As Mr. J. G. Frazer has pointed out,[141] primitive man has the germ
of the modern notion of natural law, or the view of nature as a series
of events occurring in an invariable order without the intervention of
personal agency. This germ is involved in that sympathetic magic which
plays a large part in most systems of superstition.
[141] J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative
Religion_, 1890, p. 9.
One of the principles of sympathetic magic, or signature lore as it
is sometimes called, is that any effect may be produced by imitating
it. If it is wished to kill a person, an image of him is made and
then destroyed; and it is believed that through a certain physical
sympathy between the person and his image, the man feels the injuries
done to the image as if they were done to his own body, and when it is
destroyed he must simultaneously perish.
Sometimes the magic sympathy takes effect, not so much through an act
as through a supposed resemblance of qualities. Some Bechuana warriors
wear the hair of an ox among their own hair and the skin of a frog on
their mantle, because a frog is slippery and the ox from which the hair
has been taken has no horns and is therefore hard to catch; so the
warrior who is provided with these charms believes that he will be as
hard to hold as the ox and the frog.
“Thus we see,” continues Mr. Frazer, “that in sympathetic magic one
event is supposed to be followed necessarily and invariably by another,
without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency. This is,
in fact, the modern conception of physical causation; the conception,
indeed, is misapplied, but it is there none the less. Here, then,
we have another mode in which primitive man seeks to bend nature to
his wishes. There is, perhaps, hardly a savage who does not fancy
himself possessed of this power of influencing the course of nature by
sympathetic magic.... Of all natural phenomena there are perhaps none
which civilised man feels himself more powerless to influence than the
rain, the sun, and the wind. Yet all these are commonly supposed by
savages to be in some degree under their control.”
Magic practices are, as a rule, primarily a kind of mimetic
representation combined with crude symbolism, or the latter alone may
be employed, as in the previously mentioned Bechuana custom.
We may regard pictorial representation of magic as probably indicating
a higher stage of culture.
Mr. H. Vaughan Stevens has recently made a number of valuable
observations in the Malay Peninsula; these have been edited by A.
Grünwedel,[142] and they throw a new light on the importance of
decorative art in the psychic life of savages. The Sĕmang tribes
are negritto in origin, that is, they belong to the short, dark,
frizzly-haired stock which probably were the original inhabitants of
that part of the world, and are consequently a more primitive people
than the Malays.
[142] “Die Zaubermuster der Orang Sĕmang,” _Zeitschr. für
Ethnologie_, xxv., 1893, p. 71; “Die Zaubermuster der Orang
hûtan,” _loc. cit._, xxvi., 1894, p. 141.
The Sĕmang tribes, especially the Orang Panggang of East Malacca,
possess a kind of picture writing which, on the one hand, serves
to record mythological representations, name-marks, etc., upon
objects made of bamboo; on the other hand it forms the foundation of
complicated magic patterns which these tribes are accustomed to employ
as a means of protection against illnesses. But in so far as these
patterns are incised in the bamboo as prescriptions for the healing
herbs to be employed, apart from the protecting charm which lies
directly in them, those elements which go to make them up can also be
described as a kind of writing.
The magic patterns of the pure Sĕmang from East Malacca are found on
three classes of objects—
1. The bamboo combs (_tîn-leig_) of the women.
2. The bamboos (_gor_ and _gar_) which serve as quivers for the
blow-pipe arrows and the tube of the blow-pipe. These are the
protective devices of the men.
3. The bamboos called _gi_, which contain all the ordinary
patterns. With the exception of a remnant these have sunk
into oblivion. No example is known.
The combs are worn throughout the whole Sĕmang district, but on the
western side of the mountain chain of the Peninsula, from Kĕdah to
Pêrak, these are used more as ornament, and the originals for the
composition of the patterns are forgotten.
The patterns on the combs exhibit flowers, or the principal parts of
flowers, which serve as simples against the disease. The combs are
only used by women against invisible sickness, etc., such as fever;
for injuries and wounds such as those caused by a falling bough in
the jungle, or the bite of a centipede, other means are employed. The
combs are not used for combing the hair. The women wear eight combs,
sometimes even sixteen, which are placed horizontally with the teeth
embedded in the hair and the handles projecting outwards; when eight
are worn, two are inserted in the front, back, and sides of the head.
The choice of combs depends upon—(1) The diseases which are raging near
the tribe; (2) the diseases which are most feared; and (3) the number
of women there are together.
