Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/129

 work of carrying the water, hewing the firewood, jointing the meat, and grinding the curry stuff, the female population was busily engaged in the back premises of the house cooking as only Malay women can cook, keeping up all the time a constant shrill babbling, varied by an occasional scream of direction from some experienced hag. The younger and prettier girls had carried their work to the doorways, pretending that more light was necessary than could be found in the dark interior of the house, and seated there with a mighty affectation of modesty, they were engaging at long range in a spirited interchange of "eyeplay"—as the Malays call it—with the youngsters of the village. Much havoc, no doubt, was thus wrought in susceptible male hearts, but most of the sufferers knew that maidens and matrons alike would be prepared, as occasion offered, to heal with a limitless generosity the wounds they so wantonly inflicted. That is one of the things that make life so blithe a business for the average young Malay. He is always in love with some woman or another, and knows that its consummation is merely a question of opportunity in the provision of which he shows equal energy and ingenuity.

The bride, of course, having been dressed in smart new silks of delicious tints, and loaded with gold ornaments, borrowed for the occasion from their possessors from many miles around, was left in solitude, seated on the gêta—or raised sleeping platform—in the dimly lighted inner apartment. there to await the ordeal known to Malay cruelty as