66 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
wives or concubines of a raja are allowed to have children, but among the 
peasants children are greatly desired, especially by their fathers and conse¬ 
quently artificial reduction of the population is only brought about, as a rule, 
in order to conceal the results of immorality* 
Circumcision 
Circumcision is practised among the Malays of the Peninsula, but not 
among the Siamese or jungle tribes: its obligation is not considered so 
essential in Perak (where Kulup (Uncircumcised) is a common personal name, 
conveying no reproach) as it is in the Patani States. Mr. Leonard Wray 
tells us that it is considered positively.wrong by those Mahommedan tribes of 
Negri Sembilan which are of mixed Malay and Sakai descent* 
As a rule, the operation is performed upon both sexes ; but in the case 
of females it is largely ceremonial, all that is necessary being the drawing of 
blood from the genital organs, or the cutting away of an almost invisible piece 
of skin. In Perak and Patani girls are circumcised between the age of ten 
or twelve, but in Jalor the operation is usually performed by the bidan shortly 
after birth. Any sharp knife is used, but in Perak a special pair of iron pliers 
are employed to hold the parts during the operation. 
An official of the mosque, known by the Arabic title of mudim , operates 
in the case of males, reserving a special knife, very often a razor of European 
make, for the purpose. In the country districts of Jalor youths are often 
circumcised in the nineteenth or twenty-first year, never in the eighteenth or 
sixteenth, which are regarded as unlucky ; but the operation is rarely delayed 
so long in the more civilized part of the Peninsula, as it naturally becomes a 
far more serious one at this age. In Perak and at Patani the usual age is 
about twelve or fourteen, while some families, who claim Arabic descent, 
practise the rite on the eighth day from birth. In Patani, however, it is often 
delayed till the sixteenth or seventeenth year in the case of rajas* sons, partly 
because of the expense entailed, and partly because it is regarded, in some 
families, as almost part of the marriage ceremony, a man not being considered 
* complete * (cbukup) until he has been circumcised, and his marriage not being 
legal. The operation is said to be more severe in the Patani than in the 
Federated Malay States, a far larger piece of skin being severed. The boy 
is seated astride a banana trunk, and, after he has been drenched with cold 
water, the foreskin is pegged down in front onto the soft trunk by means of 
a cleft stick, and then the operation is performed. As a rule the foreskin is 
buried in the banana trunk, which is thrown away in some waste place ; but 
occasionally it is preserved as an amulet At the moment of the operation a 
gun or cannon is fired to keep away evil spirits. 
