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ADOLESCENCE A boy comes of age gradually and unconsciously, but the first menstruation of a girl (nyatjal) is an important event and when this condition arrives to the daughter of a prince, the village kulkul is beaten to announce that the little princess is now a woman of marriageable age. As soon as the fact is discovered, the girl is secluded in the sleeping-quarters, and the veranda is enclosed with screens of woven palm-leaf, leaving a small entrance. Men are strictly forbidden to go into the place. The girl becomes automatically sebel, unclean, and remains in seclusion until the menstrual period is over and until the auspicious day when she will be purified by the priest. Then a great feast is given by her family to celebrate her reappearance into the world as a mature woman. We assisted at the purification feast of Made Rai, one of the legong dancers of Belaluan, who had just come of age. When we arrived at her house, Made Rai was being dressed inside the house, surrounded by busy women who came and went with clothes, jewels, and flowers. The platform of honour of the bale gede, the reception hall, was filled with great offerings of palmleaf, fruit, and flowers, and the high priest, the pedanda, waited to perform the purification, sitting cross-legged on the high bale with an air of aloof importance, his intriguing paraphernalia ready in front of him. Made Rai made her triumphal appearance among exploding firecrackers, carried on the shoulders of Regog. the strong man of the bandjar, and dressed in the ceremonial costume of her class: a skirt of prada, silk with applications of goldleaf, a scarf of brocade around her budding breasts, subangs of gold in her ears, and a crown of gold flowers. She was deposited on a mat before the priest, who proceeded with his maweda, magic prayers recited with an accompaniment of mystic gestures with the hands. The priest sprinkled her with holy water and occasionally flung flowers towards the girl. Certain offerings, " moons " of palm-leaf and long brooms, sexual symbols, were held in front of her while she fanned their essence towards herself with graceful gestures of her dance-trained hands The holy water that the priest had consecrated was poured on her hands through a rice-steaming basket (kukusan) ; she drank the water with reverence, wiping her wet palms on her forehead. This ended the ceremony and Made Rai could then go to pray at the temple of origin of her family (pura dadia) . She was taken in procession, carried on a palanquin preceded by flags and spears. On arriving at the temple she knelt on a cushion in front of the principal shrine and she prayed with the other members of her family, while the old men sang kekawin poems that described the beauty of the dedari, the nymphs of heaven. links [ 1 ] - [ 2 ] - [ 3 ] - [ 4 ] - [ 5 ]
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