The filing takes place on an auspicious day after the person
is blessed by a pedanda. The boy or girl may not go out of the
house the day before and Van Eck tells of a Brahmanic rule that
demands that the person remain in the dark for three days. The
operation is performed by a specialist, generally a Brahmana,
who knows formulas by which his tools - files and whetstones
are blessed " to take the poison out, of them," to
make the operation painless. The patient is laid on a bale among
offerings, the head resting on a pillow which is covered with
a protective scarf, gringsing wayang wangsul, one of the magic
cloths woven in Tenganan, the warp of: which is left uncut.
The body is wrapped in new white cloth and assistants bold down
the victim by the bands and feet. The tooth filer stands at
the bead of the ba16 and inscribes magic syllables (aksara)
on the teeth about to be filed with a ruby set in a gold ring.
The filing then proceeds, taking from fifteen minutes to a half-hour,
endured stoically with clenched hands and goose-flesh, but without
even a noise from the patient, who is given a rest from time
to time, so that with the help of a mirror he can see the results.
Often he makes suggestions and even complains when the teeth
are not yet short enough.
During these pauses the patient spits the filings into a small
yellow " coconut adorned with a palm-leaf fan and flowers.
When the filing is over, the boy or girl, paler than usual,
but apparently not suffering pain, takes the coconut with the
filings over to the family temple, where it is buried just behind
the ancestral shrine. We questioned a girl who had just come
out of the trying experience about her sensations and she assured
us that she felt " shivers," but no pain; she seemed
happier and smiled more freely than before.
Among the puritanical Bali Agas of the mountains, adolescent
boys (truna) and girls (daha) are considered pure people not
yet contaminated by sexual intercourse. In those ancient villages
the inhabitants are divided into four separate clubs: of men,
of womenj and, of " virgin "boys (seka truna) and
girls (seka daha) whose purity is jealously preserved, since
they have special rites to perform in the systematic village
magic: the care of divine heirlooms too dangerous for less pure
people to handle. Consequently, in the strict communities of
the Bali Aga, sexual licence on the part of a boy or girl is
a crime against the village magic and is proportionately punished.
This is not the case, however, among the ordinary Balinese villages,
where boys and girls lead a freer sexual life. There matters
of sex are not solemn, mysterious prohibitions, and it is natural
that in coming of age they should continue to have sexual relations
that started in the character 'of play, incompletely of course,
during childhood.
The average Balinese does not attach great importance to virginity
and it is not difficult for a divorcee' a widow, or even a woman
who has committed adultery to marry again. Low caste girls have
many occasions to meet boys and often carry on affairs, kept
secret-because of natural shyness. The Balinese are extremely
discreet in their intimate relations; lovers are never seen
together in public, and it would be unpardonable manners for
a man to make insinuations to a girl in public. It is not unusual
for girls to take the lead and " make eyes " (saling
sulang) at boys, or give encouragement to a shy suitor with
some sort of small present.
