and called lekar jantan).
2. A bowl of water deposited upon this stand and intended "for the
Rice-soul (semangat padi) to drink when it becomes thirsty with
the heat of the sun."
3. A big iron nail.
4. A candle-nut (buah k'ras).
5. Six trodden-out rice "heads," a couple of which tied in a slip knot
(simpul pulih) are fastened to each corner of the matting.
Pounding of the rice from the three baskets.--When the rice had been
sufficiently dried, it was once more collected in the baskets, and
carried back to the house to be pounded. [429] That operation took
place the same evening, when the rice was pounded and winnowed [430]
in the ordinary way, the only noteworthy addition being the tying of
bunches of the grass called sambau dara to the upper ends of the long
wooden pestles which the Malays use for the pounding operation.
Disposal of the empty rice-stalks from the three baskets.--The chaff
thus obtained was deposited in a heap by the owner of the field in
a place where three paths met, crowned with a wreath made of the
empty rice-stalks, and covered by a big stone which was intended,
I was told, to keep it from being blown away.
The sugar-cane was left to grow in the midst of the mother-sheaf,
until the latter should be reaped by the wife of the owner; when
this takes place, it is carried back to the house and used for next
year's reaping. Meanwhile the "heads" of the mother-sheaf are pounded,
and the grain thus obtained is mixed with the grain obtained from
the Rice-soul, and deposited in the rice-bin (kepok) together with
a stone, a lump of rosin (damar), and a wreath composed of the empty
rice-ears. I may add that I saw the articles which had been deposited
in the previous year in the rice-bin of the Malay at whose house I
witnessed the ceremony which I have just described.
I did not witness the preliminary search for the mother-sheaf (in which
the Rice-soul was supposed to be contained), but it was described to
me by the Pawang, and performed for my benefit by the people of the
house. The Pawang's description ran as follows: In order to confine
the "Rengkesa" (a Spectral Reaper) to the boundaries, visit the four
corners of the field, and at each corner tie a knot in a rice-leaf,
and hold your breath while you repeat the following charm:--
"In the name of God, etc.,
A swallow has fallen striking the ground,
Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard.
But ye, O Shadows and Spectral Reapers (Rengkesa),
Have your appointed place on the Boundaries (of this field).
By virtue of," etc.
These noxious spirits being thus confined to the Four Corners, you
may search in safety till you find one of the special varieties of
rice-ear in which the Rice-soul resides.
There are several varieties, of which the best is called Tongkat
Mandah; it may be described as an ordinary "rice-head" bending over
to meet the tip of a second (adventitious) "rice-head," but it is
produced only by a freak of nature. There is some risk connected with
this variety, however, for if the "Reception (Sambut) Ceremony" is
not properly performed the owner will die. The second best is called
"The Kite" (Lang). The third best is called "The Veiled Princess"
(Putri Bertudong); in this case the sheath of the "head" is of unusual
length, and overshadows the "head" itself. A fourth kind is called
Padi Bertel'kum, and is described as a "Female Rice" (padi betina);
like the "Veiled Princess," it has an unusually well-developed sheath;
whilst a fifth kind is the "Padi Mendhara"--a rice-plant whose leaves
show white lines or markings.
How women should reap on ordinary occasions.--Whenever women go out
to reap they should repeat certain charms before leaving the house,
[431] and again before depositing their baskets on the ground. Their
heads should be covered, and they should always be careful to reap,
as has been said, facing the sun, to prevent their shadow from falling
upon the rice in the basket at their side. Occasionally, however,
the body is uncovered, and I was even told of one, Inche Fatimah of
Jugra, in Selangor, who when reaping stripped herself bare from the
waist upwards, and when asked why she did so said it was "to make the
rice-husks thinner, as she was tired of pounding thick-husked rice."
The sheaf which is left standing after the taking home of the
Rice-soul is called the Mother of the Rice-soul (Ibu Semangat Padi),
and treated as a newly-made mother; that is to say, young shoots of
trees (putik-putik kayu) are taken, pounded together (di-tumbok), and
scattered broadcast (di-tabor) every evening for three successive days.
When the three days are up you take cocoa-nut pulp (isi niyor) and
what are called "goat flowers" (bunga kambing), mix them, and eat
them with a little sugar, spitting some of the mixture out among
the rice. [So, after a birth (as the Pawang informed me), the young
shoots of the jack-fruit (kababal nangka), the rose-apple (jambu),
and certain kinds of banana (such as pisang abu and pisang Benggala),
and the thin pulp of young cocoa-nuts (kelongkong niyor) are mixed
with dried fish, salt, acid (asam), prawn-condiment (b'lachan), and
similar ingredients, to form a species of salad (rojak). For three
successive days this salad is administered to mother and child,
the person who administers it saying, if the child be a girl,
"Your mother is here, eat this salad," and if the child be a boy,
"Your father is here, eat this salad."]
Invariably, too, when you enter the rice-clearing (menempoh ladang)
you must kiss the rice-stalks (chium tangkei padi), saying, "Cluck,
cluck, soul of my child!" (kur, semangat anak aku!) just as if you
were kissing an infant of your own.
The last sheaf (as I think I have said) is reaped by the wife of the
owner, who carries it back to the house (where it is threshed out
and mixed with the Rice-soul). The owner then takes the Rice-soul
and its basket and deposits it in the big circular rice-bin used by
the Malays, together with the product of the last sheaf. Some of the
product of the first seven "heads" will be mixed with next year's seed,
and the rest will be mixed with next year's tepong tawar. [432]
4. MINERALS AND MINING CHARMS
In the Western States of the Peninsula by far the most important
branch of industry has for many years been that of Tin-mining. Though
something like 90 per cent of the labourers employed in the mines are
Chinese, the ceremonies used at the opening of tin-mines are purely
Malay in character.
The post of mining wizard, once a highly lucrative one, was in
past days almost always filled by a Malay, though occasionally the
services of a Jungle-man (Sakai) would be preferred. These mining
wizards enjoyed in their palmy days an extraordinary reputation,
some of them being credited with the power of bringing ore to a place
where it was known that no ore existed; some, too, were believed to
possess the power of sterilising such ore as existed, and of turning
it into mere grains of sand.
The ore itself is regarded as endued not only with vitality, but also
with the power of growth, ore of indifferent quality being regarded
as too young (muda), but as likely to improve with age. Sometimes,
again, it is described as resembling a buffalo, in which shape it
is believed to make its way from place to place underground. This
idea, however, is probably based upon traditions of a lode, though
it is quite in keeping with Malay ideas about the spirits residing
in other minerals, the Gold spirit being supposed to take the shape
of a kijang or roe-deer (whence the tradition of a golden roe-deer
being found at Raub in Pahang).
In connection with the subject of tin-mining the account contributed
[433] in 1885 by Mr. Abraham Hale (then Inspector of Mines in the Kinta
district of Perak) to the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society is
of such value as to necessitate its being quoted in extenso. It will
be followed by such notes upon mining invocations as I was able to
collect in Selangor, after which a few remarks upon the Malay theory of
animism in minerals generally will bring the subject to a conclusion.
To commence with Mr. Hale's account:--"The valley of the Kinta is,
and has been for a very long time, essentially a mining country. There
are in the district nearly five hundred registered mines, of which
three are worked by European Companies, the rest being either private
mines, i.e. mines claimed by Malays, which have been worked by them
and their ancestors for an indefinite period, or new mines, in other
words new concessions given indifferently on application to Malays and
Chinese. There are about three hundred and fifty private Malay mines,
and it is with these principally that the following paper will deal.
"So far, no lodes have been discovered in Kinta; it is, however,
probable that, as the country is opened up and prospectors get up
amongst the spurs of the main range, the sources of the stream tin
will come to light.
"Mining in Kinta, like mining in Lârut, is for stream tin, and this
is found literally everywhere in Kinta; it is washed out of the sand
in the river-beds--a very favourite employment with Mandheling women;
Kinta natives do not affect it much, although there is more than one
stream where a good worker can earn a dollar per day; it is mined for
in the valley, and sluiced for on the sides of hills; and, lastly,
a very suggestive fact to a geologist, it has been found on the tops
of isolated limestone bluffs and in the caves [434] which some of
them contain.
"This stream tin has probably been worked for several centuries in
Kinta; local tradition says that a very long time ago Siamese were the
principal miners, and there is evidence that very extensive work has
been done here by somebody at a time when the method was different
from that which is commonly adopted by Kinta Malays at the present
day. There are at least fifty deep well-like pits on the Lahat hill,
averaging about eight feet in diameter and perhaps twenty feet deep.
"Further up country I have seen a large pit which the natives called
a Siamese mine; this is about fifty feet in diameter and over twenty
feet deep, and its age may be conjectured from the virgin forest
in which it is situated. Besides these, at many places extensive
workings are continually brought to light as the country is opened
up, and these appear to have been left undisturbed for at least a
hundred years. Further evidence of old work is furnished by slabs
of tin of a shape unlike that which has been used in Perak in the
memory of living persons; and only a few weeks ago two very perfect
'curry stones' of an unusual shape and particularly sharp grit were
found at a depth of eight feet in natural drift. These may, perhaps,
have been used to grind grain.
"So peculiarly is Kinta a mining district, that even the Sakais
of the hills do a little mining to get some tin sand wherewith to
buy the choppers and sarongs which the Malays sell to them at an
exorbitant price.
"The Malay pawang, or medicine-man, is probably the inheritor of
various remnants and traditions of the religion which preceded
Muhammadanism, and in the olden time this class of persons derived
a very fair revenue from the exercise of their profession, in
propitiating and scaring those spirits who have to do with mines and
miners; even now, although the Malay pawang may squeeze a hundred
or perhaps two hundred dollars out of the Chinese towkay [435]
who comes to mine for tin in Malaya, the money is not perhaps badly
invested, for the Chinaman is no prospector, whereas a good Malay
pawang has a wonderful 'nose' for tin, and it may be assumed that the
Chinese towkay and, before his time, the Malay miner, would not pay
a tax to the pawang unless they had some ground for believing that,
by employing him and working under his advice, there would be more
chance of success than if they worked only on their own responsibility.
"The pawang being a person who claims to have powers of divination
and other imperfectly understood attributes, endeavours to shroud
his whole profession in more or less of mystery. In his vocabulary,
as in that of the gutta-hunters, special terms are used to signify
particular objects, the use of the ordinary words being dropped;
this is called 'bahâsa pantang.' [436]
"The following are some of the special terms alluded to:--
"Ber-olak tinggi, [437] instead of gajah--elephant. The elephant
is not allowed on the mine, or must not be brought on to the actual
works, for fear of damage to the numerous races and dams; to name him,
therefore, would displease the spirits (hantu).
"Ber-olak dâpor, instead of kuching--cat. Cats are not allowed on
mines, nor may the name be mentioned.
"A tiger of enormous size called Ber-olak is said to haunt
Kinta. The legend about him is as follows:-- A long time ago, in the
pre-Muhammadan days, a man caught a tiger kitten and took it home;
it grew up quite tame and lived with the man until he died, when
it returned to the jungle and grew to an enormous size, nine cubits
(hasta) long; it is still there, though nobody ever sees it; it does
no harm, but sometimes very large tracks are seen, and men hear its
roar, which is so loud that it can be heard from Chemor to Bâtu Gajah;
when heard in the dry season, it is a sure prognostication of rain
in fifteen days' time.
"Sial, [438] instead of kerbau--water-buffalo. The buffalo is not
allowed on the mine for the same reason as the elephant.
