FASCICULI MALATENSES 
6 r 
The ritual of the ceremony differs considerably according to the rank and 
the family to which the boy or youth belongs, but as a rule the proceedings 
commence with a procession, in which he is carried round the village or town, 
in some families on a man's back and in some on an image borne on men's 
shoulders. Sham weapons of wood are carried in front of him. In the case 
of rajas' families a number of * sons of princes ’ ( enter the vernacular ' (masok 
jawi )—as the ceremony is termed in polite phraseology—together, with all their 
companions and followers who are of the correct age. An important circum¬ 
cision of the kind occurred at Patani while we were in the country, and though 
we were not ourselves able to be present, we arranged with the master of the 
ceremonies, a Malacca Malay in our service, that he should write us a daily 
account of what occurred. Unfortunately, his account was never completely 
rendered, and the part which we received showed considerable trace of Oriental 
hyperbole; but the following facts were substantiated by independent witnesses:— 
The chief person to be operated upon was a step-son of the Raja Mudah (heir 
apparent) of Jhering, whose wife, a sister of the raja of Patani, had formerly 
been married to an important, though non-regnant, raja of the Kelantan family, 
and the expenses were borne partly by the Raja Mudah of Jhering, partly by 
his wife, who had inherited much wealth from her first husband, and partly by 
the Raja Mudah f of Patani, the elder brother of the Raja of that state. 
For rrany weeks previous to the ceremony a number of Malays were 
busy in the Raja Mudah's compound at Jambu constructing a huge figure of 
a bird, which we saw both in the course of its making and after completion; 
its designer called it a ( peacock-lion bird ' (burong singa merab\ but the Raja 
Mudah told us that his desire was that the bird should be more beautiful 
than any one kind of existing bird, and that his workmen had picked out the 
peculiar beauties of many species and had combined them in one. The body 
of the figure, which was about thirty feet in length with the tail, was made of 
thin strips of bamboo, neatly lashed together with split cane and covered with 
cheap European wall-paper ; the tail and wings were of the same materials, 
the former being painted so as to represent a somewhat conventional peacock's 
train. But the glory of the bird was its head, carved solidly and delicately in 
wood, with the trunk of an elephant, a pair of peg-like teeth (said to represent 
those of a lion) an ox's horns, a buffalo's ears, and a highly elaborate floral 
ornament sprouting from the top of its forehead. The execution of this 
monstrous head was very fine, and the whole was brilliant with gilt and paint 
of various colours. Between the wings, which were small and not very 
l. His physical infirmities had caused him to be passed over in the direct succession, but he had inherited the 
greater part of the family estate. 
