Ceremonies at seedtime
A.W. O’Sullivan’s “Ceremonies at Seedtime” (JSBRAS Vol. 18, 1886, pp. 362–365) documents Malay propitiatory invocations and offerings performed at the sowing of padi, drawing on earlier material from Captain Low’s 1836 work and on informants in Penang.
The note presents four invocations in Malay with English renderings: the first addresses Dangomala and Dangomali, spirits of the sun and moon, requesting protection and growth for the crop; the second is a hyperbolical description of the nine months of grain maturation, culminating in a comparison of the harvest with the birth of Mohamed; the third invokes the earth spirit Noh and the air sprite Dewa Imbang; and the fourth addresses Setia Guni, an earth spirit, using the metaphor of a parent entrusting a child to a foster mother for six months (pp. 362–364). O’Sullivan also describes the material offerings—egg, betel leaves, bras kunnet, bras bertik, and a ketupat—and the ritual sequence of sprinkling rich earth and scattering rice into the air, concluding that pawangs (wise men skilled in these incantations) are in great demand at sowing time (p. 365).