"Salah nama, [439] instead of limau nipis--lime (fruit). If limes are
brought on to a mine, the hantu (spirits) are said to be offended;
the particular feature of the fruit, which is distasteful, appears
to be its acidity. It is peculiar that Chinese have this superstition
concerning limes as well as Malays; not very long ago a Chinese towkay
of a mine complained that the men of a rival kongsi [440] had brought
limes and squeezed the juice into his head race, and, furthermore,
had rubbed their bodies with the juice mixed with water out of his
head race, and he said they had committed a very grave offence,
and asked that they might be punished for it.
"With Malays this appears to be one of the most important pantang [441]
rules, and to such a length is it carried that belachan (shrimp-paste)
is not allowed to be brought on to a mine for fear it should induce
people to bring limes as well, lime-juice being a necessary adjunct
to belachan when prepared for eating.
"Buah rumput, [442] or bunga rumput, instead of biji--tin sand.
"Akar, or akar hidop, [443] instead of ular--snake.
"Kunyit, [444] instead of lipan--centipede.
"Batu puteh, [445] instead of timah--metallic tin.
"It was important that the Pawang should be a marked man as to
personal appearance; for this reason there are certain positions of
the body which may be assumed by him only when on the mine. These
attitudes are--first, standing with the hands clasped behind the
back; and, secondly, with the hands resting on the hips. This second
position is assumed when he is engaged in 'invocating' the 'spirits'
of a mine; the pawang takes his station in front of the genggulang,
[446] having a long piece of white cloth in his right hand, which he
waves backwards and forwards over his shoulder three times, each time
calling the special hantu whom he wishes to propitiate, by name; whilst
engaged in this invocation his left hand rests on his hip. During the
performance of any professional duty he is also invariably dressed
in a black coat; this nobody but the pawang is allowed to wear on a
mine. These attitudes and the black coat comprise what is technically
termed the pakei pawang.
"The professional duty of the pawang of a mine consists in carrying out
certain ceremonies, for which he is entitled to collect the customary
fees, and in enforcing certain rules for the breach of which he levies
the customary fines. [447]
"At the time of the opening of a mine he has to erect a genggulang,
[448] and to call upon the tutelary hantu of the locality to assist
in the enterprise. The fee for this is one bag (karong) of tin sand.
"At the request of the miners, instead of a genggulang a kapala nasi
[449] may be erected, as cheaper and more expeditious. The fee is
one gantang [450] of tin sand.
"He also assists in the ceremony of hanging the ancha [451] in the
smelting-house; his principal associate in this is the Panglima Klian,
who draws the ancha up to its proper position close under the attaps.
"1. Raw cotton must not be brought on to a mine in any shape, either
in its native state or as stuffing of bolsters or mattresses. The fine
(hukum pawang) is $12.50; the ordinary pillow used by a miner is made
of some soft wood.
"2. Black coats and the attitudes designated pakei pawang [452]
may not be assumed by any one on the mine, with the exception of the
pawang. (Hukum pawang, $12.50.)
"3. The gourd used as a water vessel by Malays, all descriptions
of earthenware, glass, and all sorts of limes and lemons, and the
outer husk of the cocoa-nut, are prohibited articles on mines. (Hukum
pawang, $12.50.)
"Note.--All eating- and drinking-vessels should be made of cocoa-nut
shell or of wood: the noise made by earthenware and glass is said
to be offensive to the hantu. But in the case of a breach of this
regulation the pawang would warn the offenders two or three times
before he claimed the fine.
"4. Gambling and quarrelling are strictly forbidden on mines; the
fine is claimed for the first offence. (Hukum pawang, $12.50.)
"5. Wooden aqueducts (palong) must be prepared in the jungle a long
way from the mine. (Hukum pawang, $12.50.)
"The noise of the chopping is said to be offensive to the hantu.
"6. Any breach of the bahasa pantang is an offence. (Hukum pawang,
$12.50.)
"7. Charcoal must not be allowed to fall into the races. (Hukum
pawang, $12.50.)
"8. A miner must not wear and go to work on the mine in another man's
trousers. (Hukum pawang, one karong of tin sand.)
"Note.--This applies only to the senar seluar basah, or working
dress. It is also an offence to work in the garment called sarong.
"9. If the chupak (measure) of the mine is broken, it must be renewed
within three days. (Hukum pawang, one bhara of tin.)
"10. No weapon may be brought within the four posts of the
smelting-house which immediately surround the furnace. (Hukum pawang,
$1.25.)
"11. Coats may not be worn within this space. (Hukum pawang, $1.25.)
"12. These posts may not be cut or hacked. (Hukum pawang, one slab
of tin.)
"13. If a miner returns from work, bringing back with him some tin
sand, and discovers that somebody has eaten the cold rice which he
had left at home, he may claim from the delinquent one karong of tin
sand. The pawang adjudicates in the matter.
"14. An earthenware pot (priok) which is broken must be replaced
within three days. (Hukum pawang, one karong of tin sand.)
"15. No one may cross a race in which a miner is sluicing without
going some distance above him, up stream; if he does he incurs a
penalty of as much tin sand as the race contains at the moment,
payable to the owner of the race. The pawang adjudicates.
"16. A kris, or spear, at a mine, if without a sheath, must be
carefully wrapped in leaves, even the metal setting (simpei) must
be hidden. Spears may only be carried at the "trail." (Hukum pawang,
uncertain.)
"17. On the death of any miner, each of his comrades on that mine
pays to the pawang one chupak (penjuru) of tin sand.
"It will be noticed that the amount of the majority of these fines
is $12.50; this is half of the amount of the fine which, under the
Malay customary law, a chief could impose on a ra`iyat [453] for minor
offences. It is also the amount of the customary dowry in the case of a
marriage with a slave or with the widow or divorced wife of a ra`iyat.
"The Malay miner has peculiar ideas about tin and its properties;
in the first instance, he believes that it is under the protection
and command of certain spirits whom he considers it necessary to
propitiate; next he considers that the tin itself is alive and has many
of the properties of living matter, that of its own volition it can
move from place to place, that it can reproduce itself, and that it has
special likes--or perhaps affinities--for certain people and things,
and vice versa. Hence it is advisable to treat tin-ore with a certain
amount of respect, to consult its convenience, and what is, perhaps,
more curious, to conduct the business of mining in such a way that
the tin-ore may, as it were, be obtained without its own knowledge!"
Mr. Hale adds an interesting vocabulary of Malay mining terms from
which the following words are extracted as being specially connected
with the superstitions of the miners:--
Ancha.--A square frame 1' 6'' × 1' 6'', composed of strips of split
bamboo for the floor and four pieces of peeled wood for the sides. The
proper wood is kayu sungkei, [454] because it has flat even twigs and
leaves which lie flat and symmetrically; these must be bound together
with a creeper: rattan may not be used; it is hung to the tulang
bumbong [455] just under the attaps [456] of the smelting-shed; it
is used as an altar, the offerings made by the miners to the spirits
being placed on it.
Genggulang.--The platform or altar erected by the pawang at the
opening of a mine. It should be built entirely of kayu sungkei. The
wood is peeled, except the four branches which serve as posts; these
are only peeled up to the twigs and leaves, which are left on, about
4 feet 6 inches from the ground. At 3 feet 3 inches from the ground
a square platform of round peeled sticks, about 1 foot 3 inches each
way, is arranged; one foot above the level of the platform a sort
of railing is fixed round three sides of the square, and from the
open side a ladder with four steps reaches down to the ground; the
railing is carried down to the ground on each side of the ladder,
and supports a fringe of cocoa-nut leaves (jari-lipan). The whole
erection must be tied together with creepers; rattan must not be used.
Jari lipan.--A fringe made of the young white leaflets of the cocoa-nut
palm plaited together. [457]
Jampi.--The incantation of the pawang.
Kapala nasi.--A stake of peeled wood (kayu sungkei) stuck in the
ground; the top of this is split into four so as to support a platform
similar to that of the genggulang. Offerings are made upon it. [458]
Pantang burok mata.--The period of mourning observed when a death
occurs at a mine.
Mourning consists in abstention from work (in the case of a neighbour
or comrade) for three days, or, in the case of the death of the pawang,
penghulu kelian, or the feudal chief, for seven days. The expression is
derived from the supposition that in three days the eyes of a corpse
have quite disappeared. Chinese miners have a similar custom; whoever
goes to assist in the burial of a corpse must not only abstain from
work, but must not go near the mine or smelting furnace for three
days. [459]
Perasap.--Half a cocoa-nut shell, a cup, or any other vessel, in
which votive offerings of sweet-smelling woods and gums are burnt.
Sangka.--A receptacle in which to burn offerings of sweet woods and
gums; it is made of a stick of bamboo about three feet long, one end
being split and opened out to receive the charcoal; it is stuck in
the ground near races and heaps of tin sand. [460]
Tatin gulang.--The pawang's fee for the ceremony of erecting a
genggulang. [461]
The following notes on tin-mining in Selangor were contributed to
the Selangor Journal by Mr. J. C. Pasqual, a well-known local miner:--
"The Malay mining pawang will soon be a thing of the past, and many a
pawang has returned to tilling the soil in place of his less legitimate
occupation of imposing upon the credulity of the miners. The reason for
this is not far to seek, as the Malay miner, as well as the Chinese
miner, of the old school, with their thousand-and-one superstitions,
has given place to a more modern and matter-of-fact race, who place
more reliance for prospecting purposes on boring tools than on
the divination and jampi of the pawang. But the profession of the
pawang has not altogether died out, as he is sometimes called into
requisition for the purpose of casting out evil spirits from the mines;
of converting amang [462] (pyrites) into tin-ore, and of invoking the
spirits of a mine previous to the breaking of the first sod in a new
venture. These ceremonies generally involve the slaying of a buffalo,
a goat, or fowls, and the offering of betel-leaf, incense, and rice,
according to the means of the towkay lombong.
"The term pawang is now used by the Chinese to indicate the 'smelter'
(Chinese) of a mine (probably from the fact that this office was
formerly the monopoly of the Malay pawang).
"To the pawangs are attributed extraordinary powers, for besides
inducing tin-ore to continue or become plentiful in a mine, he
can cause its disappearance from a rich 'claim' by the inevitable
jampi, this latter resource being resorted to by way of revenge in
cases where the towkay lombong (or labor) fails to carry out his
pecuniary obligation towards the pawang whose aid he had invoked in
less prosperous times. Some of the stories told of the prowess of
pawangs are very ridiculous; for instance, a native lady in Ulu Langat
(for women are also credited with the pawang attributes), who was the
pawang of Sungei Jelok in Kajang, could command a grain of tin-ore to
crawl on the palm of her hand like a live worm. [463] The failure of
the Sungei Jelok mines was attributed to her displeasure on account
of an alleged breach of contract on the part of the towkay lombong.
"The term pawang is sometimes used as a verb in the sense of 'to
prospect' a sungei or stream; thus in alluding to certain streams or
mines, it is not uncommon to hear a Malay say that they have been
prospected (sudah di-pawangkan) by 'Inche' So-and-so--meaning that
the stream had been discovered and proved by a pawang prior to the
opening of the mines." [464]
In a later article Mr. Pasqual says: "It is believed that tin will
even on rare occasions announce its presence by a peculiar noise
heard in the stillness of night, and that some birds and insects by
their chirrupings and whirrings will proclaim its whereabouts." [465]
In a still later article, after briefly referring to the use of
the bhasa pantang, or "Taboo Language," by tin-miners in Selangor,
Mr. Pasqual proceeds:--
"There are, again, certain acts which are forbidden. In the mine,
especially if the karang [466] has not yet been removed, it is
forbidden to wear shoes or carry an umbrella. This rule, it seems,
originated with the coolies themselves, who in olden times insisted
that the Towkay Labur should take off his shoes and close his
umbrella whenever he visited the mine, so that, as they alleged,
the spirits might not be offended. But their real object was not to
allow him to pry too much into the mine, in case it might not bear
scrutiny; and thus, by depriving him of the protection from the sun
and from the rough mining quartz which would have been afforded by
the umbrella and shoes, they prevented him from going about here,
there, and everywhere, and making unpleasant inquiries, as he would
otherwise have liked to do.
