Counter-charms for "neutralising" the active principle of poisons form, as a rule, one of the most important branches of the pharmacopoeic system among the less civilised Malay tribes. A settled form of government and the softening of manners due to contact with European civilisation has, however, diminished the importance (I speak, of course, from the Malay point of view) of this branch of the subject in the Western Malay States of the Peninsula, where poisoning cases are very rarely heard of. Malay women have always possessed the reputation of being especially proficient in the use of poison; ground glass and the furry spicules obtained from the leaf-cases of some kinds of bamboo being their favourite weapons. This idea (of using a charm to "neutralise" the active principle of poison) has been extended by Malay medicine-men to cover all cases where any evil principle (even, for instance, a familiar spirit) is believed to have entered the sick person's system. All such charms are piously regarded by devout Muhammadans as gifts due to the mercy of God, who is believed to have sent them down to the Prophet Muhammad by the hand of his servant Gabriel. This doctrine we find clearly stated in the charms themselves, e.g. (somewhat tautologically):-- "Neutralising charms sprang from God, Neutralising charms were created by God, Neutralising charms were a boon from God, Who commanded Prince Gabriel To bring them unto Muhammad." The ceremony of applying such charms generally takes the form of grating a bezoar-stone [664] (batu guliga), mixing the result with water, and drinking it after repeating the charm. Thus in one of the charms quoted in the Appendix we read:-- "The Upas loses its venom, And Poison loses its venom, And the Sea-Snake loses its venom, And the poison-tree of Borneo loses its venom, Everything that is venomous loses its venom, By virtue of my use of the Prayer of the Magic Bezoar-Stone." Of the sea-snake (ular gerang) I was told that it was about two cubits in length, and that it was the most poisonous snake in existence; "In fact," my informant declared, "if your little finger is bitten by it you must cut off the finger; if your oar-blade is bitten by it you must throw away the oar." [665] And again of the Ipoh, or "upas" (which is one of the chief ingredients in the blow-gun poison used by the wild tribes), I was told that if a man who was "struck" by it was supported by another his supporter would die, and that so far from its virulence becoming then exhausted, it would even kill a person who was seven times removed, in point of contact, from the person originally affected. [666] The above charm terminates as follows:--