Oring is a village near Takengon where Broersma met a wedding procession undertaking the purification-bath prescribed before marriage. The bride and bridegroom looked comical, their heads adorned with high, many-coloured paper decorations. The bride was literally hung with silver Spanish mats and wore dozens of silver arm-rings — ‘zoo rijk en zoo mooi en zoo verlegen in den onvrijen tooi’ — so rich and so beautiful and so shy in the unaccustomed array. Several older women were with them, and there was music of drums and percussion and a single gong of clear tone. The sun played along on the open road, and the wind of the morning tousled the hair of well a hundred children who followed the pair, laughing, shouting, with their triangles and tambourines.
See Also
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.