"Quarrelling and fighting in the mine is strictly forbidden, as it
has a tendency to drive away the ore.
"Bathing in the mine is not allowed.
"A man must not work in the mine with only his bathing-cloth around
his body. He must wear trousers.
"If a man takes off his sun hat and puts it on the ground, he must
turn it over and let it rest upon its crown.
"Limes cannot be brought into the mine. This superstition is peculiar
to the Malay miner, who has a special dread of this fruit, which,
in pantang language, he calls salah nama (lit. 'wrong name') instead
of limau nipis.
"In looking at the check-roll it is forbidden to point at the names
with the finger. No one may examine the check-roll at night with an
open light, owing more probably to the fear of setting it on fire
than to superstitious prejudices.
"It is considered unlucky for a man to fall off the mining ladder,
for, whether he is hurt or not, he is likely to die within the year.
"An outbreak of fire in the mine is considered an omen of
prosperity. Several mines have been known to double or treble their
output of tin after the occurrence of a fire.
"It is unlucky for a coolie to die in the kongsi house. When,
therefore, a man is very sick and past all hopes of recovery, it is
customary to put him out of the house in an extempore hut erected in
the scrub, so that death may not take place in the kongsi amongst the
living. His chuleis [467] attend him during his last hours and bury
him when dead. These and other superstitious ideas and observances are,
however, fast dying out, though it would still be an unsafe experiment
to enter a mine with shoes on and an umbrella over your head." [468]
The remaining notes on mining ceremonies and charms were collected
by me in Selangor. On reaching the tin-bearing stratum, the tin-ore
is addressed by name:--
"Peace be with you, O Tin-Ore,
At the first it was dew that turned into water,
And water that turned into foam,
And foam that turned into rock,
And rock that turned into tin-ore;
Do you, O Tin-Ore, lying in a matrix of solid rock,
Come forth from this matrix of solid rock;
If you do not come forth
You shall be a rebel in the sight of God.
Ho, Tin-Ore, Sir 'Floating Islet,'
'Flotsam-at-sea,' and 'Flotsam-on-land,'
Do you float up to the surface of this my tank, [469]
Or you shall be a rebel to God," etc.
Sometimes each grain of ore appears to be considered as endowed with a
separate entity or individuality. Thus we find in another invocation
the following passage, where the wizard is addressing the grains
of ore:--
"Do You (Grains of Ore) that are on the Hills descend to the
Plains,
You that are at the Head-waters descend to Mid-stream,
You that are at the Estuary ascend to Mid-stream.
And assemble yourselves together in this spot.
Assemble yourselves together, 'Rice-grains' and 'Spinach-seed,'
'Tobacco-seed,' 'Millet,' and 'Wild Ginger-Seed,'
Assemble ye together in this spot.
I am desirous of excavating this spot,
And of making a mine here;
If ye do not assemble yourselves together
I shall curse you;
You shall be turned into dust, and turned into air,
And you shall also be turned into water."
The separate personality of each individual grain is remarkably clear
in the above passage. The names of the different kinds of seed are
in allusion to the various shapes and sizes of the grains of ore.
Yet in the very same charm various kinds of lizards and centipedes are
begged to "bring the tin-ore with them, some of them a grain or two,
some of them a fistful or two, some of them a gallon or two, some of
them a load or two," and so on. No doubt the wizard was determined
to allow the grains no loophole for escape.
The objects of the charms employed by the mining wizards are the
following:--
(1) To clear the jungle of evil spirits (and propitiate the good
ones?) before starting to fell, as is shown by the following passage:--
"O Grandfather King Solomon, Black King Solomon,
I desire to fell these woods,
But it is not I who am in charge of these woods,
It is Yellow King Solomon who is in charge of them,
And Red King Solomon who is in charge of them.
It is I who fell the jungle,
But only with the permission of those two persons.
Rise, rise, O Ye who watch it (the tin?),
[Here are] three 'chews' of betel for you, and three cigarettes,
O Maimurup, O Maimerah, O Gadek Hitam,
Si Gadek Hitam (Black Grannie) from Down-stream,
Si Gadek Kuning (Yellow Grannie) from Up-stream,
And Si Maimerah from Mid-stream."]
(Here some lines follow which are as yet untranslatable.)
"Retire ye and avaunt from hence,
If ye retire not from hence,
As you stride, your leg shall break,
As you stretch your hand out, your hand shall be crippled,
As you open your eye (to look), your eyeball shall burst,
Your eye stabbed through with a thorn of the T'rong Asam, [470]
And your hand pierced with the Sega jantan, [471]
And your finger-nails with Heart of Brazilwood.
Moreover, your tongue shall be slit with a bamboo splinter,
For thus was it sworn by 'Grandfather Sakernanaininaini' [472]
Into the leaf (of the) Putajaya,
Upon the summit of the mountain of Ceylon.
I know the origin from which you spring,
From the Black Blood and the Red,
That was your origin.
We are two sons of one father, but with different inheritances;
In my charge is Gold and Tin-ore,
In yours are Rocks and Sand,
With chaff and bran."
(2) To clear evil spirits away from the ground before commencing
the work of excavation. The charm for this is given in the Appendix,
but is little more than a list of names.
(3) To propitiate the local spirits and induce the tin-ore to show
itself, when the tin-bearing stratum is reached, by means of the
charm quoted above.
(4) To induce the spirits to partake of a banquet which is spread
for them in a receptacle intended to be the model of a royal
audience-chamber.
This, the "spirits' audience-chamber" (as it is called), is usually
from two to three feet square, and is filled with offerings similar in
character to those usually deposited on the sacrificial tray (anchak),
with the addition, however, of certain articles which are considered
to be specially representative of the miners' food. These articles are
sugar-cane, plantains, yams, sweet potatoes, and fish, etc.; all of
which should be placed together with the customary offerings in the
"spirits' audience-chamber." Outside the "audience-hall," at each of
the two front corners, should be placed a red and a white flag and
a wax taper; and at each of the two back corners should be placed a
taper, making in all four flags and seven tapers.
A standard censer (perasapan) must be erected in front of the
"audience-chamber," and a second small censer must also be obtained,
so that burning incense may be "waved" to and fro underneath the floor
of the audience-chamber in order to fumigate it before the offerings
are deposited inside it.
During the fumigation a charm is recited, in which the assistance
of the spirits of certain canonized Muhammadan worthies is invoked,
concluding thus:--
"Peace be with you, O White Sheikh, wizard of the virgin jungle,
Wizards old, and wizards young,
Come hither and share the banquet I have prepared for you.
I crave pardon for all mistakes,
For all shortcomings I beg pardon in every particular."
Then when the tapers are all lighted and the offerings ready, a
further charm is recited, which begins as follows:--
"Ho, White Sheikh, king of the virgin jungle,
It is you to whom belong all people of the jungle and virgin
forest,
Do you, whose back is turned towards heaven,
Give your orders to all the Elders of the earth and Princes who
are here,
You who here hold the position of Indra,
Come hither and partake of my banquet.
I wish to ask for your assistance,
I wish to open (excavate) this mine." [473]
The chief taboos are the killing of any sort of living creature within
the mine; to wear a sarong (Malay skirt); to bring into the mine the
skin of any beast; and to wear shoes or use an umbrella within the
mine. These are some of the perpetual taboos, but no doubt there are
many others.
In the case of a sacrifice, however, the white buffalo may of course be
killed, not within the mine itself, but still upon its brink; and when
this is done, the head is buried, and small portions (which must be
"representative" of every part of the carcase) should be taken and
deposited in the "audience-chamber."
Among the seven days' taboos are mentioned the killing of any living
timber (within the precincts of the mine?), lewdness, and the praising
or admiring of the "grass seed" (puji buah rumput), which is the name
by which the tin-ore must invariably be called within the precincts
of the mine. This last taboo is due to the use of a special mining
vocabulary to which the greatest attention was formerly paid, and
which did not differ very greatly from that used in Perak.
Another account of the ceremony runs as follows; I give it word for
word as I took it down from my Malay informant:--
"Take five portions of cooked and five portions of uncooked fowls,
both white and black, together with black pulut rice, [474] millet-seed
(sekoi), seeds of the chebak China, etc. etc. When all is ready, burn
incense, scatter the black rice with the right hand over the bottom of
a tray, i.e. an anchak (such as is used for offerings to the spirits),
fumigate and deposit the offerings in five portions upon this layer
of rice (one portion going to each corner and one to the middle of
the tray). Take black cloth, five cubits long, fumigate it, and wave
it thrice round the head with the right hand from left to right,
repeating the following invocation (serapah):--
"O Grandfather 'Batin' [475] the Elder,
In whose charge are caverns and hill-locked basins,
O Grandfather 'Batin' the Younger,
In whose charge are all these your civil and military companies,
May the Ore which is on the Hills descend to the Plain,
May that which is Up-stream descend to Mid-stream,
And that which is Down-stream ascend to Mid-stream,
Assemble you together, O Ores, in this spot;
It is not I who call you,
It is Grandfather Batin the Elder who calls you,
It is Batin the Younger who calls you,
It is the Elder Wizard who calls you,
It is the Younger Wizard who calls you,
Assemble yourselves together, Rubbish and Trash,
House-lizards, 'Kalerik,' Centipedes, and Millipedes,
And partake of my banquet.
Let whosoever comes bring me ore,
A ketong [476] or two,
A fistful or two,
An arai [477] or two,
A gallon or two,
A basket or two,
Assemble yourselves together, Boiled Rice-seed,
Spinach-seed, Tobacco-seed, Millet-seed, Wild Ginger-seed,
Assemble yourselves together in this spot.
I wish to excavate this spot,
I wish to open a mine:
If you do not come, if you do not gather yourselves together,
I shall curse you;
You shall turn into dust, into air, and into water.
By virtue of the magic arts of my teacher be my petition granted.
It is not I who petition,
It is the Elder Wizard who petitions,
It is the Younger Wizard who petitions.
By the grace of 'There is no god but God,'" etc.
The foregoing descriptions of mining ceremonies and charms refer to
tin only, but in so far as general animistic ideas go, they might be
equally well applied to other metals, such as silver and gold.
It has already been remarked that as the Tin spirit is believed
to take the form of a buffalo, so the Gold spirit is said to take
the form of a golden roe-deer (kijang). Of the ceremonies which the
Malays believe to be essential for successful gold-mining, not much
information has yet been published. In Denys' Descriptive Dictionary,
however, we read the following:--
"Gold is believed to be under the care and in the gift of a dewa,
or god, and its search is therefore unhallowed, for the miners must
conciliate the dewa by prayers and offerings, and carefully abstain
from pronouncing the name of God or performing any act of worship. Any
acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Allah offends the dewa, who
immediately 'hides the gold,' or renders it invisible. At some of
the great limbongan [478] mas or gold-pits in the Malay States of the
interior, any allusion to the Deity subjects the unwitting miner to
a penalty which is imposed by the Penghûlu. The qualities of the gold
vary greatly in the same country. The finest gold brought to market is
that of the principality of Pahang, on the eastern side of the Malay
Peninsula, which brings a higher price than even that of Australia
by better than three per cent. The gold is all obtained by washing,
and the metal has never been worked, and scarcely even traced to
the original veins. It is mostly in the form of powder or dust--the
mas-urai of the Malays, literally 'loose or disintegrated gold.'" [479]
Gold, silver, and an amalgam formed of the two, are regarded as
the three most precious metals, and of these gold is, to a very
uncertain and partial extent, still sometimes regarded as a royal
prerogative. [480]
Of Silver still less information has been collected than of gold. This,
however, is but natural, as silver has not yet been found in payable
quantities, whereas many gold mines exist. It is just possible,
however, that silver may be worked by the Malays on a small scale
in the Siamese-Malay States, as it would be difficult on any other
hypothesis to account for the following invocation, which was given
me by a Malay of Kelantan ('Che `Abas):--
"Peace be with you, O Child of the Solitary Jin Salaka (Silver),
I know your origin.
