Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay PeninsulaSkeat, Walter William
Religion
Malay Magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula
Skeat, Walter William
Magic -- Malay Peninsula; Malays (Asian people) -- Folklore; Malays (Asian people) -- Social life and customs
"Ho, Crown Prince with your Speckled Princess,
Rouse you in haste and slip on King Solomon's royal breast
ornament.
Receive it, receive it in your turn,
And do ye (huntsmen) shout 'Bi' again and again.
"[Here the spearmen right and left shout in concert.]
"So, too, when spearing the deer, say--
"It is not I who spear you,
It is Pawang Sidi who spears you.
"When you have secured a deer, flick (kebaskan) the carcase thrice
in a downward direction with a black cloth or with a leafy spray (if
you will), such as the deer feed upon, for instance with the sendayan
(or sendereian, a kind of sedge), or with fern-shoots, and call out:--
"O Si Lanang, Si Lambaun,
Si Ketor, Si Becheh, who are Four Persons,
Take back your own share (of the carcase). [316]
"Here 'take the representative parts, pierce them with a rattan line,
and suspend them from a tree.'"
But the fullest account of this ceremony (of driving out the mischief
from the carcase) runs as follows:--
"When you have caught the deer, cast out the mischief from it (buang
dia-punya badi). To effect this, take a black jacket such as can cast
out this mischief (if no black jacket is obtainable, take the branch
of any tree), and stroke (the carcase) from the head downwards to
the feet and the rump, saying as you do so:--
"Ho Badi Serang, Badi Mak Buta,
Si Panchor Mak Tuli,
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is the Junior Dogboy who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is the Dogboy Rukiah who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Mukaël [317] (Michael) who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Israfel who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Azrael who casts them out.
It is not I who cast out these mischiefs,
It is Mukarael (?) who casts them out.
I know the origin of these mischiefs,
They are the offspring of the Jin Ibni Ujan, [318]
Who dwell in the open spaces and hill-locked basins.
Return ye to your open spaces and hill-locked basins,
And do me no harm or scathe.
I know the origin from which you spring,
From the offspring of the Jin Ibni Ujan do ye spring.
"Here take small portions of his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hind-feet,
fore-feet, hair (of his coat), liver, heart, spleen and horns (if it
be a stag), wrap them up in a leaf, and deposit them in the slot of
his approaching tracks, saying: 'O Mentala (Batara) Guru, one a month,
two a month, three a month, four a month, five a month, six a month,
seven a month (be the deer which fall) by night to you, by day to
me. One deer I take with me, and one I leave behind.'"
A deer Pawang named 'Che Indut gave me a charm for turning the deer
back upon their tracks, "though their flesh was torn to rags and their
bones well-becudgelled." It concluded with the following appeal to
the spirits:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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