According to the Sĕmang, the winds bring these sicknesses with them
as the punishment for some sin which Keii, the thunder-god, wishes to
revenge. The wind-demon, which is sent by Keii on this message, blows
over the head of the person and deposits the sickness on the forehead,
from whence it spreads over the body. The god Plê, however, gives to
the Sĕmang a magical remedy which the winds dare not approach, and so
the impending punishment is turned aside. If a woman is protected by
the right comb and the wind blows upon her head, the demon meets the
odour of the _wâs_ and falls down to the ground. If the _wâs_ charm
fails the _pâwêr_ charm comes to the rescue, so that the demon cannot
get any further, and recognising Plê’s power, it falls down and is
carried away by the wind. If the illness comes from behind it is held
back by _mos_, that is the representation which runs across the comb at
the insertion of the teeth. The calyx of a flower is called _mos_, and
exactly as the flower lies embedded in its calyx, so the parts of the
handle named _wâs_ and _pâwêr_ reach under the _mos_ line, although one
cannot see them, and are there just as effective as above.
When several women meet they wear different combs to protect
themselves and others from all kinds of diseases. Different _wâs_
patterns are necessary, as each sickness has its own wind, and the wind
does not bring any or all diseases. As a rule a _wâs_ is necessary for
each disease, without, however, excluding others, but sometimes it does
for about six. It does not often happen that the Sĕmang carves upon a
comb a pattern for any other than the one object in view.
The Sĕmang women usually possess from twenty to thirty combs, and they
lend them to one another. When in the huts and at night they lay them
under the roof. They are buried with the owner to keep the diseases
from the spirit which have been averted during life.
As to the origin of the custom, the Sĕmang unanimously declare that the
patterns of the combs were the invention of the god Plê for themselves,
and were not borrowed from any other folk. In former times the combs
had only three teeth. The teeth are merely a means for fastening. The
men wear no combs as their hair is kept short. Their magical remedies
are the _gor’s_ and _gar’s_. They say that in very ancient times women
carried bamboo sticks on which were cut the whole seventy disease
patterns. The _gi_ were stuck in the girdle.
The diseases for which the combs are effective attack women only, and
these, the men say, are mostly imaginary. Illnesses which attack both
men and women are kept off by the quivers and blow-pipes (_sumpit_) of
the men, as the women are generally not very far off from the men.
The handle of a typical comb is divided into eight transverse
bands, each of which has its own name. Above the broad central band
(_tîn-wêg_) are four narrow bands, while below it are three narrow
bands. The first and second band of the upper series are called
respectively _wâs_ and _pâwêr_. The uppermost line, above _wâs_, is
called _tĕpî_, the lowest line below the eighth band (_nos_), and
immediately above the teeth, is called _mos_.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.—Blossom of an Ixora; from Stevens.]
_Wâs_ and _pâwêr_ are the protecting figures, whose charm keeps off the
diseases. _Tĕpî, pâwêr_ and _mos_ are also parts of a flower, _wâs_ is
the scent, the stamens and pistil are called _tĕpî_, the line in the
comb above the wâs band has the same name, the lengthened tube above
the green calyx is known as _pâwêr_ and the calyx as _mos_. Two jungle
flowers now serve as _pâwêr_, one a kind of Ixora, but the botanical
name of the other has not been identified.
[Illustration: FIGS. 118, 119.—Magic combs of the Orang Sĕmang; from
Stevens.]
In Figs. 118 and 119 we have two combs of the Orang Sĕmang, which
illustrate the method of decoration. They are intended for two
different diseases, the nature of either of which is obscure. The
pattern in the _tîn-wêg_ band of Fig. 118 evidently represents the
magical flower. The _wâs_ pattern in Fig. 119 is faulty, it is etched
in the original comb as in the upper band of Fig. 120: Whereas the
elements A, B, C should have been engraved, as in lower band of Fig.
120. Such slight mistakes as these in the decoration of a comb may
render the magic pattern of no avail against the appropriate disease.
[Illustration: FIG. 120.—Diagram of the uppermost pattern of Fig. 119,
with rectification of that pattern; from Stevens.]
If one looks through the patterns which represent _wâs_ and _pâwêr_ one
speedily finds that many are identical with each other, or are parts of
the patterns in the fifth band (_tîn-wêg_) which represent the illness.