Your dwelling-place is the Yellow Cloud Rock;
The Place of your Penance the Sea of Balongan Darah;
The Place of your Penance is a Pond in every stream;
The Place of your Birth was the Bay where the Wind Dies;
Ho, Child of the Solitary Jin Salaka,
Come hither at this time, this very moment,
I wish to make you a propitiatory offering, to banquet you on
arrack and toddy.
If you do not come hither at this very moment
You shall be a rebel unto God,
And a rebel unto God's Prophet Solomon,
For I am God's Prophet Solomon."
No other metals, so far as I am aware, are worked to any extent in the
Peninsula, yet there is the clearest possible evidence of animistic
ideas about Iron. Thus for the Sacred Lump of Iron which forms part of
the regalia of more than one of the petty Sultans in the Peninsula,
the Malays entertain the most extraordinary reverence, not unmingled
with superstitious terror. [481] It is upon this "Lump of Iron,"
when placed in water, that the most solemn and binding oath known to
those who make use of it is sworn; and it is to this "Lump of Iron"
that the Malay wizard refers when he recites his category of the most
terrible denunciations that Malay magic has been able to invent. [482]
It is possible that there may be, in the Malay mind at all events, some
connection between the supernatural powers ascribed to this portion
of the regalia and the more general use of iron as a charm against
evil spirits. For the various forms of iron which play so conspicuous
a part in Malay magic, from the long iron nail which equally protects
the new-born infant and the Rice-Soul from the powers of evil, to the
betel-nut scissors which are believed to scare the evil spirits from
the dead, are alike called the representatives (symbols or emblems)
of Iron (tanda besi). So, too, is the blade of the wood-knife, or
cutlass, which a jungle Malay will sometimes plant in the bed of a
stream (with its edge towards the source) before he will venture to
drink of the water. So, too, is the blade of the same knife, upon the
side of which he will occasionally seat himself when he is eating alone
in the forest; both of these precautions being taken, however, as I
have more than once been told, not only to drive away evil spirits,
but to "confirm" the speaker's own soul (menetapkan semangat).
Even Stone appears to be regarded as distinctly connected with ideas of
animism. Thus the stone deposited in the basket with the Rice-soul, the
stone deposited in the child's swinging cot by way of a substitute when
the child is temporarily taken out of it, and above all the various
concretions to be found from time to time both in the bodies of animals
("Bezoar" stones) and in the stems or fruit of trees (as tabasheer),
are examples of this. Examples of tabasheer have already been quoted
(under Vegetation Charms), but a few remarks about Bezoar stones may
be of interest.
The Bezoar stones known to the Peninsular Malays are usually obtained
either from monkeys or porcupines. Extraordinary magical virtues are
attached to these stones, the gratings of which are mixed with water
and administered to the sick. [483]
I was once asked $200 for a small stone which its owner kept in
cotton-wool in a small tin box, where it lay surrounded by grains of
rice, upon which he declared that it fed. [484] I asked him how it
could be proved that it was a true Bezoar stone (which it undoubtedly
was not), and he declared that if it were placed upon an inverted
tumbler and touched with the point of a k'ris (dagger) or a lime-fruit
it would commence to move about. Both tests were therefore applied in
my presence, but the motion of the Bezoar stone in each case proved
to be due to the most overt trickery on the part of the owner, who
by pressing on one side of the stone (which was spherical in shape)
naturally caused it to move; in fact I was easily able to produce
the same effect in the same way, as I presently showed him, though
of course he could not be brought to admit the deception. [485]
Before I leave this portion of the subject, I may mention that magic
powers are very generally ascribed to the "celts" or "stone-age"
implements which are frequently found in the Peninsula, and are called
thunderbolts (batu halilintar). They are not unfrequently grated and
mixed with water and drunk like the Bezoar stones, but usually they
are kept merely as a touch-stone for gold.
(c) Water
1. PURIFICATION BY WATER
The following description (by Sir W. E. Maxwell) of the bathing
ceremony, as practised by the Perak Malays, may be taken as typical
of this subject:--
"Limes are used in Perak, as we use soap, when a Malay has resolved on
having a really good "scrub." They are cut in two and squeezed (ramas)
in the hand. In Penang a root called sintok is usually preferred to
limes. When the body is deemed sufficiently cleansed the performer,
taking his stand facing the East, spits seven times, and then counts
up seven aloud. After the word tujoh (seven) he throws away the
remains of the limes or sintok to the West, saying aloud, Pergi-lah
samua sial jambalang deripada badan aku ka pusat tasek Paujangi,
'Misfortune and spirits of evil begone from my body to the whirlpool
of the lake Paujangi!' Then he throws (jurus) a few buckets of water
over himself, and the operation is complete.
"The lake Paujangi is situated in mid-ocean, and its whirlpool most
likely causes the tides. All the waters of the sea and rivers are
finally received there. It is probably as eligible an abode for
exorcised spirits as the Red Sea was once considered to be by our
forefathers." [486]
The ceremony just described is evidently a form of purification
by water. Similar purificatory ceremonies form an integral part of
Malay customs at birth, adolescence, marriage, sickness, death, and
in fact at every critical period of the life of a Malay; but will be
most conveniently discussed in detail under each of the particular
headings referred to. The tepong tawar ceremony (for the details of
which see Chapter III., and which is perhaps the commonest of all
Malay magic rites) would also seem to have originated from ideas of
ceremonial purification.
2. THE SEA, RIVERS, AND STREAMS
The Malays have been from time immemorial a sea-faring race, and are
quite as superstitious in their ideas of the sea as sailors in other
parts of the world.
As has been already indicated, [487] their animistic notions
include a belief in Water Spirits, both of the sea and of rivers,
and occasionally this belief finds expression in ritual observances.
Thus, for instance, it was formerly the custom to insert a number of
sugar-palm twigs (segar kabong) into the top of the ship's mast, making
the end of it look not unlike a small birch of black twigs. [488]
This was intended to prevent the Water Spirit (Hantu Ayer) from
settling on the mast. His appearance when he does settle is described
as resembling the glow of fire flies or of phosphorescence in the
sea--evidently a form of St. Elmo's fire.
The ship being a living organism, one must, of course, when all is
ready, persuade it to make a proper start. To effect this you go on
board, and sitting down beside the well (petak ruang), burn incense
and strew the sacrificial rice, and then tapping the inside of the
keelson (jintekkan serempu) and the next plank above it (apit lempong),
beg them to adhere to each other during the voyage, e.g.:--
"Peace be with you, O 'big Medang' and 'low-growing Medang!'
Be ye not parted brother from brother,
I desire you to speed me, to the utmost of your power,
To such and such a place;
If ye will not, ye shall be rebels against God," etc.
I need hardly explain, perhaps, that "big medang" and "low-growing
medang" are the names of two varieties of the same tree, which are
supposed in the present instance to have furnished the timber from
which these different parts were made.
Then you stand up in the bows and call upon the Sea Spirits for their
assistance in pointing out shoals, snags, and rocky islets. [489]
Sometimes a talisman is manufactured by writing an Arabic text on a
leaf which is then thrown into the sea.
So, too, it is not unusual to see rocks in mid-stream near the mouths
of rivers adorned with a white cloth hanging from a long stick or pole,
which marks them out as "sacred places," and sometimes in rapids
where navigation is difficult or dangerous, offerings are made to
the River Spirits, as the following quotation will show:--
"We commenced at last to slide down a long reach of troubled water
perceptibly out of the horizontal. The raft buried itself under the
surface, leaving dry only our little stage, and the whole fabric shook
and trembled as if it were about to break up. Yelling 'Sambut, sambut'
('Receive, receive') to the spirits of the stream, whom Kulup Mohamed
was propitiating with small offerings of rice and leaves, the panting
boatmen continued their struggles until we shot out once more into
smooth deep water, and all danger was over." [490]
The importance of rivers in the Malay Peninsula, and for that matter,
in Malayan countries generally, can hardly be overrated. It was
by the rivers that Malay immigration, coming for the most part, if
not entirely, from Sumatra, entered the interior of the Peninsula,
and before the influx of Europeans had superseded them by roads and
railways the rivers were the sole means of inland communication. All
old Malay settlements are situated on the banks of rivers or streams,
both on this account and because of the necessity of having a plentiful
supply of water for the purpose of irrigating the rice-fields, which
constitute the main source of livelihood for the inhabitants.
Accordingly the backbone, so to speak, of a Malay district is the river
that runs through it, and from which in most cases the district takes
its name; for here, as elsewhere, the river-names are generally older
than the names of territorial divisions. They are often unintelligible
and probably of pre-Malayan origin, but are sometimes derived from
the Malay names of forest trees. As a rule every reach and point has a
name known to the local Malays, even though the river may run through
forest and swamp with only a few villages scattered at intervals of
several miles along its banks.
Of river legends there are not a few. The following extract relates
to one of the largest rivers of the Peninsula, the river Perak,
which gives its name to the largest and most important of the Malay
States of the West Coast. Perak means silver, though none is mined
in the country; and the legend is a fair specimen of the sort of
story which grows up round an attempt to account for an otherwise
inexplicable name:--
"On their return down-stream, the Raja and his followers halted at
Chigar Galah, where a small stream runs into the river Perak. They were
struck with astonishment at finding the water of this stream as white
as santan (the grated pulp of the cocoa-nut mixed with water). Magat
Terawis, who was despatched to the source of the stream to discover
the cause of this phenomenon, found there a large fish of the kind
called haruan engaged in suckling her young one. She had large white
breasts from which milk issued. [491]
"He returned and told the Raja, who called the river 'Perak'
('silver'), in allusion to its exceeding whiteness. Then he returned
to Kota Lama." [492]
3. REPTILES AND REPTILE CHARMS
The Crocodile
Of the origin of the Crocodile two conflicting stories, at least,
are told. One of these was collected by Sir William Maxwell in Perak;
the other was taken down by me from a Labu Malay in Selangor, but
I have not met with it elsewhere; a parallel version of the story
quoted by Maxwell being the commonest form of the legend in Selangor
as well as Perak.
Sir William Maxwell's account runs as follows:--
"In the case of the crocodile, we find an instance of a dangerous
animal being regarded by Malays as possessed of mysterious powers,
which distinguish him from most of the brute creation, and class him
with the tiger and elephant. Just as in some parts of India sacred
crocodiles are protected and fed in tanks set apart for them by
Hindus, so in Malay rivers here and there particular crocodiles are
considered kramat (sacred), and are safe from molestation. On a river
in the interior of Malacca I have had my gun-barrels knocked up when
taking aim at a crocodile, the Malay who did it immediately falling
on his knees in the bottom of the boat and entreating forgiveness,
on the ground that the individual reptile aimed at was kramat, and
that the speaker's family would not be safe if it were injured. The
source of ideas like this lies far deeper in the Malay mind than his
Muhammadanism; but the new creed has, in many instances, appropriated
and accounted for them. The connection of the tiger with Ali, the
uncle of the prophet, has already been explained. A grosser Muhammadan
fable has been invented regarding the crocodile.
