| The girls who dance Redjang, Gabor, or
Mendet, and those who come suddenly into trance, are called Njoetri
or Soetri (soetji-cleansing), and are considered as a special kind
of temple-girls. They need not be dancers, but any one who wants to
be in the service of the temple during a feast becomes a Soetri, and
undergoes a kind of purification. These women can touch holy things,
carry the gods, etc.; in fact they become temporary priestesses. They
can therefore dance the temple dances and become vessels of the gods,
or mediums.
Maboeang
All over Bali in the old fashioned villages we find some form of
this Libation Dance (maboeang =pour out); in the villages, that
is, whose temples and social structure preserve much that is probably
pre Hindu; or rather, preserve it in a clearer outline because it
has not become overlaid by later influences. The libation may be
of palm wine or of milk, and often has associated with it a kind
of fight: at Troenjan, as we shall see, with cocks, in other places
with prickly leaves of the pandanus palm or with sugar-palm leaves.
In Tenganan this fight is called Kare or Prang Doeri (battle of
the leaves), in Asak, Ende, in Karangasem, Geboeg or Ende. Like
the girls' Redjang, these libation dances have a ritual significance
only. They are a dedication, an assertion perhaps of relationship
with the ancestors before whom and for whom they are performed.
As an example of these libation dances I translate a description
by Walter Spies of Igel Gajoeng at Troenjan on the Batoer lake.
I will omit the long series of ceremonies leading up to the culminating
dance, not because they are less interesting or important, but because
the scope of this book only admits of very brief allusion to the
astonishingly varied rituals which we may regard as the precursors
of more highly developed dance forms. 'Me general name for these
old ceremonies is Igel Wayah (old dances). Ceremonial standings
orientated towards a shrine or some other holy direction, the pouring
out of milk or palm |
