Every home and all
implements were provided with offerings for galunggan, the old
utensils renewed and the baskets washed. On all the roads, at
the gate of every home, tall penyors were erected, meant perhaps
to be seen from the summits of the mountains where the gods dwell,
together with a little bamboo altar from which hung a lamak, one
of those beautiful mosaics on long strips of palm-leaf. For this
occasion the lamaks were over thirty feet long and had to hang
from the tops of the coconut trees.
Everybody wore new clothes and the whole of Bali went out for
a great national picnic. Everywhere there were women with offerings
on their heads and many old men dressed for the occasion in old-fashioned
style, gold kris and all, although with an incongruous imported
undershirt. The younger generation preferred to tear all over
the island in open motor-cars, packed like sardines, dressed in
fancy costumes, many young men in absurd versions' of European
clothes, the girls wearing their brightest silks and their best
gold flowers in their hair. After visiting the village temple
the gay groups went to the many feasts held on this and the following
days all over the island. At this time the peculiar monsters called
barong - a great fleece of long hair with a mask and gilt ornaments,
animated by two men - were " loose " and free to go
wherever they pleased. Everywhere on the road one met the cavorting
holy barongs, who had become foolish for the day, dancing down
the roads and paths, followed breathlessly by their orchestras
and attendants.
In the temple of Gelgel, the former capital, there was a great
feast where plays were given and violent " kris dances "
were staged - when crazed men in a trance pretended to stab themselves
and tore live chickens with their teeth to show their wickedness;
but a more serene feast was celebrated in the jungle temple near
the summit of the Batukau. There the -mountain people brought
offerings to the Batukau spirit while the Elders prepared the
banquet in the spring underneath giant tree-ferns; performing
afterwards a majestic baris dance, each dressed in black and white
magic cloth, mimicking a stately battle with their long spears.
Ten days after galunggan came the day kuninggan, when new offerings
and new lamaks were made and coconut husks were burned in front
of every gate. This was the date of the temple feast of Tirta
Empul, the sacred baths near Tampaksiring, and all morning people
bathed unashamed in the purifying waters, men on one side, women
on the other, after leaving an offering for the deity of the spring.
They turned their backs on the crowd, unconcerned under the spouts,
each of which is supposed to have a special purifying or curative
quality. Eventually the local prince arrived with his wives and
with an impressive retinue of servants. Also the barongs of the
district came prancing down the bills to offer their respects
and snap their jaws while a pemangku offered their prayers, manifesting
their temperaments by making the men under the fleece fall in
a trance and throw epileptic fits. The following day was the feast
of Sakenan, the temple of the little island of Serangan, just
off the Badung coast. Since tb6 night before, the island was jammed
with pilgrims and orchestras,' and the next morning the short
stretch of sea between Serangan and the mainland was filled with
fantastic boats shaped like fish with their triangular sails up,
overloaded with richly dressed people. On arrival they waded to
the temple, the women balancing offerings on their heads while
lifting their brocade skirts out of reach of the water.
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