of a fine white paste. It is then exposed to
the sun to dry, and, being reduced to a powder, they
mix with it ginger, the leaves of a plant called by
them dilam, and by Europeans patch-leaf (Melissa lotoria,
R.), which gives to it a peculiar smell, and also,
as is supposed, a cooling quality. They add likewise
the flowers of the jagong (maize); kayu chendana (sandalwood);
and the seeds of a plant called there kapas antu (fairy-cotton),
which is the Hibiscus abelmoschus, or musk seed.
All these ingredients, after being moistened and well
mixed together, are made up into little balls, and
when they would apply the cosmetic these are diluted
with a drop of water, rubbed between the hands, and
then on the face, neck, and shoulders. They have
an apprehension, probably well founded, that a too
abundant or frequent application will, by stopping
the pores of the skin, bring on a fever. It is
used with good effect to remove that troublesome complaint,
so well known to Europeans in India, by the name of
the prickly heat; but it is not always safe for strangers
thus to check the operations of nature in a warm climate.
The Sumatran girls, as well as our English maidens,
entertain a favourable opinion of the virtues of morning
dew as a beautifier, and believe that by rubbing it
to the roots of the hair it will strengthen and thicken
it. With this view they take pains to catch it
before sunrise in vessels as it falls.
CONSUMMATION OF MARRIAGES.
If a wedding is the occasion of the bimbang the couple
are married, perhaps, the second or third day; but
it may be two or three more ere the husband can get
possession of his bride; the old matrons making it
a rule to prevent him, as long as possible, and the
bride herself holding it a point of honour to defend
to extremity that jewel which she would yet be disappointed
in preserving.*
(Footnote. It is recorded that the jealousy
between the English and Dutch at Bantam arose from
a preference shown to the former by the king at a
festival which he gave upon obtaining a victory of
this nature, which his bride had long disputed with
him. For a description of a Malayan wedding,
with an excellent plate representing the conclusion
of the ceremony and the sleeping apartment, I beg
to refer the reader to Captain Forrest’s Voyage
to New Guinea page 286 quarto edition. The bed-place
is described at page 232 and the processional car (per-arakan)
at page 241. His whole account of the domestic
manners of the people of Mindanao, at the court of
which he lived on terms of familiarity, will be found
highly amusing.)