"This reptile, say the Pêrak Malays, was first created in the
following manner:--
"There was once upon a time a woman called Putri Padang Gerinsing,
whose petitions found great favour and acceptance with the Almighty.
"She it was who had the care of Siti Fatima, the daughter of the
Prophet. One day she took some clay and fashioned it into the likeness
of what is now the crocodile. The material on which she moulded the
clay was a sheet of upih (the sheath of the betel-nut palm). This
became the covering of the crocodile's under-surface. When she
attempted to make the mass breathe it broke in pieces. This happened
twice. Now it chanced that the Tuan Putri had just been eating
sugar-cane, so she arranged a number of sugar-cane joints to serve
as a backbone, and the peelings of the rind she utilised as ribs. On
its head she placed a sharp stone, and she made eyes out of bits of
saffron (kuniet); the tail was made of the mid-rib and leaves of a
betel-nut frond. She prayed to God Almighty that the creature might
have life, and it at once commenced to breathe and move. For a long
time it was a plaything of the Prophet's daughter, Siti Fatima; but
it at length became treacherous and faithless to Tuan Putri Padang
Gerinsing, who had grown old and feeble. Then Fatima cursed it, saying,
'Thou shalt be the crocodile of the sea, no enjoyment shall be thine,
and thou shalt not know lust or desire.' She then deprived it of its
teeth and tongue, and drove nails into its jaws to close them. It is
these nails which serve the crocodile as teeth to this day. Malay
Pawangs in Pêrak observe the following methods of proceeding when
it is desired to hook a crocodile:--To commence with, a white fowl
must be slain in the orthodox way, by cutting its throat, and some
of its blood must be rubbed on the line (usually formed of rattan)
to which the fowl itself is attached as bait. The dying struggles
of the fowl in the water are closely watched, and conclusions are
drawn from them as to the probable behaviour of the crocodile when
hooked. If the fowl goes to a considerable distance the crocodile
will most likely endeavour to make off; but it will be otherwise if
the fowl moves a little way only up and down or across the stream.
"When the line is set the following spell must be repeated: 'Aur
Dangsari kamala sari, sambut kirim Tuan Putri Padang Gerinsing;
tidak di-sambut mata angkau chabut' ('O Dangsari, lotus-flower,
receive what is sent thee by the Lady Princess Padang Gerinsing;
if thou receivest it not, may thy eyes be torn out'). As the bait
is thrown into the water the operator must blow on it three times,
stroke it three times, and thrice repeat the following sentence, with
his teeth closed and without drawing breath: 'Kun kata Allah sapaya
kun kata Muhammad tab paku,' ('Kun saith God, so kun saith Muhammad;
nail be fixed.') Other formulas are used during other stages of the
proceedings." [493]
The rarer story, to which allusion has been made, was the following:--
"There was a woman who had a child which had just learnt to sit up
(tahu dudok), and to which she gave the name of 'Sarilang.' One day
she took the child to the river-side in order to bathe it, but during
the latter operation it slipped from her grasp and fell into the
river. The mother shrieked and wept, but as she did not know how to
dive she had to return home without her child. That night she dreamed
a dream, in which her child appeared and said, 'Weep no more, mother,
I have turned into a crocodile, and am now called 'Grandsire Sarilang'
('Toh Sarilang): if you would meet me, come to-morrow to the spot
where you lost me.' Next morning, therefore, the mother repaired to
the river and called upon the name of her child, whereupon her child
rose to the surface, and she saw that from the waist downwards he had
already turned into a crocodile, though he was still human down to the
waist. Now the child said, 'Come back again after fourteen days, and
remember to bring an egg and a plantain (banana).' She therefore went
again at the time appointed, and having called upon him by his new name
('Toh Sarilang), he again came to the surface, when she saw that from
the waist upwards he had also now turned into a crocodile. So she gave
him the egg and the plantain, and he devoured them, and when he had
done so he said, 'Whenever the crocodiles get ferocious (ganas), and
commence to attack human beings, take a plantain, an egg, and a handful
of parched rice, and after scattering the rice on the river, leave the
egg and the plantain on the bank, calling upon my name ('Toh Sarilang)
[494] as you do so, and their ferocity will immediately cease.'"
The notes on crocodile folklore which will now be given were reprinted
in the Selangor Journal from the "Perak Museum Notes" of Mr. Wray.
"When the eggs of a crocodile are hatching out, the mother watches;
the little ones that take to their native element she does not molest,
but she eats up all those which run away from the water, but should
any escape her and get away on to the land they will change into
tigers. Some of these reptiles are said to have tongues, and when
possessed of that organ they are very much more vicious and dangerous
than the ordinarily formed ones. When a crocodile enters a river it
swallows a pebble, so that on opening the stomach of one it is only
necessary to count the stones in it to tell how many rivers it has been
into during its life. The Malays call these stones kira-kira dia,
[495] on this account. The Indians on the banks of the Orinoco,
on the other hand, assert that the alligator swallows stones to
add weight to its body to aid it in diving and dragging its prey
under water. Crocodiles inhabiting a river are said to resent the
intrusion of strangers from other waters, and fights often take place
in consequence. According to the Malays they are gifted with two pairs
of eyes. The upper ones they use when above water, and the under pair
when beneath the surface. This latter pair is situated half-way between
the muzzle and the angle of the mouth, on the under surface of the
lower jaw. These are in reality not eyes, but inward folds of skin
connected by a duct with a scent gland, which secretes an unctuous
substance of a dark gray colour, with a strong musky odour. Medicinal
properties are attributed to the flesh of the males, which are
believed to be of very rare occurrence, and to be quite unable to
leave the water by reason of their peculiar conformation. The fact
is that the sexes are almost undistinguishable, except on dissection,
and therefore the natives class all that are caught as females. While
on this subject, it may be worth mentioning that at Port Weld there
used to be a tame crocodile which would come when called. The Malays
fed it regularly, and said it was not vicious, and would not do any
harm. It was repeatedly seen by the yearly visitants to Port Weld,
or Sapetang, as the place was then called, and was a fine big animal,
with a bunch of seaweed growing on its head. Some one had it called,
and then fired at the poor thing; whether it was wounded or only
frightened is uncertain, but it never came again." [496]
The following notes upon the same subject were collected by me in
Selangor:--
The female crocodile commonly builds her nest, with or without the
aid of the male, among the thorny clumps of lempiei (or dempiei) trees
just above high-water mark, using the fallen leaves to form the nest,
and breaking up the twigs with her mouth. The season for laying is
said, in the north of the Peninsula, to coincide with the time "when
the rice-stalks swell with the grain," i.e. the end of the wet season.
The most prolific species of crocodile is reputed to be the buaya
lubok, or Bight crocodile (also called buaya rawang, or Marsh
crocodile), which lays as many as fifty or sixty eggs in a single
nest. Other varieties, I may add, are the buaya tembaga (Copper
crocodile), the buaya katak (Dwarf crocodile), which is, as its name
implies, "short and stout," and the buaya hitam or besi (Black or
Iron crocodile), which is reported to attain a larger size than any
other variety. This latter kind is often moss-grown, and is hence
called buaya berlumut (Mossy crocodile). The largest specimen of this
variety of which I have had any reliable account is one which measured
"four fathoms, less one hasta" (about 23 feet), and which was caught
in the time of Sultan Mahmat at Sungei Sembilang, near Kuala Selangor,
by one Nakhoda Kutib.
The buaya jolong-jolong, which has attracted attention owing to its
reputed identification with the gavial of Indian waters, and which
is therefore no true crocodile, is pointedly described by Malays as
separating itself from the other species.
Finally, there is the buaya gulong tenun (the "Crocodile that Rolls
up the Weft"?), which is not, however, the name of a separate variety,
but is the name applied to the Young Person or New Woman of the world
of crocodile-folk--the aggressive female who "snaps" at everything
and everybody for the mere glory of the snap!
"After hatching," says Mr. Wray, "the mother watches, and ... eats up
all those which run away from the water, but should any escape her and
get away on to the land they will turn into tigers." There is perhaps
more point in the Selangor tradition, according to which the little
runaways turn, not into tigers, but into "iguanas" (Monitor lizards).
As regards the want of a tongue, which is supposed to be common
to all crocodiles, it is said they were so created by design, in
order that they might not acquire too pronounced a "taste" for human
flesh. Hence the proverb which declares that no carrion is too bad
for them to welcome: "Buaya mana tahu menolak bangkei?" ("When will
crocodiles refuse corpses?") [497]
After the outbreak of ferocity (ganas) among the crocodiles in the
Klang River last year, some account of the way in which the crocodile
is here said to capture and destroy his human victims may prove
of interest.
Every crocodile has, according to the Selangor Malay, three sets of
fangs, which are named as follows: (1) si hampa daya [498] (two above
and two below), at the tip of the jaws; (2) entah-entah (two in the
upper and two in the lower jaw), half-way up; (3) charik kapan (two
in the upper and two in the lower jaw), near the socket of the jaws.
The first may be translated by "Exhaust your devices"; the second by
"Yes or no"; and the third by "Tear the shroud," the latter being
a reference to the selvage which, among the Malays, is torn off the
shroud and afterwards used for tying it up when the corpse has been
wrapped in it.
If a man is caught by the "Exhausters of all Resources," he has
a fair chance of escape; if caught by the "Debateable" teeth his
escape is decidedly problematical; but if caught by the "Tearers of
the Shroud," he is to all intents and purposes a dead man. Whenever
it effects a capture the crocodile carries its victim at once below
the surface, and either tries to smother him in the soft, thick mud
of the mangrove swamp, or pushes him under a snag or projecting root,
with the object of letting him drown, while it retires to watch him
from a short distance. After what it considers a sufficient interval
to effect its purpose, the crocodile seizes the body of the drowned
man and rises to the surface, when it "calls upon the Sun, Moon,
and Stars to bear witness" that it was not guilty of the homicide--
"Bukan aku membunoh angkau,
Ayer yang membunoh angkau."
Which, being translated, means--
"It was not I who killed you,
It was water which killed you." [499]
After thrice repeating this strange performance, the crocodile
again dives and proceeds to prepare the corpse for its prospective
banquet. Embracing the corpse with its "arms," and curving the tip of
its powerful tail under its own belly (until the tail is nearly bent
double), it contrives to break the backbone of the victim, and then
picking up the body once more with its teeth, dashes it violently
against a trunk or root in order to break the long bones of the
limbs. When the bones are thus so broken as to offer no obstruction,
it swallows the body whole--thus affording a remarkable parallel to
the boa in its method of devouring its prey, and recalling Darwinian
ideas of their cousin-hood. Miraculous escapes have, however,
occasionally occurred. Thus Lebai `Ali was caught by a crocodile
at Batu Burok (Kuala Selangor), one evening as the tide was ebbing,
and the crocodile, after smothering him effectually (as it thought)
in the thick mud, retired to await the end. Insensibly, however, it
floated farther and farther off with the falling tide, and Lebai `Ali,
seeing his opportunity, made a bold and successful dash for freedom.
A similar case was that of Si Ka', who was pushed under a bamboo
root on the river bank by the crocodile which caught him, and who,
after waiting till his formidable enemy had floated a little farther
off than usual, drew himself up by an overhanging stem and swarmed up
it. At the same moment the crocodile made a rush, and actually caught
him by the great toe, which latter, however, he willingly surrendered
to his enemy as the price of his liberty.
