RITES AND FESTIVALS

GODS AND DEMONS: OFFERINGS AND
EXORCISMS

The demons were thus lured to the great offering and then expelled from the village by the curses of the priests. The Regent of Badung joined in the prayers with his entire family, kneeling in front of the Sun-altar and making reverences while the nine priests rang bells and chanted formulas. When they finished, " new fire " and holy water were given by the priests to the heads of each bandjar, and the poor were allowed to loot the offerings for money and other useful objects.

Firecrackers exploded in every direction and all the kulkuls in Den Pasar were beaten furiously, the populace ran all over town in groups, often with their faces and bodies painted, carrying torches on the end of long poles, beating drums, gongs, tin cans or anything that made a noise, yelling at the top of their lungs: " Megedi, megedi! Get out! Get out! "- beating the trees and the ground, to scare away the unsuspecting butas who had assembled to partake of the offerings. From a dark corner came a deafening din that seemed produced by the frightened devils themselves, but our flashlight revealed a gang of naked children heating empty gasoline cans.The noisy torch parades swept over town until they were exhausted, long after midnight.

The following day, nyepi, was supposed to be one of absolute stillness, a day when no fires, no sexual intercourse, and no work of any sort were permitted. There was no traffic on the roads and only by special permit and the payment of a heavy fine could the cars of foreigners drive through a town. In most Balinese villages the people were not even allowed out of their houses, especially in North Bali, where the nyepi regulations are strict.

In Den Pasar it was forbidden even to light a cigarette, but people went out visiting as on a holiday. Curious tug-of-war games (med-medan) were organized there for the amusement of the young people; in bandjar Kaliungu, men on one side, girls on the other, pulled a long rattan until one side defeated the other, but in bandjar Sesetan a shouting crowd of boys stood facing a group of girls; the boys charged as in a football game and captured one girl, who then had to be rescued by her friends in a rough free-for-all.

Everybody tugged and pulled and the poor prisoner, wild-eyed and with her hair loose, was so roughly handled in the desperate effort to free her that she fainted. But someone walked over to her and unceremoniously emptied a bucket of cold water on her head so she would revive and the game could proceed; when the girl was rescued the men captured another. Although the unique game is not played outside of the neighbourhood of Den Pasar and then only on nyepi day, the Balinese insisted it had no significance of any sort and that its object was purely play.

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