rule really occurs on the 41st or 43d day, as a day of even number is considered less lucky. A kanduri is given to a number of teunghus and leubès, at which feast there must be plenty of apam or cakes in addition to the rice and its accessories. One of the guests consecrates the fast by the funeral prayer, in which the mercy of Allah is invoked for all the dead and for the living as well. A number of women are invited to attend the ceremony, but these take no share in the kanduri.
Those whose means allow of it give at the same time a Rapaʾi, the religious play so popular among the Achehnese.
The midwife removes the dapu or oven and pushes it beneath the house, where the platform on which the mother has rested during her confinement is also deposited. The woman is then given a bath, which is called the "bath of 44" (i. e. 44 days). If we may believe the old legends, women of rank in earlier times had this bath served from 44 jars[2]. The water for the bath is mixed with the juice of sour oranges (bòh kruët).
In ordinary cases the midwife can then take her departure. She must first, however, "cool" (peusijuëʾ) the house. For this purpose she employs the means with which we have already[3] become familiar,
- ↑ The Mohammedan law sets down the average period of purification after childbirth at 40 days, and this is the time observed in Java. As we have seen however the period of forty days customarily observed in other countries is often replaced by forty-four, which latter number plays a prominent part in Achehnese superstition.
- ↑ Compare the bath of the woman in Java in the 7th month of her pregnancy, the water for which is if possible taken from seven wells.
- ↑ See pp. 43–44 above.