A yet more marvellous escape, was that of the youth belonging to
the Government launch at Klang, who escaped, it is related, by the
time-honoured expedient of putting his thumbs into the crocodile's
eyes. In connection with this latter exploit, by the way, Malay
authorities assert that the crocodile's eyes protrude from their
sockets on stalks (like those of a crab) so long as he stays under
water, the stalks being "as long as the forefinger," so that it is
quite an easy matter to catch hold of these living "pegs."
For the rest, crocodiles are said by the Malays to have a sort of
false stomach divided into several pouches or sacs, one sac being
for the stones which they swallow, and another for the clothes and
accoutrements of their human victims, these pouches being in addition
to their real stomach (in which the remains of monkeys, wild pig,
mouse-deer, and other small animals are found), and, in the case
of female specimens, the ovary. The second pair of eyes in the neck
which, Mr. Wray says, they are supposed to use when below the surface,
are in Selangor supposed to be used at night, whence they are called
mata malam, or night-eyes, as opposed to their real eyes which they
are supposed to use only by day.
As regards the stones, which crocodiles undoubtedly swallow, they are
sometimes supposed to enable each male crocodile to keep an account
of the number of rivers which it has entered, of the number of bights
it has lived in, or even of the number of its human victims. The
noise which crocodiles make when fighting resembles a loud roar or
bellow, and the Malays apply the same word menguak to the bellow of
the crocodile as well as to that of the buffalo.
The wrath of the crocodile-folk is provoked by those who wish to
shoot them, in various ways, of which, perhaps, the commonest is
to dabble a sarong, or (as is said to be more effectual) a woman's
mosquito-curtain, in the water of the river where they live. So also
to keep two sets of weights and measures (one for buying and another
for selling, as is sometimes done by the Chinese), is said to be a
certain means of provoking their indignation.
The crocodile-wizard is sometimes credited with the power of calling
the crocodile-folk together, and of discovering a man-eater among
them, and an eye-witness lately described to me the scene on one such
occasion. A Malay had been carried off and devoured by a crocodile
at Larut, and a Batu Bara man, who went by the sobriquet of Nakhoda
Hassan, undertook to discover the culprit. Sprinkling some of the
usual sacrificial rice-paste (tepong tawar) and "saffron" rice upon
the surface of the river, he called out in loud tones to the various
tribes of crocodiles in the river, and summoned them to appear on
the surface. My informant declares that not less than eight or ten
crocodiles actually appeared, whereupon the Pawang commanded them
all to return to the bottom with the exception of the one which was
guilty. In a few moments only one crocodile remained on the surface,
and this one, on being forthwith killed and cut open, was found to
contain the garments of the unfortunate man who had been captured by
it. Similar stories of the prowess of crocodile charmers are told by
the Javanese. [500]
I shall now proceed to describe the methods and ceremonies used
for the catching of crocodiles. The following is a description by
Mr. J. H. M. Robson, of Selangor, of the most usual method, at all
events in Selangor, but it would appear from remarks upon the subject
in Dr. Denys' work, that live as well as dead bait is commonly used:--
"A small piece of hard wood, about 6 in. or 8 in. long, and about
three-quarters of an inch thick, is sharpened at both ends, and to
the middle of this the end of a yard of twine is firmly fastened,
the twine having about a dozen strands just held together by say a
couple of knots, so as to prevent the crocodile from biting it through,
as the strands simply get between his teeth; to the other end of this
twine is fastened a single uncut rattan, at least 20 feet long, which
can be only a quarter of an inch in diameter, but may with advantage
be a little bigger; a small stick affixed to the end of the line, to
act as a visible float, completes this part of the gear. Probably a
crocodile will eat anything, but he is certainly partial to chicken--at
least that bait is always successful in the Sepang river--so, having
killed some sort of fowl, the body is cut right through the breast
lengthways from head to tail, and the small piece of pointed hard
wood inserted, and the bird bound up again with string. Next, two
pieces of light wood are nailed together, forming a small floating
platform about a foot square, and on this the fowl is placed, raised
on miniature trestles. The small platform thus furnished is placed in a
likely spot near the bank, and the rattan line is hitched over a small
branch or a stake, so that the bait platform may not be carried away
by the tide. By the next morning the rattan line, bait and platform
may all have disappeared, which probably means that the crocodile,
having swallowed the fowl, has gone off with the rattan in tow, a tug
being sufficient to set it free, whilst the platform, thus released,
has drifted away. A crocodile will try the aggressive sometimes, so,
when going in pursuit, it is better to have a boat than a sampan, [501]
but Malay paddles are the most convenient in either case. It is also
advisable to have a second man with a rifle. The crocodile has probably
a favourite place up-stream, so the boatmen paddle up on the look-out
for the rattan (which always floats), finding it at length close to
the mangrove roots bordering on the river, perhaps. The boat-hook
picks up the floating-stick end of the line, and, with a couple of
boatmen on to this and a crocodile at the other end, with the small
pointed hard wood stick across his throat, the excitement begins. The
crocodile plunges about amidst the mangrove roots under the water,
and then makes a rush; the rattan is paid out again and the boat
follows; then he rushes under the boat, perhaps at the boat, whilst
the line is steadily pulled in. This sort of thing may last some time,
but the only thing to be afraid of is the rattan's getting twisted
round a bakau [502] root under water, which might prevent a capture;
otherwise, after a good deal of playing of a rather violent nature,
the continual pulling of the rattan-holders in the boat, or his own
aggressiveness, induces him to show his head above the surface, whereat
the rifles crack, and the crocodile dies, though often not till four
or five bullets have been put into different parts of his body." [503]
I will now proceed to describe the religious ceremonies which accompany
this performance.
The following outline of the ceremonies used in catching a crocodile
who is known to be a man-eater, was taken down by me from the mouth of
a noted crocodile-wizard on the Langat river. First, you take strips of
bark of a river-side bush or tree called baru-baru (which must be cut
down at a single stroke), and fasten them together at each end only, so
that they form a rope with divided (unravelled) strands. This will form
that part of your tackle which corresponds to the gut (perambut) of a
fishing line, (i.e. the part just above the hook), and the advantage
of it is that the loose strands get between the crocodile's teeth,
and prevent it from being bitten through as a rope would certainly be.
Next, you take a piece of the bottommost rung of a house-ladder
(anak tangga bongsu), and sharpen it to a point at both ends, so
as to form a cross-piece (palang) such as will be likely to stick
in the crocodile's throat. Having fastened one end of the "gut"
round the middle of the cross-piece, and the other to your rattan
line, the length of which may be from ten to fifteen fathoms or so,
according to the depth of the river at the spot where the crocodile
is supposed to lie, you must next cut down a young tree to serve as
the pole (chanchang) to which the floating platform and bait may be
subsequently attached. This pole may be of any kind of wood except
bamboo; so when you have found a suitable tree, take hold of it with
the left hand and chop at it thrice with the right, saying a charm
as you do so--
"Peace be with you, O Prophet Tetap, in whose charge is the earth,
Peace be with you, O Prophet Noah, Planter of Trees,
I petition for this tree to serve as a mooring-post for my
crocodile-trap;
If it is to kill him (the crocodile), do you fall supine,
If it is not to kill him, do you fall prone." [504]
These last two lines refer to the omens which are taken from the way
the tree falls; the "supine" position being that of a crocodile which
has "turned turtle," whereas the prone position would be its natural
attitude as it swims.
Then start making the floating platform or raft (rakit) by chopping
a plantain stem (any kind will do) into three lengths (di-k'ratkan
tiga), and then skewering these lengths together at their ends so as
to form a triangle.
Into the apex of this triangle firmly plant the lower end of a strong
and springy rod, making the upper end curve over slightly in a forward
direction (di-pasang-nya kayu melentor ka-atas) and securing it in
its position by two lashings, which are carried down from its tip and
fastened to the two front corners of the triangle. Then utter the charm
and plant the pole by the river-side in the spot you have selected,
holding your breath and making believe that you are King Solomon
(di-sifatkan kita Raja Suleiman) as it sinks into the ground. The
charm consists of these lines:--
"Peace be with you, O Prophet Khailir,
In whose charge is the water;
Peace be with you, O Prophet Tetap,
In whose charge is the earth;
Pardon, King of the Sea, Deity of Mid-currents,
I ask only for the 'guilty' (crocodiles),
The innocent do you assist me to let go,
And drive out only the guilty which devoured So-and-so.
If you do not do so, you shall die," etc.
Now prepare the bait. To do this you must kill a fowl (in the orthodox
way), cut it partly open and insert the ladder-rung into its body,
wrapping the flesh and feathers round it, and binding the whole bird
seven times round and seven times across with a piece of rattan,
not forgetting, however, to observe silence and hold your breath as
you pass the first rattan lashing round the fowl's carcase. When you
have finished binding it up as directed, chew some betel-leaf and
eject (semborkan) the chewed leaf upon the fowl's head, repeating
the appropriate charm. [505] Then hook the bait (sangkutkan umpan)
on to the tip of the bent rod (on no account tie it on, as it must
be left free for the crocodile to swallow), and having prepared the
wonted accessories--including three chews of betel-leaf, a richek of
ginger (halia bara sa-richek), and seven white pepper-corns (lada
sulah tujoh biji)--breathe (jampikan) upon the betel-leaf, and at
the end of the invocation eject the chewed betel-leaf upon the head
of the cock intended for the bait.
The charm to be recited (which makes allusion to the fable concerning
the supposed origin of the crocodile) runs as follows:--
"Follow in procession, follow in succession,
The 'Assembly-flower' begins to unfold its petals;
Come in procession, come in succession,
King Solomon's self comes to summon you.
Ho, Si Jambu Rakai, I know your origin;
Sugar-cane knots forty-four were your bones,
Of clay was formed your body;
Rootlets of the areca-palm were your arteries,
Liquid sugar made your blood,
A rotten mat your skin,
And a mid-rib of the thatch-palm your tail,
Prickles of the pandanus made your dorsal ridge,
And pointed berembang suckers your teeth. [506]
If you splash with your tail it shall break in two,
If you strike downwards with your snout it shall break in two,
If you crunch with your teeth they shall all be broken.
Lo, Si Jambu Rakai, I bind (this fowl) with the sevenfold binding,
And enwrap it with the sevenfold wrapping
Which you shall never loosen or undo.
Turn it over in your mouth before you swallow it.
O, Si Jambu Rakai, accept this present from Her Highness Princess
Rundok, from Java: [507]
If you refuse to accept it,
Within two days or three
You shall be ... choked to death with blood,
Choked to death by Her Highness Princess Rundok, from Java.
But if you accept it,
A reach up-stream or a reach down-stream, there do you await me;
It is not my Word, it is King Solomon's Word;
If you are carried down-stream see that you incline up-stream,
If you are carried up-stream see that you incline down-stream,
By virtue of the Saying of King Solomon, 'There is no god but
God,'" etc.
