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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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