The following account is given in explanation of this: as the magic
patterns were made by Plê, he wished, as he settled one pattern for a
definite disease, at the same time to make it known which flower blooms
most freely at the time when the illness rages, and he gave to both a
similar form. If _wâs_ and _pâwêr_ were obliged to get exactly the same
figure, in order to prevent confusion of the patterns with one another,
he ordained that differentiating marks should be added on the comb.
For us, who do not see the patterns with Sĕmang eyes, many deviations
appear in the figures. One reason for this is that the patterns of the
combs are mostly incised by young men and not by the older men, as is
the case with the quivers and blow-pipes. The young men, unskilled in
carving, and not always perfectly acquainted with the patterns, cut the
combs for their sisters and future wives. One mistake in the pattern
does not necessarily do away with the efficacy of a comb, as a Panggang
man once said, “It is like a gap or hole in a bird-trap: the bird can
hop through it, but it is always a question whether it sees the gap.”
All the figures of the combs, except the _wâs_, _pâwêr_, and _tîn-wêg_
must be of the very simplest kind. The rule is that they are borrowed
from a _wâs_ or _pâwêr_ pattern, but the special characters must be
omitted. The youths who copy the combs overlook this and insert in the
neighbouring bands the complete _wâs_ and _pâwêr_ patterns.
The magicians engrave various devices on pieces of bamboo, and, as will
be seen from the following examples, these magic staves are supposed to
be effectual for a great many difficulties and adversities.
[Illustration: FIG. 121.—Magical pictograph of the Orang hûtan against
the stings of scorpions and centipedes; size of original 9¾ inches;
from Stevens.]
Fig. 121.—This bamboo shows as its middle figure an Argus pheasant with
its two long ocellated tail-feathers. The wheel-like patterns at A
represent these eye-marks, the angular marks at B are the wings of the
animal. Left of the Argus is a long, orange-coloured centipede. The
head of the animal is drawn in the direction towards the tail of the
Argus. The lines with little dots on each side to the right and left of
the centipede are the tracks which that animal leaves on the skin of a
man. Two blue scorpions are represented on the other side of the Argus.
The figure at the end of their tails is a swelling in the flesh of a
person who has been stung by them. The female of this kind of scorpion
is more poisonous than the male, and is said to cause double stings.
Therefore the marks with two rows of points at C denote the sting of
the female, that with one row at D that of the male.
The significance of this bamboo is, “as the Argus pheasant feeds on
centipedes and scorpions, so its help is invoked against them by
striking the bamboo against the ground.”
[Illustration: FIG. 122.—Magical device of the Orang Bĕlendas against a
skin disease; size of original 19 inches; from Stevens.]
Fig. 122 represents the devices etched on a piece of bamboo against
two forms of a skin disease—the one exhibits leprous white ulcers, the
other hard knots on and under the skin. The lowermost marking, A, when
one holds the bamboo with the open end uppermost, represents the bank
of a river, in which frogs have sunk holes. The dots and lines are
these holes imprinted in the soft slime, some being under the water,
others being above it. The zigzag lines at B represent frog’s legs;
these limbs of the animal are abbreviations for the whole animal, which
is always conventionalised. Over these frogs one sees at C a pattern
which is used to represent different things; for example: (1) an
ant-hill; (2) a Hantu of an illness in the human body, whose effect is
felt like the crawling and biting of ants, and indeed this Hantu lives
in forsaken ant-hills; (3) the skin marked by this disease; or (4) even
the seeds of a melon, cucumber, etc. Here the figure represents an
ant-hill on the ground. Out of the ground there grow climbing plants
(D), whose winding round the trees is represented by the lines forming
the ovals; the little lines between these egg-shaped figures represent
the body of the partially very voluminous lianas. The little lines on
the outside of the twists when they are long represent thorns; but when
they are mere points they indicate the tracks of insects’ claws on the
bark. In our picture, as the lines are midway between long streaks and
dots, they represent ants in two groups, which are running up and down
the lianas. Immediately under the line above D one sees four figures
(1-4), which are respectively a bird, a butterfly, a caterpillar, and a
tree-frog. The band at E indicates a tree. The figures are to be read
off from right to left, commencing at the vertical line _x_, which
represents the trunk of the tree without leaves; to the left are five
similar figures, which are the fully developed leaves of the tree. To
the left is a dark beam with leaf-marks on the right side only, these
are the undeveloped young leaves at the top of the tree. Further to the
left is a dark beam, on each side of which are zigzags (_y y_); these
are branches.