Then take a canoe paddle (to symbolise the crocodile's tail) and
some strong thread, fasten one end of the thread to the front of
the floating platform, and the other end to the bow of your boat,
back water till it grows taut, and strike the surface of the water
thrice with the aforesaid "mock" crocodile's tail. If the first time
you strike it the sound is clearest (terek bunyi) it is an omen that
the crocodile will swallow the bait the first day; if the second time,
it will be the second day when he does so; if the third time, it will
be the third day. But every time you strike the water you must say
to yourself, "From Fatimah was your origin" (Mani Fatimah asal'kau
jadi), in order to make the crocodile bold. After striking the water
you may go home and rest; but you must get up again in any case at
about two in the afternoon (dlohor), and whatever happens you must
remember never to pass underneath a low overhanging bough (because
such a bough would resemble the bent rod of the floating platform),
and never (for the time being) to eat your curry without starting
by swallowing three lumps of rice successively. If you do this it
will help the bait to slide more easily down the crocodile's throat,
and in the same way you must never, until the brute is safely landed,
take any bones out of the meat in your curry--if you do, the wooden
cross-piece is sure to get loose and work out of the fowl--so it
is just as well to get somebody to take the bones out of your meat
before you begin, otherwise you may at any moment be compelled to
choose between swallowing a bone and losing all your labour.
I will pass on to the final capture. The crocodile has taken the
bait, we will say, and with the last of the ebb, not unfrequently in
a perilously rickety boat, you go out to look for the tell-tale end
of the line that floats up among the forked roots of the mangrove
trees. First you must go to the place where you left the floating
platform; take hold of the pole to which it is moored and press it
downwards into the river-bottom, saying (to the hooked crocodile)
as you do so:--
"Do not run away,
Our agreement was a cape (further) up-stream,
A cape (further) down-stream." [508]
(Here hold your breath and press upon the pole.) Then wait for the
tide to turn, search for the end of the line (which, being of rattan,
is sure to float) up and down the river banks, and when you find it
take hold of the end and give it three tugs, repeating as you do so
this "crippling charm":--
"I know the origin from which you sprang,
From Fatimah did you take your origin.
Your bones (she made from) sugar-cane knots,
Your head from the cabbage of a cocoa-nut palm,
The skin of your breast from the leaf-case of a palm,
Your blood from saffron,
Your eyes from the star of the east,
Your teeth from the pointed suckers of the berembang tree,
Your tail from the sprouting of a thatch-palm."
As you utter the last words give the end of the line three twists
(pioh) and then clench the teeth upon it (katup di gigi) thrice,
holding your breath as you do so; then jerk it (rentak) thrice
and haul upon it (runtun); if you feel much resistance slack it off
again and repeat the ceremony, using the "crippling charm" as before,
"until you break all the bones in his body." Besides this, in order
to drive the "mischief" out of the crocodile, you may say:--
"Pardon, King of the Sea, God of Currents,
I wish to drive the 'mischief' out of this crocodile." [509]
And strike the water and middle of the line with the end of the
line itself.
Now you haul on the line, and the crocodile comes up to the top with a
rush, and the fun begins. As he comes up to the surface you ask him,
"Was it you who caught So-and-so?" [510] And if he wishes to reply
in the affirmative he will bellow loudly. When he does so, say,
"Wind yourself up" ("lilit"), and he will wind the line round his
muzzle. And when you want to kill him, chop across the root of his
tail with a cutlass; this will kill him at once.
I may add that it is not generally wise to keep a captured crocodile
alive overnight, as he happens to be one of the clientèle of a
certain powerful hantu (spirit) named Langsuir [511] who comes to the
assistance of his follower at night and endows him with supernatural
strength, thus enabling him, if he is not very sufficiently tied up, to
get loose, which might be awkward. You should also never bring one into
the house, on account of an understanding, prejudicial to yourself,
which exists between him and the common house-lizard (chichak).
Of the folklore which is concerned with other classes of "reptilia"
that which deals with Snakes is the most important.
"The gall-bladder of the python, uler sawah, is in great request
among native practitioners. This serpent is supposed to have two
of these organs, one of which is called lampedu idup, or the live
gall-bladder. It is believed that if a python is killed and this organ
is cut out and kept, it will develop into a serpent of just twice
the size of that from which it was taken. The natives positively
assert that the python attains a length of sixty to seventy feet,
and that it has been known to have killed and eaten a rhinoceros.
"One of the pit vipers is exceedingly sluggish in its movements,
and will remain in the same place for days together. One individual
that was watched, lay coiled up on the branch of a tree for five
days, and probably would have remained much longer, but at the end
of that time it was caught and preserved. The Malays call it ular
kapak daun, and they say that it is fed three times a day by birds,
who bring it insects to eat. One man went so far as to say that he
had actually once seen some birds engaged in feeding one of these
beautiful bright-green snakes." [512]
In Selangor, as in Perak, the "live gall-bladder" of the python will
(it is believed), if kept in a jar, develop into a serpent; when
dried it is in great request as a remedy for small-pox. The story that
Mr. Wray tells of the pit viper (ular kapak daun) is in Selangor told
of a snake called chintamani. Selangor Malays say that it was once
upon a time a Raja of the country, and that the birds which bring it
food were then its subjects. A Malay told me that he once saw this
operation, and that the birds fed it with insects. It is reputed to
be a perfectly harmless snake, and it is considered extremely lucky
to keep one of the species in one's house, or even to see it. It
is described as of a bright and glittering blue [513] colour (biru
berkilat-kilat), and is frequently referred to in charms, especially
those connected with the Rice-soul ceremony, and is sometimes said
to spring from the egg of the chandrawasih or bird of paradise.
The cobra (ular tedong) is said to have a bright stone (kemala or
gemala) [514] in its head, the radiance of which causes its head
to be visible on the darkest night. A "snake bezoar" (guliga ular)
is also said to be occasionally found in the back of a snake's head
(?), whilst the snake-stone (batu ular) is carried in its mouth.
This batu ular is a prize for the possession of which snakes are not
unfrequently believed to fight, and appears to correspond to the pearl
for which in Chinese legendary lore the dragons of that country were
believed to engage in mortal combat. A Malay remarked to me that it
was always worth while if one came upon two snakes thus engaged to kill
them both, as one of them was sure to possess this much-coveted stone,
which is said to confer an almost certain victory upon its possessor.
Another species of "snake-stone," which is said to be manufactured by
Pawangs from gold, silver, amalgam (of silver and gold), tin, iron,
and quicksilver, is called Buntat Raksa, and is said to be invaluable
in case of snake-bite. It is believed that this stone will adhere
to the wound, and will not fall off until it has sucked out all the
poison. One of these stones, which was sold to me in Selangor for a
dollar, was about an inch long and oval in shape; it was evidently
made of some mixture of metals, and was perforated so as to enable
it to be carried on a string.
The ular gantang is said to be a snake, though from the description
given it would seem more likely to be some species of slow-worm
or blind-worm. It is only a "few inches" long, and is "black," and
there is said to be little if any difference between its head and
its tail. It is considered to be extremely lucky, and when a Malay
meets it, he spreads out his head-cloth or turban on the ground,
and allows it to enter, when he carries it home and keeps it.
To dream of being bitten by a snake is thought to portend success in
a love affair. [515]
"A horned toad, known as katak bertandok, but not the common one of
that name (Megalophrys nasuta, Gunther), has a very bad reputation
with the Malays. It is said to live in the jungle on the hills, and
wherever it takes up its abode all the trees and plants around wither
and die. So poisonous is it, that it is dangerous even to approach it,
and to touch or be bitten by it is certain death.
"The bite of the common toad (Bufo melanostictus, Cantor) is also said
to prove fatal. That toads have no teeth is an anatomical detail that
does not seem to be thought worthy of being taken into account.
"The supposed venomous properties of this useful and harmless tribe
have a world-wide range. In Shakespeare many allusions to it are made;
one of them, which mentions the habit of hibernation possessed by
those species which inhabit the colder parts of the earth, says--
'In the poison'd entrails throw,
Toad, that under coldest stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one,
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.'
"In another, reference is made to the toad-stone, which seems to be
represented in Malayan tradition by the pearl carried in the bodies
of the hamadryad, the cobra, and the bungarus, the three most deadly
snakes of the Peninsula:--
'Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.'
"There is some foundation of fact for the popular belief, as toads
secrete an acrid fluid from the skin, which appears to defend them
from the attacks of carnivorous animals." [516]
It may not be out of place to give here a Malay tradition about a
species of snail:--
"A strange superstition is attached to a small snail which frequents
the neighbourhood of the limestone hills in Perak. It belongs to the
Cyclophoridæ, and is probably an Alycæus. Among the grass in the shadow
of a grazing animal these creatures are to be discovered, and if one of
them is crushed it will be found to be full of blood, which has been
drawn in a mysterious way from the veins of the animal through its
shadow. Where these noxious snails abound, the cattle become emaciated
and sometimes even die from the constant loss of blood. In the folklore
of other countries many parallels to this occur, but they differ in
either the birds, bats, or vampires, who are supposed to prey on the
life-blood of their fellows, going direct to the animals to suck the
blood, instead of doing so through the medium of their shadows." [517]
4. FISHING CEREMONIES
Fish are in many cases credited by the Malay peasant with the same
portentous ancestry as that which he attributes to some of the larger
animals and birds.
"Many Malays refuse to eat the fresh-water fish called ikan belidah,
[518] on the plea that it was originally a cat. They declare that it
squalls like a cat when harpooned, and that its bones are white and
fine like a cat's hairs. Similarly the ikan tumuli is believed to be
a human being who has been drowned in the river, and the ikan kalul
to be a monkey transformed. Some specially favoured observers have
seen monkeys half through the process of metamorphosis--half-monkey
and half-fish." [519]
Similarly, the Dugong (Malay duyong) is asserted by some Malays to
have sprung from the remains of a pig, which Muhammad himself dined
off before he pronounced pork to be the accursed thing. Being cast by
the Prophet into the sea, it revived and took the shape of the dugong,
in which shape it is still to be found off the coast of Lukut and Port
Dickson, where it feeds upon sea-grass (rumput setul), in common with
a species of small tripang or bêche-de-mer. [520]
The origin of the Eel (ikan b'lut) is derived from a stem of the
g'li-g'li plant; the "white-fish" (ikan puteh) from splinters, or
rather shavings of wood (tatal kayu or tarahan kayu); the senunggang
fish from the long-tailed monkey (k'ra); the aruan fish from a frog
(katak) or lizard (mengkarong); the bujok fish from charred fire-logs
(puntong api); the telan fish from the creeping roots of the yam (sulur
k'ladi); and so on. There is even the leaf of a certain tree which is
sometimes said to turn into a fish (the ikan belidah), [521] while the
following story is held to account for the origin of the Porpoise:--
Once upon a time there was a fishing-wizard (Pawang Pukat) who had
encountered nothing but misfortune from first to last, and who at
length determined to put forth all his skill in magic in one last
desperate effort to repay the burden of debt which threatened to crush
him. One day, therefore, having tried his luck for the last time,
and still caught nothing, he requested his comrades to collect an
immense quantity of mangrove leaves in their boat. Having carried
these leaves out to the fishing-ground, he scattered them on the
surface of the water, together with a few handfuls of parched and
saffron-stained rice, repeating a series of most powerful spells as he
did so. The next time they fished, the leaves had turned into fish of
all shapes and sizes, and an immense haul of fish was the result. The
wizard then gave directions for the payment in full of all his debts
and the division of the balance among his children, and then without
further warning plunged into the sea only to reappear as a porpoise.
"A species of fish-like tadpole, [522] found at certain seasons of
the year in the streams and pools, is supposed to divide when it
reaches maturity, the front portion forming a frog and the after-part
or tail becoming the fish known as ikan kli, one of the cat-fishes
or Siluridæ. In consequence of this strange idea many Malays will
not eat the fish, deeming it but little better than the animal from
which it is supposed to have been cast.
