406 
SINGAPORE. 
said to resemble the Arabs in the simplicity of their worship more than 
they do the inhabitants of Hindoostan. They practise circumcision, 
and the women appear in public unveiled. They hold three days in 
the week as lucky to begin an undertaking, namely, Monday, Thursday, 
and Friday. They devour locusts, and consider buffalo-meat as the 
greatest luxury. 
As soon as a child is born and washed, the father puts his mouth to 
its ears and asks a blessing. On the seventh day, the operation of 
Slaving the head takes place, when prayers are likewise offered up. A 
midwife is always in attendance at the birth, and is engaged for forty 
days. On the fortieth day the mother performs her ablutions and 
prayers, and is then looked upon as clean. 
It is customary on an engagement of marriage for a day to be fixed 
for the bridegroom to transmit the money for the nuptial expenses, 
before which day the ceremony of filing the teeth of the woman is 
gone through. This is performed by the women with a kind of fine 
stone found at Acheen, or with a small steel file. The operation is 
accomplished in an hour, but is very severe; the teeth are filed off to 
one-fourth of their length. This operation is also undergone by the 
males ; but they encounter it at an early age, when it is generally made 
an occasion for festivities. I have been informed that this operation is 
never omitted, and that the figure thus given to the teeth is considered 
as a great beauty. After the teeth are filed, they are blackened, which 
is effected by a liquid called grang, obtained by charring cocoanut- 
shells. This practice of filing the teeth I had often observed before I 
heard of its being a general custom among the Malays of the peninsula, 
having seen it among the natives of Sooloo; the fashion closely 
resembles the Africans of which I have spoken in the first volume. 
Marriages are preceded by the betrothal of the parties. To make 
this arrangement, the friends of the bridegroom wait upon the bride’s 
father, to whom they present a ring and a few clothes. The nuptial 
expenses are then agreed upon, and the portion of the bride is set 
aside. This is about thirty rupees, and is always paid in silver or 
gold. The betrothal takes place before witnesses and an agent of the 
bride, whose consent is asked as a matter of form. After this the 
husband may take his wife whenever she arrives at the age of puberty, 
and carry her to his own house; but she always remains with her father 
until that event takes place. 
On these occasions, when the parties are wealthy, a feast of buffalo- 
meat is given. The bride, three days before marriage, cuts off her 
hair in front, and dyes her nails and the palms of her hands yellow 
with henna. 