The black line to the left at _z, z,_ represents the end of the lianas
which are drawn in D; these having sprung from the ground have reached
the branches of the tree.
To the left of this is the topmost part of the tree, with undeveloped
leaf-shoots on the left side. The sudden dwindling of this line is to
show the tapering of the tree stem towards its top.
Above this the pattern C is repeated, and the three rows above the
line show the spots on the skin, which are supposed to look like melon
seeds; the rows respectively stand for the head, body, and feet which
are thus affected.
Lastly, fish-scales are drawn to represent the leprous form of the
disease; these are also in three rows for the head, body, and feet.
They increase in size in order to show that they will gradually spread
over the whole body if not cured in some way. Just at the place where
the different rows of patterns end (when one reads from left to right)
there is a group of dots on the scales, which represent the last stage
of the disease; incurable holes out of which blood flows. They are
supposed to be like the wounds caused by the stings of any kind of
poisonous fish. These holes seldom appear on the legs.
The whole drawing is the remnant of an ancient pattern which was
employed as a charm by the old magicians of the Orang Bĕlendas. The
object of the pattern is even at the present time known to the laity,
but the story is probably lost as to how the figures came to be put
together in this way.
[Illustration: FIG. 123.—Rain-charm of the Orang Bĕlendas; size of the
original 10½ inches; from Stevens.]
Fig. 123 is a copy of a “_toon-tong_,” which the man who owned it
would not sell to Mr. Stevens. Its use is to produce rain when the
paddy-fields are suffering from an insufficient monsoon.
The oblique lines represent the rain driven by the wind, the lines
being the downpour and the dots are the rain-drops. The lines from left
to right stand for the north-east, and those from right to left for the
south-west monsoon. The curved lines mean a storm. The repetition of
the rain-figures means “much rain.”
Next to the rain on the right is a double row of tortoise[143] eggs
(double=many), as indicative of the tortoise, which is a representative
of dampness, moisture, and mud.
[143] Probably a mud-tortoise.
The middle row of figures represents young “_piyung_” fruit. The
_piyung_ has fruit when the rainy season begins, and loses the ripe
fruit at its close. Hence it is drawn as symbolic of the rainy season.
There now are, as a matter of fact, piyung trees that have fruit in
the other months. Stevens showed some of these to the Orang Bĕlendas,
and was informed that in the time of their ancestors the piyung trees
had ripe fruit at the rainy season. Whether that was the case in their
original home, or whether another variety existed, has yet to be
settled. Probably the tradition of the Orang Bĕlendas is correct, even
if it cannot be cleared up on all points.
The decoration of one bamboo is a formula to enable a man who wishes to
build a house to easily find the necessary materials. Below is a band
filled with cross-hatching, like trellis-work, meant for the wall of a
house, and standing for the whole house; above this are several very
diagrammatic representations of burnt trees which have remained after
the firing of the jungle, a forked branch of tree which is used as a
prop, palm leaves for thatching, etc. The rest of the bamboo is divided
into longitudinal bands, most of which look like attempts at decorative
patterns, but they really signify a liana with many leaves, the
frame-work of the roof of the house, a ladder, split leaves interlaced
for thatching rattans, while a zigzag line means the long path which
goes from side to side, and thus indicates the obstacles which befall
the leaves for the thatch whilst they are being carried through the
jungle.
One design is supposed to protect the harvest and the plantations
round the house from injurious animals. In it is represented a very
diagrammatic house. On the one side are plants with tubers growing on
the sides of a hill, for the Orang Bĕlenda generally clear the sides
of a hill for their plantations and houses. On the other side of the
house are depicted maize, the kĕlâdi (_caladium_) with its edible
tubers, three sugar-canes with the edible shoots at the roots, another
plant of maize, tapioca with its edible roots, a variety of yam with
its tubers, and a banana; in addition there are six immature trees, and
the punctate background denotes grass. The upper part of the bamboo
represents those animals which may destroy the gifts of the soil. These
are a caterpillar, a rat, two iguanas (monitors or lace-lizards, which
go after hens’ eggs); next each lizard is a tree with leaves where they
like to hide; a row of dots on each side of the tree-trunks denote the
upward and downward tracks of the animals at night. There is also a
tortoise with its young one, and a pair of crescentic lines indicate
the pool where the reptile lives.