"The ikan kli is armed with two sharp barbed spines attached to the
fore-part of the pectoral fins, and can and does inflict very nasty
wounds with them, when incautiously handled. The spines are reputed to
be poisonous, but it is believed that if the brain of the offending
fish is applied to the wound, it will act as a complete antidote to
the poisonous principle, and the wound will heal without trouble. The
English cure for hydrophobia--that is, 'the hair of the dog that bit
you'--will occur to all as a modification of the same idea." [523]
The fish called seluang is used for purposes of magic. It is supposed
that any one who pokes out its eyes with a special needle (which must
be one out of a score--the packets being made up in scores--and must
possess a torn eye) will be able to inflict blindness, by sympathy,
upon any person against whom he has a grudge. [524]
The fish called kedera is supposed to change into a sea-bird.
I will now proceed to describe the ceremony which is supposed to
secure an abundant catch of fish in the stakes.
In January 1897 I witnessed the ceremony of sacrificing at the
fishing-stakes (menyemah b'lat) which took place at the hamlet
of Ayer Hitam (lit. "Blackwater"), in the coast district of Kuala
Langat (Selangor). The chief performer of the rites was an old Malay
named Bilal Umat, who had owned one of the fishing-stakes in the
neighbourhood for many years past, and had annually officiated at the
ceremony which I was about to witness. I and my small party arrived
in the course of the morning, and were received by Bilal Umat, who
conducted us to the long, low palm-thatch building (bangsal kelong),
just above high-water mark, in which he and his men resided during
the fishing-season. Here we found that a feast was in course of
preparation, but what most attracted my attention was the sight of
three large sacrificial basket-work trays, [525] each about 2 1/2 feet
square, and with high fringed sides which were suspended in a row from
the roof of the verandah, on the seaward side of the building. These
trays were empty, but had been lined with banana leaves to prepare
them for the reception of the offerings, which latter were displayed
upon a raised platform standing just in front of them.
Shortly after our arrival the loading of the trays commenced. First
Bilal Umat took a large bowl of parched rice, and poured it into
the trays, until the bottom of each tray was filled with a layer of
parched rice about an inch in depth.
Next he took a bowl of saffron-stained rice, and deposited about
five portions of it in the centre and four corners of each tray;
then he made a similar distribution of small portions of washed rice,
of sweet potatoes (k'ledek), of yams (k'ladi), of tapioca (ubi kayu),
of bananas (pisang), and betel-leaf (sirih)--there being two sets,
one cooked and one uncooked, of each of these portions, except the
last. Finally, he added one cigarette to each portion, the cigarette
being intended for the spirits to smoke after their meal!
A fine black goat, "without blemish and without spot," had been killed
by Bilal Umat early that morning, and he now deposited its head in
the middle of the central tray, two of the feet in the middle of the
right-hand tray, and the other two feet in the middle of that on the
left. To each of these three central portions were now added small
portions of the animal's viscera (liver, spleen, lights, tripe, heart,
etc.), and then the small diamond-shaped (ketupat) and cylindrical
(lepat) rice-bags [526] were suspended in the usual manner. A wax
taper was added to each portion of each tray, and the loading of the
trays declared complete.
Everything being now ready, Bilal Umat carried a smoking censer
thrice round the row of trays (walking always towards the left),
and then lighting the five wax tapers of the left-hand tray, directed
two of his men to take down this tray and sling it on a pole between
them. This they did, and we set off in procession along the sandy
foreshore at the back of the building until we came to a halt at a
spot about fifty yards off, where Bilal Umat suspended the tray from
the branch of a mangrove-tree about five feet from the ground. This
done, he faced round towards the land, and breaking off a branch
of the tree, gave utterance to three stentorian cooees, which he
afterwards informed me were intended to notify the Land Spirits (Orang
darat, lit. "Land Folk") of the fact that offerings were awaiting
their acceptance. Returning to the house, he manufactured one of the
leaf-brushes [527] which the Malays always used for the "Neutralising
Rice-paste" (tepong tawar) rite, and we then started in a couple of
boats for the fishing-stakes, taking with us the two remaining trays.
Of these two trays, one was suspended by Bilal Umat from a high wooden
tripod which had been erected for the purpose, the site selected being
the centre of a shoal about half-way between the fishing-stakes and the
house. The third tray, which contained the head of the goat (kapala
kambing dengan buah-nya), was then taken on to the fishing-stakes,
Bilal Umat disposing of a large quantity of miscellaneous offerings
which he had brought with him in a basket by strewing them upon the
surface of the sea as we went along. [528]
On reaching the stakes, the Pawang (Bilal Umat) suspended the tray
from a projecting pole at the seaward end of the fishing-stakes,
[529] and then seating himself upon one of the timbers almost
directly underneath it, scattered handfuls of saffron-stained rice,
"washed" rice, and native cigarettes upon the water, just outside
the two seaward posts at the end of the stakes, and emptied out
the remainder of the parched rice upon the water just inside the
"head" of the stakes. Then he recited a charm, stirred the bowl of
neutralising rice-paste (tepong tawar) with the brush of leaves,
and taking the latter out of the bowl, sprinkled, or rather daubed it
first upon the two "tide-braces" of the stakes (first upon the left
"tide-brace," and then upon the right), then upon the heads of the
two upright posts next to the tide-braces, and then delegated the
brush to two assistants. One of these sprinkled the heads of all the
(remaining) upright posts in the seaward compartment of the stakes,
while the other boarded the big boat belonging to the stakes, and
sprinkled the boat and all its gear from stem to stern (commencing
on the left side of the bows, and working right down to the stern,
and then recommencing on the right and working down to the stern
again). Finally, the same assistant returning to the stakes, washed
the rice-bowl in the sea just beneath the place where Bilal Umat was
sitting, and fastened up the leaf-brush to the left-hand head-post
(kayu puchi kiri) at the seaward end of the stakes. To the above
account I may add that a number of taboos are still pretty rigorously
enforced by the fishing-wizards (Pawang B'lat) upon the coast of
Selangor. I was never allowed to take either an umbrella or boots
into the fishing-stakes when I visited them--the spirits having,
I was told, the strongest possible objection to the use of either.
Other "perpetual taboos" (pantang salama-lama-nya) are to bathe
without wearing a bathing-cloth (mandi telanjang), to throw the wet
bathing-cloth over the shoulder when returning to the house, and to
rub one foot against the other (gosok satu kaki dengan lain). Sarongs,
umbrellas, and shoes must never on any pretence be worn. I may add that
the first pole planted is called Turus Tuah (tua?), and if the response
of the spirits to the invocation be favourable, it is believed that
it will enter the ground readily, as if pulled from below. The only
seven-days' taboo which I have heard mentioned (though, no doubt,
there are many others) is the scrupulous observance of chastity.
A boat which possesses a knot in the centre of its keel, or to which
the smell of fish long adheres (p'rahu peranyir, or perhanyir),
is supposed to bring good luck to the fishermen.
There is also a regular "taboo language" used by the fishermen,
of which the following are examples:--
"Fish = daun kayu (tree-leaves) or sampah laut (jetsam).
Snake = akar hidup (living creeper).
Crocodile = batang kayu (tree-log).
Seaward compartment of the stakes (bunohan) = kurong."
At the close of the ceremony Bilal Umat repeated to me one of the
kelong [530] invocations which he had just been making use of, and
which ran as follows:--
"Peace be with you, God's Prophet, 'Tap!
Peace be with you, God's Prophet, Khizr!
Peace be with you, God's Prophet, Noah!
Peace be with you, god of the Back-water!
Peace be with you, god of the 'Bajau'!
Peace be with you, god of Mid-currents!
Peace be with you, god of the Yellow Sunset-glow!
Peace be with you, Old Togok the Wizard!
Peace be with you, O Elder Wizard!
It is not I who make you this peace-offering,
It is Old Togok the Wizard who makes it.
It is the Elder Wizard who makes it,
By the order of Old Aur Gading (lit. 'Ivory Bamboo').
By virtue of 'There is no god,'" etc. [531]
The following was the charm used by the Pawang at the planting of
the first pole of a jermal: [532]--
"Peace be with you, Eldest Wizard, First of Wizards, Allah,
And Musa, the Converser with Allah.
Sedang Bima, Sedang Buana,
Sedang Juara, and King of the Sea,
Come let us all together
Plant the pole of this jermal."
Even when fishing with rod and line, a serapah (invocation) of some
sort, such as the following, was generally used:--
"Ho, God of Mid-currents,
See that you do not agitate my hook!
If my hook is to the left,
Do you go to the right.
If my hook is to the right,
Do you go to the left.
If you approach this hook of mine
You shall be cursed by the Saying of God," etc.
(Before casting the line, a chew of betel-leaf should be thrown into
the water.)
Another very common rhyming charm would frequently be addressed to
the fish:--
"Swallow (lit. receive) the gut of my line,
Be it broken sooner than torn from my hands,
If you tear it from my hands
Your eye shall be plucked out."
(d) Fire
1. PRODUCTION OF FIRE
"Procuring fire by friction is an accomplishment as common to the
Malay as to the North American Indian. The process is, however,
slightly different. While the latter resorts to circular friction,
the Malay cuts a notch on the converse surface of a bamboo, across
which he rapidly rubs another piece cut to a sharp edge. A fine
powder is rubbed away and this ignites. Bamboo is also used as a
flint with tinder. The all-pervading match, however, is alone used
in all districts under foreign influence." [533]
The foregoing description requires to be supplemented, for the method
of procuring fire by circular friction is hardly (if at all) less
common among the Malays than the method of cross friction. The former
process takes the form of the well-known "fire-drill," both the block
and the upright stick being generally made of mahang wood. The upright
stick is frequently worked by a species of "bow," such as that used
by carpenters, and is kept from jumping out of the socket in which
it revolves by means of a cocoa-nut shell, which is pressed down from
above. When cross friction is used, a long narrow slit is usually cut,
following the grain, in the convex surface of the piece of bamboo,
the dust which is rubbed away falling through it and gradually forming
a little pile which presently ignites. It is hardly necessary to cut a
notch for the cross-piece, as a groove is very quickly worn when the
friction is started. A species of fire-syringe has also, I believe,
been collected by Mr. L. Wray in Perak.
2. FIRE CHARMS
In procuring fire by circular or cross friction the performer will
often say, by way of a charm--
"The Mouse-deer asks for Fire [534]
To singe his mother-in-law's feathers."
The "mouse-deer's mother-in-law" is the name of a small bird, which is
said to have very gay plumage of five colours and to resemble the green
pigeon (punei) in shape, and the explanation of this charm is said
to be that in the days of King Solomon, when both the mouse-deer and
his mother-in-law wore their human forms, the Mouse-deer was greatly
annoyed by the conduct of his mother-in-law, who kept dancing in front
of him as he went. A quarrel ensued, [535] as the result of which they
were both transformed into the shapes which they now respectively bear;
but the mother-in-law has not yet abandoned her exasperating tactics,
and may still often be seen tantalising the Mouse-deer by hopping in
front of it as it goes along.
There are still some traces of the influence of animistic ideas
in that part of Malay folklore which is concerned with fire. If an
inflammable object, such as wood, falls by accident into the fire,
a stick must be used in extracting it, and the stick left, as a
substitute, in its place.
The hearth-fire (api dapor) must never be stepped over
(di-langkah-nya), nor must the rice-pot which stands upon it, as in
the latter case the person who does so will be "cursed by the Rice."
Both fire and smoke (fumigation) are a good deal used by the Malays
for purposes of ceremonial purification, but the details of such
rites cannot be conveniently discussed except in connection with the
complete ceremonies of which they form a part; they will accordingly
be found under such headings as Birth, Adolescence, Marriage, Medicine,
and Funerals. [536]