Another carved bamboo helps women to catch fish, and also protects them
from poisonous ones.
To the uninitiated many patterns would appear to be simple decorative
devices, but Mr. Stevens has found that they have definite meanings;
for example, rattan may be conventionally represented by a straight or
a waved line, or by two waved or zigzagged lines which, when applied
together, form a series of ovals or diamonds. A cross-hatched band may
stand for a house, the marking indicating a wall or the floor. Zigzags,
like those in Fig. 122, B, indicate frogs’ legs, these stand for frogs
themselves, and these again are symbolic of water.
From the foregoing it is evident that it is only by making careful
inquiries from the natives themselves that the meaning of most of the
devices of savages can be elucidated. What we are apt to consider
as mere decoration may have a very definite magical or symbolic
significance.
Mr. Goodyear states[144] that Lieutenant Frank Cushing informed him
that the patterns which the Zuñis borrow from foreign ware are supposed
to endow their own pottery with the virtues of the foreign material and
manufacture, and that their use of borrowed patterns has this purpose.
[144] _The Architectural Record_, iii., 1893, p. 139.
The same author,[145] referring to the decorative art of Ancient Egypt,
quotes as follows from Professor Maspero:—“The object of decoration
was not merely to delight the eye. Applied to a piece of furniture,
a coffin, a house, a temple, decoration possessed a certain magical
property, of which the power or nature was determined by each word
inscribed or spoken at the moment of consecration. Every object,
therefore, was an amulet as well as an ornament.”
[145] Page 145.
The tying of magic knots is a common expedient in sorcery, as the
following extracts from a short paper by Dr. March[146] will prove. The
malevolent tying of a knot brought mischief upon a man, to be averted
only by counter-plotting and counter-knotting. Sickness was caused by
the invasion of a demon, or by spells wrought by an enemy; and evil
spirits had to be exorcised, and the knot of the spell-bound to be
loosed.
[146] H. Colley March, “Magic Knots,” _Trans. Rochdale Lit. and
Sci. Soc._
The magical texts, found in a biliteral form, written in the Accadian
and the Assyrian tongues, furnish examples of which the following are
specimens:—
May the god of herbs
Unloose the knot that has been knitted.
Take the skin of a suckling that is still ungrown,
Let the wise woman bind it to the right hand and double it on
the left.
Knit the knot seven times,
Bind the head of the sick man.
So may the guardian priest cause the ban to depart
From him, and unloose the bond.
Amongst the Fins and the Norsemen evil spells could be wrought by
malevolently twisting into a magic knot the fibres of certain trees,
sometimes the birch, but more often the willow; and to unloose the knot
was the surest way of undoing the mischief.
In the Sigurd Saga, Sigurd boasts to Eystein, “On the way to Palestine
I came to Apulia, but, brother, I did not see thee there. I went all
the way to Jordan and swam across the river. On the bank there grows a
bush of willows, and there I twisted a knot of willows which is waiting
there for thee. For this knot I said thou shouldst untie, brother, or
take the curse that is bound up in it.”
Tying knots as a means of witchcraft is still in force in the
British Islands, as may be seen in the publications of the Folk-Lore
Society.[147] These practices need not necessarily be with evil intent,
as the lovers’ knot had for an object the firm binding of the lovers’
affection to each other.
[147] Cf. for example, _Folk-lore_, vi., 1895, pp. 154, 160;
_Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._ (3), ii., 1893, p. 818.
It is probable that many of the knots carved on ancient monuments in
Northern Europe have reference to this magical practice, and it is
conceivable from what is known to occur elsewhere that a representation
of a knot might possess all the virtue of a real knot.
But knots in Scandinavian art have also a symbolic significance and may
be associated with Midgarth’s Worm and the serpents in the Norse pit of
perdition. On portals from Veigusdal Church, in Sœtersdal (now in the
Christiania Museum), are carved incidents from the favourite legend of
Sigurd. On one of them, according to Dr. March,[148] may be seen the
avaricious and ill-fated Fafni slain and utterly dismembered, passing
into a maze of beautiful scrollwork. The same story is illustrated on
two sides of the Halton Cross; here, however, the writhing knotted
throes that elsewhere signify Fafni’s death take the form of a knot,
Fafni himself not being represented.
[148] H. C. March, “The Pagan-Christian Overlap in the North,”
_Trans. Lanc. and Cheshire Ant. Soc._, ix., 1892.